The Dynamics of Dominance Relations in the Dialogues of Scarlett O’Hara and her Suitors

Interactional dominance is the ability of a participant in dialogue to control a conversation with the help of various discourse strategies. Gender differences in dominance relations are the results of male and female speakers using various discourse strategies. This study presents a socio-linguistic analysis of the discourse of characters in a literary text. I chose five characters from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind for the analysis. The focus of the study was interactional dominance in the dialogues of Scarlett O’Hara and her four suitors: Charles Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes, Frank Kennedy, and Rhett Butler. The discourse analysis concentrated on gender differences in order to show who was more dominant, Scarlett or her suitors, in their conversational interactions. An analysis in terms of both quantity and quality of language between Scarlett and her suitors helped establish dimensions of dominance in forty-nine different conversations. The results of this study show that both Scarlett and her suitors use dominance strategies in conversations with each other. These strategies include quantity of speech, topic raising/control, dialogue initiation/conclusion, questions, silence, terms of endearment, and abusive language. This study illustrates that gender dominance in conversation is dynamic and multidimensional, not stereotypical. In order words, men do not always control women in language, nor do all women talk more than men all the time. Both Scarlett and her suitors use discourse strategies in every dimension of dominance in their interactions. This thesis contributes to the study of male and female communicational differences by showing the complexity of gender dominance in interaction.

Thesis Author: Kuznetsova, Alina N.

Year Completed: 2001

Committee Members: Alan Melby, John Robertson

Thesis Chair: Cynthia L. Hallen