Saturday 9 March 2013

Scarlett Saturdays: Why the perfect heroine is a flawed heroine.

She had wanted him, in that first instant, wanted him as simply and unreasoningly as she wanted food to eat, horses to ride and a soft bed on which to lay herself.

When reading Gone With the Wind, and on becoming acquainted with the passions of Miss Scarlett O'Hara, I'm struck how impetuous she is.  She reacts instinctively to every situation around her - almost like a little child.

Those who turn round and say that heroines of romances are simpering idiots, devoid of the flaws that make them human, should read GWtW.  Scarlett is none of those things.  She is wild, and dangerously clever (for a woman) with enough flaws to evoke hatred in almost every other female character within the novel - and we love her for it.

Good characters echo ourselves, and in order to fully identify with their happy endings, we must first be able to see ourselves within them - and that means good as well as bad!

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