Let's go back to high school tonight, shall we?
According to Merriam-Webster online, the denouement is the "final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work," with the classic example included in the online definition being from Romeo and Juliet ("In the play's denouement, the two lovers kill themselves.."). I've tried over the years to put my hands on precisely what I think the true denouement is in GWTW, but each and every effort has heretofore come up empty and deeply unsatisfying. Mostly because I've never been able to decide on which of Scarlett's dramatic complications is the actual main complication.
I love Casablanca almost as much as I love GWTW, but for all the mysteries and chaos and action that occurs during Casablanca even a first-time viewer of the movie has no trouble correctly identifying the airport scene (i.e. "here's looking at you kid") as the denouement.
Same with Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, The Lion in Winter, Forrest Gump, and any given episode of The Young and the Restless. Every reasonably well-edited reality show has a readily discernible plot, and even a teenager could probably correctly locate the moment when the momentum of the narrative shifts and the end result becomes inevitable. But GWTW is not only about one thing. The movie focuses on the Scarlett/Rhett relationship and their sticky, mutually destructive marriage is the main complication in Scarlett's life, but I don't think this depiction is accurate for MM's book. GWTW isn't like Romeo and Juliet. It isn't about one big thing, and it certainly isn't only about the Scarlett/Rhett love story. Instead it's about several major things. And, more to the point, it's about Scarlett's relationships with the other three main characters. As we saw in Chapter 51, every aspect of Scarlett's life is connected to every other thing that happens in a manner that is more cosmic and less practical than even MM would probably care to admit. The Butlers and the Wilkes' are bound together because they all live in Atlanta and have known each other for a very long time and Ashley works at the mills and all of that, but they're also connected on a different plane (although I'm not sure if it's higher or lower, to tell you the truth). So for all that Ashley has tried to keep his distance from Scarlett, the mere mention of his hatred of Rhett is enough to send Scarlett off into a vow of celibacy, which is enough to make Rhett go ape with insecurity, which is enough to cause him to try to forget all about Scarlett and focus all his attention on Bonnie which....
Anyway, we'll get to all of that soon enough. But for now, let's just focus on the way MM set the scene that opens Chapter 52, the scene that I would argue could very well be the true denouement of GWTW. MM usually doesn't spend too much time setting down the details of her scenes, and she definitely doesn't linger on descriptions, but in my mind's eye there's something almost charmingly Valazquez-esque about the way she's placed the Butler clan around the sitting room on this rainy afternoon.
Wade: lonely, moping, bored, picking up books (instruments of learning that are misplaced here, since this scene does not take place in a library) and letting them bang to the ground. Poor lil Wade, ya'll.
Ella: busy in the corner with her dolls. So while Wade is bored, Ella is boring. Does Ella have a speaking anywhere in GWTW? I don't think she does. Even Beau gets a few lines, doesn't he?
Scarlett: sitting at her secretary adding up a long column of figures.
Rhett: lying on the floor(!), swinging his watch by it chain (!), just out of Bonnie's reach (!).
And that's....okay, so I know a lot of people don't think GWTW is a great work of literature, but isn't that a wonderfully subtle piece of foreshadowing? Bonnie Butler will be blessed with every gift except length of years and, of course, a watch is the universal symbol of time in Western art, and isn't it so poignant that this is Rhett's watch and it is being swung by Rhett himself?And over the course of the novel we have seen Rhett say and do a million different things in a million different places, but this is the first time we've heard of him lying down. Scarlett and Rhett are married, but in the few scenes MM has given us that take place inside the Butler bedroom Rhett is never sleeping or lying down. But here he's prone, which is also foreshadowing since he'll eventually be knocked down/laid low by Bonnie's death. Everything we need to know about the end of GWTW is here in this room, and everything that happens throughout the rest of the book simply confirms what we already know about Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, and Melly, doesn't it?
Lovely.
Anyway, moving on quickly, isn't it fun how Wade, Rhett and Scarlett have such very definitions of bravery/courage in this scene? Wade Hampton is a product of post-Civil War Atlanta and he lost his father in the War. Therefore, in his opinion true courage means being severely wounded in battle while fighting against the feds for the CSA. All the bravest men are dead on the alter of their country ("dulce et decorum est..." after all), but I guess Wade thinks that the only heroes are those who actually died while fighting against the Yankees. By contrast, Scarlett is a tough woman who was forged through the fiery crucible of the Reconstruction South, so she has very little patience for Wade's definition of bravery. She always did think Charles Hamilton was a fool, and the reader knows that Wade wasn't anybody's definition of a brave soldier, plus Scarlett instinctively seems to believe that only survivors like Scarlett are truly courageous. After all, everybody can die and will die, but not everybody has the gumption to live.
And as for Rhett....
Well, true to form, Rhett doesn't tip his hand and give us his definition of bravery. Instead he gets in a dig at Scarlett ("He married your mother, didn't he? Well, that's proof enough of heroism."), and then turns his attention elsewhere. I'd argue that Rhett Butler has more physical courage than anybody else in GWTW (except maybe the young Gerald), but he also seems to understand that a willingness to fight isn't really worth much. He doesn't spend much time debating heroism because he's too mature and complex to give much thought to boyish fantasies about courage and fighting. Duels and fighting and gun play and all that other stuff has been a part of his life for so long that you get the sense that he's almost annoyed to think about it.
Anyway, Rhett decides then and there that he's going to start using all his charm and smarm to get back in the good graces of Southern Society. Rhett Butler is a reliable character that we can count on to make the right choices for the right reasons most of the time, so even though I'm pro-Yankee and anti-Confederate and a Northerner and living in Chicago in the 21st century, Rhett's desire to have his children included in Southern Society carries a lot of weight with me. After all, unlike Scarlett and Melly and the rest of our gang, Rhett has spent a lot of time in a lot of different places around the world. He's spent time in California, New York, Paris, and London, and he still seems to believe deep down that Southern Society is the best. Or anyway, he seems to truly believe that Southern Society is the best fit for his family, and who am I to argue with such logic? Besides, Rhett is what the kids today call a boss. He's a guy who understands the world and his place in it, and he always seems to know just what to do to come out ahead, and I think it's incredibly pleasurable to watch him try to concoct a plan to shoehorn Bonnie, Wade, and Ella back into genteel Atlanta's good graces.
Up next....Ashley's birthday party. Laissez le bon temps rouler?
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