Historical Trauma And New Women Status In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind

Résumé: Abstract This dissertation discusses the historical trauma and the status of women in relation to the American Civil War. The chosen corpus of this study is Gone with the Wind, a historical novel written by Margaret Mitchell as one of the greatest American works about the tumultuous war years of the 19th century. Throughout the work, the protagonist “Scarlett O’Hara” displays deep shocks of the Civil War violence. During her journey of misery, she tried to survive from hunger and poverty; she took the responsibility of a large family. She attempted to adapt the new changes of the postbellum America where she claimed a new role as a southern belle and became a business woman. Thus, this research will take as an issue Scarlett’s mental and physical trauma caused by the civil war and the way this trauma affects her status as a southern women. The main purpose of the present dissertation, hence, is to investigate the mental and the physical impact of the Civil War on women and their status in society. Therefore, the study aims, broadly, at (1) elucidating the impact of the impact of the Civil War on Scarlett (2) examining how the war affected Scarlett mentally and physically (3) investigating how the horrendous conditions of the war created a new status for women. To achieve these goals, the study calls for an eclectic approach in which Historical Trauma theory, Psychoanalysis, and Feminism are combined together for the aim of having a reliable analysis of Scarlett. Such a choice has resorted to the works of Sigmund Freud including the Mourning and Melancholia, and Defense Mechanisms, to trace signs of trauma in Scarlett’s inner realm. Furthermore, different feminist theories one such Existentialist Feminism of Simone de Beauvoir is included to show how women roles were changed throughout the period being studied. The study reveals that women represented in the protagonist “Scarlett O’Hara” had achieved a new position where they challenged the stereotyped picture of women at that time and worked to realize their selfindependency.

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