The first time I read GWTW, I had absolutely not idea how it ended. I mean, I knew Clark Gable walked out on Scarlett after telling her he didn't give a damn (SPOILER!), but I certainly didn't know the details of the novel's romantic entanglements. I honestly didn't know my Geralds from Rhetts from Ashleys, and I didn't know my Melanies from my Suellens. And after reading chapter 1 for the first time, I sincerely expected that Scarlett would come to her senses and fall in love with one of those dreamy, loud, brash Tarleton Twins.
But then I turned the page and started to read about Ashley.
And instantly fell in love with him.
Just as Scarlett did.
"She had been on the front porch," Mitchell describes, "and he had ridden up the long avenue, dressed in gray broadcloth with a wide black cravat setting off his frilled shirt to perfection. Even no, she could recall each detail of his dress, how brightly his boots shone....the wide Panama hat that was instantly in his hand when he saw her......"
Wow!
Now, anybody who's known me for longer than thirty seconds knows I'm a Rhett girl. But....my goodness gracious! Folks like to pretend Scarlett O'Hara is crazy for loving Ashley as she does. And maybe it is crazy in the context of the movie, given that Rhett/Gable is the manliest manly that ever manned while Leslie Howard is.....a little less. But in the book Ashley is the true hottie, a 21-year-old Prince William (google that shit) with a Panama hat and a southern accent.
"He had alighted and tossed his bridle reins to a pickaninny," Mitchell continues," and stood looking up at her, his drowsy gray eyes wide with a smile and the sun so bright on his blonde hair that it seemed like a cap of shining silver."
Double wow!
And so, while my early-30's self can giggle at Scarlett for chasing Ashley around the south for a dozen years, my 16-year-old self immediately understood how and why Scarlett slipped into her Ashley addiction. The boy is whip smart, gorgeous, charming, tall, and ridiculously good at riding, gambling, drinking, and all the other country pursuits. But he's also drowsy-eyed and unattainable, the personification of the whole Robert E. Lee/Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Piedmont lifestyle that is traditionally held so dear by upper-class citizens of the solid south.
But....hang on.....
Because.....
It turns out....
That....
Ashley Wilkes is the biggest fool and coward in the entire book. It's not evident in chapter 2, obviously, but by the end of the story it's difficult not to hate him more than a little bit. There are no saints in GWTW--and no pure sinners either, come to think of it--but Ashley Wilkes winds up being the catalyst for almost everything that goes wrong in the story. He refuses to play the dominant role in any situation, letting Melanie, Scarlett, and (eventually) Rhett take the upper hand in all their interactions. It's sad.
So, what does that say about Mitchell's true feelings on the Lee/Jefferson school of southern masculinity?
Action: After Scarlett remembers how she fell in love with Ashley, Mitchell then swings the action away from the porch and toward the other end of the plantation. Scarlett is hustling to meet her father on his way home from the Wilkes' mansion, hoping against hope that he'll be able to give her some good news. Namely, she's hoping the Tarleton Twins were lying and that Ashley and Melanie won't be getting married at all. That doesn't happen, obviously, and Scarlett spends most of the chapter vacillating between shock and anger. Which would be hilarious if it wasn't so utterly heartbreaking and familiar for anyone who's ever been torn apart by love.
Gerald O'Hara is a character, and chapter 2 and chapter 3 almost act as prequels as Mitchell succinctly introduces Scarlett's father and his background. Interestingly, anyone who takes offense at Mitchell's many, many racist words and ideas should re-read this part of the book. Because African-Americans get off relatively easy compared to the Irish Americans, given that Mitchell apparently believes life on the Emerald Isle consists of nothing more than whiskey, prayer, whiskey, fighting, whiskey, horses, whiskey, and whiskey. And after reading this part for the first time, I began to wonder: if Scarlett's father is a wild drunk then what in the world is her mother like?
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