Gone With the Wind Part 3

Gone With the Wind Wednesday                               

Third installment of a review and recap of Gone with the Wind.

Today will be a review of two of the main characters which are arguably the same characters in the book and the film adaptation.

Scarlett O'Hara - She is the main character, the heroine.  She was born on her family's plantation Tara.  It is hard to say whether Scarlett is a dynamic or static character.  A lot happens to her but she seems to remain true to herself.  I believe Rhett calls her "selfish to the end".  She remains true to herself even while marrying two men whom she did not love.  The first of which is Charles Hamilton, a Wilkes cousin from Atlanta and Melanie Wilkes's brother.  The second man she marries is her sister Suellen's (Susan Elinor) longtime beau, Frank Kennedy "old ginger whiskers".  She marries these men for her own reasons.  The first because she is a girl of sixteen who has just been devastated by her childhood crush marrying his cousin from Atlanta.  More about Scarlett later.

Rhett Butler - Rhett is a man that was born as a Charleston aristocrat.  Charleston at that time had a very tight knit upper-class part of their society.  Rhett had chosen to rebel in his youth and had spent a good part of his life thumbing his nose at southern conventions.  When we are introduced to him he is a blockade runner.  A real rascal according to southern genteel society's standards.  This was the south in the mid 1800's.

This was an introduction to Scarlett and Rhett.

Next Wednesday the characters to be featured will be:

Melanie Hamilton/Wilkes and Ashley Wilkes

Clip: When Scarlett meets Rhett: