Chapter 9 begins with Scarlett leaning against her bedroom window in Atlanta, watching sadly as a crowd of happy young people (maidens and beau) drive off for a picnic in the woods. Scarlett bitches and cries because her widow status makes it impossible for her to have fun. Melly and Aunt Pity misinterpret Scarlett's unhappiness and assume she's angry because she misses Charles Hamilton, and Scarlett doesn't try to dissuade them from this assumption. But just when it seems like Scarlett will never be happy again, Mrs, Merriwether and Mrs. Elsing arrive and force Scarlett, Melly, and Aunt Pity into service at the Christmas Bazaar/benefit later that night. Melly and Pitty don't want to do it because they're still in mourning for "Poor Charlie Hamilton," but eventually they relent. Scarlett is thrilled because this gives her a chance to escape the house for a change.
So they all head off to the bazaar in their black morning dresses. The hall is all decked out with Atlanta's finest decorations, and all the men are wearing their uniforms and the girls (with the exception of Scarlett, Melly, and Pitty) are wearing their best dresses. There are candles and flowers and bunting and smiles and booths and many other things that set a scene of romance, and this is the backdrop and the environment that people who've never read GWTW incorrectly assume permeates the entire story. Hell, MM even takes the time to tell us that the band is playing the song Lorena, and I found a nifty Waylon Jennings version on youtube that really helps set the mood.( Waylon Jennings--Lorena )
Interestingly enough, the next song we're told about is the Bonnie Blue Flag, a rollicking State's Rights anthem that moves everybody in the crowd to tears and gives them all goosebumps because, you know, Hurrah for succession and the CSA and all that. Except Scarlett is not moved in the same way. Rather, "every woman present was blazing with an emotion she did not feel," and after several moments of watching the scene Scarlett realizes "that she did not share with these women their fierce pride, their desire to sacrifice themselves and everything they had for the Cause."
Now, after seventeen years of pondering Scarlett's character arc, I've come to the conclusion that this realization is probably the most important revelation we have from her character in the first part of the book. Scarlett dislikes all the patriotism everybody else is showing, but not because she particularly dislikes the Confederacy. She has hated the war from the first page of the book when the Tarleton's are discussing the coming conflict, but she hates because the war is an unnecessary hardship. She wants green dresses and parties, not stints at the hospital and lice. And who can blame her, really? She just wants to go home again, like Dorthy and every other female protagonist in literature, and home is definitely not play-acting as Charles Hamilton's widow in Atlanta during the Civil War.
Good thing help is on the way in the form of A Stranger From Charleston.
Mitchell gives us a lengthy, lengthy description of Rhett Butler this time. She gave us the equivalent of a flirtatious once-over back at the Wilkes BBQ, but now she describes his physical appearance in detail, discussing everything from his "lazy grace," to his mustache (small and closely clipped, almost foreign looking), to the fact that "he looked, and was, a man of lusty and unashamed appetites." "There was a twinkle of malice in his bold eyes as he stared at Scarlett, until finally, feeling his gaze, she looked toward him."
There's a little bit of chatter between Scarlett, Melly, and Rhett, but then Melly breaks away to go sell pillowcases and Scarlett and Rhett are finally alone. In lesser hands their conversation might have been merely expository, but MM gives them unique conversational styles--so unique that she eventually abandons all the speech tags (i.e. "...said Scarlett...") and lets them get on with the business of hating each other with a minimum of interference.
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