Analysis Of The Characterization In Gone With The Wind: An Interpersonal Perspective

When language is used by people to interact with others, to establish and maintain relations with others, or used to influence others'behaviors and to express people's own viewpoint on things in the world, language is demonstrating its interpersonal meaning. Interpersonal meaning is one of the three functions proposed by Halliday in his systemic functional grammar. Interpersonal meaning has been widely applied in the research fields of linguistics, literature and translatology since it comes into being. This thesis aims to explore the role played by interpersonal meaning in the characterization in the novel Gone with the Wind.In his functional model, Halliday separates out three functions of language and identifies in the clause structure distinct linguistic resources that realize the three functions respectively. In Hallidayan tradition, interpersonal meaning is mainly realized by mood system and modality system. The mood system is mainly realized through speech roles, mood types and Mood structures; and the modality system is mainly realized through modal verbs, modal adjuncts and the expansion of the Predicator.This thesis explores the role played by interpersonal meaning in characterizing the personality of characters by applying quantitative and descriptive approaches to the analysis of three dialogues among the three main characters in the novel Gone with the Wind. To be exact, the mood system in different speakers' utterances in the three dialogues will be analyzed in three aspects:speech roles, mood types, and mood structures; and the modality resources in speakers' utterances are analyzed in the aspects of different modal values in modal verbs and modal adjuncts.The analysis of interpersonal meaning in different characters'utterances proves that, interpersonal meaning plays a very important role in characterizing and foregrounding the temperament of characters in the novel. The interpersonal meaning in Scarlett's utterances shows her smartness, bravery, independence and practicality; the interpersonal meaning in Rhett's utterances suggests his wisdom, tact and confidence in himself, also shows his disregard for traditional social morality; the interpersonal meaning in Ashley's utterances demonstrates his being gentlemanlike, his cowardice and his being escapist. And all the features in their personality gained through the analysis of interpersonal meaning are the aspects which are shown most obviously and noticeably in the whole novel. Therefore, the present study suggests that, the grammatical resources of interpersonal meaning in characters' utterances play a very important role in characterizing and foregrounding their personality in the novel.The present study further proves the feasibility of systemic functional grammar in the analysis of literary discourse, especially the feasibility of interpersonal meaning in the field of literary analysis. Besides, this thesis analyzes the characters in novels from the interpersonal perspective, which provides a new perspective for understanding and appreciating novels on the one hand, and gives writers some enlightment on the other hand, enlightment on how to foreground the characters'personality by using grammatical resources subtly.