1985. A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this "healthy confusion." Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the "pleasure and disquietude" experienced by the readers of the work.
More often than not, as humans, we experience many emotions at one time, often conflicting, caused by the multitude of people and circumstances in our lives. Great works of literature, according to one critic, should produce this same effect of "healthy confusion". In Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a romance set during the Civil War, almost every emotion felt by readers are accompanied by opposite ones. Mitchell uses details and imagery to show characters and events that create the conflicting emotions of "pleasure and disquietude" in the reader which contribute to one of Mitchell's ultimate messages - that no person is either completely good or bad.
Scarlett O'Hara, a young woman of the southern aristocracy, is the novel's protagonist. Throughout the novel, she alternately hates, gets along with, and eventually loves the charming Rhett Butler, a blockade runner who turns up now and then in Scarlett's life. Through her constant use of well-placed details, Mitchell shows readers that Scarlett's character is a head-strong young woman, willing to use any means necessary to get what she wants. For example, when Scarlett's plantation is threatened by heavy property taxes, Scarlett decides to ask Rhett for the money. Mitchell describes in detail Scarlett's fluttering eyelashes, the green velvet curtains out of which she makes a dress, and the tantrums she throws when he refuses her the money. These details certainly create a "disquietude" and displeasure about Scarlett's character. This negative feeling, however, is countered when Mitchell uses more details, as well as imagery, to show Scarlett at her best. Much later, after Scarlett and Rhett have married, Mitchell's gives wonderful details about their daughter, Bonnie, through Scarlett's eyes. Scarlett watches her baby girl and notices the curve of her soft cheek, the gentle curl of her hair, the bright blue of her eyes, and the soft, sweetness of her laugh. This imagery shows the love Scarlett has for her daughter, creating that sense of "pleasure" in the audience to counter the "disquietude".
The techniques Mitchell uses to create these almost opposite emotions in her readers help her to convey an important message of the novel. The details and imagery provided that cause readers to feel so conflicted about Scarlett are used in the same way to create that same feeling about Rhett and many of the other characters. Therefore, it is hard for a reader to say exactly what they feel about a certain character or to classify them as purely good or evil. This is exactly what Mitchell intended, as she is trying to prove to her audience, through these techniques, that no human being is simply good or bad.
A certain level of "healthy confusion" is necessary to any great work of literature, as one critic stated. A piece comes alive when readers can feel those opposing emotions. Through the use of well-thought out and carefully placed detail, as well as stunning imagery, Margaret Mitchell creates that sense of "pleasure and disquietude" about characters and events in her novel, Gone with the Wind, which ultimately proves Mitchell's point that no person is completely good or bad.
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