Gone with the Wind is an excellent book, but I doubt I’ll ever read again. It’s simply too long and there are too many other books to read.
Given that I’ll likely never return to the red clay of Tara or the bustling town of Atlanta, I feel that it’s important to devote some time to reflect and solidify what I love about this book before my memories are…gone with the wind (couldn’t resist).
I finished a few days ago and am finally ready to process the heart-wrenching tragedy that is Gone with the Wind. Let’s get into it!
Note: spoilers ahead and this essay was written by a human being–support the artists!
Tragic Love Triangle
Let’s begin with the love triangle between Rhett Butler, Ashley Wilkes, and Scarlett O’Hara. Rhett had the misfortune of falling for Scarlett, Scarlett for Ashley, and Ashley for Scarlett. However, of these three lovers, only Rhett’s feelings for Scarlett were genuine. Rhett loved Scarlett for who she truly was while Ashley and Scarlett loved the idea of each other.
Propriety demanded Ashley and Scarlett remain apart, but that distance between them is actually what held them together. The remoteness allowed them to maintain idealized images of each other that would have crumbled under closer scrutiny.
Dreams can be dangerous in their stubbornness. Ashley and Scarlett wasted their lives pining for a love that did not exist. Rhett too risked it all on love and lost, but at least he saw clearly the bet he was making.
This tragedy could have been avoided with an inkling of introspection from Scarlett or Ashley and reminds me of the Noble Eightfold Path’s guidance that we cultivate an ability to ‘see things as they are’.
Honor
Honor is a major theme in Gone with the Wind and I honestly do not know what Margaret Mitchell is trying to say so to paraphrase Joan Didion ‘I write to find out what I think’.
Honor is what makes Ashley Wilkes marry Melanie Hamilton instead of Scarlett O’Hara. Would Ashley Wilkes have been better off if he had discarded his honor to elope with Scarlett? As stated earlier, I feel confident he would have realized that he did not actually love Scarlett, but I am unsure if he would have been better off for learning this fact. Ashley is not a resilient man and it’s hard to imagine him trading his honor for love, losing both, and then living well. In fact, I think he would have found a way to die for someone else’s benefit, restoring at least a modicum of his honor and releasing him from a world to which he did not belong. For Ashley, honor is a Gilded Cage, leaving him unable to adapt to a changing world or follow his heart.
Rhett Butler is seen by other characters are being a blackguard, profiteer, scallywag, cad, etc., aka a man without honor. Yet despite being shunned by most, it seems Captain Butler lives a good life. We never get to see directly into Rhett’s mind, but he is rich, free from responsibility, and full of vitality. Although I think there is an argument to make for Rhett actually being miserable because of his lack of honor–and this is what drives him to be a bit cruel–I like to think he is better off for his lack of honor and would have lived a happy life if he had chosen to love anyone other than Scarlett O’Hara. For what it’s worth Rhett tells us:
Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.
Rhett Butler
Scarlett was raised to be honorable and ladylike, but readily trades her honor for security until she is honorless. But Scarlett’s circumstances are complicated and I’m not willing to make a verdict yet on whether her relationship with honor was beneficial or harmful.
Lastly, the Old Guard find more comfort than ever in honor after all they lose the war and are made destitute. In a world of poverty, honor was their shelter, comfort, and tie to others.
I guess Margaret Mitchell is trying to say that honor is a double-edged sword. For those who are naturally honorable, it is a boon that creates brotherly bonds. But for those who do not fit comfortably within the status quo, honor can be a burden (Ashley) and it must be thrown off to live well (Rhett).
Scarlett O’Hara
Scarlett O’Hara is the protagonist of Gone with the Wind, but she is not supposed to be a sympathetic character. And yet while I found her a bit narcissistic in the beginning and wholly heartless toward the end, there was a period where I empathized and respected Scarlett deeply.
After the deprivation caused by Sherman’s March to the Sea, Scarlett vowed to do whatever it takes to make sure she (and her loved ones) were never poor again. Sadly her loved ones were helpless so Scarlett reluctantly took charge to save her family. Leadership is demanding, especially in tough times, and Scarlett had to sacrifice many of her nobler qualities like tolerance, sympathy, and the luxury of vulnerability for the survival of the group. For her loved ones she scarred her hands working in the field, sacrificed her reputation by going into business, and sold her body to Frank Kennedy. When we judge her future actions we must remember that Scarlett was forced to become a harsh, relentless, and uncompromising figure by circumstance not choice and out of a genuine love for others.
However, the tragedy of Scarlett O’Hara is that she did not exercise choice once she rose above the circumstances and had the ability to do so. She adapted to the trauma, but did not continue to adapt to the changing times. To me the moral of Scarlett O’Hara is to be wary of expediency, that the end rarely justifies the mean, not because you can’t get back on track, but because you won’t want to. Our actions change who we are and compromise begets more compromise. You give an inch and suddenly find yourself miles off course and the path back is steeper and slippier than you thought. Or as Margaret Mitchell puts it:
It’s hard to salvage jettisoned cargo and, if it is retrieved, it’s usually irreparably damaged. And I fear that when you can afford to fish up the honor and virtue and kindness you’ve thrown overboard, you’ll find they have suffered a sea change and not, I fear, into something rich and strange.
Scarlett never found her way to back her to honor, love, and arguably reality.
That said, I think it’s also also fair to say that say Scarlett had no choice. She experienced severe trauma and perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect her to live a healthy life after that.
Rhett Butler
Rhett Butler is a complicated character. Rhett is an iconoclast who appears to take great pleasure in shocking, humiliating, and debasing the sensibilities of the ‘Old Guard’ of the Antebellum South. Of all the characters he sees the clearest, identifying the futility of war, the hypocrisy of honor, and the true nature of other characters.
Yet Captain Butler cannot fully escape the system he debases. He cannot resist joining the war and loving Scarlett despite knowing these endeavors are intellectually foolish. Indeed, much of his life revolves around Scarlett and one could argue loving Scarlett is more foolish than believing in honor.
What interests me most about Rhett, however, is how others view him. There is often a gaping discrepancy between his actions, intentions, and other’s perception of him. At first when he runs the Yankee blockade he is seen as a hero despite him doing it solely for personal gain. Later in the war he is seen as a selfish profiteer for engaging in the same behavior with the same intentions. When Rhett saves the Clansmen from death, the Clansmen are bitter about it, feeling that he did so to embarrass them. And when Rhett shrewdly participates in the system of honor purely for his daughter Bonnie’s benefit, others see him as a genuine believer and a man of outstanding character.
It’s tempting to say the lesson here is to judge someone by their actions and not their intentions, but I think Margaret Mitchell views this topic as much more nuanced. While she does not deny the primacy of actions, she highlights the importance of understanding the intentions behind the actions as well. In always disguising his intentions, Rhett may have reaped some benefit, but he also made it more difficult for Scarlett to trust him.
Yet we must resist the impulse to infer intention from actions because we are often woefully wrong. So much of the tragedy in Gone with the Wind is due to characters misunderstanding others (and themselves). We should withhold judgement until we truly understand and when we truly understand there is little to judge. I do not think it is a coincidence that Rhett was the only person who truly understood and truly loved Scarlett–he loved her because he understood her.
The Last Chapter
This chapter is what solidified my love for Gone with the Wind and made all the meandering chapters worth it. I give a lot of credit to Margaret Mitchell for not pulling her punches and the 1-2 combo of Scarlett losing Melly and then Rhett was devastating. It’s no happy ending, but I think the pain is often a better teacher.
Quotes I liked:
Like most girls, her imagination carried her just as far as the altar and no further.
(pithy and I know a few would-be parents who think like this too)
Ashley: Love isn’t enough to make a successful marriage when two people are as different as we are. You would want all of a man, Scarlett, his body, his heart, his soul, his thoughts. And if you did not have them, you would be miserable. And I couldn’t give you all of me. I couldn’t give all of me to anyone. And I would not want all of your mind and your soul. And you would be hurt, and then you would come to hate me—how bitterly! You would hate the books I read and the music I loved, because they took me away from you even for a moment.
(Makes me think of unhealthy attachment styles and the impossible longing to every full know someone)
Rhett: You’ll never make a farm hand out of a Wilkes—or anything else that’s useful. The breed is purely ornamental.
(scathing)
Scarlett: No one ever gets anywhere seeing both sides.
Ashley: That’s true but—Scarlett, just where do you want to get? I’ve often wondered. You see, I never wanted to get anywhere at all. I’ve only wanted to be myself.
(same)
Scarlett: Then, what do you want?
Ashley: I don’t know, now. I knew once but I’ve half forgotten. Mostly to be left alone, not to be harried by people I don’t like, driven to do things I don’t want to do.
(same…there more of me in Ashley than I thought)
Other thoughts
- The idea that some slaves missed slavery is…interesting. Obviously slavery is evil, but it does make me wonder about the experiences of slaves adjusting overnight to a radically different society
- Does the derogatory term ‘chad’ come from ‘cad’?
- As heart-broken as I was for Scarlett at the end of the book, I actually think she will be fine.
Closing thoughts
As I write, I realize what I love most about this book is how nuanced it is. The characters are nuanced. The lessons are nuanced, and even slavery is nuanced (certainly evil, but I’m surprised to agree that some slaves probably struggled to adapt to freedom just as we struggle with any type of change, good or bad).
Anyways, if that last comment does not get me cancelled and this post remains standing, I’d love to know what you thought about Gone with the Wind! What do you think happens to Scarlett? Ashley? Any other books set in this time period you recommend?