"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South... Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind..."
I know. Here I am, an early 20's home-school graduate, born and raised in the South...and I have just now seen Gone with the Wind. Actually, I saw it at my grandmother's many years ago when I was around 3 or 4. I don't remember much about that time, except when Scarlett falls down the stairs and loses the baby. In this post, I will share my impressions about the main characters.
Scarlett
Katie Scarlett O'Hara struck me, both in the book and the movie, as a shallow, flighty girl who wants what she cannot have- Ashley Wilkes, who has recently become engaged to his cousin Melanie Hamilton of Atlanta.
To spite Ashley, Scarlett marries Melanie's brother Charles. He dies of measles early in the war.
During the Civil War, Scarlett helps out at the hospital, but only because Melanie is also doing so and Scarlett can't abide the thought of have Melanie looking better than she. After the war, Scarlett vows to never go hungry again. In her own words, "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."
That's pretty serious stuff right there. She doesn't waste time keeping her vow either. She tells Mr. Frank Kennedy that her sister Suellen is marrying a country boy, having gotten tired of waiting for him (a lie and therefore cheating Suellen out of a husband.). She then marries him, using his money to save Tara from the taxes being imposed on the Southerners.
May I say it again? She's not a very nice person.
Rhett Butler
Scarlett: Cathleen, who's that?
Cathlenn: Who?
Scarlett: That man looking at us and smiling. The nasty, dark one.
Cathleen Calvert: My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.
Plain and simple, Rhett is a scoundrel. He's shunned by his family in Charleston and there are rumors flying around him that aren't exactly the flattering kind. He wants Scarlett to himself and is jealous of her supposed love for Ashley.
After he and Scarlett marry and have Bonnie, he becomes an adoring father, giving Bonnie the attention and love he wants to lavish on Scarlett.
At the end of the movie, I felt that Rhett loved Scarlett, but got tired of waiting for her to love him back. His love left with Bonnie.
Mammy
I loved Mammy. She was brutally honest with Scarlett and didn't mind telling her when she needed to back off and, at the very least, pretend to be a lady.
She has raised Scarlett from birth and can't stand to have her behaving in such a way towards...
Ashley
Ashley is a dreamer. He loves his books and dreams of what life was like in the Middle Ages, with its knights and damsels in distress. He loves Melanie, but at the same time is attracted to Scarlett because of her bravery and courage in the face of danger.
In the end, however, he admits that it was Melanie whom he really loved. He could have saved himself a lot of trouble (and embarrassment) if he had admitted this much earlier!
Melanie(Melly)
In my opinion, Melanie was the sweetest one of the whole bunch, if just a little naive. She always believed the best and defends Scarlett when rumors about her behavior start flying around Atlanta.
Melanie was brave in her own way when Rhett brings Ashley back from a raid on Shantyville after Scarlett is attacked by one of the community. Her house is surrounded by Union soldiers, yet Melanie keeps (somewhat) calm and reads to Scarlett, India, and Mrs. Meeks as they wait for their menfolk to return. Her death scene was very touching-even in the end, she was thinking of others.
Overall, I enjoyed Gone with the Wind. Not all the characters mind you, but the movie as a whole was enjoyable. Melanie and Mammy were the redeeming characters; they made it worth watching. Unless you watched GWTW in order to learn how NOT to behave in the Old South.
Oh, and the costumes. I love the dresses all the ladies wore during the film. Granted, Scarlett's were over-decorated after the war, but the dresses prior were beautiful.
This was my favorite dress out of them all. I have the same skin tone and hair color as Scarlett, so it was easy to picture myself wearing it....*sigh
Hope I didn't bore you with my ramblings. Let me know what you thought; do you have a favorite scene from GWTW?
Katelyn
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