This article examines the novel Gone with the Wind from the perspective of the continuing tradition of Southern women's writing, established by writers of the Old South. In general, Southern women's writing clearly displays a certain set of artistic images and devices characteristic of the mythological perception of the South — a sunny land with lush evergreens and fragrant, unfading flowers. Mitchell's novel similarly places special emphasis on pine, oak, and cedar, symbolizing vitality, longevity, wisdom, endurance, and immortality. After the war, the image of a devastated South is embodied in the form of estates where all the formerly mighty trees, like the South itself, have lost all vitality, becoming sad, stunted, and deprived of growth. In her description of antebellum Tara, Mitchell masterfully utilizes floral symbolism (magnolia, white jasmine, myrtle) to emphasize resilience, joy, and the harmonious blend of family values and the superiority of “whiteness” in the lives of Southern planters. The description of the gardens and surrounding yards is crucial in creating the image of the South and is undoubtedly linked to the image of the “enclosed garden”. Mitchell's garden is the central locus around which the characters' destinies and the philosophy of the entire novel are built. Thus, at the beginning of the novel, Tara appears to be a flourishing, self-sufficient world. Green meadows, juicy fruits, and avenues symbolize the innocence and stability of the antebellum South. After the war, the description of the garden becomes replete with Gothic motifs of ruin and decay. Using rose symbolism, Mitchell demonstrates the gradual demise of the true standard of femininity after the Civil War, emphasizing her heroine's inconsistency with the ideal of Southern femininity. It's noticeable that while in the first section the description of the antebellum South and Southern women is always accompanied by descriptions of flowers and blooming spaces, in subsequent sections these images appear only in poignant nostalgic memories. Margaret Mitchell continues the female tradition of Southern writing, and for her, the floral code also has a special significance, as evidenced by her choice of title – a quotation from the third stanza of E. Dawson's poem “Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae”, where roses and lilies are carried away by the wind.
For citation: Morozova I.V. “Gone with the wind, flung roses, roses riotously with the throng…”: floral symbolism in M. Mitchell’s novel, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2022, iss. 1, pp. 35—42.