So here we are at Chapter 35 of GWTW. Any other author would have probably used this chapter as one of those soft, landing pad sections. Scarlett and Rhett have just completed an explosive, very confusing conversation (in a jail, no less!), and it seems logical to cordon off a few pages for Scarlett (and the reader) to think and reflect on everything the two of them said. But not MM.
Nope.
This is the Great American novel, after all. So instead of having our girl pause, go home, regroup, and lick her wounds in private in a slow, expository chapter, the pace of the novel actually begins to speed up in this section as Scarlett runs into Frank Kennedy and the whirlwind of Georgia courtship begins once again. But before I dive into Scarlett's relationship with her second husband, I think this is a good place to stop and consider Scarlett's character arc at this point in the story. Specifically, I think it's important to survey the heroine's morality at this juncture, because while I believe that we can all agree that Scarlett's marriage to Frank Kennedy is a low point for her, stealing a husband from her spinster sister may not be her major crime in this section.
Rather (and stick with me, here), I think Scarlett's true moral downfall is evident in her reaction--or rather, non-reaction--to Rhett Butler's apparent fate. Now it's true that Scarlett hates Rhett at this point in the story. After all, they pretty much had it out the last time they saw each other, and he's given her absolutely no reason to believe that he's madly in love with her. And yet--
And yet--
Doesn't it seem strange that Scarlett can be so blase about Rhett being hanged?
Yes, he's a rogue. And yes, she hates him for good reason. But they spent a lot of time together during the War. And, lest we forget, he probably saved Scarlett and Melly's lives the night Atlanta fell. Scarlett has felt sympathy for those who've died fighting for the Confederacy, but she doesn't even blink at the notion of Rhett being hanged by the Yankees. That's cold.
The first time I read GWTW I thought Frank Kennedy was just going to be another plot point, another person who could deliver information about what was happening there in Atlanta and why. Besides, he's basically married to Suellen so it's not like he's an obvious potential beau. Plus, he's so annoying, isn't he?
Everything about Frank Kennedy irritates Scarlett. She hates his laugh, his old-maidish ways, the long stories he tells, his timidity. He's awful and he has stupid whiskers and bad breath, and Scarlett only sees him as a way to make Suellen disappear.
But he's got money!
Frank has a little store and he's making a little dough, apparently, and Scarlett begins to hatch her plot. Now Scarlett obviously marries Frank because she plans on using his money to help pay the taxes on Tara, but in my opinion it's more than that, and I don't mean that she marries him just to make her sister feel bad. No, I think Scarlett is chiefly attracted to Frank Kennedy because he's a businessman. He's a terrible businessman, obviously. But he is in business, which means he is making money, and that's exactly where she wants to be. She considers asking him to loan her the money, but MM has her reject this simpler choice straight out:
"He would be embarrassed; he would stammer; he would offer excuses, but he wouldn't lend it to her."
And here's another gem on the subject of Suellen:
"What was there in that whining complaining girl to make this old fool so anxious to give her a soft nest? Suellen didn't deserve a loving husband and the profits of a store and a sawmill."
MM is at her best when she's being mean, right? Scarlett has hatred in her heart for almost everyone around her, but her chippiness could be downright scathing in the hands of the wrong author. But MM is so skilled that Scarlett's nasty opinions on Frank and Suellen come across as hilarious honesty instead of selfish cruelty. If I'd written these scenes Scarlett would have been a terrible shrew/mean bitch, but MM's words are so funny you can't help but smile.
"Certainly, he's no beauty...and he's got very bad teeth and his breath smells bad and he's old enough to be my father. Moreover, he's nervous and timid and well meaning, and I don't know of any more damning qualities a man can have."
(Does Scarlett realize that Ashley is also nervous, timid, and well meaning?)
Later on Scarlett goes to a wedding in town and is reunited with all her old friends from the war days. They're poorer, of course. But they're also capable of having fun and celebrating, but Scarlett can barely pretend to be gay because "she was hunted as a fox, running with a bursting heart, trying to reach a burrow before the hounds caught up." Consequently, Scarlett decides right then and there that "she hated them all," because they seem so content with their sad lots in life. After all, Scarlett realizes "the silly fools don't seem to realize that you can't be a lady without money."
Scarlett is wrong, of course.
But she's also right.
We know that being a lady has absolutely nothing to do with how many dresses or slaves or beaus you have, but up to this point Scarlett has absolutely no reason to unpack her understanding of the world. She's barely been able to keep body and soul together, and I think it would be unreasonable for her to philosophize about her socio-economic surroundings at a time when Tara is going for taxes and she doesn't any idea where her next dollar is going to come from. Melly was born knowing that being a southern belle has nothing to do with money, but Scarlett won't have the time and head space to become acquainted with this reality for another few years.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Chapter 34: "Jail had not changed him one bit."
Awwwwwww yeah!
Rhett's back, y'all. But because MM was an amazing novelist with a flair for building anticipation, Chapter 34 doesn't begin with Scarlett walking into Rhett's jail cell. Instead it opens with Scarlett getting dressed at Aunt Pitty's house in the morning (getting strength and courage from the "cold hard core at the bottom of her heart"), and then heading out all alone onto the mean streets of post-war Atlanta. She's dressed up in so much finery that she even earns some snarling disapproval from a passing, plainly dressed country woman who apparently thinks of Scarlett as a hussy, but even this shade cannot put a damper in her spirits. The tough physical labor back at Tara has done nothing but destroy Scarlett's soul, but the prospect of matching wits with Rhett and using her beauty to trick him into giving her the money for Tara has given her a reason to laugh and enjoy life for the first time in a long time. I would love to sit in judgment on Scarlett in this scene since you all know very well that my heart belongs to RKB, but I can't be mad. A bad economy can make a heartless criminal out of anybody, and the post-war Southern economy was one of the most trying in the history of the world.
Scarlett hesitates briefly when she approaches the jail and realizes she's going to have to go straight through a crowd of occupying, victorious Yankees if she wants to speak to Rhett, but she quickly shakes off her fear by reminding herself that "if she hadn't been afraid to kill one Yankee, she shouldn't fear merely talking to another." Scarlett did kill that Yankee in self-defense, but most characters in most novels would probably try to forget all about such a bloody crime. But not Scarlett. Instead, Scarlett draws strength time and again from that incident, and as time goes by it almost seems as though she's proud of what she did. Offhand I can only think of three major characters in GWTW who are known murderers--Scarlett, Rhett, and Archie--but each of them pays for their crime in very different ways. Isn't it amazing how even minor plot points from GWTW are potential thesis topics?
Anyhow, Scarlett walks up to the HQ and starts chatting with the Yankee soldiers and MM has a field day mocking western accents ("Have you come a fer piece?"), with western at this juncture in history meaning mid-western. Scarlett introduces herself as Rhett's sister, and the soldiers think that's hilarious since lots of Rhett's "sisters" have been visiting him there in jail. Scarlett gets huffy at their assumption, not so much because they think she's a hussy, but because the Yankee soldiers have lumped her in with the rest of "those creatures Rhett consorted with." Scarlett has accepted that she's going to be selling herself to Rhett for money, but the notion that she's no different from a common prostitute is still repulsive to her. We've all gotta draw lines somewhere, right?
Rhett eventually comes in, and the fireworks start. A lot has happened since he abandoned Scarlett on the road to Tara all those months ago, but the recent events of the novel have been rather dreary. Scarlett has worked hard on the farm and she's killed Yankees and she's welcomed Ashley back to his proper place on her imaginary love triangle, but Scarlett' life has lacked spark and mystery and the good old fashioned fun of quasi-romantic banter, so MM brings Rhett back into the story at the perfect time.
This scene goes by in a blur in the movie, but Scarlett and Rhett's conversation has so many different twists and turns that it's necessary to break it down. I think this is one of the central conversations of GWTW because it explains both the Rhett/Scarlett relationship and Rhett's mentality and philosophy on life. Melly is the moral compass of GWTW, but Rhett speaks the truth about the real world and I think that examining his words helps us to understand precisely what MM was trying to say in her novel.
Part I: Puppy Love and Lies
In the first part of Rhett and Scarlett's conversation, Rhett is totally knocked for a loop because Scarlett is actually visiting him in jail. Scarlett is totally surprised to look into his face and see "none of the skepticism, the jeering humor she knew so well." In this phase of the conversation Rhett is so delighted to see Scarlett that he "smiled down at her with the first expression of honest pleasure she had ever seen on his face." And this--this is the real Rhett, isn't it? Hes polite, he's glad to see Scarlett, and he's expressing genuine (or anyway, semi-genuine) remorse for having left her that night on the road to Tara. And how about this after she tells him she hasn't forgiven him for leaving her that night:
"Another hope crushed. And after I offered up myself for my country and fought barefoot in the snow at Franklin and got the finest case of dysentery you ever heard of for my pains!"
Awwwwwww. Poor guy. He's been through a lot, hasn't he? Of course he's got plenty of money and few responsibilities (that we know about, anyway), but it's still rather eye-opening to consider that even the mighty Rhett Butler has had a tough few years. He says he's "overcome with shame" when he considers having joined "the army in varnished boots and a white linen suit and armed with only a pair of dueling pistols," but you can tell he's kind of proud about being a veteran. Anyway, Rhett uncharacteristically wants to rehash what he was thinking on that infamous night, but Scarlett doesn't want to keep discussing it because thinking about it still makes her mad. Scarlett tries to pretend she hasn't a care in the world and that everything is going great back at Tara, but Rhett is so busy being honest and thrilled with her visit he doesn't even stop to evaluate her lies. In fact, he begins rambling in a manner that is weirdly honest and complimentary, confessing to Scarlett that even when he's away from Atlanta he "always remembered [Scarlett] and wondered what [she] was doing."
He's being as honest as he can be, but Scarlett isn't particularly interested in exploring his mind. There's a wonderful tension in GWTW because Scarlett almost always wants Rhett to stop talking while the reader (or at least this reader!) wants him to go on and on talking, forever.
Part 2: The Truth Won't Set You Free
The next section of their jail-house conversation begins when Scarlett begins asking Rhett whether or not he got away with the Confederate gold. Of course Rhett doesn't immediately realize what she's up to, but you can kind of tell that he's getting a little bit suspicious of her motives because she flat out asks him if he has the money, and he comes back with:
"What a leading question! You know as well as I do that the Confederacy ran a printing press instead of a mint."
That's a wonderfully snarky thing to say, and--is there anything Rhett Butler doesn't know? He's got everything covered from women's fashion to poker to macro-economics to philosophy to religion, and in my mind his genius separates him from almost every hero I've come across in fiction. I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Rhett Butler is a gleaming Swiss Army Knife in a world of rusty spoons, and that is why I luuuurve him.
And, come to think of it, that's probably why Scarlett hates him.
Interestingly enough, Scarlett once again one-ups Rhett by pretending that she's rushed to see him in jail because she's so concerned that he's going to be killed. Rhett takes her bait one final time, and Scarlett closes her eyes waiting for him to try to kiss her. But although she's "expecting violence" (say whaaaaa?), he surprises her by skipping the kiss and going straight for--
Actually, I have no idea what he's doing here. Scarlett opens her eyes and:
"His black head was bent over her hands and, as she watched, he lifted one and kissed it and, taking the other, laid it against his cheek for a moment....this gentle and lover-like gesture startled her. She wondered what expression was on his face but could not tell for his head was bowed."
What the hell?
It would have been quite different entirely if Scarlett had touched his face, but it seems sort of strange that he would grab her hand and pull her fingers against his face at a time like this. I suppose MM was demonstrating the true nature of Rhett's feelings for Scarlett here, since if he'd only been interested in sex he would have definitely gone straight in for a kiss. And this is...definitely not a kiss, is it? Poor Rhett has been without human connection for so long that all he wants here is to feel Scarlett's hand on his face? Poor thing.
But uh-oh. Scarlett realizes too late that he can see the blisters on her hands, and Rhett notices and all is immediately lost. "His black brows were up and his eyes gleamed..." and he "lounged back in his chair indolently, his face a smooth blank." He's wearing his poker face again, and now it's time for him to interrogate her:
"What's the answer?"
"Why did you lie to me about everything being nice at Tara?"
And finally--
"What is the real purpose of your visit?"
Oh gawd. I think Rhett is actually really made here, you guys. He's a true cynic, but Scarlett has tricked him into getting his hopes up by visiting him in jail, and he doesn't. Like. Being. Disappointed.
"But no," he snarks at her. "you had to come jingling your earbobs and pouting and frisking like a prostitute with a prospective client." Ouch! And that's a particularly jarring insult since we all know that Rhett runs a brothel and is best friends (or whatever...) with Belle Watling, and therefore should be able to tell the difference between a true prostitute and a woman willing to get down with him for a little dough, but even he pretends like there's no difference here. He almost whispers these last words, and Scarlett doesn't know what to do because "the deadly quietness of his voice frightened her," and she's actually terrified as she recognizes that "Rhett Butler was a dangerous man to run afoul of."
Now isn't that an interesting little bit of foreshadowing? We are still a long way from that famous, wild night after Ashley's party, but MM again and again plants little clues to let us know that Rhett Butler is dangerous, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. He's an Alpha male who is even more dangerous than he appears at first glance, especially when Scarlett makes him mad.
And boy oh boy has she made him mad here!
MM usually goes long on exposition and she normally surrounds all of her dialogue with explanations and descriptions, but not here. In this chapter MM's narrator almost disappears entirely and the style of the novel changes into something quick and very modern, almost like those long chains of snappy dialogue you find in 60's stage plays or 70's short stories. He's berating her and cross-examining her and knocking her off balance with nasty questions. But then, unexpectedly, Scarlett begins explaining the truth and his manner reverses again and Rhett jams his hands into his pockets and tries to remain nonchalant, but you can tell he'd like to help her. She's broken his heart, but he'd probably still give her the money--except he's in jail and his money is far away and if he tried to right her a check the Yankees would find out.
Part 3: That's that
The third and final part of their conversation takes place after Scarlett tries to attack Rhett in a murderous rage of her own, and then faints. The chat she has with Rhett after she regains consciousness is as harsh and brutal as a slap in the face, and Rhett gives her advice on how to talk to men and it's all so messy and tragic, isn't it? Rhett tells Scarlett she can come to his hanging because it will cheer her up, and then Scarlett sasses him right back by telling him that she won't even bother coming to his hanging since it probably won't happen until "it's too late to pay the taxes." Things are back to normal between the two of them (they're enemies again), and Scarlett didn't get the money, and I remember finishing this chapter and having absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. They do a marvelous job in GWTW the movie of introducing all of Scarlett's future husbands in the party scene at 12 Oaks (if you watch you'll see that they even introduce them in order), but if you'd asked me how Scarlett was going to get the money to pay the taxes on Tara another marriage would have been the absolute furthest thing from my mind. And I certainly didn't think that she would marry Frank Kennedy, but MM is such an excellent writer that she's laid all the clues right out there for you even at this part of the novel, a notion I'll explore further in my next post.
Rhett's back, y'all. But because MM was an amazing novelist with a flair for building anticipation, Chapter 34 doesn't begin with Scarlett walking into Rhett's jail cell. Instead it opens with Scarlett getting dressed at Aunt Pitty's house in the morning (getting strength and courage from the "cold hard core at the bottom of her heart"), and then heading out all alone onto the mean streets of post-war Atlanta. She's dressed up in so much finery that she even earns some snarling disapproval from a passing, plainly dressed country woman who apparently thinks of Scarlett as a hussy, but even this shade cannot put a damper in her spirits. The tough physical labor back at Tara has done nothing but destroy Scarlett's soul, but the prospect of matching wits with Rhett and using her beauty to trick him into giving her the money for Tara has given her a reason to laugh and enjoy life for the first time in a long time. I would love to sit in judgment on Scarlett in this scene since you all know very well that my heart belongs to RKB, but I can't be mad. A bad economy can make a heartless criminal out of anybody, and the post-war Southern economy was one of the most trying in the history of the world.
Scarlett hesitates briefly when she approaches the jail and realizes she's going to have to go straight through a crowd of occupying, victorious Yankees if she wants to speak to Rhett, but she quickly shakes off her fear by reminding herself that "if she hadn't been afraid to kill one Yankee, she shouldn't fear merely talking to another." Scarlett did kill that Yankee in self-defense, but most characters in most novels would probably try to forget all about such a bloody crime. But not Scarlett. Instead, Scarlett draws strength time and again from that incident, and as time goes by it almost seems as though she's proud of what she did. Offhand I can only think of three major characters in GWTW who are known murderers--Scarlett, Rhett, and Archie--but each of them pays for their crime in very different ways. Isn't it amazing how even minor plot points from GWTW are potential thesis topics?
Anyhow, Scarlett walks up to the HQ and starts chatting with the Yankee soldiers and MM has a field day mocking western accents ("Have you come a fer piece?"), with western at this juncture in history meaning mid-western. Scarlett introduces herself as Rhett's sister, and the soldiers think that's hilarious since lots of Rhett's "sisters" have been visiting him there in jail. Scarlett gets huffy at their assumption, not so much because they think she's a hussy, but because the Yankee soldiers have lumped her in with the rest of "those creatures Rhett consorted with." Scarlett has accepted that she's going to be selling herself to Rhett for money, but the notion that she's no different from a common prostitute is still repulsive to her. We've all gotta draw lines somewhere, right?
Rhett eventually comes in, and the fireworks start. A lot has happened since he abandoned Scarlett on the road to Tara all those months ago, but the recent events of the novel have been rather dreary. Scarlett has worked hard on the farm and she's killed Yankees and she's welcomed Ashley back to his proper place on her imaginary love triangle, but Scarlett' life has lacked spark and mystery and the good old fashioned fun of quasi-romantic banter, so MM brings Rhett back into the story at the perfect time.
This scene goes by in a blur in the movie, but Scarlett and Rhett's conversation has so many different twists and turns that it's necessary to break it down. I think this is one of the central conversations of GWTW because it explains both the Rhett/Scarlett relationship and Rhett's mentality and philosophy on life. Melly is the moral compass of GWTW, but Rhett speaks the truth about the real world and I think that examining his words helps us to understand precisely what MM was trying to say in her novel.
Part I: Puppy Love and Lies
In the first part of Rhett and Scarlett's conversation, Rhett is totally knocked for a loop because Scarlett is actually visiting him in jail. Scarlett is totally surprised to look into his face and see "none of the skepticism, the jeering humor she knew so well." In this phase of the conversation Rhett is so delighted to see Scarlett that he "smiled down at her with the first expression of honest pleasure she had ever seen on his face." And this--this is the real Rhett, isn't it? Hes polite, he's glad to see Scarlett, and he's expressing genuine (or anyway, semi-genuine) remorse for having left her that night on the road to Tara. And how about this after she tells him she hasn't forgiven him for leaving her that night:
"Another hope crushed. And after I offered up myself for my country and fought barefoot in the snow at Franklin and got the finest case of dysentery you ever heard of for my pains!"
Awwwwwww. Poor guy. He's been through a lot, hasn't he? Of course he's got plenty of money and few responsibilities (that we know about, anyway), but it's still rather eye-opening to consider that even the mighty Rhett Butler has had a tough few years. He says he's "overcome with shame" when he considers having joined "the army in varnished boots and a white linen suit and armed with only a pair of dueling pistols," but you can tell he's kind of proud about being a veteran. Anyway, Rhett uncharacteristically wants to rehash what he was thinking on that infamous night, but Scarlett doesn't want to keep discussing it because thinking about it still makes her mad. Scarlett tries to pretend she hasn't a care in the world and that everything is going great back at Tara, but Rhett is so busy being honest and thrilled with her visit he doesn't even stop to evaluate her lies. In fact, he begins rambling in a manner that is weirdly honest and complimentary, confessing to Scarlett that even when he's away from Atlanta he "always remembered [Scarlett] and wondered what [she] was doing."
He's being as honest as he can be, but Scarlett isn't particularly interested in exploring his mind. There's a wonderful tension in GWTW because Scarlett almost always wants Rhett to stop talking while the reader (or at least this reader!) wants him to go on and on talking, forever.
Part 2: The Truth Won't Set You Free
The next section of their jail-house conversation begins when Scarlett begins asking Rhett whether or not he got away with the Confederate gold. Of course Rhett doesn't immediately realize what she's up to, but you can kind of tell that he's getting a little bit suspicious of her motives because she flat out asks him if he has the money, and he comes back with:
"What a leading question! You know as well as I do that the Confederacy ran a printing press instead of a mint."
That's a wonderfully snarky thing to say, and--is there anything Rhett Butler doesn't know? He's got everything covered from women's fashion to poker to macro-economics to philosophy to religion, and in my mind his genius separates him from almost every hero I've come across in fiction. I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Rhett Butler is a gleaming Swiss Army Knife in a world of rusty spoons, and that is why I luuuurve him.
And, come to think of it, that's probably why Scarlett hates him.
Interestingly enough, Scarlett once again one-ups Rhett by pretending that she's rushed to see him in jail because she's so concerned that he's going to be killed. Rhett takes her bait one final time, and Scarlett closes her eyes waiting for him to try to kiss her. But although she's "expecting violence" (say whaaaaa?), he surprises her by skipping the kiss and going straight for--
Actually, I have no idea what he's doing here. Scarlett opens her eyes and:
"His black head was bent over her hands and, as she watched, he lifted one and kissed it and, taking the other, laid it against his cheek for a moment....this gentle and lover-like gesture startled her. She wondered what expression was on his face but could not tell for his head was bowed."
What the hell?
It would have been quite different entirely if Scarlett had touched his face, but it seems sort of strange that he would grab her hand and pull her fingers against his face at a time like this. I suppose MM was demonstrating the true nature of Rhett's feelings for Scarlett here, since if he'd only been interested in sex he would have definitely gone straight in for a kiss. And this is...definitely not a kiss, is it? Poor Rhett has been without human connection for so long that all he wants here is to feel Scarlett's hand on his face? Poor thing.
But uh-oh. Scarlett realizes too late that he can see the blisters on her hands, and Rhett notices and all is immediately lost. "His black brows were up and his eyes gleamed..." and he "lounged back in his chair indolently, his face a smooth blank." He's wearing his poker face again, and now it's time for him to interrogate her:
"What's the answer?"
"Why did you lie to me about everything being nice at Tara?"
And finally--
"What is the real purpose of your visit?"
Oh gawd. I think Rhett is actually really made here, you guys. He's a true cynic, but Scarlett has tricked him into getting his hopes up by visiting him in jail, and he doesn't. Like. Being. Disappointed.
"But no," he snarks at her. "you had to come jingling your earbobs and pouting and frisking like a prostitute with a prospective client." Ouch! And that's a particularly jarring insult since we all know that Rhett runs a brothel and is best friends (or whatever...) with Belle Watling, and therefore should be able to tell the difference between a true prostitute and a woman willing to get down with him for a little dough, but even he pretends like there's no difference here. He almost whispers these last words, and Scarlett doesn't know what to do because "the deadly quietness of his voice frightened her," and she's actually terrified as she recognizes that "Rhett Butler was a dangerous man to run afoul of."
Now isn't that an interesting little bit of foreshadowing? We are still a long way from that famous, wild night after Ashley's party, but MM again and again plants little clues to let us know that Rhett Butler is dangerous, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. He's an Alpha male who is even more dangerous than he appears at first glance, especially when Scarlett makes him mad.
And boy oh boy has she made him mad here!
MM usually goes long on exposition and she normally surrounds all of her dialogue with explanations and descriptions, but not here. In this chapter MM's narrator almost disappears entirely and the style of the novel changes into something quick and very modern, almost like those long chains of snappy dialogue you find in 60's stage plays or 70's short stories. He's berating her and cross-examining her and knocking her off balance with nasty questions. But then, unexpectedly, Scarlett begins explaining the truth and his manner reverses again and Rhett jams his hands into his pockets and tries to remain nonchalant, but you can tell he'd like to help her. She's broken his heart, but he'd probably still give her the money--except he's in jail and his money is far away and if he tried to right her a check the Yankees would find out.
Part 3: That's that
The third and final part of their conversation takes place after Scarlett tries to attack Rhett in a murderous rage of her own, and then faints. The chat she has with Rhett after she regains consciousness is as harsh and brutal as a slap in the face, and Rhett gives her advice on how to talk to men and it's all so messy and tragic, isn't it? Rhett tells Scarlett she can come to his hanging because it will cheer her up, and then Scarlett sasses him right back by telling him that she won't even bother coming to his hanging since it probably won't happen until "it's too late to pay the taxes." Things are back to normal between the two of them (they're enemies again), and Scarlett didn't get the money, and I remember finishing this chapter and having absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. They do a marvelous job in GWTW the movie of introducing all of Scarlett's future husbands in the party scene at 12 Oaks (if you watch you'll see that they even introduce them in order), but if you'd asked me how Scarlett was going to get the money to pay the taxes on Tara another marriage would have been the absolute furthest thing from my mind. And I certainly didn't think that she would marry Frank Kennedy, but MM is such an excellent writer that she's laid all the clues right out there for you even at this part of the novel, a notion I'll explore further in my next post.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Happy 2014!/Chapter 33: "They think God is going to work a miracle especially for their benefit..."
Happy New Year everybody!
Unfortunately for me, most of December 2013 was spent nursing an unfortunate bout of what I assumed was something like carpel-tunnel syndrome in the middle fingers of my left hand. My fingers were swollen and weirdly numb for a few weeks, but everything seems to be back to normal now. I'm hungover (too much Prosecco and celebrating!) and battling a nasty sinus infection, but writers write, so I thought it would be a good idea to start the new year off with a new GWTW post about chapter 33.
However, before I begin Chapter 33 I think it's essential that I say a few words about Ashley Wilkes.
I don't really talk about Ashley all that much, do I? He's been away from home with General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the book, and the few references I've made to Melly's husband have been pretty mean. He pales in comparison to Rhett, of course, but he's not actually a villain, is he?
Probably not. Ashley is an honorable gentleman living during a dis-honorable era, he's nice and as helpful as he can be (which isn't saying much, but not all of us are cut out for physical labor), and he does and says precisely what's expected of him at all times. And yet--
And yet--
When I initially read GWTW I had no reason to be critical of Ashley. MM presents him as a gleaming, oh-so-polite, oh-so-untouchable Beta male. He's super serious and seems to have a tough time giving Scarlet a straight answer on her he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not fantasies, but that's Scarlett's problem, not his.
And yet--
When I was a teenager, I thought every guy you encountered was a potential mate. And because I'd filled my head with the characters of GWTW and Pride and Prejudice and every single one of the Harlequin check-out-counter romance novels I could get my hands on, I thought men and women approached love and romance in precisely the same manner. Every girl I'd known in high school and junior high school and all the way back to kindergarten had nursed a secret (or sometimes not so secret, if she were very lucky) crush on a boy in our social circle. And after we'd finally gotten over our 9-year-old devotion to Joey McIntyre or Bobby Brown or Donny Osmond or Justin Beiber, we spent much of our free time daydreaming about that cute guy in history class or the boy with the cheekbones who's locker was on the other side of the hallway or whatever. And everything I'd read on the subject indicated that boys were just as obsessed with relationships as we were.
Well, I was wrong. Duh.
Because boys don't obsess about relationships in that way. They may or may not be sex obsessed or have the hots for a particular girl, but boys don't regularly spend time dreaming of weddings and everlasting devotion, etc. Of course this is an over-generalization, but in my experience guys are simply not wired that way. The male of our species is straightforward and goal-oriented, and if a man likes you he'll let you know immediately.
If I'd known that earlier in my life, I could have saved myself a great deal of trouble. Men generally don't play the kinds of games we think/hope/wish/pray that they're playing. If they like you, they'll let you know. They might be suave about letting you know, they might be brutal, they might buy you a gift for your birthday or send you flowers, or they might simply let you know by grabbing you and kissing you, but that's the bottom line: if a man likes you he'll let you know immediately.
Even if he's married.
So now....even though Ashley is married he knows Scarlett is obsessed with him. Therefore, I think it's his duty to tell her frankly that her devotion is misplaced. But instead he plays the coward and refuses to tell her straight to her face. That doesn't make him a terrible person, but he's not helping. At all.
Anyway, enough about the Woolen-Headed Mr. Wilkes (for now). I can't pick on him too much anyway, given that his reticence sets the next section of the plot in motion.
Alright, so on to chapter 33.
Scarlett returns to Atlanta by train at the beginning of chapter 33, but this visit to the capitol city is the opposite of everything MM gave us the first time our heroine visited the town. In her first foray to Aunt Pitty's house as Charles' widow she was greeted by Uncle Peter and she rode through the best neighborhood of Atlanta waving to her buddies. But now all the people she knew in the beginning of the story are either dead, gone, or too busy and poor to shout hello to her. As a matter of fact MM drives this point home by directly comparing "how crowded this space [the area around the depot] had been with wagons and carriages and ambulances and how noisy with drivers swearing and yelling ad people calling greetings to friends." GWTW is the story of the sweeping change that occurred during and after the civil war, and I think MM does her best work when she uses silences and emptiness to convey the feeling of change and the notion that something is missing. Scarlett wasn't particularly happy back in the 1862 and during the early days of the war (she hated being a wife and a widow and she missed Ashley too much), but the old world was filled with a polite bustle and a hum of energy that has completely disappeared now. And of course, the silence of the New World Order becomes even more dominant in the last third of the novel, after Scarlett and Rhett marry and move into the big mansion she designs. There's a lot wrong in their oh-so-fashionable house, but my overall impression of the place is that it was big, empty, boring, quiet, and sad.
So Scarlett and Mammy walk to Aunt Pitty's house, and MM has them pass landmarks we remember from the earlier part of the novel, including the Atlanta Hotel ("where Rhett and Uncle Henry had lived..."), Five Points/Peachtree Street ("denuded of landmarks"), and a bunch of "vacant lots". There are three story buildings in town now (wow!), and the sidewalks are crazy crowded (especially because of all the trashy people and Yankee uniforms), but Scarlett till feels all alone, and I think MM does a nice job of making sure the reader shares her alienation.
And hey--Belle Watling is in this chapter, too!
Hail hail, the gang's all here!
Belle's got a carriage and bright red hair and a "fine fur hat," two description of which put me in mind of Lucy Ricardo after a shopping binge. The two women don't speak, of course, but Mammy doesn't like the looks of Belle because she can quickly see that she is a "professional bad woman," and isn't it hilarious how MM plays up prostitution for laughs throughout GWTW? GWTW is conservative in many places (*ahem*), but wonderfully progressive on a variety of issues. MM could have easily gotten up on her moral high horse about Belle, but she does the opposite right here in chapter 33:
"[Scarlett] wanted to feel superior and virtuous about Belle but she could not. If her plans went well, she might be on the same footing with Belle and supported by the same man."
Ooooooh boy! I've read a half-dozen contemporary novels over the past few months, and none of them has said a word about prostitution. But if they had addressed the topic, I'm almost certain the authors would have lapsed into finger-wagging, etc. But MM is too much of a realist and too well-versed in the nature of the world to waste our time with morality, so she actually decides to align the destiny of her heroine with the life of the town fancy woman. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, Scarlett eventually makes it to Aunt Pitty's house, and--it's nice to see her, isn't it? A lot of strong characters died during and immediately after The War, but Aunt Pitty is apparently more of a survivor than we are led to assume during the first third of the novel. Hmmph. Pitty gives Scarlett a gossipy rundown of the neighbors (the Merriweather's are selling pies to Yankees, the Meades and Elsings and Whitings are living together to save money), and by-the-way, "did I tell you that Captain Butler was in jail?"
If you've only seen GWTW the movie, you get the impression that Rhett is in jail because of something to do with taxes or maybe the war or a trumped up charge having to do with blockading. But in reality Rhett was formally arrested for killing a negro. Which--did Rhett really kill a black guy? At this point in the novel we've yet to see our boy in anything close to a murderous rage (that...comes...later), and I obviously don't relish the notion of my Rhett killing a black man for having the unmitigated temerity to "insult a white woman." But politics aside, everything about this is tantalizing, isn't it? Rhett has been nothing but suave in Scarlett's presence (even when he tried to kiss her on the road to Tara), so it's almost jarring to think that that same playful/funny/silly guy we think we know so well is also a cold-blooded killer. We've heard about his past gun-play of course, but it's easy to chalk all of that up to youth and self-defense. But he's no longer young and scared and it seems unlikely that the big, strapping, armed-to-the-teeth blockader we know and love was bested in a fight, so--what really happened? The way I see it, there are three main possibilities:
1.) None of this is true. The Yankees have suspended habeas corpus and they arrested Rhett because he's got the money, because he's an Old Unreconstructed Rebel, and because he's a snarky bastard who probably told off one-too-many Yankee officers.
2.) Some of this is true. Maybe this whole thing is another one of those wild rumors that seem to surround Rhett like smoke from his beloved cigars, but in GWTW there's usually a kernel of truth in every rumor Scarlett hears. After all, Melly and Ashley's marriage was initially nothing more than a gossipy rumor from the Tarleton twins and that turned out to be God's honest truth, so maybe there's a morsel of fact inside this wild story. Maybe Rhett did kill the black guy, but maybe the circumstances weren't the way Pitty says they were. I didn't love everything about David McCaig's book, but I did enjoy the spin he put on this particular issue. You should check it out if you haven't read it, if only for this little tidbit.
3.) It's totally true. You guys, what if this is all totally true?
Well, let's avoid those unpleasant thoughts for a moment. In any case, MM keeps ramping up the incredible amount of information pouring out of Pitty's mouth about Rhett's situation. Rhett isn't just in Atlanta--he's in jail in Atlanta. And he's not just a wealthy former blockader--he's made off with millions of Confederate gold. And he's not just a rogue--he's a murderer. Scarlett's conversation with Aunt Pitty has more twists and turns than last night's Johnny Football Bowl Game (S-E-C!), and instead of simply being a rehash of information we already know, MM changes the game by giving us a bunch of data we simply didn't expect. I've read this book a thousand times, and even know this Chapter makes me tingle with suspense. If Rhett's fortunes (and personality?) have changed so much since we saw him last, what's it going to be like when Scarlett visits him in jail?
Oh drama!
Unfortunately for me, most of December 2013 was spent nursing an unfortunate bout of what I assumed was something like carpel-tunnel syndrome in the middle fingers of my left hand. My fingers were swollen and weirdly numb for a few weeks, but everything seems to be back to normal now. I'm hungover (too much Prosecco and celebrating!) and battling a nasty sinus infection, but writers write, so I thought it would be a good idea to start the new year off with a new GWTW post about chapter 33.
However, before I begin Chapter 33 I think it's essential that I say a few words about Ashley Wilkes.
I don't really talk about Ashley all that much, do I? He's been away from home with General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the book, and the few references I've made to Melly's husband have been pretty mean. He pales in comparison to Rhett, of course, but he's not actually a villain, is he?
Probably not. Ashley is an honorable gentleman living during a dis-honorable era, he's nice and as helpful as he can be (which isn't saying much, but not all of us are cut out for physical labor), and he does and says precisely what's expected of him at all times. And yet--
And yet--
When I initially read GWTW I had no reason to be critical of Ashley. MM presents him as a gleaming, oh-so-polite, oh-so-untouchable Beta male. He's super serious and seems to have a tough time giving Scarlet a straight answer on her he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not fantasies, but that's Scarlett's problem, not his.
And yet--
When I was a teenager, I thought every guy you encountered was a potential mate. And because I'd filled my head with the characters of GWTW and Pride and Prejudice and every single one of the Harlequin check-out-counter romance novels I could get my hands on, I thought men and women approached love and romance in precisely the same manner. Every girl I'd known in high school and junior high school and all the way back to kindergarten had nursed a secret (or sometimes not so secret, if she were very lucky) crush on a boy in our social circle. And after we'd finally gotten over our 9-year-old devotion to Joey McIntyre or Bobby Brown or Donny Osmond or Justin Beiber, we spent much of our free time daydreaming about that cute guy in history class or the boy with the cheekbones who's locker was on the other side of the hallway or whatever. And everything I'd read on the subject indicated that boys were just as obsessed with relationships as we were.
Well, I was wrong. Duh.
Because boys don't obsess about relationships in that way. They may or may not be sex obsessed or have the hots for a particular girl, but boys don't regularly spend time dreaming of weddings and everlasting devotion, etc. Of course this is an over-generalization, but in my experience guys are simply not wired that way. The male of our species is straightforward and goal-oriented, and if a man likes you he'll let you know immediately.
If I'd known that earlier in my life, I could have saved myself a great deal of trouble. Men generally don't play the kinds of games we think/hope/wish/pray that they're playing. If they like you, they'll let you know. They might be suave about letting you know, they might be brutal, they might buy you a gift for your birthday or send you flowers, or they might simply let you know by grabbing you and kissing you, but that's the bottom line: if a man likes you he'll let you know immediately.
Even if he's married.
So now....even though Ashley is married he knows Scarlett is obsessed with him. Therefore, I think it's his duty to tell her frankly that her devotion is misplaced. But instead he plays the coward and refuses to tell her straight to her face. That doesn't make him a terrible person, but he's not helping. At all.
Anyway, enough about the Woolen-Headed Mr. Wilkes (for now). I can't pick on him too much anyway, given that his reticence sets the next section of the plot in motion.
Alright, so on to chapter 33.
Scarlett returns to Atlanta by train at the beginning of chapter 33, but this visit to the capitol city is the opposite of everything MM gave us the first time our heroine visited the town. In her first foray to Aunt Pitty's house as Charles' widow she was greeted by Uncle Peter and she rode through the best neighborhood of Atlanta waving to her buddies. But now all the people she knew in the beginning of the story are either dead, gone, or too busy and poor to shout hello to her. As a matter of fact MM drives this point home by directly comparing "how crowded this space [the area around the depot] had been with wagons and carriages and ambulances and how noisy with drivers swearing and yelling ad people calling greetings to friends." GWTW is the story of the sweeping change that occurred during and after the civil war, and I think MM does her best work when she uses silences and emptiness to convey the feeling of change and the notion that something is missing. Scarlett wasn't particularly happy back in the 1862 and during the early days of the war (she hated being a wife and a widow and she missed Ashley too much), but the old world was filled with a polite bustle and a hum of energy that has completely disappeared now. And of course, the silence of the New World Order becomes even more dominant in the last third of the novel, after Scarlett and Rhett marry and move into the big mansion she designs. There's a lot wrong in their oh-so-fashionable house, but my overall impression of the place is that it was big, empty, boring, quiet, and sad.
So Scarlett and Mammy walk to Aunt Pitty's house, and MM has them pass landmarks we remember from the earlier part of the novel, including the Atlanta Hotel ("where Rhett and Uncle Henry had lived..."), Five Points/Peachtree Street ("denuded of landmarks"), and a bunch of "vacant lots". There are three story buildings in town now (wow!), and the sidewalks are crazy crowded (especially because of all the trashy people and Yankee uniforms), but Scarlett till feels all alone, and I think MM does a nice job of making sure the reader shares her alienation.
And hey--Belle Watling is in this chapter, too!
Hail hail, the gang's all here!
Belle's got a carriage and bright red hair and a "fine fur hat," two description of which put me in mind of Lucy Ricardo after a shopping binge. The two women don't speak, of course, but Mammy doesn't like the looks of Belle because she can quickly see that she is a "professional bad woman," and isn't it hilarious how MM plays up prostitution for laughs throughout GWTW? GWTW is conservative in many places (*ahem*), but wonderfully progressive on a variety of issues. MM could have easily gotten up on her moral high horse about Belle, but she does the opposite right here in chapter 33:
"[Scarlett] wanted to feel superior and virtuous about Belle but she could not. If her plans went well, she might be on the same footing with Belle and supported by the same man."
Ooooooh boy! I've read a half-dozen contemporary novels over the past few months, and none of them has said a word about prostitution. But if they had addressed the topic, I'm almost certain the authors would have lapsed into finger-wagging, etc. But MM is too much of a realist and too well-versed in the nature of the world to waste our time with morality, so she actually decides to align the destiny of her heroine with the life of the town fancy woman. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, Scarlett eventually makes it to Aunt Pitty's house, and--it's nice to see her, isn't it? A lot of strong characters died during and immediately after The War, but Aunt Pitty is apparently more of a survivor than we are led to assume during the first third of the novel. Hmmph. Pitty gives Scarlett a gossipy rundown of the neighbors (the Merriweather's are selling pies to Yankees, the Meades and Elsings and Whitings are living together to save money), and by-the-way, "did I tell you that Captain Butler was in jail?"
If you've only seen GWTW the movie, you get the impression that Rhett is in jail because of something to do with taxes or maybe the war or a trumped up charge having to do with blockading. But in reality Rhett was formally arrested for killing a negro. Which--did Rhett really kill a black guy? At this point in the novel we've yet to see our boy in anything close to a murderous rage (that...comes...later), and I obviously don't relish the notion of my Rhett killing a black man for having the unmitigated temerity to "insult a white woman." But politics aside, everything about this is tantalizing, isn't it? Rhett has been nothing but suave in Scarlett's presence (even when he tried to kiss her on the road to Tara), so it's almost jarring to think that that same playful/funny/silly guy we think we know so well is also a cold-blooded killer. We've heard about his past gun-play of course, but it's easy to chalk all of that up to youth and self-defense. But he's no longer young and scared and it seems unlikely that the big, strapping, armed-to-the-teeth blockader we know and love was bested in a fight, so--what really happened? The way I see it, there are three main possibilities:
1.) None of this is true. The Yankees have suspended habeas corpus and they arrested Rhett because he's got the money, because he's an Old Unreconstructed Rebel, and because he's a snarky bastard who probably told off one-too-many Yankee officers.
2.) Some of this is true. Maybe this whole thing is another one of those wild rumors that seem to surround Rhett like smoke from his beloved cigars, but in GWTW there's usually a kernel of truth in every rumor Scarlett hears. After all, Melly and Ashley's marriage was initially nothing more than a gossipy rumor from the Tarleton twins and that turned out to be God's honest truth, so maybe there's a morsel of fact inside this wild story. Maybe Rhett did kill the black guy, but maybe the circumstances weren't the way Pitty says they were. I didn't love everything about David McCaig's book, but I did enjoy the spin he put on this particular issue. You should check it out if you haven't read it, if only for this little tidbit.
3.) It's totally true. You guys, what if this is all totally true?
Well, let's avoid those unpleasant thoughts for a moment. In any case, MM keeps ramping up the incredible amount of information pouring out of Pitty's mouth about Rhett's situation. Rhett isn't just in Atlanta--he's in jail in Atlanta. And he's not just a wealthy former blockader--he's made off with millions of Confederate gold. And he's not just a rogue--he's a murderer. Scarlett's conversation with Aunt Pitty has more twists and turns than last night's Johnny Football Bowl Game (S-E-C!), and instead of simply being a rehash of information we already know, MM changes the game by giving us a bunch of data we simply didn't expect. I've read this book a thousand times, and even know this Chapter makes me tingle with suspense. If Rhett's fortunes (and personality?) have changed so much since we saw him last, what's it going to be like when Scarlett visits him in jail?
Oh drama!
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