Based on the novel Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, the production of a film with the same name is world-famous. With its release date falling in 1939, the movie starred Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Vivien Leigh, and Olivia de Havilland and went on to win multiple academy awards for its apparent ability to capture the Old South as it was before the coming of the American Civil War. Presently, the movie has become one of the classic romantic renditions of turbulent love affairs, with a particular emphasis on Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara, who, as they fall in love with each other, witness the Union falling apart before the North fights the South. Evidently, the American Civil War of between 1861 and 1865 wreaked havoc on the lives of the Southern plantation owners who joined the fight solely to protect their interests in slave ownership. Accordingly, the effects of the battles remain clear as the mentioned lovers struggle to make things work. Nonetheless, for viewers, Gone With the Wind provides a description of the Southern States of America from the commencement of the Civil War and through the Reconstruction Era. Central to the themes of the movie are the roles of Southern women. This paper focuses on the presentation of racial and gender relations in Antebellum, and to an extent Postbellum South, within the production of Gone With the Wind.
Foremost, the movie is entertaining in its right just because it includes multiple storylines throughout the three hours and fifty-two minutes. To most people, the film and the novel on which the narrative revolves are a matter of romance and the need to survive through turbulent times. However, a particular incident suggests the opposite. In the last scene, after Scarlett O’Hara realizes she has lost everything, she passionately declares that she would go home to Tara “after all, tomorrow is a new day” (Gone With the Wind 3hrs52mins). The message is one of hope as opposed to the expected cries of desperation in the event of a divorce [Rhett Butler had just voiced his decision to leave Scarlett]. Thus, it is possible that instead of a love tale, Mitchell’s text was one of survival and by extension, so was the movie. By that logic, the plot appears to compare one couple to another as it focuses on delivering the theme of perseverance in the face of a war-torn State. On one hand, there is Rhett Butler and his wife Scarlett O’Hara, the couple which breaks social norms without caring what their neighbors and friends think of their behavior. For instance, when Scarlett loses her first husband to the war, she has to mourn for a particular period, and the community expects her to do so without complaint. Thus, she wears black clothes and cannot dance at parties. However, Butler helps her break the rule and the two dance during an event to aid the Confederate soldiers fighting at the battlefronts (Gone With the Wind 44mins). On the other hand, there is Ashley Wilkes and his wife Melanie, aside from the fact that they share one surname, they epitomize the traditional society of the South. They are proper and make the ideal couple as they get married simply because they are alike (Gone With the Wind 30mins).
Through the lives of the two couples, viewers gain insight into the societies of the South. Scarlett is the daughter of a slave owner and lives all her life exposed to slavery. Hence, she has a black nanny who cares for her to the extent of dressing her person before a party (Gone With the Wind 17mins). Contrastingly, Butler has been to the North, and if his words are anything to go by, there are high chances that he is rich after investing in the Northern factories. Thus, Butler’s character hints at the fact that the Northerners boasted “factory, shipyards, coal mines, and a fleet to bottle up the [Southern] harbors and starve [them] to death” (Gone With the Wind 27mins). Evidently, his words predicted the inevitable defeat of the South. Finally, the Mr. and Mrs. Ashley Wilkes are Southern in all their mannerisms. For example, their deep-rooted support for the Confederate State propels the man to volunteer as a soldier and the woman to give her wedding ring as an act of support for the troops; in her words, the wedding ring would “help [her] husband more off [her] finger” (41mins). Accordingly, it is possible to discern the condition of the United States by concentrating on the four individuals who also happen to be the main characters in the story.
Now, to understand the depiction of life in the South, there is a need to consider the relevance of black slavery and its effects on the white and black communities residing in the regions. Southerners were plantation owners who relied on the institution of slavery to gain free labor for cotton production. The entire system revolved around racism with white supremacy declaring black individuals as inferior and perfect for enslavement. In the movie, racism is evident as it emerges not only in connection with the persons of African descent but also against the Northern States for considering the emancipation of all slaves. For instance, throughout the movie, the talks of “Yankees” becomes akin to one of the despicable people not worth of the respect given to American citizens. It is no wonder when Scarlett kills a Northern soldier she shows little to no remorse despite the fact that he is also a white person; in other words, the war desensitized the communities and turned allies into enemies (Gone With the Wind 1hr55mins). The relations between the whites aside, the central depiction of racism is in the African American characters. First, the Caucasian men and women use words such as “Nigger” and “Darkie” to refer to the black slaves. One such slave is Prissy, the African American nanny who Scarlett often reprimands for one reason or another. However, the conventional understanding of master/slave relations is missing in the movie because the mentioned scenarios are as far as the film depicts slavery.
In other words, whereas scholars have emphasized on slavery as a brutal institution, the film shows the opposite effect as the slaves appear fond of their owners and even content with their position as enslaved individuals. Scarlett and Mummy have a strong bond that borders one of mother and child as they engage in constant banter with the black woman having the audacity to reprimand the superior white female (Gone With the Wind 15-17mins). In yet another scene, Scarlett recognizes her family’s slaves as they march to aid the Confederate soldiers in Atlanta [with smiles on their faces]; the encounter shows the mutual love between a woman and her human chattels (Gone With the Wind 1hr05mins). In the meeting with their mistress, the slaves even state that they “would stop [the] Yankees” and after a polite exchange, they each go their separate ways (Gone With the Wind 1hr05mins).
In Theodore Roosevelt and the Divided Character of American Nationalism, Gary Gerstle provides an explanation on why the relationship that exists between Scarlett and the slaves has a flaw. According to the man, the fact that the United States Constitution legalized slavery limited freedom “to those individuals who were free and white” (1280). Extensively, since the document highlighted the formation of the United States as an independent country, such legislations might have been meant to last for all eternity and the American Civil War directly interfered with the same. Hence, Scarlett was aware that her relationships with the black men and women were subject to the purchasing power of her father who was the rightful owner of the slaves. Meanwhile, slaves were not keen on remaining in their deplorable state under the control of the white men and women. After all, even as early as 1850, when Congress endorsed the Fugitive Slave Act as part of the Compromise of 1850, every black was ready to “leave immediately with [his or her] hoe on [his or her] shoulder, for a land of liberty” (Branham 633). Thus, insisting that the blacks relished their conditions in bondage remains a baseless argument because all evidence proves the contrary.
With the given facts in mind, the movie fails to show a genuine nature of slavery; however, its interpretation of Southern women and their roles in the society appear to be on point. Apparently, even in the early years of American history, it was the duty of “women reformers” to ensure that the men were “inculcated with manly virtues” (Gerstle 1300). In other words, mothers were the homemakers and the first teachers through whom their children, especially the sons, gained worldly exposure. Hence, as Gone With the Wind shows the American Civil War from the perspective of devoted mothers, daughters, and wives, the theme seems well-placed if not perfect for the movie. On that note, talks about women in the film focus on the white women exclusively; additionally, they ought to be engaged in the planter’s system for them to depict the effects of the Civil War on their persons.
Accordingly, for one to appreciate the role of Southern women as depicted in the movie there is a need to concentrate on Scarlett and Melanie seeing that they represent different ideologies as per their being members of the fairer gender. Scarlett lacks female friends and in her perceptions, the other girls lack the wit that she possesses because they allow traditions to control them in all spheres of society. As a result, Scarlett sees the other women as her rivals because, despite their timid traits, they still desire the idea of marrying a gentleman (Gone With the Wind 32mins). Scarlett wants marriage too, and any form of competition remains unwanted. Notably, since she sees competition in every other woman and refuses to engage them outside the social events, Scarlett gains more enemies than she does allies. On the contrary, there is Melanie, the other prominent female character in the movie. Melanie is different from Scarlett and for that reason, has multiple friends of the same sex. Throughout the film, one cannot help but compare the two women as each one appears to reflect the other’s different nature. As part of their differences, and as mentioned before, the suppressed nature of Melanie’s emotions makes her the most attractive woman in society. For instance, she is well aware that Scarlett desires her fiancé, but she refuses to cut ties with the woman, determined to see the good in her person. Scarlett is beautiful, but her demeanor would not make a good wife for the strict southern man that is Ashley because she is too spirited; hence, Ashley wisely realizes that Melanie is a better choice as opposed to the O’Hara female (Gone With the Wind 19-20mins).
The concentration on Scarlett and Melanie shows what the typical southern man (Ashley) desired, and it was in contrast to what men, with more principles than what the Southern culture demanded, (Butler) wanted. Moreover, the two women also show the importance of marriage in the antebellum south a marital union was similar to the fulfillment of the destiny of any Southern woman since a perfect match is all that the women talk about in social gatherings (Gone With the Wind 19-23mins). In a depiction of marriages even in the Postbellum Era was one that went hand in hand with being an American. To marry the “girl of [one’s] dreams” allowed one to become “a proud American” as marriage was one of the concepts that epitomized the United States as the land of opportunity (Branham 1298). The South was no different as the idea of becoming a wife, and a mother was significant to all the women.
In conclusion, Gone With the Wind defends the pride of the South by presenting slavery as a comfortable arrangement between masters and slaves and at the same time, showing the ability of the women to serve multiple purposes within society. Through Scarlett, it is evident that even a Northerner could love a Southern woman because she is outgoing and adventurous enough; a trait that one could associate with the Yankees for defying centuries of culture as they fought for abolition. Melanie portrays the South as calm and peaceful with obedient wives who would mourn their husband by dressing in black. The North was wrong as it robbed mothers and wives of their children and husbands while fighting for people who were obviously comfortable with their situation.
Works Cited
Branham, Robert James. ""Of Thee I Sing": Contesting "America"." American Quarterly 48.4 (1996): 623-652. Web. <http://www.jstor.org>.
Gerstle, Gary. "Theodore Roosevelt and the Divided Character of American Nationalism." The Journal of American History 86.3 (1999): 1280-1307. Web. <http://www.jstor.org>.
Gone with the Wind. Dir. Victor Fleming. Perf. Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland Clark Gable. 1939. Web.
