Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind—“A Good Woman is Hard to Find”

By Karen E. B. Elliott,

English Department Faculty

February 26, 2019

 

Margaret Mitchell was once quoted as saying that “in a time of weakness, I wrote a novel.” Well, if writing one of the most read, translated, and published novels in the world was a weakness, I am sorry that she died so young that we’d never get to see her strengths.

I decided to teach this novel a few years ago, and without a doubt, for most of my students, whether male or female, black or white, it’s their favorite. There are few novels whose characterization is so rich, even for the minor characters. At first, however, many of my students struggle—the novel is distinctly Southern—and for most of my beloved Northern, New England, so-called Progressive Massachusetts types, Mitchell dispels a lot of myths. She openly condemns Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and she attacks a couple of women from Maine in one particular scene (where they make racist remarks to Uncle Peter) that will make you want to change those coastal vacation plans.

Mitchell shows that racism is not just a Southern problem, nor is it still. It’s a Northern one.  And according to Mitchell, what makes the Northerners far worse than the Southerners is that behind their supposed intellect, their apparent logic, and progressive politics, you’ve got a region of hypocrites who wear anti-slavery superhero capes, but what they’re really after is money, profit, political support, and all for the building of a new economy based on the rise of industrialization. The heart of the matter is accurately expressed by the famous Rhett Butler who not only predicts the war’s outcome, but also accurately pegs (and despises) the root of most issues—it’s hypocrisy.  He says to Scarlett, “It’s only hypocrites like you, my dear lady, just as black at heart but trying to hide it, who become enraged when called by their right names” (Mitchell 223).  This definitely applies to all of us, as the American way is to wear your best façade to church, work, school, or on your college application.

As Christians, then, it is easy to identify with Scarlett, despite what we feel for or about her. She does not stand for any cause which will actually cost her anything.  She is truly ambivalent—we are attracted to her because we support her ability to survive and beat the odds, to play the world at their own game and seemingly win, but we are repulsed by some of her choices and what drives her to make them.  I have found that characters my students struggle with the most are the ones we can most identify with. She is, as Rhett declared, a hypocrite.  She feigns righteousness when she needs to get something, and her true nature arises when she is cornered like a cat.  She can be vicious.  And at the heart of it all, she doesn’t really care that much about what other people think—only if it means that it exempts her from the best parties.  She covets another woman’s husband; she marries her sister’s fiancé, but she loves her home and will do anything to save it, even if it means offering herself physically.  “I won’t let the Yankees [the world] lick [or take advantage of] me” she continually says, and don’t we all feel this way? She lives in a world that clearly doesn’t respect women—certainly does not acknowledge their intellect—and she knows that the world revolves around money, so she will do anything to get it, and all the time she rationalizes this acquisition.  She does believe in God, but she does not trust that He has her best interests in mind; in fact, she doesn’t believe that anyone does.  In many ways, she is the quintessential American woman, which is not flattering.

Mitchell, however, does not allow her reader to laud her main character or rationalize her choices, much like we Christians like to do.  Scarlett is contrasted by Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, who Rhett claims (and makes no other claim like it about any other woman i...

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