How can you describe the character of Scarlett O' Hara in "Gone With the Wind"?

Question

I want good opinions, not the kind of nonsense only to earn two points.

Answer 1

Margaret Mitchell in manuscript called her Pansey. She captuared the most idolized Southern woman, do I believe there were Scarlets, yes. The book is melodrama. The movie is essence. An opinion, yes Scarlet O'Hara faced it all, a world wrenched out from under her (mixed metaphor) she survived, like the South, with compromise. Other responses accurate but muddled,, she was a realist, and had the gallantry of the old South, her love for Asheley. Would Scarlet have let Melanie die or the baby die? of course not, so there is the attachment to Tara to her father/mother. Raised to be a lady, sacrificied for a greater cause (Tara), but really for the values of the old South, her fathers' world yet it was that or decline, her vanity is a virtue. I believe one could write a dissertation on the movie--Vivien Leigh nailed it. She is Scarlet. Listen to the preamble, it's all there. Yes, there were Scarlets, and Asheleys, i always wanted her to end up with him, but like the South, it was not to be. it was wrong and that generation paid the price. A great movie. Bless Vivien Leigh for representing us. I believe she did not have a good life. And the actor that was Asheley died fighting for his country (and her's). Gone with the Wind is immortal, temporaly. If you get that, you get the South.

Answer 2

You ask a superb question. I find her headstrong, belidgerent, independant, charismatic, needy, tough, and the only kind of woman to really be able to stand conditions like those in which she was forced to live. In a word she was a *****. But considering her time period and the thoughts and opinions of those around her she is an inspiration in the fact that she continued to do exactly what she wanted and not just what was expected. Also, the fact that through out the entire length of her story as written, she remains strong and does not crack under societies attempts to bury her in shame and pain. She tries to, yes, but she also recovers quickly with but a gentle shove in the right direction. Her opinion of her home, of Tara, is much like that of Ashley's yearning for the way things were before the war, yet she does not allow herself to be carried by those dreams and musings. She remains strong and does not let her fears and society get in the way of what must be done in order for her to reach her ultimate place and happiness, or at least what she thinks will be her ultimate place and bring her said happiness.

Answer 3

There is some of Scarlett in each of us; that is the thing that makes her interesting. Her vanity calls on us to look at ourselves and ask how many improper, immoral, unethical choices we have made because we are taken up with an over appreciation of our own person. But Scarlett is not all vanity. When circumstances put her through the refining fire of poverty and loss, she finds strength and vows to rise above disaster. It is this self recognition and resolve that we admire, particularly we in the South who still cherish the stories of our women who reacted with the same courage to the adversity of the War.

Answer 4

Truthfully, I hated Scarlett O'Hara and I wasn't too fond of GWTW. It would have been a good book if I didn't hate the main character but I just couldn't believe how stuck up, selfish, and money-obsessed she was. I know that she had fallen on hard times but she was an inconsiderate little brat even before the war.

Answer 5

I found her to be a complete realist about everything in life except love. She pines for Ashley Wilkes her entire life only to realize too late that it was Rhett Butler all along whom she truly loved. She was brave and tenacious and did what she needed to do to survive in her time, but truly a pure and shining example of someone for whom "love is blind" in American literature.