And--you see? While the Scarlett--Rhett--Ashley--Melly love rectangle dominates GWTW the movie and almost all commentary about the novel (even that written by people who should know better), the romantic entanglements of the four leads is a secondary concern for MM. Yes, Scarlett's love of Ashley and her rejection of Rhett and her frenemy relationship for Melly drives most of the events in the novel, but by the middle of the novel even Scarlett herself is too busy to think too much about her longing for Ashley. She still loves him and wants to run away with him, but her primary concerns are food, shelter, and safety.
Anyway, after Will Benteen goes on a lengthy tirade against the Yankees, freed slaves, injustice, etc, we learn that the scallywags and carpetbaggers have hiked up the taxes on Tara sky high. Pork delivers this news in the movie, but out of the mouth of Will Benteen this passage seems particularly pathetic. Especially when he poses this question:
"What are we goin' to do, Miss Scarlett?"
Now I do realize that Tara is the O'Hara farm and that Scarlett is in charge because her Pa "isn't quite himself these days." But--seriously, Will? Why is he asking her what they're going to do about raising the tax money? What's his plan? I like Will Benteen and I realize he contributes a lot to the upkeep of Tara, but he's been living on Scarlett's charity for several months without contributing a cent. He's helpful and friendly and we all like him, but the gang at Tara needs money more than anything. Love and affection might be sufficient consideration for helpless figures like Beau and Wade and Pa O'Hara and even Melly (she's physically weak right now), but everybody else needs to put some work in. After all, Tara is only 20 miles from Atlanta and there's a lot of money changing hands in the city. Maybe Will should have headed up to Atlanta and sniffed around for a job instead of simply running home to Tara to tell Scarlett the bad news.
And speaking of selfishness, Scarlett then races off to see Ashley to tell him about the tax money. Of course Ashley doesn't have any money either, but Scarlett races out to tell him about it anyway and this is the first time she's been alone with him since he returned from the war. Scarlett is absolutely heartbroken by the vision of her beloved Ashley Wilkes splitting rails, and MM is such an excellent writer that even the reader is struck with the sadness of the scene. As Scarlett puts it:
"She could endure the sight of her own child in aprons made of sacking and the girls in dingy old gingham, could bear it that Will worked harder than any field hand, but not Ashley."
And--wait, what?
So Scarlett has no problem with Wade and Will Benteen living in poverty, but the sight of Ashley swinging an axe breaks her heart? Hmmph. I want to believe that Scarlett's discomfort with the scene stems from the difference between expectation and reality. She loves Ashley Wilkes because he's so cultured and smooth and dreamy, so it must be quite jarring for her to see him working harder than their former slaves. On the other hand, because Scarlett didn't know Will before the war perhaps she's not disturbed by the vision of him putting in menial labor. That's what I'd like to believe, anyway. It's true that Scarlett isn't particularly maternal and is irritated by Wade most of the time, but I think the main takeaway from this internal dialogue is that she simply doesn't like to see Ashley working hard when she never expected him to lift a finger for the rest of his life.
So Scarlett goes to discuss money matters with Ashley, and Ashley's no help. He doesn't have any money and he's hopeless and depressed and totally out of ideas, so he doesn't supply her with an answer for her problems. Or does he?
"In all these months since I've been home I've only heard of one person, Rhett Butler, who actually has money."
And isn't that interesting? It's been several chapters since Scarlett even thought about Rhett, and a first-time reader who knows nothing about GWTW could safely assume that we're never going to see him again. He's been out of the story for 18 months by this point, and most of the men Scarlett knew before the war are dead, wounded, missing, or living in another state at this juncture in the story. Interestingly, Scarlett has been in communication with almost everybody in the story who's still alive by this point, but Scarlett doesn't even think about Rhett during all that time. Aunt Pitty even mentioned Rhett in a few letters (she's convinced that he managed to get away with the mythical millions of the Confederate treasury), but Scarlett apparently doesn't even think about him until this very moment.
Now, isn't it interesting that the first person who mentions Rhett Butler's name is Ashley Wilkes? There have to be other rich men in Atlanta during this time (after all, the money had to have gone somewhere, right?), but Ashley talks about Rhett. The two men haven't officially crossed paths since April of 1865, and while Rhett knows a lot about Ashley simply by virtue of being "friends" with Scarlett, Ashley cannot know much--or anything--about Rhett. Of course I think it's safe to assume that Melly spoke highly of Rhett for saving them during the Battle of Atlanta; I also think it's safe to assume that gossip was spreading like wildfire in Georgia during this time. And if there's gossip then most of it's going to be about Rhett Butler, but--still. Ashley's words are a bit too on the nose for my taste, except--
You know what? Ashley discussing Rhett with Scarlett closes the cosmic circle, doesn't it? Scarlett spent most of the first part of the novel discussing Ashley with Rhett. And now part four begins with Scarlett and Ashley discussing Rhett. Rhett and Ashley are almost never in the same place at the same time until the final third of the novel--and even then they have almost nothing to say to each other. But they balance the story quite nicely, and I think it's therefore important that Ashley inject Rhett into this conversation. Scarlett thinks that Ashley and Rhett are mirror opposites and many essayist and literary critics agree with this assessment, but I'm not certain that that's true. And I'm pretty certain that MM makes Ashley kiss Scarlett on that morning, during that conversation, so we can understand that Ashley is (almost) just as lustily in love with Scarlett as Rhett has been all along.
When I read this chapter for the first time I was shocked and excited because I was a teenager. And teenagers are more excited by kissing than they are about sex or love or marriage or money or almost anything else under the sun. This chapter is still exciting because there are so many emotional swings and crazy behavior, and because Ashley's words about being a misfit in a changed world resonate with me in much the same way they probably struck a chord with people who read GWTW during the Great Depression and World War II. But I'm also more practical nowadays. So instead of being impressed and overwhelmed by the kisses, I'm also totally frustrated by Ashley and his unsaid words and his inability to anticipate trouble and offer solutions.
Anyway, although I think Leslie Howard was a pretty good choice to play Ashley Wilkes, I always (always, always, always) think of Prince William whenever I read about Melly's beloved husband. And so, because a little touch of Will is always good for the soul, here's a lovely photograph of the Duke of Cambridge looking deliciously scruffy. He's not splitting rails or starving, but if you squint and use your imagination I betcha can see a little bit of Ashley in the future king.
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