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te and elegant, however, she is obedient.
3.2 Beauty in personality
The beauty in personality is much more beautiful than the beauty in appearance and the two ladies proves it during the war.
Scarlet used to be the princess of Tara; she was the apple of her parents’ eyes and the young men of Atlanta’s. So was Xinbi, although she had to keep the house, she was an elegant controller of Dong’s. And her demeanor is matchless in the whole Haiyang. However, the war breaks out and they are thrown into a state of being restituted and homeless.
Facing the situation, Scarlet O’Hara changes with the times though she used to be capricious and self-important. She recognizes that she must be practical and learns the basic living abilities, such as picking cotton as the black slaves, cultivating the land and so on. And she tells herself “money comes first!”—It is the only thing that can make one feel warm and safe.
She is strong-willed besides adoptable when she is confronted with hard times. On the fall day of Atlanta, the doctor is so busy that he has no time to help Melanie. Scarlet turns to herself for help. She helps as a midwife and delivers Melanie’s child; and without Rhett’s help on the half way home, she manages to go back home by herself; taking the advantage of Kennedy’s illness, she manages the wood factory by herself. What is more, she does better than her husband… From the above instances, we can draw a conclusion that Scarlet is not only strong, but somehow self-helped and masculine.
And Scarlet is also creditable. Since the day Scarlet promised Ashley to take good care of Melanie, she tries her best to look after her although Melanie is her rival in love. On the fall night of Atlanta, though she is eager to be back to Tara, she helps Melanie give birth to the baby and brings her back to Tara and takes good care of her despite all the difficulties.
Xinbi is also an adaptable strong woman. She becomes no longer a descent and elegant lady but a practical woman during the war: she begins to learn how to sow seeds, how to make clothes by herself; she comes to realize that the reputation is impractical and rents some of her houses in order to make some money…
Xinbi keeps promises as well. Since the day she promised Shen Chen to look after his mother, she tries her best to take good care of the old lady—chatting with her, cooking delicious food for her, knitting sweaters for her… in a word, she tries her best to ensure that the old lady is living a relatively comfortable life. Even she thinks of asking the old lady to live with her and takes good care of her after Shen Chen’s death. However, the pitiful old lady goes with her son—she passes away the day after she knows that her son’s death. Never thinking of occupying the money Shen Chen gave her earlier, she spends all the amount of money in burying her mother.
Xinbi is clever. When her house is intruded by an official, she even use the policy of “violence to violence”—she asks a higher official indirectly for help; when her son Kejian is kidnapped, she asks her son-in-law—Wang Qianfan, who is a PRC to save him; and in order to save money, she goes to the suburbs to buy foods… Xinbi is smart, but we can also draw a conclusion that she is weak and dependent because she can not manage those affairs well by herself but always turns to others for help.
From the above discussion, it is clear that both of the two beauties are strong, creditable and clever; they can change with the times. But there are still some differences in their personality—Scarlet O’Hara is self-helped and masculine, and she never depends on men. While Dong Xinbi is a comparatively weak lady of Southern China. She is dependent on men.
4. Human relations
4.1 Attitude towards men
It is the same that the two ladies have three men during their lives. For Scarlet, they are Charles, Kennedy and Rhett; for Xinbi, they are Jiren, Shen Chen and Muzi. But their attitudes towards men are different, Scarlet is a self-centered woman, once she needs a man she will do it directly and finally let them fall into love with her. She is an individualist who looks for love by herself. However, Xinbi is a traditional Chinese woman; she always cares for other people’s comments and dare not to save her love, which finally leads to the tragic ends.
Scarlet marries Charles impulsively simply because Ashley rejects her love. The self-centered girl can not receive the humility. Capriciously she marries Charles just because “he has a lot of money, and he hasn’t any parents to bother me and he lives in Atlanta. And if I married him right away, it would show Ashley that I did not care a rap that I was only flirting with him. And it would just kill Honey. She had never, never catch another beau and everybody’s laugh fit to die at her, and it would hurt Melanie, because she loves Charles so much, and it would hurt Stu and Brent.” [10] What a self- important girl, she never con
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