10 Crazy Questions(and 10 crazier answers!) about Chapter 61
1.) Why is Scarlett in Marietta at the beginning of this chapter?
So by my latest count, I've read GWTW 100 times over the past nineteen years. And I swear to you that I never once noticed that the final scenes of GWTW begin with Scarlett returning to Atlanta from Marietta. I knew she returned to the city by train after she received the telegram from Rhett about Melly's illness, and I remembered very well that she'd gotten on the train "
carrying no baggage except her reticule and leaving Wade and Ella at the hotel with Prissy," but I think my cognitive wires must have crossed up every single time I read this chapter. Because I could have sworn that Scarlett had been visiting Tara and was therefore symbolically reversing her famous journey from the heart of Atlanta home to Tara during Sherman's invasion.
But no.
No, she's returning from Marietta, a tiny little town that is on the other side of Atlanta from Tara.
And so MM is doing two things with this apparent throwaway statement, isn't she?
When we left Scarlett in chapter 60 she seemed as though she needed to blow town for a while; she seemed like she needed a vacation away from the dark and depressing atmosphere of Atlanta and Rhett's beautifully pathetic deterioration; she seemed, frankly, like she needed some head space and a chance to get her own thoughts together. She's spent the past twelve years obsessed with Ashley and/or making money, but now she's been cut to the quick by Bonnie's death and Rhett's nadir and that's enough to make anybody want to get out of town for a while. I think MM is doing a marvelous job of
showing Scarlett's exasperation and confusion without actually
telling us what our girl is thinking and feeling because, well, Scarlett must be in terrible shape if she's so anxious to get out of Atlanta that she ran away to Marietta. I'm willing to bet that Scarlett originally escaped somewhere else in MM's first version of the book--perhaps to Charleston or Savannah or someplace like that. When Rhett gets away from Atlanta he
really gets away and travels to New Orleans or New York or Paris or London, but Scarlett lacks imagination and curiosity so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that her vision only extends to a town that is basically within shouting distance of her mansion on Peachtree.
But more than all of that awesome characterization, MM is also giving us a nice little call-back to the Battle of Atlanta. Because you know who else came in from Marietta?
SHERMAN.
And nobody else.
There are only 14 other mentions of "Marietta" in the pages of GWTW, and all the rest of them are either direct references to Sherman's army marching out of the Mountains and down through Marietta on their way to capture Atlanta OR references to Marietta road in Atlanta on the night when Atlanta fell. I assumed I'd forgotten some other reference to Marietta--like, perhaps Suellen or Careen had moved there? Or maybe Scarlett had some sort of business to transact in the city, but--no. The last time MM wrote about Marietta, it was all about Sherman and his path of fire and death and destruction, and maybe--
Except, no, not really, right?
Sherman destroyed everyone in his path, but Scarlett is not a destroyer at the end of GWTW, is she? She has been blazing a trail of trouble and kicking ass and killing mfers for twelve years (just like Sherman but with arguably better style!), but she's no longer the major actor in the story. She's still the main character, but now her role has reversed. Scarlett is no longer making things happen to other people--now she's the one who will be acted upon. Which means....okay. Well, if we resort to a simple, basic reading of all of this, perhaps MM was making a commentary about the cardinal directions and the sectional split? Sherman was bad and negative because he came from the North--but now the tables have turned. And now even Scarlett has industrialized so much and changed so much that she's entering Atlanta from the north, coming to town for one final showdown that will be just as devastating as Sherman's March.
2.) How does Rhett know Melly is dying?
Rhett sends Scarlett a six letter telegram that says:
"Mrs. Wilkes ill. Come home immediately."
Who told him? GWTW is a comedy of errors at times, stuffier and more ridiculous than anything in
Downtown Abbey, and I therefore cannot imagine how Rhett found out that Melly is dying from her miscarriage in this final portion of the book. There are three possibly explanations the way I see it, and I'm going to work through them all because I'm that kind of a gal.
A.)
Somebody we know told him. Yes, but who? Not Ashley, obviously. Not Melly either, although that's more likely than Ashley. Pitty and India are afraid of Rhett, so it wasn't them. Perhaps it was Uncle Peter or another servant? Or maybe it was Dr. Meade or one of the other men from the Old Guard who sorta kinda like Rhett and also feel indebted to them because he saved their lives?
B.)
A public scene. Perhaps Melly collapsed while walking one day and Rhett happened upon the scene? This seems unlikely and a little too on-the-nose--until you remember that's exactly what happened after the battle of Gettysburg all those years/pages ago. Remember when Melly was pregnant with Beau but still wore herself out walking around downtown looking for word of Ashley? You do remember that? Well then, you'll remember that whole fiasco ended with Rhett rescuing her from a fainting spell and helping her home. Everything is coming full circle now, so there's no reason to believe that this wasn't exactly what happened.
C.)
Rhett's intuition. I love you Rhett, but I doubt your spidey sense told you Melly was dying. Perhaps he could sense that Melly was pregnant. I'll give you that. But I doubt he could have known she was dying without talking to any of the principals. He's smart and amazing and he knows everything, but come on.
My money is on Dr. Meade telling him. He's the only person who would actually know Melly's dire prognosis
and be in close enough proximity for Melly to ask him to ask Rhett to summon Scarlett back to Atlanta. Perhaps Ashley might have sent a messenger over to the Butler place to tell them the situation, but Ashley is so distraught in this chapter I doubt he could have pulled himself together enough even for that kind of communication. So that leave Dr. Meade. Yeah. Let's go with that for now.
3.) How do you die from a miscarriage anyway?
Melly is two months pregnant according to Rhett (!), so how does one die from a miscarriage? Miscarriages nowadays are depressing and horrible, but they're rarely fatal to the mother. Even Scarlett seems perplexed that Melly is dying from a miscarriage and Scarlett has had the same malady within the last year or so. So what gives?
Annnnnnd...you know what? My sister is 9 months and 3 weeks pregnant right now with her first child, and I'm therefore not in any position to do any research about miscarriage right now. If you're curious about what happened to Melly,
Google "Septic Miscarriage." Ugh.
(A three month pause and a quick edit to add: my sister did have her child, but not without complications on top of complications on top of 26 hours of labor and one of those dealies where they have to suck the baby out. Anyway, my niece made it into the world in decent health, but I'm still not prepared to write anything about this entire experience. Let's just say that the past three months have aged me about 100 years, and that you don't know the meaning of fear and pain until somebody you love is diagnosed with something horrible, and that all of this gave me a whole new perspective on Rhett's pain at the end of GWTW. That's for damn sure.)
4.) Should Melly have gotten pregnant in the first place?
No, right? We covered this before, but I think it needs to be said again. Melly shouldn't be pregnant again. She had a tough time before, and Doctor Meade already told her not to do this again. Gimme a break, Ashley. I know Melly wanted more kids and all that, but you've got to have some spine son. Just say no, dawg.
5.) Why does Rhett pick Scarlett up from the depot?
They didn't part on good terms, y'all. And given the fact that he's planning on leaving her for good during that afternoon, it seems strange that he would bother meeting her himself. It's not entirely out of character given...I mean, we just don't know who he is anymore, that's true. But we know who he was. And we know that he's always around to give Scarlett a helping hand or a ride whenever she needs one, even if they're pissed at each other. Still, he could have sent the coach without going along for the ride. Particularly since he's not going to go into the Wilkes' house to say goodbye to Melly. This is one of those rare times when Rhett gives us exposition for no reason, isn't it? I can't think of another time when he's just shown up on the scene strictly to deliver information. Although I guess he wanted to go there himself to make sure Scarlett understood how seriously ill Melly was, to make sure she hurried to Melly's house?
6.) Can MM's call-backs get any better?
Scarlett's mind races as she enters Melly's bedroom, but her thoughts aren't metaphors to anything outside the novel. Instead, her mind flips to these wonderful comparisons to things that exist entirely inside GWTW: Melly's room is compared to Scarlett's room in the Butler mansion, Melly's pinched face reminds Scarlett of the "pinched look" she'd seen on so many faces in the hospital during the war. And...Scarlett's time as a nurse at the hospital was so long ago, you guys! Oh my God! She's old, I'm old, we're old, and the Civil War is fading away fast, isn't it? The war was the central event in this story, but it's almost been forgotten completely by this point. Or, no, not forgotten exactly. But sort of rolled up and placed into the background, kind of the way we all feel about 9/11. I was in New York on 9/11 and I can still smell the burning and feel the terror if I close my eyes and try to remember. But the memory isn't fresh anymore. It doesn't hurt the way it used to. It's just something that happened to me a long, long time ago when I was younger and the world seemed like a big place and life seemed like an adventure and....you know what? Just go listen to
John Hartford's Lorena and join me as I cry my heart out for years gone by and people who have passed and...to quote the late Van Johnson, was I ever that young? Were
we ever that young?
Were Scarlett and Melly and Rhett and Ashley ever that young and sparkly and funny and relatively carefree? There was a time in this novel when there was a 90/10 split between laughter and tragedy, but now...what? Where are we? Where are they? Where did it all go wrong? And why?
7.) What does Melly mean when she asks Scarlett to look after Ashley?
Why is he such a doofus? Do ya'll realize that Ashley is so alarmingly stupid that his dying wife has no choice but to ask her best friend to protect him in the coming years? Do y'all realize that Ashley is such a pathetic figure that his wife's final conversation on this earth fails the Bechdel test? Ugh. And as a follow up:
8.) Does Melly realize that Scarlett can't both look after Ashley and be kind to Rhett?
Those are contradictions, girlfriend! The only way for Scarlett to "look after" Ashley is to basically be all up in his business like she has been for most of the book, since he's such a bumblefuck that he'll ruin everything if she doesn't qc his every move. And Rhett is so jealous of Ashley and so fed-up by this point that he'll probably turn suicidal if he hears Scarlett say one more word about Mr. Wilkes. Melly, I know you're dying and everything, but you can't have it both ways.
Or can she?
Because maybe, by telling Scarlett to "be kind" to Rhett, Melly is really telling Scarlett to be kind to herself? It's like...Rhett is good for her. Or anyway, the Rhett that Melly knows is good for Scarlett.
The Rhett we know was good for her, but we don't know where the hell his head is at these days. I'll be honest with y'all: by the time I read this chapter for the first time I was fed up with Scarlett and Rhett as a couple. I wanted them to move to opposite ends of the earth like Ike and Tina after the divorce. Which leads me to my next question:
9.) Has Scarlett been cruel to Rhett?
I don't even know what to think anymore. I don't even know how to feel about any of this shit (pardon my French). It's...she hasn't been the nicest wife, but she has rarely been outright brutal to him. She was extraordinarily bogus to him right after Bonnie died, but I don't hold that against Scarlett. Not really. She couldn't have been any different, really.
10.) Does Ashley love Melly?
Absolutely.
But why is it such a surprise to hear him answer Scarlett's question after all these years? We know exactly how the novel ends and we've understood the Wilkes relationship far better than Scarlett has all these pages, but his admission still stings a bit, doesn't it? Like, how dare he love his wife?
Melly is wonderful. She's a great woman, a peace maker, a fighter, an unreconstructed rebel, a good friend, an excellent mother, and the glue that's been holding Atlanta's society together for ages. And yet...she is not Scarlett.
And so, even after all this time, it's very, very difficult for us to conceive of the idea that Ashley loves Melly and not Scarlett. And, sadly, I think Ashley is surprised by his words, too. American men aren't supposed to be confused and they're never supposed to be fickle, but can it be that Ashley is just now realizing that he's loved Melly all along? Is he so disconnected from his own feelings that he has been denying his love for his own wife?
What in the hell is wrong with the people in this novel?
