Before I launch into a discussion about the second half of Chapter 23, I've gotta make sure I give another shout out to one of my all-time favorite GWTW/MM literary motifs: Rhett Butler Picking People Up.
Rhett's a physical guy, all brute strength and broad shoulders and swarthy yumminess, and throughout the story so far MM has reminded us almost constantly of his power by having him pick people up time and time again. Off the top of my head, he has thus far carried Gerald (after their big poker game and booze fest early in the novel) and Melly (when she fainted in town when she was pregnant), and he has swung Scarlett into his carriage at least once. Well, by the time he arrives at Aunt Pitty's house in chapter 23 he's back at it again: he carries Melly down the stairs and deposits her into the back of the little stolen buggy he's going to use to take everybody away from the invading army. Then he picks Scarlett up and puts her onto the front seat of the wagon without even pausing to complain. So, huzzah for MM for having the sophistication to use this time and again without running it into the ground.
Anyway, as soon as they leave Aunt Pitty's house the CSA blows up the ammunition trains on Marietta Street. And Rhett is pissed because his escape plan involved "circling around the center of town" so they can "avoid the fire and that drunken mob on Decatur Street and get through the southwest part of town without any danger," but he was planning on driving down Marietta Street in order to follow that course and now Marietta is on fire. So basically he was going to take them on a huge semi-circle around the downtown area, although a close reading indicates that it's unclear whether his route is going to go clockwise or counterclockwise from Pitty's house. Hmmm. My inclination is to assume they are going to go clockwise and cut through what is now Sweet Auburn, but I could be wrong.
They head straight into the fire, and this is when GWTW gets a little weird. I sometimes think of GWTW as the ultimate Southern Gothic novel, even though it lacks the supernatural aspects that are traditionally found in that genre. Scarlett is certainly haunted by her dream later on in the book, but MM never tries to convince us that there's anything "real" about Scarlett's fears. Nevertheless, although Scarlett and Rhett always have their feet firmly on the ground, chapter 23 and the next few chapters are very spooky in their own way, aren't they?
Scarlett leans into Rhett ("his profile stood out as clearly as the head on an ancient coin, beautiful, cruel and decadent"), but when Rhett looks back at her his eyes are "gleaming with a light as frightening as the fire." And then Scarlett says "he seemed exhilarated and contemptuous....as if he welcomed the inferno they were approaching."
Say whaaaaa?
Exhilarated and contemptuous?
Really?
Does that mean he's an old-school adrenaline addict? And if so, perhaps that explains precisely why he rushes off to join the Army at the end of this section. We're supposed to think Rhett is joining the CSA because he's sentimental at heart and wants to help, but could his enlistment actually have more to do with a sudden realization that he "gets off" on danger? It's one thing to be excited and over-stimulated and all of that, but he's enjoying the hell out of this, isn't he?
And then, speaking of the Southern Gothic, our friends in the broken down buggy run into the retreating army just as they're getting ready to cross Marietta Street and MM says that "they went past...so silent that...they might all have been ghosts." Not exactly Boo Radley there, but her description certainly lends a sense of foreboding to the environment, doesn't it?
Alright, so now the action shifts again as Rhett gets all sarcastic about the retreating men of the Glorious Cause retreating, and Scarlett starts hating him for not being in the army and because Charles and all the boys she grew up with and Ashley are probably dead while Rhett is just coasting by, enjoying the good life, and blah blah blah Scarlett greedy-cakes.
But now things turn again, because Rhett gets quiet and moody all of a sudden. Which is totally out of his character, since we've thus far not seen him as anything other than amused and talkative. Is this the real Rhett Butler? Or is this how Rhett reacts to danger? Or maybe we should just take these events at face value: Rhett is a man of action, and he's spent an entire night piloting a woman and child through the dark streets of Atlanta when there's real action--real war!--happening somewhere nearby.
Once they get out of town, Rhett pulls the carriage to the side and that's when shit gets real.
"Scarlett, are you still determined to do this crazy thing?" He asks her, and the first time I read this book I had absolutely no idea what in the hell he was talking about. What was so crazy about a woman wanting to leave Atlanta when Billy Sherman (yay!) came to town? I would have left too, and so would anybody with common sense and two good legs to stand on. Scarlett is still a young woman and Atlanta has gotten incredibly dangerous over the past few weeks--going home is a reasonable reaction when the world begins melting around you, I think.
But Rhett thinks she's cray.
I mean, I get what he's after here, but maybe he's judging her a bit too harshly. And besides, if he thinks going to Tara was truly a bad idea, why in the hell did he help her come so far out of town? I suppose one could argue that Rhett helped her get to the burbs because he figured hiding in the dark woods was a better idea than staying on at Aunt Pitty's house, but I'm not so sure. Maybe he's simply not thinking very clearly in this section. He and Scarlett are both tired and over stimulated, and probably hungry and slightly dehydrated, so perhaps they could both use some water and a nap?
Either way and whatever is bothering the two of them, both Scarlett and Rhett start behaving as though they've lost their minds in this section, which is sort of amusing. If you side with Cliff's notes and other authorities and believe that Rhett and Scarlett represent the New South, then their strange behavior and ambiguous motives in this section certainly underline your point. Neither of them knows where to go, what to do, or what to think, and both of them start making terrible decisions like the nutjobs that some people (not me, of course) think they actually are.
Rhett starts talking about maybes.
"Maybe you can get past Rough and Ready all right...maybe the Yankees aren't there yet. Maybe you can get through there..."
Scarlett is freaking out in this section, because she suddenly realizes that Rhett is planning on abandoning her right there, but...what is really happening here? Is this supposed to be a pep talk? What the hell is he doing? If he doesn't think Scarlett's chance of success is more than a maybe, then he should stay. Right? But then again, maybe the presence of a man of military age would have freaked out the Union or Confederate armies and Rhett left in order to do Scarlett a favor, betting that a few women and a girl had a better chance to get through rather than a rich guy and a couple of dames?
I don't know.
Either way, he's leaving her.
WTF?
"She looked around them wildly, at the livid sky behind them...had she gone crazy? Was she not hearing right?"
And when Scarlett looks back at Rhett, he is grinning at her. I normally laugh when he laughs, but I'm having trouble finding the joke even after all these years and even after I've read this book a thousand times.
But okay--he's leaving her. The first time I read this book I hadn't seen the movie, and I assumed he was going to drop some terrible bombshell and announce that he was abandoning them to go back to Belle's brothel or something. But no.
Noooooo.
"I am going, dear girl, with the army."
Scarlett initially thinks he's joking. But he ain't joking. He's jeering at her and at himself, and "his drawling voice jibed in her ears," but he aint joking. He's talking about patriotism, shields, and brave speeches, but he ain't joking. Scarlett is "breathless, stunned, nauseated" as she listens to his words, and she keeps asking him if he's joking.
But he ain't joking.
She asks him for his reasons and he gives them, and I still don't know if he's telling the truth--or if there was any truth worth telling at this point during the Civil War. He gives a number of answers, but I don't know which one is real. But I will lay them out and discuss them here.
Reason 1.) "Because, perhaps, of the betraying sentimentality that lurks in all of us Southerners." Which....no. I don't think that's it. Rhett does get oddly sentimental during the last few chapters of GWTW of course, but Bonnie and all of that are still 10 years in the future. He's joining up with the CSA, but I don't think he's joining it because he's suddenly sentimental about the South. He's growing and changing just like everybody else in the novel, but he's not changing that quickly. This would be akin to Ashley Wilkes running away to New York without warning, to get a job at a bank on...Oh My GAWD (spoiler!). Okay, more on that later.
Reason 2.) "Perhaps because I am ashamed." This seems a little more likely at this point, but not entirely plausible. Ashamed of what, Rhett darling? Ashamed of being alive, being smart, and making money hand-over-fist? That doesn't sound like the Rhett Butler I've known and love (and obsessed over) since I was a teenager.
Reason 3.) You know what I think? I think MM put this little turn of events in because it helps sell the ending. We buy Rhett as a doting father later on chiefly because he got so corny and schmaltzy about his fair Southland in this part of the book. Plus, every other man in the story fought for the Confederacy and it gives Rhett something to fall back on later in the book. Plus, as a writer MM honestly needed Rhett to disappear from the novel for a while. Rhett is a wonderful character and he's amazing in so many different ways, but for the first two sections of the novel we get him in very small doses. He drops his jokes and his intrigue, he helps Scarlett, he gets jealous over Ashley, and then he blows out of town to go do whatever it is he does when he's not hanging out in Atlanta (for more on that you should check out my fan fiction!). Plus, even when he's married to Scarlett we rarely actually spend any time with him because he's seldom at home. Rhett joined the army because Rhett needed to be out of the story for a little while. When you think about it he's almost more interesting when he's not in a chapter, because we get to hear all kinds of crazy gossip about him.
Reason 4.) But here's my newest idea: Rhett Butler enlists because he has an excellent moral compass. According to MM (and many, many other people...ahem...) fighting for the South was the noblest thing a man could have done, right? Now our boy RKB has done some crazy stuff over the past few decades, and he pretends not to have any morals or values beyond having fun and making money, but at heart the man has a lot of....well, he's got a lot of heart. He's a bad boy with a good soul that hasn't been corrupted by all the crazy times he's had in New Orleans and Central America and San Francisco and all the other places he's visited. He's a professional gambler and a drunk and unbelievably tough and sarcastic, but he's almost always on the side of right in GWTW. His moral compass still points north (shout out to Spielberg's Lincoln!), and in this section I would argue that he's compelled to fight for the Confederacy because it's the right thing to do--even though he either can't articulate it at this point or doesn't actually acknowledge the feeling. Maybe he's denying it, or maybe he doesn't know what's driving him, but I do believe he's taking a moral stand at this point.
So he's off to the war, but not before he steals a kiss from Scarlett. An all-important kiss that I will cover in part three of my analysis of this chapter. Check back soon, ya'll!
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