Reviews by:
Anna
Jo

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell - Reviewed by Anna
11/4/05 at Jo’s

Everybody hadn’t read the whole of Gone With The Wind – or GWTW – but everyone had an opinion on it. There were basically two camps. There were the die-hard Scarlett fans, led by Sharon and Jo, who could hear no wrong said about their heroine; and those who thought she was selfish, hard and completely insensitive to the pain and misery her actions caused to others. At least that was how the evening began. We weren’t seated on opposite sides of the rooms, but the divide was as palpable as if we’d drawn a net across the room. The Scarletts ready to defend her come what may, be it Yankees, starvation, adultery or fellow book group members; the others warily unwilling to have her glamour, as a raison d’etre, forced upon them.

But as we talked it became obvious that our differences were not so great. The Scarletts were seduced by her glamour but not blind to her faults. They loved Scarlett, so when she did unspeakable things they looked beyond them for reasons. They pointed to her upbringing, which was totally geared to being a refined wife and mother, leaving her completely unprepared for the chaos of war into which she was thrown. Scarlett was a fighter, but a fighter with no training. She had to find what weapons she could, and sometimes her weapons weren’t very pleasant. But she was not content to sit back on principles and traditions and let life as she’s known it slip away while she watched on the sidelines. That was Ashley’s way, and Melanie’s.

More than once Margaret Mitchell refers to Darwinism. The book is set in a time when evolution would have been a controversial topic, talked about in the drawing rooms and clubs frequented by Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler. She even has Scarlett refer to “the survival of the fitting”! But although she makes a joke of it, this is really the key to Scarlett. She is the strong who will survive, unlike Melanie and Ashley who will be winnowed out, whose day has been and gone. And for that reason alone, we must love Scarlett – amidst the chaos and degradation of the Civil War she is the future. Which means that she is our present.

It is no accident that their nearest neighbour, Mrs Tarleton, is a horse breeder and breeding a topic of conversation (be it frowned upon) in the O’Hara household. The Wilkes and Hamilton families are known for inbreeding. Ashley and Melanie the result of this, they are cousins and neither are strong. This doesn’t bode well for Beau’s future health. Scarlett, on the other hand, is the result of interbreeding between races, between continents, between new and old, brashness and gentility, vigour and apathy. She has her parents on her shoulders like the devil and the angel, Ellen sighing, urging kindness, sympathy, fortitude and womanly wiles; Gerald headstrong and vulgar, taking the straightest line he can to what he wants, unafraid of a little cheating or killing on the way, but capable of enormous love. When Ellen dies her influence on Scarlett loses its intensity. She is more like her father than her mother after all.

So when she leases convicts to work her mill and works them until they drop, we grit our teeth and say she must do what she needs to, or the future, our capitalist society, will have nothing to build upon. We forgive her for being such a terrible mother as she was so young. Nineteen, widowed with a child, parentless, in charge of two sick sisters and a cotton plantation in the midst of a war zone. We forgive her her intellectual vacuity, as that’s what she was brought up to value in her sex, and the future needs vitality not reflectiveness. If she had spent her childhood reading rather than running wild climbing trees and riding horses, how would she have coped with the physical demands of the ride home to Tara and the exhaustion of working in the fields.

Not only physical exhaustion, but emotional too. And this was the point which came out of our discussion which we all agreed on. Scarlett, in the course of the book, becomes emotionally damaged. She tells Rhett that she threw her goodness out of the sinking boat because she didn’t need it, and that she would retrieve it once danger was passed. Rhett replies that it is difficult to retrieve goods thrown overboard, that even if we do they are damaged beyond repair. And this is what has happened to Scarlett. She didn’t start out irredeemably selfish and bad. She was the product of her upbringing and headstrong nature. At sixteen she was barely formed, ready to be moulded by whatever life brought. And life brought war, death of her loved ones, starvation and the complete disintegration of the world she knew. That she came through this holding her head up and thinking about tomorrow is a reason to love Scarlett O’Hara.

Anna

BC646 April meeting

Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell (1936) - Reviewed by Jo

I spotted Rhett and Scarlett in a passionate embrace on the centre table of a bookshop in Hebden Bridge. I couldn’t resist. I bought GWTW for my Mum. Mum read it then passed it back to me as a ‘must read’. I’m an obedient daughter, so I began reading in the spring of last year.

The unexpected pleasure of literature.

I do declare the ease of my house move in 2004 was due to the utter state of distraction I experienced while reading GWTW. While my body strolled and sped around the winding pathways of Calderdale at the beginning of the 21^st century, my heart and soul were in emotional turmoil in the American Deep South around 1860.

Most frustrating was that while discussing the creation of BC646 in ** last year. My thoughts were totally entrenched in GWTW. No matter which book or subject came up for discussion, it all ended up at Tara. I remember saying that I wanted to be buried with a copy. I believe if there is one novel I could manage to endure reading over and over for eternity GWTW is the one. But then could I endure the heartache?

GWTW was my book choice by default.

I’ll admit I was a little precious. I hadn’t simply read the book I’d experienced the story and had not just thoughts but feelings. A dangerous emotional, literary quagmire. Did I possess the courage to invite the book group to tread upon this precarious landscape?

Yes. So April 2005 BC646 book group met up to talk GWTW.

(See Anna’s excellent breakdown of the evening’s discourse).

On reflection there are many layers of discussion within the novel.

Historical, social and political.

In my mind I could see it all. The place, the time, the devastation and destruction of war. The futility and inevitability of conflict. The inequality of life for some. The quality of life for others. Race. Gender. Religion. The smell of the land, the soil, the sweat. The feel of the cotton, the squeeze of the corsets.

Margaret Mitchell superbly captures the very nature of a place and peoples embroiled in Civil War. A political and physical struggle over slavery and freedom. The chaos and desire for order. Perishing and surviving.

A geographical theatre where four characters assume centre stage. Playing out their roles within this beautifully crafted reality. Fighting their own battle against social slavery and desire to love freely. Four lives inexorably linked. Doomed to forever fold around each other through time. Chemistry in motion. Yet somehow lacking. Who knows exactly what element ruined their chances of happiness. The wrong place? The wrong time?

What affected me most was my emotional attachment to the characters. In particular Scarlett. I cannot describe the physical sensation on finishing the book. If you’ve ever read a truly engrossing book I guess I don’t need to. Like a bell inside with the ‘dong’ still reverberating behind my ribcage. I wanted to understand why Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie and Ashley had not achieved the peace of heart all humans crave. Or do they?

I believe it took about 2 months for my mind to recover!

An important part of my therapy was visualising the emotional connections between these marvellous characters.

Scarlett, a feisty spirit, fearless soul, fertile body.

Growing up in a social landscape of protocol and politeness. ‘Society’ –in particular female society, placing emphasis on restraint and control. A judgemental society, requiring conformity. Conservative and careful and coy. A preoccupation with matchmaking. Obeying the social laws at that time was prerequisite to social survival, in essence the chances of making a desirable (social not necessarily physical) marriage. Scarlett is fairly bursting from this carefully sculpted female mould. Her confidence of body and soul being a rare combination of the human condition. Scarlett’s innate confidence was unfashionable and scorned upon by her peers as ‘unladylike’. Her physical beauty, her biology, her magnetism to men being a source of jealousy.

Scarlett is not a diva. Her attractiveness is as natural to her as breathing. She is to an extent blinkered to her affect on others, which is endearing and also given the envy a blessing. Her indifference to the judgement lavished upon her yet fuels the flames of female social indignation. What a character!

With a solid supply of inner strength, Scarlett finds it easy to make decisions. Leadership is not an ambition, but a means to an end. Scarlett prefers to trust her own judgement. A reliable source. This is not surprising given the social preference in female circles for reserve over action. Behaviour was more important than books. Being well mannered rather than well read. Scarlett is easier to accuse because she openly admits to an indifference to books. Forever practical, oozing common sense, who can criticize Scarlett for observing a lack of real value between learning (from books) and living. The world she exists within did not require her to be contemplative but simply attentive and active.

Herein lies the culture clash between Scarlett and Ashley. For Ashley places importance on intellectual integrity. Yet despite her lack of highbrow interest, it is hard to doubt Scarlett’s intelligence. She most certainly would meet Ashley head-on, which could have made for a formidable union. Their differences could have proved to be an important dynamic in their relationship. Also it is important to remember Scarlett’s attraction to Ashley. While this would certainly have been physical, no doubt there was magnetism towards his charming aloofness due to his intellectual emphasis. Scarlett romantically sees herself as Ashley’s fair maiden. While we (the readers) ponder Ashley’s vision of Scarlett as an alluring mistress.

Rhett, on the other had, wants to be Scarlett’s knight in shining armour, where he falters is not understanding that Scarlett doesn’t need to be rescued. Rhett’s genuine love for Scarlett undermines his ability to understand her. His frustration in this inability to overwhelm Scarlett with his charm and affection results in a tendency to tease and provoke Scarlett. Rather than endearing Scarlett to him, his behaviour acts as a repellent. For a man so experienced and gifted in the art of seduction Scarlett presents a challenge and then an obsession. Unfortunately for Rhett, Scarlett possesses a heart he will never be able to truly conquer. Their relationship is doomed.

Dear Rhett! Handsome, clever, shrewd, charming, childish Rhett! Poor Rhett has fallen (against his mind’s better judgement) for our stunning Scarlett and seeks her adoration. It is not that Scarlett lacks the capacity for such romantic abandonment, she simply requires the right person to release it. In an ambiguous nutshell, Rhett tries too hard and not hard enough. So preoccupied is he, attempting to receive the correct signals from Scarlett, he loses himself on the road to discovering her. His determination blinds him and proves to be painful to them both. Rhett cannot penetrate to the core of Scarlett. Fundamental to this is the terrible truth for Rhett that he is more in love with Scarlett than she can ever be with him. Scarlett never attempted to comprehend Rhett, why would she? Why attempt to understand a person who cannot be understood? The complexity of human behaviour was never of any interest to Scarlett. With a country devastated by war, crumpling under the brutality of human aggression such indifference to human nature would be an asset. Life boiled down simply to biological organ priority. Mind matters were of no matter while stomachs were empty. Food for the body mattered more than food for the soul.

Food! Food! Why did the stomach have a longer memory than the mind? Scarlett could banish heartbreak but not hunger, and each morning as she lay half-asleep, before memory brought back to her mind war and hunger, she curled drowsily expecting the sweet smells of bacon frying and rolls baking. And each morning she sniffed so hard to really smell the food she woke herself up. (Mitchell, 1936 p420)

Rhett’s wealth was attractive and satisfied Scarlett’s desire for physical security (freedom from poverty). However when considering Scarlett’s emotional security, it is clear that she never did, could or would whole-heartedly love Rhett. Even in the final analysis, after losing Melanie, discovering her lacking love for Ashley and feeling a sudden gush of ‘love’ for Rhett, it seems more plausible that her high emotions are driven not really by love but by grief. Her sense of loss requires a supplement, available in the form of Rhett. Is this love? Of course not. And tomorrow or the tomorrow after or the tomorrow after that, once her stable soul had readjusted to the loss of Melanie, as a reader we can feel confident that those sensations of ‘love’ would be again placed in context. But that’s another story.

In her novel, Mitchell succeeds in provoking in us (the reader) a strong sense of desire to make the characters love each other. If only Scarlett and Rhett could stop sparring and unite with the passion we sense in them both. Yet this desire is a little like an attempt to connect two repelling magnets. It is just not meant to be. Even after the fabulous scene, after Ashley’s Birthday, when Rhett refuses to be shut out of Scarlett’s bedroom and impresses Scarlett with his surprising passion, we are aware that this is a moment in their relationship, not reflective of their marriage as a whole.

So while we desire Rhett and Scarlett to fall madly in love, we suffer some of Rhett’s frustration at Scarlett’s undying devotion to Ashley. And here we all commit the insufferable sin of cynicism. Why is it that we doubt Scarlett’s love for Ashley? Could it be that Scarlett did love Ashley? Scarlett was not capable of playing psychological mind games. She endures all manner of emotional and physical difficulties motivated by her love for Ashley. Caring for Melanie on his request. Helping bring baby Beau into the world. Nursing Melanie back to health. Working to keep Tara as a secure home in the aftermath of the war. Even marrying a man she did not love to support her family. While Scarlett may not be considered magnanimous in her actions, given that she too benefited from financial security resulting from these manoeuvres. It is surprising how little credit Scarlett receives for all her efforts. Perhaps it is the underlying parallels between herself and Belle Watling. Both are prostituting their female body for worldly security. Both are admired by men and abhorred by most women.

Melanie however passes no judgement on Scarlett’s behaviour. Seeing Scarlett for who she is – a young girl finding herself having to survive in extra-ordinary conditions. Adapting and altering, physically and mentally. While old Southern society hid themselves away in drawing rooms Scarlett placed herself in the firing line. Melanie admires her for this. This admiration is an exception. Perhaps it was the relentless racket of criticism aimed at her that eventually deafens Scarlett to her inner voice of reason. When a reputation has been so consistently judged, it is not a surprise to find a young woman who has endured so many unexpected challenges (3 marriages, widowed twice, 3 children, the loss of her mother, father and daughter) to become shockingly resilient. Perhaps the most shocking realisation is that Scarlett was always resilient. Again rather than admiring her for this she is judged. Considered hard, arrogant, ruthless, reckless.

The only characters who give Scarlett any real affection are her mother and Melanie. Scarlett loses her mother and is unable to benefit from Melanie’s kindness given that she is Ashley’s wife. Thus Scarlett finds herself judged from all directions on her love for Ashley rather than receiving any sympathy. The story of the Southern beau and Southern belle who fall in love, but he marries his cousin to conform to social pressure. So embroiled are we in observing Scarlett’s headstrong actions and reactions, we, like the southern society surrounding her, underestimate the affect Ashley’s marriage to Melanie has upon Scarlett. Broken-hearted Scarlett’s strength of soul healed her heart, but left it scarred. Thus strengthened from the healing process, it enabled Scarlett to cope, but possibly inhibited her ability to really love again. In the film Ashley tells Scarlett that she ‘cut her teeth’ on his heart. Why do we doubt the impact Ashley made on Scarlett’s heart? Again her outer confidence belies her inner emotions.

So very much emotional turmoil. And as time passes and there is so much heartache and loss, we are left with the sorry feeling that Rhett, Ashley, Melanie and Scarlett were all doomed in love. The only way I could truly put the novel to rest in my head and heart was by imagining Scarlett happily reconciled in love with a man who truly loved her for who she was. It is too romantic at the end of the book to imagine that she would meet such a man. Too much damage had occurred. As the society of the Deep South had Gone with the Wind, so too had Scarlett O’Hara’s heart.

Jo
April 2005