Did you like the character Scarlett O'hara, in Gone with the Wind?

[Haole Girl]

I always felt a little guilty for liking her character.

But, she was so strong... and often so misunderstood.

What do you think?

[Left Is Write]

1. Yes, actually, I do like her.

Sometimes I want to slap some sense into her, but I like her.

[Haole Girl]

2. Me too

:hi:

[SeattleGirl]

3. She's my favorite female fictional character.

She's very strong, and that strength always won out over the traditions of the day. She saw them for what they were: silly, ridiculous, and very confining to the women of her time.

[Haole Girl]

4. Well put!

Thank you for putting those thoughts into words! :hug:

[Left Is Write]

5. One of my favorite scenes is Scarlett saying that, yes, she WILL dance with Captain Butler!

:)

[Haole Girl]

7. lol!

I like that scene, too. She had a difficult time playing the grieving widow. I liked when she sprayed perfume in her mouth to cover up the smell of alcohol. ;-)

[SeattleGirl]

8. Oh that scene is one of my favs! That would be me:

"Oh yes I will!!!!" :bounce: :bounce:

[bleedingheart]

6. Having read the book...and having seen the movie many times

I like Scarlett...

She was strong but she developed more as she got older...

Caught between what she was supposed to be ...and what she wanted to be....

Coddled and cossetted from birth...she was reared to be some rich man's pet.
The Civil war changed all that.
She was made of far stronger stuff...

[Haole Girl]

9. Exactly!

When she helped with the wounded and dying soldiers, it was obvious she had more strength than the average person (woman or man).

[bleedingheart]

16. when you contrast Scarlett with Melanie...you can truly appreciate Scarlett

for her grit...

Melanie and Ashley were born into privilege but in a way it was "inbred" out of them (remember the Wilkes clan kept intermarrying)
They were both intelligent and kind...but they were almost kind to the point of not being able to survive. Scarlett saved Melanie's life and I think Melanie was a good influence upon her but she was careful not to fall into the trap of being respectable to the point of starvation...

Scarlett on the other hand was the daughter of an Irish gambler and a Louisiana socialite who married him out of grief when her own first love was killed. They were survivors...

[catzies]

108. Scarlett's mom was from Savannah not Louisiana. Sorry to nitpick.

n/t

[SeattleGirl]

12. She sure was.

I've always had that conflict; trying to fit in to what a girl/woman is "supposed" to be vs. who/what I am.

Like Scarlett, the older I get, the more comfortable I am with who and what I am!

[Vidar]

10. Yes, but I have a penchant for deeply flwed women, in both life & literature.

[Haole Girl]

14. Did you like Streetcar Named Desire, too?

I really liked that play.

[Vidar]

111. Oh yeah. Fell hard for Sally Bowles in Cabaret as well.

[In_The_Wind]

11. I think she was ahead of her time ... and BTW pretty awesome!

:thumbsup:

[Haole Girl]

15. Indeed

:hi:

[SeattleGirl]

13. And, no one but Rhett Butler could deal with her strength, because

he had a lot of strength himself.

Had Scarlett ended up with Ashley, she would have felt stifled.

With Rhett, she started learning it was okay to be who she was.

[Haole Girl]

19. Oh, I know...

It is just so sad... the bad timing. I am almost crying, thinking about how misunderstood she was. I blame the maid-- for not telling Rhett she called out his name.

[idgiehkt]

17. yes and no

I like her determination in some parts of the film ("as god is my witness I'll never be hungry again") but she hurt people close to her brutally for her own mercenary goals.

LOl, I edited my post because I have the plot confused. I would not want to be a friend of hers, people like that do not have friends.

[SeattleGirl]

20. Hi idg. It was Frank Kennedy that Scarlett seduced away from her

sister, not Ashley. :hi:

[idgiehkt]

23. I know, I edited it

the scene with the digging up the carrot at the end I love, but some of the other stuff she did .... just ick. :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

24. I think part of the motivation for some of the things she did, besides

her strength, was fear. The fear of the soldiers, the fear of the war, the fear of losing Tara, the fear of going hungry. Those things can have a powerful effect on people, and push them to do things they might not otherwise do.

[idgiehkt]

26. possibly

I am not even sure, honestly, if I can access the place in my heart I would need to go to to give her a break, because of it being the civil war and me being a southerner...it's hard to go there and 'admire' what she did for what reasons she did it. I suppose a similar character might be Sophie in Sophie's Choice, some of the things she did, which were to save her kids during wartime. I just never understood Scarlett, but then I've never understood people that are that conniving.

[Haole Girl]

21. Now I am suddenly reminded of the reason I always felt a bit...

.. guilty about liking her.

Thanks. But... but, I can't help but like her character! ;-)

[idgiehkt]

25. people like that are easy to like from a distance

until we are on the receiving end of their machinations. I think people who are too moral to behave that way kind of fantazise about being that way...but I think she was a sociopath at heart. I'd rather have feelings. :hug:

Besides, why you wanna be like her. I pity the fool who messes with your umbrella, lol



:rofl:

You have a good heart and attitude to spare when you need it, that is all a person needs. :)

[Haole Girl]

27. A sociopath? Scarlett?

Naw...

Hey...don't mess with my umbrella! LOL!

:rofl:

[idgiehkt]

29. I am laughing about that all over again...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

the reason I say sociopath is because she was more attached to things (Tara) than the people around her and ran over them and toyed with them to get what she wanted. She seemed to view people as objects to be toyed with and manipulated...I think she only loved Rhett because he was the only person she'd ever come across that she could not toy with and bend to her will, and the challenge of that captivated her.

[Haole Girl]

31. In the end, though, Rhett was not simply a challenge

I really think she loved him.

This is so funny... we talk about these characters like they are real.

Hey, here is a scary thought... how many women, though out the last 4 decades, might have emulated her behavior? Just a thought (that is the Anthropologist, in me, trying to get out!).

[idgiehkt]

33. Rebecca Mark, a CEO involved in Enron

reminds me alot of Scarlett. She was involved in a horrible water privatizing scheme in India, was known for wearing uber short skirts around there, the water privatization part of Enron had another name, I can't remember it, and right before Enron went under she sold her stock for around 80 million and walked away before the company crumbled to the ground. I always think about Scarlett when I think about her.

[Haole Girl]

35. Interesting

I really don't relate Scarlett to modern day execs. Nothing seems especially brutal after working under Frank Lorenzo! ;-)

[idgiehkt]

43. ah

had to google for that one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lorenzo

Azurix was the Enron subsidiary that Mark ran
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Mark

Mark, now Rebecca Mark-Jusbache after her marriage to Michael Jusbache in October 1999, left Enron at a fortunate time, selling her stock for $80 million before the company collapsed in 2001. Mark was never accused of wrongdoing in the ensuing series of scandals and prosecutions, but did pay five million dollars as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by Enron stockholders.<4>

Today, Mark sits on the Board of a California based company called Water Health International.<5> She is busy raising her twins, who are enrolled in college, one at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and one at Davidson College in Davidson, NC. After her remarriage to Michael Jusbasche, the two adopted a two year old boy, Andrew Mark Jusbasche, from Kazakhstan. She also owns and operates cattle ranches in New Mexico and Colorado.

she was/is one hell of a piece of work, lol.

[SeattleGirl]

44. So, KC, how do you feel about this woman?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Sorry, but I just couldn't resist! :)

[Haole Girl]

46. Funny story about that...

A woman I work with made a Halloween outfit, mimicking that Carol Burnett skit, and 90% of our office didn't get it. Interesting thing is that she was a younger woman, too -- in her 20's. So, I laugh, whenever I see that outfit... but, for other reasons! ;-)

[SeattleGirl]

47. A friend of mine, who knows I love Scarlett, came to a Halloween

party we gave some years ago, dressed like Carol Burnett doing Scarlett. I absolutely loved it! I laughed so hard when she came in the door I literally had tears running down my face!

[Haole Girl]

48. It was a funny skit!

:-D

[SeattleGirl]

49. I watched Carol's show every week, and she did lots of funny stuff

on it, but that skit was my fav.

[bleedingheart]

62. Harvey Korman couldn't stop laughing at her during that skit...

[Sequoia]

114. I wondered when that was going to show up.

Here's a gem for ya!



Scarlett Rules, Bertagnoli's new book, focuses on the heroine's resourcefulness and ingenuity in offering two dozen lessons for the modern woman. For instance, as the subhead advises, "When Life Gives You Green Velvet Curtains, Make a Green Velvet Dress."

An excerpted excerpt: "What is it about curtains and strong women? Scarlett tore down her mother's prized drapes to make not just any old dress but the dress that saved Tara from the tax collectors. In The Sound of Music, Maria refashions some cotton curtains into play clothes for the von Trapp children...

When Scarlett turned that green velvet from drapery to dress, probably didn't realize she was carrying out a textbook—or shall we say novel—approach to problem solving. Here's what Scarlett did and why it worked:

She stayed focused...
She looked for a change of scenery...
She didn't look a gift horse in the mouth...
She didn't let opposition stop her...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.design-your-life.org/blog.php%3Fid%3D673&h=258&w=300&sz=41&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=ZVUCabRlHHDMKM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcarol%2Bburnett%2Bas%2Bscarlett%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I was reading the book in 8th grade when my teacher snatched it from my hands and ranted about the evils of sex. Then in high school the principal saw me reading it and suggested I should'nt read a book like that. Of course I finished it as I sat in the old rocker on the wide veranda.

[bleedingheart]

45. Frank Kennedy thought Scarlett was out of his league...

so he courted her sister.

That is the way I always viewed it...

People may blame her...but if he hadn't wanted her...he would not have married her.

When times were tough and they were going to lose their home...Scarlett told him a lie (that her sister was going to marry someone else)...and she made herself available to him...and he lapped it up...

He could have easily have gone for a visit to the country to see if she was lying but he was perfectly happy to take Scarlett instead..

[SeattleGirl]

50. Very true. Yes, Scarlett lied and seduced him, but Frank didn't have

to buy into it.

[idgiehkt]

51. it devastated her sister though

I think the question is, do the ends justify the means...I don't know the answer, but I hope I wouldn't ever do something like that to my sister.

[SeattleGirl]

52. Scarlett did have a difficult time with people she considered weak, like

her sister, and Melanie.

I think part of it was her uncomfortableness with her own strength, and how that strength prevented her from being like Melanie.

[idgiehkt]

53. isn't it sad

that people like her equate morality with "weakness"? That is why I look at her as more of a sociopath...someone who doesn't have the same level of empathy or conscience as a normal person which allows her to justify her actions...there isn't much guilt no internal voice telling her 'if you do this, you will save Tara but you will lose your soul in the process...'

[SeattleGirl]

55. I really don't see her as a sociopath.

Not defending everything she did, but she never struck me as being a sociopath.

[idgiehkt]

57. I might have to watch the movie again

to see if I've judged her too harshly. Antebellum south is not something you will ever hear a progressive southerner defending, usually, and that is what Scarlett was fighting for. She pretty much made my skin crawl throughout the entire movie, though. Of course this is an apsie talking and our sense of justice is a little bit different.

[bleedingheart]

59. I recommend reading the book....way more detail

Scarlett bore a child with each of her husbands...

Little Wade to Charles Hamilton....named for the fellow who writes to inform her of Charle's death...one of the funniest parts of the novel was the fact that young Scarlett (no more than 16) delivered Wade without a trying and horrid delivery...it horrified Mammy who thought giving birth so easily was something only field hands did...

Ella was born to Mr. Kennedy

and of course Bonnie to Rhett

The backstory about Scarlett's parents is also in the book...

It is a great summer read...

[idgiehkt]

63. the slavery thing kind of casts a pall over it

that is why I don't romanticize it or her. But I've known quite a few southern women who do

[bleedingheart]

68. the slavery issue is probably the biggest sore point for me..however

it was a fact of life for the period...however the slaves and their roles in the lives of the parents as well as Scarlett's are dealt with more in the book..

[idgiehkt]

78. I'm not getting my point across here.

I can't admire a character whose prior standard of living was made possible by the brutal oppression of other humans. The whole thing is just kind of ick for me. You are right though we are talking about apples and oranges because I haven't read the book. I do think Vivian Leigh is one of the most stunning women that ever walked the planet (although not a southerner) and I enjoyed her acting in that movie immensely.

[bleedingheart]

82. out of curiousity...do you feel the same way about the actual slaveowners

Thomas Jefferson
George Washington
..etc

Some of them were capable of great good and had amazing talents...but they did care the stain of slavery on their reputations...

[idgiehkt]

92. no, I'm a hypocrite, lol

the whole south has the stain of slavery on it. Especially the plantations. I have been to Monticello as a child. I grew up in Virginia. I cannot stand Charleston for that reason...it is visually pleasing but it just is not my thing.

[SeattleGirl]

70. You have to keep in mind, though, not only the period ABOUT which

the book was written, but also the period WHEN it was written, and WHERE. 1930's Atlanta. Racism still rampant in that area.

Margaret Mitchell could not have written the book and left out slavery; that's a big reason for the Civil War, the center around which the characters revolved. However, I will say that the thing that bothered me about the slavery aspect of the book was how benign Mitchell made it seem. I think there was only a little bit about whipping, and not much else about the very ugly side of it.

[idgiehkt]

76. well that is my point, what you express in the second paragraph

not about leaving it out, about the fact that the blood and suffering of African Americans built and maintained Tara. I think "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, might balance out 'gone with the wind'...that is a harrowing representation of what slavery was really about. Scarlett is part and parcel of that...I can't separate her out from it.

[SeattleGirl]

77. I totally understand your POV, idg.

I think, though, the other thing to keep in mind is that the characters are sterotypes.

I haven't read Beloved in a long time. I think I'll take a look at it again. It's a very good book.

[idgiehkt]

83. No, horrify yourself and go see the movie, lol

It's so brutal I think it took me a month to recover. I didn't sleep with the lights off for a week. Winfrey did an AMAZING job with that movie...the public just could not handle it, unfortunately. Toni Morrison is very hard to read, at least for me, is she for you? I've read "The Bluest Eye" and another I can't remember and she is a real challenge for me; I was referring to the movie. I still can't watch anything with Thandie Newton in it to this day because she creeps me out so bad. (Eerily, she realized during the filming of that that her name means "beloved" in Swahili).

:scared:

[SeattleGirl]

86. Oh, I thought you were referring to the book!

I've never seen the movie. Thanks for the warning! :scared:

[idgiehkt]

90. yeah

I don't know how you handle stuff like that...it takes it's toll on me..., and I don't know what the difference is in the book and the movie but it is slavery from a womans perspective mixed in with some supernatural creepy stuff...I have watched Roots and it was so much harder to watch than Roots. There are some incredibly beautiful scenes in it as well...Winfrey looks at it as a 'failure' because it didn't succeed commercially but honestly I think she and everyone in that film did an amazing job.

[SeattleGirl]

91. I like watching/reading about important things done from a woman's

perspective.

Speaking of which, here's a book for you: Annapurna. It's about an all-female climbing expedition to the mountain Annapurna. I've always been fascinated by climbing books, and even learned to rock climb, but Annapurna is my favorite book, because all the other ones are written from a male's perspective and experience.

[idgiehkt]

94. awesome

I love books like that, I loved "Into Thin Air" by Krakauer. Anything about climbing and snow I find fascinating. I have to say, though, that Beloved really broke my heart. I am sitting here remembering scenes from it now...god, it's just horrible. That is the reason it did not do well, not because it wasn't an amazing film. People saw it and went and told people "don't go see that sh*t, it will f*ck you up", lol. The only thing I can think of that comes close is Sophie's Choice.

Thanks for recommending that book.

[SeattleGirl]

98. I have read Into Thin Air, and a number of other books about climbing.

Mountain climbing like that is something that never appealed to me, but as I said, I did learn to rock climb, and it was a great experience.

If you read Annapurna, let me know what you think of it.

[catzies]

110. Yes. The real Scarlett comes through better in the book.

I've read GWTW so many times I've lost count.

(Wade was named for Charles's commanding officer, as was the fashion at the time).

Maybe my single favorite part is when after the war she goes visiting some of the remaining neighbors and has a long talk with Grandma Fontaine (who loved Ellen, Scarlett's mom).

"Always save something to fear, even as you save something to love."

[SeattleGirl]

66. Actually, it was people like Melanie and Ashley that wanted to keep

the Antebellum south going. It was the only world they knew, and they were frightened of losing it. They weren't sure what they would do when it was gone. Recall the scene between Scarlett and Ashley in the sawmill. Scarlett was mostly dealing with the here and now, and with the future, and Ashley was stuck in the past. He even said so.

And I do agree with you; no progressive southerner would defend that era, particularly the slavery. I grew up mostly in the Pacific Northwest, but spent a lot of time in the south, including back in the day where the N-word was tossed about with abandon by whites, and where "White's Only" and "Colored's Only" signs were all over the place. Even at a very young age, I found it offensive, and couldn't understand people who thought others were their inferior, based on the color of their skin.

[idgiehkt]

71. even today alot of white southern women admire scarlett

and fancy themselves in a hoopskirt, on some plantation porch, sipping mint julep and being attended to by devoted slaves. It reminds me of a Dorothy Allison quote (she's a writer from Greenville, SC, wrote "Bastard out of Carolina"):

"Every southerner takes it back a few generations, says 'yeah, we had a plantation'. The hell we did."

[SeattleGirl]

75. Well, the women in the south have their Souther Belle fascination

and women in other places have their princess fascination.

[idgiehkt]

87. lol, they want to be a princess when they are young

and Scarlett when they are older. I think now everyone want's to be Paris Hilton. That's who I think she might be today if she was around, or maybe someone a little smarter like Nicole Ritchie.

[SeattleGirl]

88. Yuck! Gimme Scarlett or Melanie any day over Paris or Nicole!

:scared:

[bleedingheart]

58. but Melanie admired Scarlett because she did say what she wanted to

If Scarlett had truly been a sociopath...and if she had truly wanted Ashley...she would have left Melanie to die in Atlanta...

Hell the city was under seige...no one would have ever known...

[idgiehkt]

60. true on the second point

maybe narcissist is closer. I don't think she had a "normal" amount of compassion, but then I grew up around southern women who were actually every bit as tough as she is, probably tougher and managed to maintain some morality as well. She's not a realistic character to me. And people like Melanie usually do have some admiration for those more ruthless; having a sense of kindness and morality is much more of a burden than not having one, or having less of one.

[bleedingheart]

65. There have been a fair number of Scarlett's in my family

in fact I am a bit of a Scarlett...(no I did not take any husbands away from my sister)...

I am however a Northerner and some of the more "wild" Scarletts in my family were straight off the boat from Europe...

I view Scarlett as having a very keen survival gene...

[idgiehkt]

69. yep, she probably didn't believe in karma, lol

I think everything here is really about the spiritual though...If you screw people over for mercenary ends it will catch up to you, there is no escaping it, that's probably why she doesn't appeal to me. So 'at what cost' is a factor for me...that is how I was raised and I thank the heavens for that, really.

[bleedingheart]

73. you have to weigh whether it is better to regret or to act...

sometimes being too nice has it's backlash...

My mother was the "Melanie" of the family...now in her old age she is very bitter for having been too nice and having been walked over....sadly in old age people have time to reflect upon their past decisions.

[idgiehkt]

85. I suppose

I guess it depends on whether or not you think the physical plane is all there is, or if the spiritual matters. I always think of my grandmother, who was kind, and gentle, and wise, and a woman of very few words. But you did NOT f*ck with her, ever. I remember when my aunt was having trouble with her husband once and my grandmother and grandfather had to go over there and intervene, my ex-uncle got in her face and she clenched her jaw and looked at him and said, softly "I'll put you six...feet...under..." He backed down, lol and he was well over six feet tall. That quality is what I admire, she was tough as nails inside under a very soft exterior but she did not hurt people intentionally; I've never been exposed, at least in my family, to the really ruthless connivers like Scarlett.

[SeattleGirl]

72. Don't you think, though, that Melanie was a bit too-good-to-be-true?

I can absolutely understand why Scarlett would see her as "mealy-mouthed", but OTOH, Melanie did show her mettle when she shot the Yankee soldier at Tara, and some other times. That got Scarlett's attention, AND even though she probably didn't want to, she began to admire her.

[bleedingheart]

74. Scarlett shot the soldier...Melanie told her..."Scarlett I'm glad you shot him"..

the thing Melanie did was to say..."should we search his pockets"...

[SeattleGirl]

79. ACK!!!! I'm gonna get kicked out of the GWTW club!

:blush: :blush: :blush:

Now that I think about it, it was when Melanie dragged Charles's sword down the stairs, and then told the girls that Scarlett was cleaning the gun and it accidentally went off that I was thinking of. "Why Melly, what a cool liar you are!"

[bleedingheart]

84. don't worry about it...I just recently watched the movie during one of our

dreary PA days of rain, more rain and rain....

[bleedingheart]

56. it was callous and she knew better...but she also knew that her sister didn't give a rats ass

about Tara, Scarlett, the younger sister, Melanie...and the former slaves living at Tara...

Scarlett did care...she didn't want her father's only legacy to them being sold off to the carpetbaggers...

so in her case the ends justified the means...

Also...Scarlett herself was hurt by the fact that her "high spirited ways" made her the brunt of jokes.

[LisaL]

80. Well, in the book, the sister ended up better off.

She married someone else.

[idgiehkt]

89. I think though

that when you do those kinds of things to people you love, irrevocable damage can be done. So you have to think long and hard about 'is this really worth it'?

[I Have A Dream]

18. No. n/t

[Haole Girl]

22. Care to elaborate on that?

If not, that's cool too... no worries. :hi:

[I Have A Dream]

28. I think that she was self-absorbed, and I've never been really impressed with...

people with that character trait.

:hi:

[Haole Girl]

30. Yes and no

A truly self absorbed person wouldn't have helped in the make-shift hospital. And, wouldn't have been able to love, as deeply, as she could. But, of course, that is IMHO.

Thanks!

:hi:

[I Have A Dream]

42. Yes, there were some exceptions, but I prefer when the negative is the...

exception rather than the positive.

I didn't personally find her to be a sympathetic character.

:shrug:

[graywarrior]

32. I don't give a damn

[Haole Girl]

34. OK!

:rofl:

[wildhorses]

36. nope

n/t

[Haole Girl]

37. Really?

Really?

How ya doing, gf? :hug:

[In_The_Wind]

39. ~

[Shine]

38. Yes I like her b/c she is complex. Incredibly strong willed, incredibly selfish

she's strong-minded, yes, but she's also very girlish and in desperate need of attention and validation from others.

she's incredibly manipulative but also innocent in a way, almost naive.

the arc of her character is interesting to watch develop over the course of the movie. She softens and gets wiser with age.

as we all do....:D

[Haole Girl]

40. That is very well said

I think you understand those traits I admired in the movie, too! Except, I never admired her selfishness. Though, sometimes, I wonder if we all shouldn't be a little more selfish...
naw...

(just thinking out loud there, for a second).

[SeattleGirl]

41. You know, though, at times, even though she was acting in a selfish

way, it was often not just for herself, but for her family (including Melanie).

[idgiehkt]

54. this is a great thread, KC2

amazing how "Gone with the Wind" is stirring up some complex debate.

It's interesting to me that so many non-southerners admire her and so many southern women don't claim her. I wonder if it's growing up in the proximity of the remnants of slavery and knowing what Tara was built on. It's just bad energy in a way.

[Haole Girl]

64. hmm...

Another thing I didn't think about. I have my own guilt, in that regard, from my great grandparents plantation in Georgia (who were Irish, btw). My husband constantly reminds me of it, too. But, you know.. we can't really help who our ancestors were, can we? All we can do is try to be better.

Well, I managed to go for a quick swim in the middle of my replies... now it's time to shower and nurse my many mosquito bites. :-(

[Mutineer]

61. Once read a theory that Scarlett was the New South

Melanie the Old South. Interesting theory.

And yes, how can you not love Scarlett? She was a bitch but she was a great bitch.

[Haole Girl]

67. Yes, she was!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

81. That's exactly it, Mutineer!

And welcome to DU! :hi:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

93. Yes, except for wasting her time on Ashley

when Rhett was around.

[SeattleGirl]

95. Some people just can't see what's right in front of them, at least

not at first.

[idgiehkt]

96. do y'all think Rhett came back?

I mean, does he in the book, or when he walks out, is that the end??

One thing I do love about that movie are her last lines, 'tomorrow is another day'.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

97. He doesn't come back....

She goes to him. But she has to figure out how to capture his interest again without groveling. Rhett wouldn't like her if she groveled.

[SeattleGirl]

99. That's in the follow up book, right?

After much trepidation, I finally read the sequel. Not nearly as good as GWTW, but not as bad as I feared it might be.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

100. I have no idea...Never read it.

I figured it would suck....

[SeattleGirl]

101. It didn't, actually.

As I said, it wasn't as good as the original, and I was not sure for the longest time whether I wanted to read it, but when I did, I found it was pretty decent.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

105. Maybe I'll give it a whirl, then!

:hi::toast:

[SeattleGirl]

106. If you do, I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it.

:toast:

[Seabiscuit]

102. I may be the only American who never saw "Gone With The Wind".

[SeattleGirl]

103. Nah, I don't think you are. I recall several other threads about the

movie where some people (Americans) said that they had never seen it.

[Haole Girl]

104. Well, obviously, I recommend it!

Just give yourself a lot of time to watch it... it is a long movie. :hi:

[catzies]

107. BIG Scarlett fan here. Love the "book" Scarlett more than the "movie" Scarlett.

Before I say more I'll finish reading the thread to I don't repeat anything anyone else has said.

[SeattleGirl]

109. Same here, though I do love the movie. But the book has so much

more detail, that I think it makes Scarlett more understandable.

[supernova]

113. Mmmm... Lord Fenton

the only thing that redeems that movie!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

112. She was a strong, complicated woman...

who was a product of her time. Her assigned role in those days was "southern belle", who was never to ask for something directly but to use the only tool allowed her: her femininity. So, initially, she connived, manipulated, and wheedled via her femininity.

But Scarlett was smart in ways that were "unfeminine" too -- and later she would push beyond what society limited her sex to and became an independent business woman who was incredibly good with "numbers".

What she accomplished -- saving her whole family and Ashley's family from sure destititution -- was an amazing feat for a woman of her time. How she did it was brutal and often cruel, but, between her personal limitations and the limitations imposed by society, she what she did with what she had available.

I love her character - she was flawed, limited, but fierce in her determination to do whatever was neccessary to save her family.