In Gone with the Wind, the book and the movie, Rhett leaves

[raccoon]

Scarlett with Melanie and her newborn baby, a young female slave, and Scarlett's little boy (not in the movie) to make their way to Tara through war-torn Georgia. The war is still going on, the invading army is wandering around the state, Scarlett has a horse and wagon and a gun and the aforementioned dependents. Rhett leaves her to join the Confederate Army.

What's wrong with this picture?!?!?!

At the end of the book, Scarlett rationalizes this away, thinking, "he knew I'd get through somehow."

I still say, What's wrong with this picture? Rhett was supposed to be madly in love with her, and he leaves her to the tender mercies of an invading army. Huh.

[exlrrp]

1. Uh--its only a movie?

(and a book too) You can find it in the Fiction section.

[raccoon]

3. This is the Fiction section. nt

[Warpy]

2. Don't forget who she was

and that he pitied any Yankee who got near her.

Women are not all fragile flowers who need to be tended by men. They had a better chance of getting through without a male of fighting age with them. Remember, he'd have been a great target---for both sides. He got her the cart and horse and loaded the others into it and got them close to home on a road that hadn't been cut.

Scarlett was tough as an old boot and he knew it. He was secure enough in himself that he loved her for just that quality.

Too bad it's fiction.

[raccoon]

5. That's true,

"he'd have been a great target---for both sides."

I still think he should've stayed.

[Virginia Dare]

4. A couple of things that I remember, though it's been a while

since I saw the movie or read the book.

Rhett tried to talk Scarlett into leaving Atlanta but she wouldn't believe that the Yankees would actually make it that far south. It seemed that the people of the Confederacy had been deluding themselves for so long, they couldn't face reality.

Another thing was that Scarlett's stubborn pride wouldn't let her accept Rhett's assistance, and she was so obsessed with Ashley Wilkes, she couldn't let herself fall for Rhett, so she kept pushing him away.

As I recall in the movie, I don't remember exactly how it happened in the book, but Rhett did eventually show up and help her out of Atlanta.

[iamjoy]

9. Scarlett Stayed In Atlanta 'Cos of Ashley

Melanie was in a "delicate condition" and couldn't leave. Scarlett wanted nothing more than to go home to Tara (and Ellen, her mother). But, Scarlett had promised Ashley that she'd look after Melanie. Ashley had been sent to a Yankee prison camp (for P.O.W.s) and they didn't know if he was alive. Scarlett stayed because she loved Ashley. Denial about the Yankees making it may have been part of it, but not the main reason.

[SheilaT]

6. As I recall,

Rhett suddenly found himself overwhelmed with a sense of patriotism and loyalty to the Confederacy and so went off to enlist and fight during its dying throes. Keep in mind that the book upon which the movie was based was written by a southerner who herself had grown up with romantic notions about the Confederacy, how it was a finer and nobler country that that evil Union. The actual grim realities of slavery were never shown, just happy and well-treated slaves who, if they were house servants, were considered "part of the family". Even the few field hands given any book or movie time were shown as simple and contented with their lot.

People tended to believe in and live very traditional roles back then (both the era of the novel and of when it was written). However, Scarlett is a very strong person, and Margaret Mitchell made that very clear. She's constantly bothered by the restrictions placed upon her as a woman, although she never really tries to be independent. She marries three times because it is only as a married woman she can have a life of her own.

[MedleyMisty]

7. I know that's what Rhett said

But I sort of got the feeling that it was for close to the same reasons that people in the military today go back to Iraq even if they disagree with the war.

I read the book five times in a row when I was 12, and have reread it a lot since then.

I think he saw the Confederate soldiers retreating, sick and beaten and pathetic, and felt guilty that he was healthy and whole and safe. I don't think it was so much the Confederate ideal that got to him. He was cynical and realistic and always saw what was really going on and even exploited the situation to get rich. I think the sight of hungry and weak soldiers carrying their dying comrades broke through his defenses. It was sort of a personal honor thing more than patriotism or whatever.

And yeah, he really did know that Scarlett would be all right. Plus their relationship was weird and full of manipulation and passive aggressiveness, and he wouldn't have actually wanted to show any tenderness or anything.

And yeah, I agree about the depiction of slavery in the book. But at least Mitchell didn't shy away from realistic depictions of the misery caused by war.

[mitchum]

8. Because he already knew that she was a sociopath?

[pitohui]

17. that's what i thought was the unstated reason

i've known men IRL to comment that they went to prison or signed up for the army to get away from a woman, it can be hard to break the hold a sociopath has over your mind, scarlett was not a pleasant person to my mind

[iamjoy]

10. Because He Was A Scoundrel

Even though he loved Scarlett (or was obsessed with her), he didn't always treat her with the delicacy as one would expect a gentleman of that era to treat a lady. He didn't think Scarlett was really a lady, anyway. He could be very cruel to her sometimes, but then, she could be pretty rotten too.

The real question is, why didn't Rhett stay to protect Melanie? Although he didn't love Melanie in a passionate sense, he was very devoted to her, and admired her greatly. Melanie had just been through a difficult confinement, too.

[raccoon]

12. Good question.

"why didn't Rhett stay to protect Melanie? Although he didn't love Melanie in a passionate sense, he was very devoted to her, and admired her greatly. Melanie had just been through a difficult confinement, too."

[KiraBS]

11. It was the moment he decided to fight...

Shamed by the burning of Atlanta, that he had been so mocking of the boys that joined the Confederate Army.A couple of Women and a baby where a very low priority. Remember how Scarlett couldn't get a doctor to Melanie and she had to get her through a terrible birth.
He does also know she is very, very strong and also he was attracted to her because she was strong and selfish, he loved her but only as it suited him.
I also think it was important to toughen her character because once she got home, everyone depended on her, in a world where women were considered delicate.

[raccoon]

13. I think you’ve got it—the author wanted to toughen

Scarlett's character by her being the only person at Tara that everyone could depend on. If Rhett had accompanied them all the way to Tara, everyone would have expected him to be the Alpha Human.

[iamjoy]

14. We Shouldn't Bring Up The Author

the question is why did RHETT leave Scarlett on the road to Tara. If the author simply used that as a device to toughen Scarlett without the character having a justification for their actions, then it is weak writing - almost like a ghost in the machine. Ms. Mitchell should have had a reason or justification in Rhett's mind for him abandoning Scarlett - not "oh, I need Scarlett to be tough at Tara and Rhett not to be there, so I'll just have him do this."

[raccoon]

15. I agree with you there,

"Ms. Mitchell should have had a reason or justification in Rhett's mind for him abandoning Scarlett "

but I think that was the main reason. Writers shouldn't do things like that--but they do.

Same as in one of Nicolas Sparks's books (I think it was) a bad guy needs transportation and of course finds a car with the keys in it, for the convenience of the author. LOL, :shrug:, whatever.

[Bullwinkle925]

16. I read this book as a young teen (admittedly for the steamy sex scenes)

and then picked it up a few years ago to give it another 'go'. I was surprised to find it to be a feminist book. I hadn't thought of it in that way, of course as a young teenasger. Also gave me a good look into the social hierarchy of the South in varying ways. I'm glad I read it again and will probably pick it up in a couple more years to see if I discover anything new I've missed the first 2 times.