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.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
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!
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Chapter 32: "Nothing but this red land."
I'm sort of a PBS nerd, so I've spent the last few weeks slowly making my way through the Hollow Crown BBC Shakespeare series. I've never been much on Shakespeare, but I think my general lack of enthusiasm for The Bard has more to do with the plays they forced us to read in junior high and high school than on Shakespeare's own scribbles. My English teachers forced us to read Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Macbeth, and in my opinion the jokes and romance in those stories are so antiquated they read more like "jokes" and "romance," and are so forgettable and old-fashioned that you almost regret having read them at all.
But the Hollow Crown features four of Shakespeare's best history plays: Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V. The producers and directors of these new versions of the plays had sizable budgets, which meant they had enough money to use beautiful sets and hot and/or famous actors to play the most important parts. The biggest surprise for me was Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt; he was only on the screen for about ten minutes, but he was there long enough to deliver one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches--the one where John of Gaunt goes on and on about England being so wonderful and amazing and ends with a description of "this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England".
Anyway, while I was watching Stewart deliver these lines, I started using my long dormant English major critical thinking skills to compare John of Gaunt's love of the England to Scarlett O'Hara's love of Tara. Chapter 32 begins with Scarlett coming to terms with Ashley's rejection from the prior chapter. Unfortunately for Scarlett (and fortunately for those of us who enjoy her interpersonal drama!), our heroine does not use this juncture as an opportunity to finally move past her obsession with Mr. Wilkes. A more mature woman would have tried to see their relationship plainly, but Scarlett is still a child in many ways, so she clings to her love for Ashley without stopping to consider the fact that their world has changed so drastically that affairs of the heart don't matter in the same way anymore.
But for all of Scarlett's stubborn idiocy when it comes to the "woolen-headed Mr. Wilkes," MM keeps Scarlett likeable and amusing in this section by reinforcing Scarlett's devotion to Tara. Scarlett would have gladly run away with Ashley only moments before, but the thought of leaving Tara behind forever "would have torn her heart," and this sentiment endears the protagonist to the reader in the same way that a shared love of England tied Shakespeare's audience to John of Gaunt in the Elizabethan age. Not many of us have had the fortune/misfortune of experiencing the "deathless love" Scarlett has for Ashley, but every reader has a hometown and something we think of as a homestead and I think MM was brilliant for teasing out this connection and making it easy for us to relate to Scarlett at a section of the novel when she seems to have lost touch with reality just a little bit.
I guess everybody eventually wants to go home again. Even Scarlett and Rhett.
Anyway, Scarlett doesn't have much time to spend feeling sorry for herself. Because Jonas Wilkerson and Emmie Slattery show up in finery at the door to Tara and all hell breaks loose! Before this moment MM's references to women outside Scarlett's social circle have been hilariously circumspect, but now she unloads on Emmie Slattery with both barrels blazing, throwing out so many cruel words ("dirty tow-headed slut whose illegitimate baby Ellen had baptized...overdressed, common, nasty piece of poor white trash...") that the tirade always catches me by surprise. Neither MM nor Scarlett are anything close to angels when it comes to internal dialogue, but all the terribly mean things that have been in the story thus far have usually been tempered by humor. But there's nothing funny in any of this, particularly since Scarlett then goes all biblical on Emmie and Jonas after they express their desire to buy Tara:
"I'll tear this house down, stone by stone, and burn it and sow every acre with salt before I see either of you put foot over this threshold."
That sounds like something out of one of the latter books of the Old Testament, doesn't it?
And that's good. Scarlett's rage is justified, particularly since she holds a grudge against Jonas and Emmie, and it's also good because it provides an excellent, rock-steady, totally believable motivation for the oh-so-important next few chapters of GWTW. So over the course of a half hour in Scarlett's life, MM has:
1.) Alerted us to the fact that the taxes need to be paid on Tara--and they've been raised "sky high."
2.) Told us that Ashley is still somewhat attracted to Scarlett but doesn't have any money to help pay the taxes (keep up the good work Ashley!) And:
3.) If Scarlett doesn't figure out a way to pay the taxes, Emmie and Jonas will be living in Tara.
All of these events are emergencies, and they happen in quick succession, and we know Scarlett is broke, and...how in the WORLD is she going to get out of this one?
And then we get our answer:
"Rhett Butler."
Awwwwwww Yeah!
Scarlett arrives at her indecent proposal to be Rhett's mistress rather quickly, but it's not as though she initiates this thought out of midair. After all, she hates Rhett at this point in the novel and doesn't seem to have sexual desires for any man besides Ashley (although even those are pretty chaste), so instead of immediately deciding to become his mistress she goes through a few logical steps before she jumps off the cliff into moral depravity. Initially she's going to sell her diamond earrings to Rhett for that year's tax money, but--you know what? The taxes are going to be due every year, aren't they? So she's going to need some way to get money out of Rhett in perpetuity, which is why she comes to the conclusion that she'll marry Rhett Butler in order to secure the money she needs to save Tara. She's planning on tricking Rhett into marriage and she's repulsed by the idea of becoming Mrs. Rhett Butler, but--well, matrimony on these terms isn't really much of a crime, is it? And anyway, not one couple in GWTW has married out of "true love," so perhaps Scarlett's activities here aren't as treacherous as they seem at first glance?
I don't know.
But I do know that Rhett Butler is on his way back into the novel, and that's a reason to give thanks!
But the Hollow Crown features four of Shakespeare's best history plays: Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V. The producers and directors of these new versions of the plays had sizable budgets, which meant they had enough money to use beautiful sets and hot and/or famous actors to play the most important parts. The biggest surprise for me was Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt; he was only on the screen for about ten minutes, but he was there long enough to deliver one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches--the one where John of Gaunt goes on and on about England being so wonderful and amazing and ends with a description of "this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England".
Anyway, while I was watching Stewart deliver these lines, I started using my long dormant English major critical thinking skills to compare John of Gaunt's love of the England to Scarlett O'Hara's love of Tara. Chapter 32 begins with Scarlett coming to terms with Ashley's rejection from the prior chapter. Unfortunately for Scarlett (and fortunately for those of us who enjoy her interpersonal drama!), our heroine does not use this juncture as an opportunity to finally move past her obsession with Mr. Wilkes. A more mature woman would have tried to see their relationship plainly, but Scarlett is still a child in many ways, so she clings to her love for Ashley without stopping to consider the fact that their world has changed so drastically that affairs of the heart don't matter in the same way anymore.
But for all of Scarlett's stubborn idiocy when it comes to the "woolen-headed Mr. Wilkes," MM keeps Scarlett likeable and amusing in this section by reinforcing Scarlett's devotion to Tara. Scarlett would have gladly run away with Ashley only moments before, but the thought of leaving Tara behind forever "would have torn her heart," and this sentiment endears the protagonist to the reader in the same way that a shared love of England tied Shakespeare's audience to John of Gaunt in the Elizabethan age. Not many of us have had the fortune/misfortune of experiencing the "deathless love" Scarlett has for Ashley, but every reader has a hometown and something we think of as a homestead and I think MM was brilliant for teasing out this connection and making it easy for us to relate to Scarlett at a section of the novel when she seems to have lost touch with reality just a little bit.
I guess everybody eventually wants to go home again. Even Scarlett and Rhett.
Anyway, Scarlett doesn't have much time to spend feeling sorry for herself. Because Jonas Wilkerson and Emmie Slattery show up in finery at the door to Tara and all hell breaks loose! Before this moment MM's references to women outside Scarlett's social circle have been hilariously circumspect, but now she unloads on Emmie Slattery with both barrels blazing, throwing out so many cruel words ("dirty tow-headed slut whose illegitimate baby Ellen had baptized...overdressed, common, nasty piece of poor white trash...") that the tirade always catches me by surprise. Neither MM nor Scarlett are anything close to angels when it comes to internal dialogue, but all the terribly mean things that have been in the story thus far have usually been tempered by humor. But there's nothing funny in any of this, particularly since Scarlett then goes all biblical on Emmie and Jonas after they express their desire to buy Tara:
"I'll tear this house down, stone by stone, and burn it and sow every acre with salt before I see either of you put foot over this threshold."
That sounds like something out of one of the latter books of the Old Testament, doesn't it?
And that's good. Scarlett's rage is justified, particularly since she holds a grudge against Jonas and Emmie, and it's also good because it provides an excellent, rock-steady, totally believable motivation for the oh-so-important next few chapters of GWTW. So over the course of a half hour in Scarlett's life, MM has:
1.) Alerted us to the fact that the taxes need to be paid on Tara--and they've been raised "sky high."
2.) Told us that Ashley is still somewhat attracted to Scarlett but doesn't have any money to help pay the taxes (keep up the good work Ashley!) And:
3.) If Scarlett doesn't figure out a way to pay the taxes, Emmie and Jonas will be living in Tara.
All of these events are emergencies, and they happen in quick succession, and we know Scarlett is broke, and...how in the WORLD is she going to get out of this one?
And then we get our answer:
"Rhett Butler."
Awwwwwww Yeah!
Scarlett arrives at her indecent proposal to be Rhett's mistress rather quickly, but it's not as though she initiates this thought out of midair. After all, she hates Rhett at this point in the novel and doesn't seem to have sexual desires for any man besides Ashley (although even those are pretty chaste), so instead of immediately deciding to become his mistress she goes through a few logical steps before she jumps off the cliff into moral depravity. Initially she's going to sell her diamond earrings to Rhett for that year's tax money, but--you know what? The taxes are going to be due every year, aren't they? So she's going to need some way to get money out of Rhett in perpetuity, which is why she comes to the conclusion that she'll marry Rhett Butler in order to secure the money she needs to save Tara. She's planning on tricking Rhett into marriage and she's repulsed by the idea of becoming Mrs. Rhett Butler, but--well, matrimony on these terms isn't really much of a crime, is it? And anyway, not one couple in GWTW has married out of "true love," so perhaps Scarlett's activities here aren't as treacherous as they seem at first glance?
I don't know.
But I do know that Rhett Butler is on his way back into the novel, and that's a reason to give thanks!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Part Four--Chapter 31: "Honest labor could no longer earn its just reward...."
Chapter 31 of GWTW begins on a cold day in January of 1866. Ashley has been home for some time by this point, but MM doesn't address Scarlett and Ashley's relationship right away. In a traditional romance novel--or in lesser hands--part 4 of GWTW would begin with a depiction of the status of Scarlett and Ashley's relationship, but MM is the champion of the slow burn and she keeps us waiting while she addresses something much more important: taxes!
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.
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.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Chapter 30: "Going Home!"
GWTW made the New York Times this week!
It's a pretty brief mention, especially compared to the way the magazine commemorated the Kennedy assassination and the Banksy graffiti saga from last month, but I was honestly surprised to see the Gray Lady actually mention the novel by name. I lived in NYC for eight years and anybody who has spent any time in the North East quickly realizes that people in the Big City pay very little attention to what happens out here in Fly Over Country. I tried to convince my classmates and colleagues that there actually was life--good life!--outside of the five boroughs that form the New York metro area, but I don't think they believed me all that much. So it was really quite thrilling to see GWTW in the pages of the paper of record--even though the columnist of this particular piece seems adamant about distancing herself from the novel. Like, why'd she bother to write about GWTW if she was going to be so scornful? And why is GWTW/MM so trivial/juvenile while Fitzgerald and Hemingway and Salinger get nothing but love even for their non-masterpieces? I think GWTW is regularly dismissed as fluff when there's nothing fluffy about the novel.
Sigh.
Anyway, here we are in Chapter 30. This chapter takes place in the summer of 1865, a time when "Tara suddenly lost its isolation," and Scarlett and friends are suddenly faced with a flood of soldiers returning from the war. Interestingly enough, MM makes the point that "few of them were bitter" because "they left bitterness to their women and their old people." Now, that's interesting, isn't it? Interesting and unexpected. The men who've fought and lost are ready to move on, but everybody else is still pissed and angry at the way the war ended. We are always taught that the people who fought the Civil War were downright angry when they returned from battle (thereby automatically giving rise to the KKK and all that Reconstruction-era violence), but perhaps it wasn't really as simple as that. Some of them were bitter and truculent to be sure, but some were also exhausted or hungry or just plain worn out with the whole thing, and it's kind of nice that MM included viewpoints that diverge from the common perception of the post-war South.
Anyway, among this stream of soldiers, the girls also get a visit from Good Old Uncle Peter, Aunt Pitty's driver from Atlanta. Aunt Pitty is mad at the girls for deserting her in her time of need, and she's scared of the dark anyway, so Uncle Peter has traveled to Tara to try to make the girls come back to Atlanta. Uncle Peter and Aunt Pitty have always functioned as comic relief for the story, and MM does a great job of bringing the funny during a part of the book that could easily drag. And, what's more, Uncle Peter's visit serves an important function because he also brings a letter from Ashley Wilkes.
It's addressed to Melly (of course), but Scarlett reads it and is thrilled with the words: "Beloved, I am coming home to you." The sentiment is meant for Melly, but it gives Scarlett the warm fuzzies anyway, which means the reader also titters with excitement because we are suddenly anxious to find out what's going to happen next in the saga. So much of the world has changed over the past few years, and all the certainty of the pre-war years has been replaced with an unpredictable world where down is up, the Confederacy has disappeared, Scarlett works the fields, and the once proud Tara has been reduced to nothing more than a burden. In retrospect Scarlett's reaction to Ashley's letter seems downright silly, but is it really? The world is topsy-turvy and anything can happen now, and when all the rules are out the window maybe even Ashley has been altered by the times. Before the war he was dutiful and serious and never the type to leave his wife, but now it seems downright plausible that Ashley would turn up at Tara and whisk Scarlett away for a new life in a new part of the country.
Will Benteen also makes his first appearance in this chapter, and I've always regretted that they didn't add his character to the motion picture. Will Benteen and Archie (racist, crazy, mean-as-hell Archie) are two of the more memorable characters in GWTW, but people who haven't read the book don't even realize they exist. Obviously, adding Will and Archie and Grandma Fontaine and all of those other characters would have stretched the movie and expanded the cast and tested everybody's patience, but--still. MM is rather hard on the lower classes in GWTW, and Will Benteen's dignified personality blunts some of the author's sharpest attacks on working class whites.
So, even as Scarlett and Will and the rest of the gang at Tara begin to slowly plant and plow and do all that other farmy-farm stuff that city slickers like me know absolutely nothing about, MM continues to sew the seeds for the last bits of the novel right there in chapter 30 by addressing Melly's continuing ill-health.
"Old Dr. Fontaine diagnosed her trouble as female complaint and concurred with Dr. Meade in saying she should never have had Beau. And he said frankly that another baby would kill her."
If you blink, you'd pretty much miss that, wouldn't you? But on a second/third/hundredth read the words and their meanings jump out at you and make you do a double-take, don't they? Here's a rudimentary equation to show us exactly how MM builds anticipation in this part of the novel:
Another baby will kill Melly.
+ Ashley is on his way home.
+ Melly loves babies.
+Ashley loves Melly.
??????????
The problem with this equation is that we don't know how much Ashley loves Melly. Scarlett seems utterly convinced that their relationship is little more than a brother/sister, duty-filled, boring sort of thing, and the reader has little reason to doubt her conclusion. Ashley is not lusty and honest like Rhett (who I'm missing terribly at the moment), and Melly never seems to give much thought to romance or whatever, so it would not be unreasonable for Scarlett to believe that the Wilkes' marriage is platonic and that Beau is something of a fluke. I think Scarlett is so single-minded about her life that she can't even entertain the notion that Ashley can love (and lust after) Scarlett and Melly at the same time. Every other man besides Ashley and her father (and Will Benteen?) irritates her to no end, so how in the hell could Ashley have desire for a woman who's not Scarlett?
And we'll soon get answers to all of our questions because Ashley comes home at the end of this chapter, and things quickly start to change.
It's a pretty brief mention, especially compared to the way the magazine commemorated the Kennedy assassination and the Banksy graffiti saga from last month, but I was honestly surprised to see the Gray Lady actually mention the novel by name. I lived in NYC for eight years and anybody who has spent any time in the North East quickly realizes that people in the Big City pay very little attention to what happens out here in Fly Over Country. I tried to convince my classmates and colleagues that there actually was life--good life!--outside of the five boroughs that form the New York metro area, but I don't think they believed me all that much. So it was really quite thrilling to see GWTW in the pages of the paper of record--even though the columnist of this particular piece seems adamant about distancing herself from the novel. Like, why'd she bother to write about GWTW if she was going to be so scornful? And why is GWTW/MM so trivial/juvenile while Fitzgerald and Hemingway and Salinger get nothing but love even for their non-masterpieces? I think GWTW is regularly dismissed as fluff when there's nothing fluffy about the novel.
Sigh.
Anyway, here we are in Chapter 30. This chapter takes place in the summer of 1865, a time when "Tara suddenly lost its isolation," and Scarlett and friends are suddenly faced with a flood of soldiers returning from the war. Interestingly enough, MM makes the point that "few of them were bitter" because "they left bitterness to their women and their old people." Now, that's interesting, isn't it? Interesting and unexpected. The men who've fought and lost are ready to move on, but everybody else is still pissed and angry at the way the war ended. We are always taught that the people who fought the Civil War were downright angry when they returned from battle (thereby automatically giving rise to the KKK and all that Reconstruction-era violence), but perhaps it wasn't really as simple as that. Some of them were bitter and truculent to be sure, but some were also exhausted or hungry or just plain worn out with the whole thing, and it's kind of nice that MM included viewpoints that diverge from the common perception of the post-war South.
Anyway, among this stream of soldiers, the girls also get a visit from Good Old Uncle Peter, Aunt Pitty's driver from Atlanta. Aunt Pitty is mad at the girls for deserting her in her time of need, and she's scared of the dark anyway, so Uncle Peter has traveled to Tara to try to make the girls come back to Atlanta. Uncle Peter and Aunt Pitty have always functioned as comic relief for the story, and MM does a great job of bringing the funny during a part of the book that could easily drag. And, what's more, Uncle Peter's visit serves an important function because he also brings a letter from Ashley Wilkes.
It's addressed to Melly (of course), but Scarlett reads it and is thrilled with the words: "Beloved, I am coming home to you." The sentiment is meant for Melly, but it gives Scarlett the warm fuzzies anyway, which means the reader also titters with excitement because we are suddenly anxious to find out what's going to happen next in the saga. So much of the world has changed over the past few years, and all the certainty of the pre-war years has been replaced with an unpredictable world where down is up, the Confederacy has disappeared, Scarlett works the fields, and the once proud Tara has been reduced to nothing more than a burden. In retrospect Scarlett's reaction to Ashley's letter seems downright silly, but is it really? The world is topsy-turvy and anything can happen now, and when all the rules are out the window maybe even Ashley has been altered by the times. Before the war he was dutiful and serious and never the type to leave his wife, but now it seems downright plausible that Ashley would turn up at Tara and whisk Scarlett away for a new life in a new part of the country.
Will Benteen also makes his first appearance in this chapter, and I've always regretted that they didn't add his character to the motion picture. Will Benteen and Archie (racist, crazy, mean-as-hell Archie) are two of the more memorable characters in GWTW, but people who haven't read the book don't even realize they exist. Obviously, adding Will and Archie and Grandma Fontaine and all of those other characters would have stretched the movie and expanded the cast and tested everybody's patience, but--still. MM is rather hard on the lower classes in GWTW, and Will Benteen's dignified personality blunts some of the author's sharpest attacks on working class whites.
So, even as Scarlett and Will and the rest of the gang at Tara begin to slowly plant and plow and do all that other farmy-farm stuff that city slickers like me know absolutely nothing about, MM continues to sew the seeds for the last bits of the novel right there in chapter 30 by addressing Melly's continuing ill-health.
"Old Dr. Fontaine diagnosed her trouble as female complaint and concurred with Dr. Meade in saying she should never have had Beau. And he said frankly that another baby would kill her."
If you blink, you'd pretty much miss that, wouldn't you? But on a second/third/hundredth read the words and their meanings jump out at you and make you do a double-take, don't they? Here's a rudimentary equation to show us exactly how MM builds anticipation in this part of the novel:
Another baby will kill Melly.
+ Ashley is on his way home.
+ Melly loves babies.
+Ashley loves Melly.
??????????
The problem with this equation is that we don't know how much Ashley loves Melly. Scarlett seems utterly convinced that their relationship is little more than a brother/sister, duty-filled, boring sort of thing, and the reader has little reason to doubt her conclusion. Ashley is not lusty and honest like Rhett (who I'm missing terribly at the moment), and Melly never seems to give much thought to romance or whatever, so it would not be unreasonable for Scarlett to believe that the Wilkes' marriage is platonic and that Beau is something of a fluke. I think Scarlett is so single-minded about her life that she can't even entertain the notion that Ashley can love (and lust after) Scarlett and Melly at the same time. Every other man besides Ashley and her father (and Will Benteen?) irritates her to no end, so how in the hell could Ashley have desire for a woman who's not Scarlett?
And we'll soon get answers to all of our questions because Ashley comes home at the end of this chapter, and things quickly start to change.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Buy my Book!
Hey you!
Yeah, you!
If you like reading historical fiction and you like my style, you should follow this link and buy my book!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll be writing more soon!
Yeah, you!
If you like reading historical fiction and you like my style, you should follow this link and buy my book!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll be writing more soon!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Chapter 29: "....And the war was over."
In GWTW the Civil War ends with a whimper.
Interestingly enough, MM does not connect the end of the War with Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, of 1865. Rather , MM does not consider the Civil War to be truly at an end until "General Johnston...surrendered in North Carolina," which Wikipedia dates as April 26, 1865. I'm a Yankee and I was always taught that the Civil War ended when General Grant and Abe Lincoln said it did, which was when the Army of Northern Virginia waved the white flag and everybody in the Union started celebrating. But of course MM was a southerner who was writing about a cast of very proud Confederates, so it's only natural that she'd date the end of the War to the date of Johnston's surrender (which also happened to be the largest surrender of the war), since Johnston's army represented the last possible chance for defense against Sherman and the gang.
Anyway, the Fontaine boys are the first ones home from the front, and they deliver the news of the end of the war to the folks at Tara. The other ladies are sad that their dream of Confederate independence is over, but Scarlett doesn't care. The war is over, and that means she doesn't have to worry about various armies burning her house or stealing her food or her horses, and Scarlett is too practical to shed tears over lost dreams and southern pride:
"Yes, the cause was dead but war had always seemed foolish to her and peace was better."
And so, once again, Scarlett's blase attitude toward the end of the war highlights my contention that Gone With the Wind is not actually a civil war novel. People want to believe that GWTW is a romanticized, dewy-eyed portrait of the Confederacy, but in my mind nothing could be further from the truth. GWTW isn't about the Civil War--it just happens to take place during the Civil War. It's like Mad Men: Don Draper is a contemporary of JFK, but it would be false on all fronts to pretend that anything that happens at Sterling, Cooper, Pryce, Draper has anything to do with the Kennedy administration.
The War is over, Scarlett has food, shelter and the security that her property won't be destroyed by an invading army, and:
"If Ashely was alive he'd be coming home!"
The first time I read GWTW I honestly thought Ashley was dead at this juncture of the novel. He's been out of the frame for nearly two whole years and nearly every other man from the first section of the novel is dead, wounded or missing, so why not Ashley?
Interestingly enough, MM builds suspense through this part of the novel by having Scarlett visit all the other plantations in the area, meeting and greeting her old friends. There are several poignant episodes in this chapter, where Scarlett visits the families we met in the beginning of the book and reflects on how much has changed over the course of the war. When Scarlett goes over to the Tarelton house she visits the graveyard, and while the description of the three new stones above Brent, Stuart, and Tom ("they had never found Boyd or any trace of him) is really quite moving and sad even for Yankees like me, Scarlett can. Not. Believe the Tarleton's have "wast[ed] precious money on tombstones when food was so dear..."
She's right to be practical, of course. But it's astonishing that Scarlett can't comprehend the notion that tombstones can be just as important--or more important--than food or money. Scarlett is a mother herself by this point in the novel and she's recently lost her mother, but all she can think about is how silly it is to buy a headstone. Scarlett's lack of sympathy is hilarious, but perhaps her harsh reaction is another little signpost MM left along the way to show us how very different Scarlett is from the typical, sentimental Southern Belle?
The South is unraveling, the boys are all dead or sick, and Scarlett is preoccupied with day-to-day living. This part of GWTW lacks the charm, grace, and romance of the earlier section, but here MM has stripped away all the manners and silly rules that dominated the first part of the novel and Scarlett and her friends are obliged to get by with nothing but their wits and hard work. GWTW came out during the depression and I firmly believe Scarlett's focus and drive are the reason GWTW became so popular, which means that this middle section of the novel is the cornerstone of MM's masterpiece and not the "mushy-middle" most people make it out to be. Anyway, next time the girls finally get word of Ashley, Will Benteen comes on the scene, and Uncle Peter pays a visit and brings some comic relief.
Interestingly enough, MM does not connect the end of the War with Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, of 1865. Rather , MM does not consider the Civil War to be truly at an end until "General Johnston...surrendered in North Carolina," which Wikipedia dates as April 26, 1865. I'm a Yankee and I was always taught that the Civil War ended when General Grant and Abe Lincoln said it did, which was when the Army of Northern Virginia waved the white flag and everybody in the Union started celebrating. But of course MM was a southerner who was writing about a cast of very proud Confederates, so it's only natural that she'd date the end of the War to the date of Johnston's surrender (which also happened to be the largest surrender of the war), since Johnston's army represented the last possible chance for defense against Sherman and the gang.
Anyway, the Fontaine boys are the first ones home from the front, and they deliver the news of the end of the war to the folks at Tara. The other ladies are sad that their dream of Confederate independence is over, but Scarlett doesn't care. The war is over, and that means she doesn't have to worry about various armies burning her house or stealing her food or her horses, and Scarlett is too practical to shed tears over lost dreams and southern pride:
"Yes, the cause was dead but war had always seemed foolish to her and peace was better."
And so, once again, Scarlett's blase attitude toward the end of the war highlights my contention that Gone With the Wind is not actually a civil war novel. People want to believe that GWTW is a romanticized, dewy-eyed portrait of the Confederacy, but in my mind nothing could be further from the truth. GWTW isn't about the Civil War--it just happens to take place during the Civil War. It's like Mad Men: Don Draper is a contemporary of JFK, but it would be false on all fronts to pretend that anything that happens at Sterling, Cooper, Pryce, Draper has anything to do with the Kennedy administration.
The War is over, Scarlett has food, shelter and the security that her property won't be destroyed by an invading army, and:
"If Ashely was alive he'd be coming home!"
The first time I read GWTW I honestly thought Ashley was dead at this juncture of the novel. He's been out of the frame for nearly two whole years and nearly every other man from the first section of the novel is dead, wounded or missing, so why not Ashley?
Interestingly enough, MM builds suspense through this part of the novel by having Scarlett visit all the other plantations in the area, meeting and greeting her old friends. There are several poignant episodes in this chapter, where Scarlett visits the families we met in the beginning of the book and reflects on how much has changed over the course of the war. When Scarlett goes over to the Tarelton house she visits the graveyard, and while the description of the three new stones above Brent, Stuart, and Tom ("they had never found Boyd or any trace of him) is really quite moving and sad even for Yankees like me, Scarlett can. Not. Believe the Tarleton's have "wast[ed] precious money on tombstones when food was so dear..."
She's right to be practical, of course. But it's astonishing that Scarlett can't comprehend the notion that tombstones can be just as important--or more important--than food or money. Scarlett is a mother herself by this point in the novel and she's recently lost her mother, but all she can think about is how silly it is to buy a headstone. Scarlett's lack of sympathy is hilarious, but perhaps her harsh reaction is another little signpost MM left along the way to show us how very different Scarlett is from the typical, sentimental Southern Belle?
The South is unraveling, the boys are all dead or sick, and Scarlett is preoccupied with day-to-day living. This part of GWTW lacks the charm, grace, and romance of the earlier section, but here MM has stripped away all the manners and silly rules that dominated the first part of the novel and Scarlett and her friends are obliged to get by with nothing but their wits and hard work. GWTW came out during the depression and I firmly believe Scarlett's focus and drive are the reason GWTW became so popular, which means that this middle section of the novel is the cornerstone of MM's masterpiece and not the "mushy-middle" most people make it out to be. Anyway, next time the girls finally get word of Ashley, Will Benteen comes on the scene, and Uncle Peter pays a visit and brings some comic relief.
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