Images Of Women In Vanity Fair And Gone With The Wind

In 1936, Margaret Mitchell immediately became a renowned author after the publication of her masterpiece Gone with the Wind. This novel stirred the America and sold well after many years, so it owns a lot of readers. The writer eulogizes the two main female characters whose kidneys are completely different in diligency, pertinacity as well as positive attitude towards life when they encounter difficulties. Especially, the pains-taking strive of the indomitable and unyielding Scarlett shakes our hearts and inspires our spirit. However, this novel is not the first one depicting the women's positive spirit and strong will. Prior to Scarlettand Melanie, Rebecca and Amelia in Vanity Fair-the magnum opus of WilliamThackeray who is one of the most famous critical realistic novelists in the middle of 19~th century England, were considerably influential female characters in Thackeray's age. Although Gone with the Wind was published almost 90 years later than Vanity Fair, the women's images in both of them are very great.In both Vanity Fair and Gone with the Wind there are two female characters. The stories in these two novels are developing according to the experience of the two female characters. These four characters can be divided into two kinds: non-traditional women and traditional women. The thesis makes a comparison between them from three aspects: first, their background, education and appearance;second, their attitudes towards society;third, their attitudes towards difficulties in life and fate. Through the comparison of these women images in these two novels, we can identify that although they have great differences in the former two aspects, they are almost the same in the last aspect. The thesis is to analyze the advantages of the women images. It concludes that no matter which country these women live in and no matter in which period they exist, these women always take positive attitude to face the troubles in reality, never give up. Contrasted with the bright women images, the men images in these two novels are in the shade. One of them indulges in gambling;another has no responsibility for his family;another is impractical and embosomed with sadness and fantasy. And their common weakness is that when they come across uncomfortable matters, they are easy to turn to be dejected, lose the passionate feeling for life and usually choose to escape from the reality or avoid the problems on purpose. These female characters occupy important positions in the novelistic history, so there are a lot of reviews about them, among which some vitriolic critiques also exist. The thesis is to analyze these wrong critiques, point out their limitations in order to stress the advantages of the women characters.Apart from a comparative study on these women images, applying antitheses, the thesis makes a contrast between the women and men in the same time and country. By the comparison andcontrast, the thesis points out that under the strong pressure or confronting embarrassments, women often show impavid courage and optimistic attitude, both of which men want for. Hence, women should not underestimate their own capabilities. They ought to try to withstand the unfair discrimination from the society as well as the traditional bondages, and live bravely with the maintenance of positive attitude for life.