Scarlett O`Hara: The Southern Lady as New Woman

Scarlett O'Hara: The Southern Lady as New Woman
Author(s): Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 391-411
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712525 .
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SCARLETT O'HARA:
THE SOUTHERN LADY AS
NEW WOMAN
ELIZABETH FOX-GENOVESE
State Universityof New York,Binghamton
IF
GONE
WITH
THE
WIND
HAS
BECOME
SOMETHING
OF
AN
AMERICAN
classic,ithas done so as muchbyitspopularappealas byanyaesthetic
successincludeall theclasofitsrecord-breaking
merit.The components
of
trappings
ofpopularromancewrappedintheirresistible
sic ingredients
saga of sectionalcatashistoricaladventureand glamour-thehurtling
thegreenIrisheyes
thenostalgiafora lostcivilization,
tropheandrebirth,
of a captivatingand unrulyMiss, and the langorous,steel-sprung
of her RhettButler.But, if the novel failsto transcendits
dynamism
it
femaletradition,
to popularcultureand to a sentimental
indebtedness
it fromthestandard
thatdistinguishes
betraysa complexity
nonetheless
historical
melodrama.'
mass-market
to
successofGoneWithTheWindtestifies
The extraordinary
overnight
Critical
withwhichitengagedtheAmericanimagination.
theimmediacy
acclaim,whichlikenedit to VanityFair and Warand Peace, as wellas
thesaga ofScarlettO'Hara as a signifipopularsales,rapidlyestablished
Scarlettand herworldenteredthe
cantadditionto thenationalculture.2
1 The problemof genre meritsparticularattentionwithrespect to Gone WithThe Wind,
but transcendsthe scope of this essay. As a novel, Gone WithThe Wind falls somewhere
between the great bourgeois novels and recent mass-marketmelodramas or gothics, and
at once historicallymoreaccurate and psychologblendsfeaturesof all. Less programmatic,
ically more complex thanthe classic melodrama,it nonethelessapproaches the melodrama
in that its "universal moral order validates currentsocial attitudes.And, like the social
melodrama,it basically affirmsa connectionbetweentraditionalmiddle-classdomesticmoralityand "the operative principles of the cosmos." See John G. Cawelti, Adventure,
Mystery,and Romance (Chicago: Univ. ofChicago Press, 1976),on thesequestionsofgenre.
Gone WithThe Wind also owes much to the traditionof the historicalnovel analyzed by
Georg Lukacs, The Historical Novel (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963).
2 David 0. Selznek's spectacularfilmonlyextendedits impact.Amongmany,see Roland
Flamini,Scarlett, Rhett,and a Cast of Thousands: The Filming of Gone WithThe Wind
(New York: Collier, 1975); and Jack Temple Kirby,Movie-Made Dixie: The South in the
AmericanImagination (Baton Rouge: Louisiana Univ. Press, 1978).
392
American Quarterly
mainstreamof American life, therebyincorporatingthe Old South, its
beauties and its travails,firmlyinto the prevailingmythof the American
past. In thisrespect,Gone WithThe Windcelebrated,even as it contributed to, the restorationof the South to the nation and the nation to the
South.
Like so many spontaneous culturalmanifestations,the appearance of
Gone With The Wind had been carefullyengineered. In the 1930s the
Americanpublic was showinga taste forhistoricalfictionand southern
fiction.When Harold Latham acquired the manuscriptforMacmillan in
1935,he was on a tripthroughthe South lookingforsouthernmateriallooking,in fact,forGone WithThe Wind,had he only knownit existed.3
So Mitchell's novel fitinto the demand of a popular sensibilitythat,as
WarrenSusman has argued,had takena conservativeturn.The American
people, in Susman's view,
enteredan era of depressionand war somehowawareof a culturein crisis,
AmericanWay of Life,
alreadyat the outsetin search of a satisfactory
fascinated
bytheidea ofcultureitself,witha senseofsomeneedfora kindof
in a worldsomehowbetweeneras.4
commitment
The first World War looms as the critical experience of cultural
transformation.There was an element of strain and unrealityin the
prosperityand "liberation" of the twenties-a glossingover of problems
unresolved. This link between the war and the two postwar decades
provided the context for the draftingand receptionof Gone With The
Wind. Its compelling dynamism derived as much from its implicit
engagementwith the America of the 1920s as fromits outwardconcern
with the Civil War and Reconstruction.Never just another historical
romanceof magnoliasand moonlight,Gone WithThe Windgrappledwith
the natureof the New South, withtwentieth-century
problemsof social
change and tension, and with the dilemmas of female identityin the
modernworld.
The storyof Scarlett O'Hara, which opens and closes the novel and
organizes the interveningflood of historicalcataclysm, drew countless
readers throughthe collapse of one civilizationand the birthof another.
fromher readers by simultaneScarlettengaged a special identification
and
the
tensionsof femalebeing and passion
ously mobilizing
obscuring
thatplagued Mitchelland her contemporaries.The appeal of Gone With
3 Finis Farr, Margaret Mitchell of Atlanta (New York: Avon, 1974), 110-13. See also
Richard Gray, The Literatureof Memory: Modern Writersof the American South (Baltimore: JohnsHopkins Univ. Press, 1977), 93, 151.
4 Introd., in Susman, ed., Culture and Commitment,1929-1945 (New York: George
Brazillier,1973); and his "The Thirties," in Stanley Coben and Lorman Ratner,eds., The
Developmentof an American Culture (Englewood Cliffs,N.J.: Prentice-Hall,1970).
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
393
TheWindhasprovedso broadandenduring
as todefyanysingleexplanation.Surelyeveryfemalereaderwillalwayscherishherown Scarlett.
Andthenovel'sattraction
formencan be tracedto Rhett'sspecialqualities,inparticular
thattoughandferocious
romanticism
so reminiscent
of
Hemingway's
heroesor Humphrey
Bogart'sroles.Yet anypossibleexplanationofthenovel'sappeal shouldtakeaccountofMitchell'sspecial
abilityto renderScarlett'sexperienceat once immediateand distant.
Holding a carefulline between mystification
and autobiographical
realism,Mitchellcasts Scarlett'stale neitheras a gothicfantasynora
portrait
ofthemodernwoman.Instead,Mitchellchoosesto wed Scarlett
to the deathand rebirth
of the South,but she also uses thathistorical
specificity
to veil altogether
contemporary
concerns.Gone WithThe
Wind,inshort,restson a seriesofdisplacements
thatbothbindthereader
withan illusionofpsychological
and masktheimmediacy
of
immediacy
socialissues.Mitchell'sdecisionto weighequallyScarlettandtheagony
of social upheaval,the individualand historicalprocess,forcesus to
considerboth strandsof the novel together,howevercomplexthe
reading.
Like anytext,Gone WithTheWindmustbe takenon itsownterms,as
a discreteentitywithrules,logic,and meaningof itsown. Yet, also like
anytext,it mustbe read in fullhistorical
and culturalcontext.We gain
nothing
frominsisting
on a radicalpurity
thatseversthetextentirely
from
itsproduction
andreception,
fromthemotivations-open
andburied-of
itsauthororfromthepredispositions
ofitsreaders.Thefullcomplexity
of
MargaretMitchell'spersonalrelationto hernovelexceedsthescope of
thisessay, but no readingof the novel shoulddismissthe relationas
insignificant.
Mitchell,whohad notassumedherownadultfemaleidentitywithoutdetours,wrotea singlenovelthat,whateverits scope and
rangeofcompelling
characters,
focusedupona femaleadolescent'spassage to womanhood.
Andheraccountof Scarlett'spassageraisesall the
questionsoffemaleidentity,
role,and sexualitythatfigured
inAmerican
consciousnessduringthefirstthreedecadesof thetwentieth
century.5
If Mitchelldid not writethe bildungsroman
of a twentieth-century
southernfemaleadolescenceand youngwomanhood,she nonetheless
understood
femalebeingas historically
specific.6
By displacingScarlett's
careerhistorically
whilesimultaneously
herwithcontemporconfronting
5Among many,see James McGovern, "The AmericanWoman's Pre-WorldWar I Freedom in Manners and Morals," Journal of American History, 55 (1968), 315-33; Estelle
Freedman, "The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920's," Journal of
AmericanHistory,61 (1974), 372-93; Gerald E. Critoph,"The Flapper and Her Critics," in
Carol V. R. George, ed., RemembertheLadies: Essays in Honor of Nelson ManfredBlake
(Syracuse, N.Y.: Univ. of Syracuse Press, 1975).
Cf. Dawson Gaillard, "Gone With The Wind as Bildungsroman,or Why Did Rhett
ButlerReally Leave ScarlettO'Hara?" Georgia Review, 28 (1974), 9-18.
394
American Quarterly
andsocialconventions
to complete
arydilemmas,
shereliesuponhistory
just as she
of femaleidentity,
thesilencesshe leaves in herexploration
thepaina fashion,
reliesuponthemto contain,inhowevercontradictory
hisfuland confusing
desiresofthefemaleself.Indeed,by emphasizing
she
toryand socialorder,whichshe mergeswiththeidea ofcivilization,
female
obscuresthemeasureofherpersonalrebellionagainstprescribed
a rationalization
ofmiddle-class
roles.In Gone WithTheWind,sheoffers
Yet
Americanvalues, especiallywhitemiddle-classsocial domination.
a historical
pedigreefora natherationalization
dependson establishing
andperceivedsocial
tionalrulingclass in a periodofadvancedcapitalism
is lacedwithveiledchallengesto
moreover,
change.Thisrationalization,
theprevailing
gendersystem,evenas itproclaimsthatgendersystemas
explorathecornerstone
of socialorder.At itscore lies a psychological
tionof the place of womenwithinthe rulingclass and of the tensions
betweentheirsubjectivedesiresand theirassignedobjectiverole.
MitchellinvestsScarlettwiththeconsciousand unconsciousconflicts
thatinform
thetransition
fromexplosiveand tensegirlhoodto sociallyinwhichthattransition
is open
determined
womanhoodunderconditions
inthe
to reinterpretation.
By castingthedilemmasofherowngeneration
an autobiographical
reading
contextoftheCivilWar,Mitchellprohibited
fromthemostpressingemoofhertext.She intendedto distanceherself
tionalconflicts,
to protectherselfas well as her privacyfromcurious
betweenMitchelland Scarlett,even
readers.The one-to-one
relationship
if it could be established,matterslittle,and is certainly
less important
thanthekindof femaleidentity
thatattractedso manyfemalereaders.
the personalcase historyof
The point,afterall, is less to understand
a fictional
its mediationthrough
MargaretMitchellthanto understand
characterthatrespondedto thefantasiesof so manyAmericanwomen.
thatunderliestheCivilWar
Onlyinthissensedoes the1920ssubstratum
thattheroots
becomesignificant.
But,inthissense,itmatters
foreground
andexperienceofa woman
ofGone WithThe Windlie intheimagination
of
who came to maturity
insisted,thegeneration
with,as she frequently
flappers.
Mitchelllivedmostofherlifein theAtlantaof
Bornin 1900,Margaret
materials
availableandher
theNew South.The preliminary
biographical
own Gone WithThe WindLetters portraya young woman tornby the
claimsoffamily
conventional
career,
behavior,an independent
traditions,
and a strongstreakof social and sexual rebellion.Her correspondence
in her self-perception-or,
exudes contradictions
better,her preferred
misused
can onlybe capturedbythatgenerally
self-presentation-which
so much
styleremindsone ofnothing
term,ambivalence.Her epistolary
as herowndescriptions
of Scarlett:"She knewhowto smileso thather
so herwidehoopskirtsswayed
dimplesleaped,howto walkpigeon-toed
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
395
howtolookup intoa man'sfaceandthendrophereyesand
entrancingly,
bat the lids rapidlyso thatshe seemeda-tremble
withgentleemotion.
Most of all she learnedhow to conceal frommen a sharpintelligence
beneatha face as sweetand blandas a baby's" (59).7 Or, "At sixteen,
thanksto Mammyand Ellen,she lookedsweet,charming
andgiddy,but
she was, in reality,self-willed,
vain and obstinate.She had the easily
stirred
passionsofherIrishfather
andnothing
exceptthethinnest
veneer
ofhermother'sunselfish
and forebearing
nature"(59).Although
Scarlett
has nothing
butcontempt
forthesimpering
girlswholiveouttheprescriptionsof southernladyhood,she nevertheless
adopts the conventions
whenshe wantsto attractmen.
Although
GoneWithTheWindcannotbe reducedtoa simplereadingof
ScarlettO'Hara as MargaretMitchell,bitsofMitchell'sattitudes
can be
foundscattered
amongvariouscharacters,
and Scarlettherself
does containattributes
whichMitchellpossessed.Mitchell'spsychological
complexitiesemergefromthe structure
of the novel as a whole,fromthe
andtheirallottedrewardsor punishments.
interactions
amongcharacters
Mitchell'sown ambivalencebecomesclearestin thegaps thatseparate
or admirawithwhichshe investsa character-thesympathy
theaffects
tionshe makesthecharacterinvite-and thedestinyshe assignsto the
Mitchellbothto distance
The historical
further
character.
setting
permits
dramaandto bindthemto it. For she
herreadersfromthepsychological
as a specificseriesofevents-a dramainitsownright-and
uses history
as a common,nostalgicmemory
of a lostagrarianworld.
Herswas thelastgeneration
to growup withminimal
exposureto the
new culturesof radioand film.Her experienceof vicariously
livingthe
historiesof grandparents,
parents,and communities
through
thetelling
"I
andretelling
oftalesmusthavebeencommonthroughout
thecountry.
was abouttenyearsold," shewrote,"beforeI learnedthatthewarhadn't
and
endedshortly
beforeI was born."8 In theSouth,thestoriesoffathers
with
thelullabiesofmothers
ensureda widespreadandlivingengagement
the eventsof the Civil War and Reconstruction;
similarly,
elsewhere,
historicaleventsand interpretations
probablybecameintertwined
with
thepersonalidentities
ofmanyAmericans.
But,giventheemergence
ofa
nationalindustrial
and indeedcorporateeconomy,thatfamilialand local
identity
was becomingmorea privateand less a publicmatter.In this
7 Farr, Margaret Mitchell,is the most comprehensivetreatmentavailable. See also, Atlanta Historical Bulletin: Margaret MitchellMemorial Issue, 9 (1950); Robert L. Grover,
"Margaret Mitchell, The Lady From Atlanta," Georgia Historical Quarterly,52 (1968),
53-69; and RichardHarwell, ed., MargaretMitchell's Gone WithThe WindLetters,19361949 (New York: Macmillan,1976). All referencesto Gone WithThe Windwillbe to thefirst
edition(New York: Macmillan, 1936).
8 Harwell, ed., Letters, 3.
396
American Quarterly
recognizedrethatincreasingly
respectMitchellwrotefora generation
strandsin
as distinct,
yetin somesenseinterchangeable,
gionalidentities
was becoming
a nationalhistory.Even thespeciallegacyof southerners
of
anddefensiveness
undertheinfluence
everless a sourceofdivisiveness
theproponents
oftheNew SouthCreed.9The arrivalofWoodrowWilson
of southern
in the WhiteHouse openeda new stagein the vindication
andhis
ofpublicbuildings
concerns:withhimcametheracialsegregation
of D. W. Griffith's
racistfilm,Birthof a Nation.
personalendorsement
Gone WithThe Windmovesbetweena historiAs socialcommentary,
as a
aboutcivilization
of the 1860sand generalstatements
cal treatment
universalcategory.But the oscillationbetweenthe particularand the
To theextentthatthereadidentification.
generalinvitescontemporary
thestatements
aboutsociers' identification
bridgesthepastandpresent,
on contemporary
as commentaries
by the novelfunction
etyproffered
realism,howevercomplex,ensures
problems.Mitchell'spsychological
depictionof social
theappealofherworkfarmorethandoes herfaithful
psychological
powerand
of contemporary
types.It is the combination
For Mitchell'saccuthatcommandsattention.
historicalverisimilitude
ofconflicting,
witha number
racyandrealismofdetailcan be compatible
the precisionin detaildoes not
broad patterns.To put it differently,
or world
commitments,
abouttheargument,
necessarily
tellus anything
view whichthe detailis marshalledto serve. Whatdid Mitchellhope
a novel
to accomplishintellingthetaleofScarlettO'Hara, andinwriting
oftheCivilWarand Reconstruction?
The historicalsettingof Gone WithThe Windcannotbe reducedto a
of Mitchell'sera, forthatera, the 1920s,required
simpledisplacement
For Mitchell,theNew South,of which
foundations.10
specialhistorical
she was trying
to makesense as a settingforfemalelife,neededto be
values
in themainstream
ofAmericanlife.The middle-class
understood
whichwerebeingchallenged
ofthe1920shadtobe anchored
bytheferment
InGone With
to sectionalidiosyncracies.
notlimited
ina nationalculture,
through
a prismofconservahistory
The WindMitchellrereadsouthern
a certaindisplacement
fromthe
If sheindeedeffected
tiveprogressivism.
norto
1920sto theearlierperiod,she did so notto jettisonit entirely,
9 Paul Gaston, The New South Creed: A Study in Southern Mythmaking(New York:
Knopf, 1970). See also Michael O'Brien, The Idea of theAmericanSouth, 1920-1941 (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins Univ. Press, 1979); Daniel Aaron, The UnwrittenWar: American
Writersand the Civil War (New York: OxfordUniv. Press, 1973); and Gray,Literatureof
Memory.
10Mitchell's work may, in this respect, be compared to that of Ulrich Bonnell Phillips,
Life and Labor in the Old South (1929; rpt.Boston: Little,Brown, 1963). See also, Eugene
D. Genovese, "Ulrich Bonnell Phillips: Two Studies," in his In Red and Black: Marxian
History(New York: Pantheon,1968),259-98.
Explorationsin Southernand Afro-American
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
397
reduce it to a simplecase studyof the present,but literallyto reconstruct
it. She soughtto fashiona historyappropriateto the national concerns
and destinyof the New South.
Gone WithThe Wind as a whole transformsa particularregionalpast
intoa generalizednationalpast. In thisrespect,it contributesto integrating southernhistoryinto national historyeven as it reestablishes the
South, with all its idiosyncracies,as an only slightlyspecial case of an
inclusivenationaldestiny.Mitchell'santebellumSouth manifestsfeatures
characteristicof the nationas a whole. Even priorto the war, the cavalier
traditionis shown as infusedwiththe blood of Irishimmigrants.As W. J.
Cash does in The Mind of theSouth, Mitchellemphasizes the assimilation
of the various gradationsof the white elite-specifically excludingpoor
"white trash"-into a ruralprecursorof the industrialmiddleclass.1'
Throughoutthe novel, Mitchell explicitlyunderscores her interestin
the rise of Atlantaand the emergenceof a business culturein the South.
She returnsregularlyto the excitementand importanceof Atlanta as a
raw, growing,bustlingcity,the outgrowthof the railroads. She directly
points to the similaritiesbetween Atlanta and Scarlett: "Atlanta was of
[Scarlett's] own generation,crude with the crudities of youth and as
headstrongand impetuous as herself....
The two were roughlythe
same age and grew up together.During Scarlett's firstseventeen years,
Atlantadeveloped froma stake in thegroundintoa "thrivingsmallcityof
ten thousand that was the center of attentionfor the whole state. The
older quietercitieswere wontto look upon thebustlingnew townwiththe
sensationsof a hen which has hatched a duckling." The maternalreference should be noted. In the eyes of the staid Georgia towns,Atlantahad
littleto recommendit save some railroads"and a bunch of mightypushy
people . . . Scarlettalways liked Atlantaforthe very same reasons that
made Savannah, Augusta,and Macon condemnit. Like herself,the town
was a mixtureof the old and the new in Georgia, in which the old often
came off second best in its conflictswith the self-willedand vigorous
new"(141-43).
Atlanta,not the "old days," emerges as the victorin Gone WithThe
Wind.Tara, whichinitiallyfiguresas a dynamic,frontierplantation-the
locus of vitality-ends as a place of retreat.In the early pages of the
novel, Gerald O'Hara confidentlypoints to the land as the only reliable
source of wealth. Even duringthe war, Scarlett recalls and echoes his
view. But by the war's end, Scarlett must turnto the city to raise the
moneyto pay the taxes on Tara. And the section of the novel devoted to
II Cash, The Mind of theSouth (New York:
Knopf, 1941). Mitchellrecognizedthe similaritybetween her views and those of Cash and warmlypraised his book when it appeared.
American Quarterly
398
Reconstructiontakes place in the city. When, at the conclusion, Scarlett
thinksof returningto Tara, she thinksonly of a temporaryrefuge.With
onlythe slightestexaggeration,it could appear as the typicalhouse in the
countryto which busy city-dwellersrepair for rest and refreshment.In
this sense, it blends imaginativelywiththose New England farmhouses
thathad also once encompassed productivelabor. In Mitchell'srendition,
the Civil War becomes a nationalturningpointin the transitionfromrural
to urban civilization. And this reading permitsher to incorporatethe
South into a shared nationaldrama.
This visionof Atlantaas symbolof a generalurbanvitalityconflatesthe
destinyof the city with the defense of middle-classvalues. Mitchellreserves her endorsement for an enterprising, indigenous, southern
bourgeoisie-for those who can adapt to the timeswithoutsacrificingthe
essence of theirvalues. Her mercilessdepictionof the Yankees as rapacious, dishonest,politicalparasitesidentifiesthem as predators,not true
capitalists. Yankees are those who manipulateand stirup Negroes and
poor whites. She reservesher rage forthose who came South to milkthe
victim. She never denies the possibilityof honest Yankee businessmen,
comparable to theirsoutherncounterparts.But she does intendto make
thecountryas a whole understand"what the Southenduredin thedays of
Civil War and Reconstruction."12
Atlantastands forthe dynamismof the New South. At the core of the
novel lies Mitchell's fascinationwith the way in which a new world
emerges fromthe ashes of the old. Time and again, she returnsto the
problem of a dying civilization in confrontationwith one being born.
How, she asks, does one make money fromthe collapse of a society?
Who makes the money?How does one survive,adapt, and prosperin the
wake of a majorsocial upheaval? Historically,economically,and socially,
Atlanta provides the lynchpinof Gone WithThe Wind. By the novel's
close, all of the major charactershave tied theirdestiniesto thatof the
city. Similarly,the characterof Scarlettprovides the novel's identificatorycore. For against the collapse of the Old South and the birthof the
New, the novel chroniclesScarlett's comingof age-her painfulassumption of the burdens of southernwomanhood. The historicalcataclysm,
however, transformsScarlett's saga fromthe account of establishinga
personal identityas a woman intoan investigationof how to become-or
whetherto become-a lady.
The terms"woman" and "lady" evoke maturefemaleidentity,but in
different
forms."Woman" suggestsat once a more inclusive and more
privatefemale nature,whereas "lady" evokes the public representation
12
Harwell, ed., Letters, 57.
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
399
of thatnature.To be a lady is to have a publicpresence,to accept a public
responsibility.But the essence of that presence and that responsibility
consists in recognizingand maintaininga sexual division of labor that
relegatesany properwoman to the privatesphere. No lady would admit
thatshe, and not herhusband,ran theplantation.No lady would admitto
beinghungryin public. No lady would admitto sexual desire or pleasure.
In Mitchell's account, the Civil War and Reconstructionforced the
issue of how one remainsa lady undernew historicalconditions.Changing times permitand even requirenew modes of behavior. At the same
time, no society would survive did not its female membersinternalize
certainstandardsand responsibilities.In Gone WithThe Windthe special
case of appropriatefemalebehaviorand values in the collapse of a civilization is overdeterminedby the private drama of a girl who grows to
womanhood under tumultuousconditions. Mitchellprovides ample evidence thatScarlettwould have had troublewithor withoutthe war. But
withoutthe war, social structuresand normswould have provideda corset forher unrulyimpulses. It is Mammywho embodies those shattered
structuresand norms,and who strugglesin vain to tightenthe laces of the
corset.
"Whata youngmisscoulddo and whatshe couldnotdo wereas different
as
blackandwhitein Mammy'smind;therewas no middlegroundofdeportment
between.Suellenand Carreenwereclayin herpowerful
handsand harkened
respectfully
to mostofherwarnings.
Butithadalwaysbeena struggle
to teach
Scarlettthatmostofhernaturalimpulseswereunladylike.
Mammy'svictories
over Scarlettwerehard-won
and represented
a guileunknownto thewhite
mind"(76-77).
Scarlettstandsapartin Gone WithThe Wind,not merelybecause she is
the centralcharacter,but because forheralone amongthefemalecharacters do the years of the war and its aftermathrenderproblematicalthe
question of appropriategenderrole-the definitionof being, the aspiration to become, a lady. Any understandingof Scarlett's personalitymust
take account of the othercharacterswho, by respondingto the pressures
of thetimes,relateto her and provideboththe contextand the measuring
stick for her responses. Mitchellonce claimed that her novel had been
writtenentirely"throughScarlett'seyes. What she understoodwas written down; what she did not understand-and there were many things
beyondhercomprehension,theywere leftto the reader's imagination."13
Mitchell's claim will not withstandeven a cursoryreading of her text.
Possibly, she believed thatshe had writtenfromScarlett's pointof view.
13
Ibid., 41.
400
American Quarterly
But if so, she confusedher own identification
withScarlettand had trouble differentiating
her functionas presentorof Scarlett's vision fromher
functionas commentatoron Scarlett. In any event, whateverthe source
of Mitchell's ambivalence about sexuality,gender identity,and gender
role, it reaches schizophrenicproportions.Her relationshipwithScarlett,
herown creature,exemplifiesherdilemmaof identification
andjudgment.
ScarlettO'Hara is not beautiful.Neitheris she a lady, althoughin her
idiosyncraticway, she sentimentallyaspires to be one, providingthatit
does not cost too much. Her adored mother Ellen had been a lady;
Melanie Hamilton Wilkes is a lady; Aunt PittypatHamilton,Mrs. Merriwether,Mrs. Meade, India Wilkes,and the otherAtlantaworthiespride
themselveson being ladies. Her sisters,Suellen and Carreen, suffering
like Scarlett fromEllen's saintlydistance, are pale shadows of ladies.
Belle Watling,to be sure, is not a lady, but the classic whore witha heart
of gold, a shrewdand successfulbusiness woman in her own right,has a
fardeeper sense than Scarlettof the essentialqualities thatinformedtrue
ladyhood. But however splendidher personal qualities, the code cannot
admit her as a lady. Scarlett, for her part, has no time for irrelevant
niceties, and no understandingof the deeper meanings. Raw like the
burgeoningcity of Atlanta,determinedand graspinglike her Irish immigrantforebearers,Scarletthas neverbeen nice and, withtheadventof the
war, commitsherselfwholeheartedlyto surviving.Scarlett's survivaltactics includemarriagewithoutlove hastilyenteredintoforspitefulreasons,
manslaughter,the theftof her sister'sfiance,flagrantdisregardof proper
femalebehaviorto the pointof riskingthe lives of her own menfolk,and
the mindlesssacrificeof herhusband's life.The same arsenal houses such
lesser sins as dancingwhile in mourning,offering
herselfforcold cash to
pay the taxes on Tara, paradingaround town while pregnant,flauntinga
disconcerting
talentforbusiness,and otherwiseviolatingall accepted conventionsthatdefinedthe southernlady. In Scarlett'sjudgment,the Yankees, in all other respects so despicable, were right"on this matter.It
took moneyto be a lady"(610). The times,the grimdays of the war and
Reconstruction,demanded harshstrategemsof those who would survive
them.Survivalassured, thetimeswould permittheresumptionofladylike
graces. Let others retain,at the risk of destruction,the inner sense of
beingladies, or assume the mask,whatevertheirinnerfeelingsof despair.
And "she knew she would never feel like a lady again
She was different.
until her table was weightedwith silver and crystal and smokingwith
rich food, untilher own horses and carriages stood in her stables, until
black hands and not whitetook the cottonfromTara" (609).
Mitchell makes scant effortto redeem Scarlett from the stark selfinterestand greed of her chronicledbehavior. On the contrary,fromthe
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
401
openingpages of the novel in which upland Georgia basks in the glow of
antebellumserenity,she establishes the fundamentalcontours of Scarlett's graspingpersonality.The self-consciousmanipulationwith which
Scarlett pursues her prey foreshadowsprecisely the resources she will
musterin her pursuitof financialsecurityduringReconstruction.Her
marriageto RhettButlerand the ensuinghold on materialsecuritydo not
sufficeto transform
her into a real lady. But then Scarlettlacks any vital
understandingof what it is to be one.
ThroughScarlett,Mitchellexposes the hypocrisyof being a lady or a
gentleman.Time and again, she shows Scarlett chafingunder the constraintsof correct behavior and utterance.No one, in Scarlett's view,
could believe the phrases thatgovernpolite interchange.Repeatedly,she
mentally dismisses Melanie as "mealy-mouthed." Yet Mitchell also
shows Scarlettragingbecause Rhettcannot be counted on to be a gentleman. In the scene of the charitybazaar in Atlanta,Scarlettworriesthat
Rhett cannot be trustedto observe the gentleman'scode and keep his
mouthshut.A fewpages later,duringthe same scene, Scarlettflaresup at
the hypocrisyof required ladylike conduct. Finally, in the name of the
Cause, Rhett bids for Scarlett as his partnerto lead the opening reel.
Scarlett,aching to dance, furiousat the imprisonment
of her mourning,
joins him, feet tapping "like castenets," green eyes flashing.This one
scene capturesall thecontradictionsof Mitchell'sattitudes.For thecodes
against which Scarlettrebels also provide her protection:she festersat
theirdemands,but fearsa worldthatwill not provideher the respectthe
codes are designed to ensure. If she does not always wish to meet the
requirementsof being a lady, she should not wish to be treatedas one.
Mitchellthusremainsambivalentabout Scarlett'sdifficulties.
She regularlycalls attentionto Scarlett's naturalvibrancy."There was no one to
tell Scarlett that her own personality,frighteningly
vital thoughit was,
was moreattractivethanany masquerade she mightadopt. Had she been
told, she would have been pleased but unbelieving.And thecivilizationof
which she was a part would have been unbelievingtoo, for at no time
before or since, had so low a premiumbeen placed on female naturalness"(80). Here, Mitchell seems to hold civilizationresponsible for
repressinghealthyand attractivefemalevitality,but hernovel as a whole
offersa morecomplex readingof the relationbetweenfemalevitalityand
civilization. Vitalityserves as a code word for sexuality,and Mitchell
harboredconflicting
attitudestowardstheproperrelationbetweensexuality,genderidentity,and genderrole.
Her confusionon this matterendows the novel witha complexitythat
transcends Scarlett's stereotypicalfeatures. For indisputably,if in an
occasionally perverse way, Scarlettinvitesidentification.The dynamics
402
American Quarterly
turnupon Scarlett's proximityto young bourgeois
of that identification
women of the twentiesand thirties.Her career raises questions of appropriatefemalebehaviorin a changingworld. Her internallifereverberates
crisis in the bourgeoisfamwithovertonesof the earlytwentieth-century
Much oftheforce
behavior.14
female
ilyand thereceivednotionsoffitting
social attitudes
middle-class
of acceptable,
of the novel as an affirmation
depends upon Scarlett's psychological plausibility. Scarlett herself is
caught in a war between the socially ordained role into which she is
expected to fitand her own natural impulses. The war in Scarlett, as
perhaps in Mitchellherself,is fierce,for she lacks that solid bridgebetweenthetwo-a strongidentityas a woman-which mightpermitherto
weatherthe stormsof social change. But the acceptance of herselfas a
woman, Mitchell implies, would have required a resilientidentification
withanotherwoman, presumablyher mother,thatwould have nurtured
her initiationinto female sexualityand generativity.
As Scarlettherselfcomes to understandat the close of the novel, the
only women she has ever loved and respected are her mother and
Melanie. Tellingly,Scarlett omits Mammy fromthis company despite
compellingclaims. As Rhett(who along withAshley representsthe voice
bothEllen and Melanie were
of objectivejudgment)categoricallyaffirms,
genuinelygreatladies. Scarlett's tragedylies in herinabilityto understand
the meaningof being a lady. Scarlett is correctin her criticismsof the
hypocrisiesof the pseudo-ladies, althougheven here, she underestimates
theirstrengths.Survivingthe war and its aftermathcalls for more than
formsof gentility.Scarlett fails to realize that the prevailingetiquette
representsa social effortto codify,institutionalize,and reproduce the
deeper qualities of the lady and the fabricof an entiresociety. Having
spirit,she confuses
nevergraspedthedepthand meaningof the informing
that
untilthe moment
point,
it withits forms.So deeply does she miss the
that
Melanie
believes in the
of Melanie's death she remains unaware
words she uses and the standardsshe observes,and thatthose words and
standardsderive fromstrengthratherthan weakness. Only at Melanie's
deathbeddoes she recognizethatMelanie too would have killedthe Yankee who threatenedthem-or would have died in the attempt.
Ellen and Melanie are presented as attractiveand admirable, albeit
adopted
and possiblyrepressed.The interpretation
highlyself-disciplined
depends upon one's angle of vision and the relativeweightaccorded to
14
See, interalia, JohnC. Burnham,"The ProgressiveEra Revolutionin AmericanAttitudestoward Sex," Journalof American History,59 (1973), 885-908; and referencesin
note 5 above. For changingsouthernattitudes,see John Ruoff,Southern Womanhood,
1865-1920: An Intellectualand CulturalStudy (Ann Arbor: Univ. Microfilms,1980); Anne
Firor Scott, "The 'New Woman' in the New South," South AtlanticQuarterly,65 (1962),
473-83. Cf. Ellen Glasgow, In This Our Life (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1941).
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
403
Scarlett'sperceptions,as againstan independentreadingthatderivesfrom
the actions and words of the charactersthemselves. Thus, Scarlett reveres Ellen even thoughthe reader has ample evidence that Ellen may
have faileddecisivelyas a mother.Ellen's mostdirectaddress to Scarlett
comes in the formof a letter,writtenas soon as Ellen receives word of
Scarlett's shameless dancing at the Atlanta charitybazaar. That letter,
withits cold feelings,could have been writtenby any one of the Atlanta
worthies.Melanie, on the same occasion, insistson believingthe best of
Scarlettand defendsher. Yet Scarlettpersistsin seeing Melanie as pale,
fragile,and lackingin womanlywarmthand charm-in a word, asexual.
The reader, however, having seen Melanie's plain face flareinto beauty
withthepassion of herlove forAshley,has everyreason to appreciateher
special strength.Both Melanie and Ellen lack thatraw undisciplinedsexualitythatpulsates in Scarlettherself,but Mitchellmakes less thanclear
whethershe regardssexualityas a male or femaletrait.Time and again,
she links Scarlett's exuberance to her paternal inheritance.She establishes Scarlett's early preferenceforthe activitiesof boys over those of
girls.She proclaimsScarlett's repugnanceforand failureat motherhood.
Althoughshe leaves no doubt about Scarlett's attractivenessto men, she
links Scarlett's success as a belle to her unseemlyambition.
Mitchellremainspreoccupied withthose featuresof being a lady that
survive social upheaval. If the role of lady is constructedand carries
serious responsibilities,how much of that role can be taken to persist
does being a lady possess an
throughchange? Or, to put it differently,
essence that remains constantas mannerschange? The sections of the
novel that describe Scarlett's early forays into the world of business
as a strongfeministapprovalof the selfbetraywhat could be interpreted
reliance, business skills, and survivalabilitiesof the heroine. By Mitchell's day, the South had a traditionof resilientwomen who, withor withpostbellum
out theirmenfolk,had seen theirfamiliesthroughthe difficult
decades and had reestablishedfamilyfortunes.Scarlett's economic success need not have contravenedher standingas a lady. Scarlettrunsinto
troublenot foradaptingto new times,nor fordisplayinga vigorousindithose boundariesat which individualism
vidualism,but fortransgressing
becomes greed and adaptation a threatto any viable social order. For
Mitchell,those limitsseem to have come withthe employmentof convicts,the systematicbetrayalof business's own standardsof probity,and
femaleintrusion-however inadvertent-intothe politicaldomain. But if
Mitchell shows Scarlett's irresponsibleactions as bearingheavy consequences, she does not show Scarlettexperiencingpain or guiltas a result
of them.The social dimensionsof superego sanctionsare delineated,but
Scarletthas not internalizedthem.Her own responses remaindetermined
by whethershe getswhat she wants: at thecenterof Scarlett,theapparent
404
American Quarterly
woman, lingersa demandingand frightened
child. In presentingScarlett
as emotionallyimmatureand willful,Mitchellvalidates the legitimacyof
social constraintson femalelives. In presentingScarlettas so personally
immuneto the normalemotionalresponsibilitiesforher socially inappropriatebehavior,Mitchellquestions the psychologicalfoundationsforsocially prescribedroles. She remains,in short,deadlocked on the social
possibilitiesforand the social legitimacyof the freeexpressionof female
nature.
Mitchell's strategyhighlightsa gap between the desire and its object,
betweenthe act and its emotionalresonance. The formalaccount of Scarlett's actions and behavioris shadowed by unstatedpsychologicalconsiderations. The central flaw in Scarlett's character, the source of her
egoism, derives fromthe relationshipwith her motherthat purportedly
furnishesher standardsof beinga lady. All explicitreferencesto Ellen in
the novel, includingScarlett's own, are positive. Yet all indirectevidence
with
suggeststhatScarlettneverattainedthatpsychologicalidentification
her mother that would have provided the bedrock for becoming her
mother'ssuccessor. At the centerof the novel, at the end of thedevastating road back fromthe destructionof Atlanta, falls Ellen's death. For
Scarlett,thatroad "that was to end in Ellen's arms" ended in a "blank
wall," in "a dead end." Scarletthad believed thatshe was fleeingto "the
protectionof her mother's love wrapped about her like an eiderdown
quilt." With Ellen dead, the hope of that love had vanished. From her
despair and abandonment,Scarlettwrests the determinationto survive.
Somewhere "along the road to Tara, she had left her girlhoodbehind
her." The scene thatmarksher assumptionof womanhoodends withher
vow: "as God is my witness,I'm never goingto be hungryagain"(418).
That night,she firstdreamswhatis to become herrecurrentnightmare,
of
being lost in the fog. On this occasion, Melanie comes to her bedside.
Later in the novel, Rhettwould comforther, promisingto feed and spoil
herlike a treasuredchild. But she stillpasses on to Bonnie, herdaughter,
a fear of the dark.
The firstappearance of the dream underscoresthe psychological dimensionof her fightagainsthunger.The scene in the fieldsof Tara conflates, in a mannerthat persists throughoutthe novel, the elements of
ladyhood that derive fromsocial structureand those that derive from
intrapsychicidentification-especially from the mother-daughter
relationship. Scarlett's willfulness, graspingness, and jealousy of other
women, includingher own sisters,have been presentfromthe opening
pages. Her admirationof and love forher motherhave also been there.
But her motheremerges as distant and preoccupied, as having never
recovered froman early passion, as having littleof her emotional substance to give to those she so dutifullycares for. Scarlettgerminatedthe
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
405
need forlove and nurturefromher childhood.The crisisof her adulthood
consolidates a persistingneed. The social and historicalcircumstancesof
thatcrisis merelydeterminethe formand intensityof her adult behavior.
The underlyinglongingremainsto be wrappedin thequiltof her mother's
love. The hungershe determinesto appease harksback to a longstanding
unconscious feelingof deprivation.
RichardKing has recentlyargued,inA SouthernRenaissance, thatthe
southernfamilyromance,which"placed the father-sonrelationshipat its
center," leftonlythe role of motherto thewhitewoman who, as mistress
of the plantation,was to care forthe "wants and needs of herfamilyboth
whiteand black." In King's view, this "queen of the home" was denied
erotic appeal and, in "extreme form," was "stripped of any emotional
nurturing
attributesat all. Eventually,she came to assume a quasi-Virgin
Mary role...." Interestingly,
Mitchelldoes statethatScarlettperceives
her motheras the VirginMary. But she also provides the reader with
information
that supportsa more complex interpretation.15
Ellen RobillardO'Hara had, as an adolescent, experiencedan intense
passion fora youngcousin whomherfamilypreventedherfrommarrying.
Afterhis death, in a bar room brawl in New Orleans, the young Ellen
cried all nightand thendriedhertears and closed her heart.Her marriage
to Gerald O'Hara is presentedsimplyas an alternativeto enteringa convent forthe rest of her life. This renunciationof her own passionate self
crippledEllen's abilityto provide nurtureto her own daughtersand bequeathed, at least to Scarlett,contradictoryattitudestowardmen as objects of sexual and emotional desire. On the surface, Mitchell affirms
Ellen's goodness and Scarlett'slove forher. But Mitchellalso shows that
Scarlett managed to hide much of her impetuous,passionate self from
Ellen, thatin crucial ways Ellen did not know-perhaps did not want to
know-Scarlett. Mitchellalso informsus thatEllen had never told Scarlett that "desire and attainmentwere two different
matters"(73). These
clues and others invite the reader to criticize Ellen from Scarlett's
perspective,much in the mannerthat Lillian Smith would criticizeher
own mother.Yet theydo not commitMitchellto an open critiqueof the
mother's(her own mother's)failurevis 'a vis the daughter.16
If Ellen's deathforcesScarlettto assume a womanhoodforwhichshe is
not emotionallyprepared,Melanie's death, at the novel's close, provides
her withan opportunityto relive and reworkthatearlierloss. The parallels between Ellen and Melanie are deep and numerous.Most important,
however,in psychologicalterms,is Melanie's marriageto Ashley, whom
Scarlettloves. Scarlett's failureto understandthe natureof Ashley and
15 King, A Southern Renaissance: The
Cultural Awakening of the American South,
1930-1955 (New York: OxfordUniv. Press, 1980), 35.
16
Lillian Smith,Killers of the Dream, rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 1961).
406
American Quarterly
Melanie's love foreach other,her attemptto fathomthe secrets of that
love throughreading Melanie's lettersfromAshley, her resentmentof
Melanie in the face of Melanie's maternallyunselfishlove for her, all
evoke the attitudesof a female Oedipal crisis, of an adolescent girlwho
loves her fatherand hates her mother.Melanie and Ashley permitMitchell to explore thatcrisis because theyare not Scarlett's parents. Yet the
emotionallogic of the situationforcesthe readerto take it as evidence of
Mitchell's using Melanie as a double forEllen. And whateverScarlett's
conscious feelings,her relationshipwithMelanie permitsher to come to
termswithher ambivalentfeelingsabout her mother.Only at Melanie's
deathbed does Scarlettbegin to see clearly,to arriveat some measure of
Only at Melanie's death does she recognize the true
self-understanding.
object of longingin her recurringnightmareof cold and hunger.Throughout the novel we are told that Scarlett loves Ellen; as the novel progresses, we come to know that Melanie loves Scarlett. That love, as
Rhettasserts, may indeed be Scarlett's cross, but it may also be her salvation. For at the end, the loss of Rhett may have to be weighted
against her recognizingRhettas the object of her desire.
Ellen had endowed Scarlett,the child,witha hungerforherself,a longing formaternallove. That longingcolors Scarlett'schoice of men. Both
consciously and unconsciously,Scarlett perceives Ashley Wilkes to be
cut fromthe same cloth as Ellen. Aristocraticand self-controlled,he
and acts accordingto principlesthatshe cannot
possesses self-knowledge
fathom.Until the finalscenes of the novel, Scarlettmisunderstandsand
misevaluatesAshley: she understandsneitherhis strengthnor his weakness, least of all does she understandhis love forMelanie, or thathis love
love forherself.In comparable
could coexist withan altogetherdifferent
fashion,ScarlettmisperceivesRhett:only in the finalpages of the novel
does she recognize her love for him (althoughthe reader has known of
thatlove since the earlysectionsofthenovel on thewar years in Atlanta),
but by then she has (apparently)lost him. Scarlett's woeful inabilityto
fathomher own desires or those of the men in her lifehas its roots in her
inabilityto arriveat a maturefemaleidentity-tobecome a woman. Or so
Mitchellwould seem to be suggesting.Scarlettfailsto integrateherneeds
and her desires, her understandingof love-the longing of romantic
17 This reading suggests that the years between the death of Ellen and that of Melanie
constitute,in part, an extended period of mourningfor Scarlett. See Sigmund Freud,
"Mourning and Melancholia," in James Strachey,ed., The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Worksof SigmundFreud, 1914-1916 (London: HogarthPress, 1957),
XIV, 243-58. For the general problems of female psychological development, see J.
Chasseguet-Smirgel,et al., Female Sexuality (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1970);
Harold P. Blum, ed., Female Psychology:ContemporaryPsychoanalyticViews (New York:
InternationalUniversitiesPress, 1977).
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
407
love-with her sexual feelings.There are persistinghintsthat Scarlett,
the erstwhiletomboy,would, on some level, preferto be a man. Mitchell
never fullyresolves these tensions. For althoughshe allows Scarlett a
clearer perception of herselfand her desires, she deprives her of the
objects of thatdesire. In theend, Scarletthas onlyherself.Even Tara will
provide only a temporaryretreat,not a fulllife.
Mitchell's ambivalentattitudestowardsfemale sexuality,genderidentity,and genderrole-desire, womanhood,and ladyhood-informed her
own life,as well as thelifeof herheroine.The discretecomponentsof this
ambivalence include uncertaintyas to whethersexuality is compatible
withwomanhood, mixed feelingsabout motherhoodand its relationship
to sexuality,and thepossibilityforweddingfemaleindividualismto ladyhood. The core of Scarlett's dilemmaremainswhethershe can transform
her need forher motherinto love fora man and children.And thisbasic
psychodynamic pattern is faithfulto an increasingly typical early
twentieth-century
pattern.Ellen could be read as a positive renditionof
Philip Wylie's "Momism." Gerald O'Hara could qualify as the absent
father. Scarlett herselfcould be recast as a 1920s flapper.'8 Mitchell
mediates, ratherthan invites, these transpositions.But the compelling
popularityof her novel may have turnedon her readers' effectingthe
identifications
forthemselves.Even the resonances thatbind contemporary identificationsto the historicalplot do not clarifyMitchell's own
attitudestowardthe appropriatemeaningand responsibilitiesof womanhood and ladyhood, especially toward female destinyrelativeto thatof
men.
Historians such as Anne Firor Scott and A. Elizabeth Taylor have
demonstratedthe interdependenceof thepositionof southernwomenand
the southernsocial system as a whole, and have argued that southern
Mitchellunderstands
women themselvescriticizedsouthernpatriarchy.19
these arguments,but on the surface,her own critiqueis more narrowly
focusedon menas menand is moreindirectin itsexpression.For Mitchell
does notso muchcriticizemenas displaytheirweaknesses and, too often,
kill themoff.At the same time,she endows men withthe objective view
of historyand the natureof civilization.Despite the constantjuxtapositionof Rhettand Ashleyin Scarlett'smind,Mitchellpresentsthemas one
in theirgrasp of historicalprocess. Thus, even as individualmen fall by
thewayside, men as a groupemergeas the custodiansof objectiveknowledge. The problemis to identifyMitchell's own ultimateattitudetoward
Philip Wylie,A Generationof Vipers (New York: Reinhart,1942).
19Scott, "Women's Perspectiveon the Patriarchyin the 1850's," Journalof American
History,61 (1974); Taylor, "The Last Phase of theWoman SuffrageMovementin Georgia,"
Georgia Historical Quarterly,43 (1959), 11-28.
18
408
American Quarterly
theclaimsoffemaleindependence.
Thatproblemis complicatedby her
play withtranssexualidentifications:
"But Scarlett,child of Gerald,
foundtheroadto ladyhoodhard"(58).Ellen's earlypassionsuggeststhat
sexualitycannotsimplybe classifiedas masculine.Mitchellnonetheless
underscores
Scarlett'sinheritance
fromherunrulyIrishfatherand portraysrawsexuality
as masculineandinherently
dominating-towhit,the
famoussceneinwhicha drunken
RhettcarriesScarlettofftobed. Mitchell also considerstherelationsbetweensexualityand generativity
problematical:Scarlettmiscarriesthe baby conceivedin her and Rhett's
mutualpassion;Ellen,reproducing
without
passion,lostall ofhersons;
Melaniedies in childbirth;
Bonnie,belovedof bothScarlettand Rhett,
dies perhapsas a resultofherinherited
Irishrecklessness,
perhapsas a
resultof herfather'sdelightin herunladylike
highspirits,perhapsas a
resultoftheOedipalconfusions
thatinform
Scarlett'sownlife,perhapsin
testimony
to Scarlett'sandRhett'sfailedcommunication-their
inability
to reproduce.
Anyofthesereadingsis compatible
withone or anotherfemalecritique
ofpatriarchy
andthetollitexactedfromwomen.Anyis compatible
witha
severejudgment
on womenwhorebelagainsttheirordainedrole.Mitchell,likeScottandTaylor,stressestheinterdependence
offemaleroleand
socialsystem.Ifshe,consciously
ornot,resentedtheconstraints
thatthe
roleofladyimposedon women,sheremained
attached
totheclassbasisof
thesocialsystem-totheclassandracerelations
within
whichthatrolewas
is complicated
in social
her
interest
essential.But Mitchell'sstrategy
by
a
the
South
as
and
her
commitment
to
Old
change
establishing
special
case ofa generalnationalpast.Her treatment
oftheOld Southbrilliantly
blendsa nostalgiafora lost social order,a morestableagrarianworld,
witha specificevocationofsouthern
culture.She eschewsanydefenseof
in
slaveryas a coherent
socialsystem favorofevokinga harmonious
agriculturalorderreminiscent
of thatevokedin I'll Take My Stand.20Her
earlydiscussionofTara,resting
upona detailedrendition
ofuplandGeorgia,establishesthespecificity
oftimeandplace,butnoneofthedescriptionbearsanyrelationto theslavesystem.Mitchellbringsherreadersto
accepta particular
worldwithout
including
anyofthesocialfeatures
that
structure
it. By thismarveloussleightof hand,she invitesa national
audienceto accepttheold Southas a directantecedent
ofitsownAmerican civilization.
The lostantebellum
is validatedfortheSouth
civilization
evenas it is absorbedintotheloss ofan earlierAmericanorder.
Similarly,
Mitchellrecastsouthernslaveryto conformto a national
class system.Her attitudestowardblacks resemblethose of Howard
20
Twelve Southerners,I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition
(New York: Harper and Brothers,1930).
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
409
andin"theracisttransformation
ofsocial
OdumintheirsocialDarwinism
'facts'intonaturalgivens."Yet, as Odumdidinhislaterworks,Mitchell
also allowsforthedevelopment
of a blackleadershipunderwhiteguidall themorebecauseshedraws
ance. Her attitudes
remaincontradictory,
revealingdoublesof
upon black charactersto providepsychologically
Her
class and racialattitudes.
whites,butsheis weddedto conservative
attitudestowardcontemporary
issues shape her depictionof slavery
which,in hertreatment,
disappearsas a coherentsocial system.21
Mitchelldistinguishes
betweenhouseand fieldslaves. In an authorial
intervention,
she explainsthat"the house negroesand yardnegroes"
despised"theselowlyblacks." Forthepositionofthehouseslavesrested
upon meritand effort."Justas Ellen had done, otherplantationmisthrough
coursesof
tressesthroughout
theSouthhadputthepickanninies
training
and elimination
to selectthe best of themforthe positionsof
greaterresponsibility.
Those consignedto thefieldsweretheones least
theleasthonestandtrustworwillingor able to learn,theleastenergetic,
thy,themostviciousand brutish.And nowthisclass, thelowestin the
blacksocialorder,was makinglifea miseryfortheSouth"(654).Mitchell
ideologyofwork,schooling,
and the
hereechoestheprevailing
capitalist
promotion
ofmerit,tempered
by a harshattitudetowardcrime.
Mitchellalso describeseven the good, deservingblacks as "monfieldhands,
whomtheYankees
keyfaced"and "child-like."The former
"conducted
had so irresponsibly
promoted
to positionsofresponsibility,
as creaturesofsmallintelligence
mightnaturally
be expected
themselves
to do. Like monkeysor smallchildrenturnedloose amongtreasured
theyran wildobjects whose value is beyondtheircomprehension,
or simplybecause of their
eitherfromperversepleasurein destruction
ignorance."Not naturally
malicious,theywere,"as a class, childlikein
mentality. . . "(654). Mitchellthus combines racism as a justificationfor
to individual
betterment
through
blacksubordination
witha commitment
theworkethic.Blacks,she believes,can risein thesocialladderto the
extentthattheyacceptandprofit
fromthetutelageoftheirwhitebetters.
Mitchellcannotresistsomenostalgic
pronouncements
on thetiesbindin thiscategorybutherstarcharacters
ingtheblackand whitefamily,
Prissy-all
Mammy,Uncle Peter,Sanm,
and, withspecialreservations,
rather
thanas members
offamilies
relatetothewhitefamily
as individuals
of theirown. And thepersonalloyaltiesthattranscendclass and racial
lines all have rootsin the lost agrariancivilization.Whenthe blacks
they
remaintrueto thoserootsand rejecttheirchanceforindependence
to chastisetheirmasters.The mofarewell,and evenhave thefreedom
21
Odum, The Social and Mental Traitsof theNegro (New York: Columbia Univ. Press,
1910), 52 ff.;and King, SouthernRenaissance, 41.
410
American Quarterly
menttheycutloose fromtherestraining
bonds,theirinferiority
becomes
a crippling
disadvantage.By thussubstituting
racismforslaveryas the
basis fordomination,
Mitchellendorsespreciselythe processthathistoricallyestablishedthegroundsfora reconciliation
betweentheNorth
and theSouth.
Mitchell'sharshattitude
towardsblackscollectively
does notprevent
herfromvaluingindividual
blacksonthebasisoftheirpersonalattributes.
Mammyespecially,butalso UnclePeter,Sam,andevenPrissyareshown
as genuinecharactersin theirown right.Mitchellin factuses themas
psychological
doublesforimportant
whitecharacters.Uncle Peterfunctionsas a doubleforAshleyand,beyondhim,forthewhitegentlemen
of
theantebellum
South.UnclePeterembodiesall themanners,
and
bearing,
respectforconvention
thatpurportedly
arischaracterized
theantebellum
UnclePeter'sfinicky
reflects
on
tocracy.Fromthisperspective,
timidity
Ashleyand alertsthereaderto thoseweaknesswhichScarlettrefusesto
throwsintorelief
see, or at leastto interpret
correctly.
Sam, in contrast,
thatunderliesRhett'sunconventional
and
thesolidityand dependability
surfacebehavior.Prissyilluminates
Scarlett'sown failureto
disturbing
achievean internalsenseoffemalegenerativity:
"Laws, Mis Scarlett,I
'boutbirthin
babies." And,in thiscase, sincePrissy
doan knownothing
has claimedtohavepreciselythatknowledge,
the
herfailureunderscores
gap betweenScarlett'sexternalappearanceas a grownwomanand her
as a needychild.
internal
identity
In thiscontext,
Mammy
playsthemostcomplexroleofall.Thelifeofthe
character
almostescapesMitchell's
and assuredly
control,
escapesMitchell's racistconvictions.For Mammy,the compelling
doubleforEllen,
comes close to providing
Scarlettwitheverything
thatEllen could not.
Mammy'sknowledgeof Scarlettand heracceptanceof hercould have
providedthefoundations
forScarlett'sgenderidentity.
Mammyneither
sees norexperiencesanycontradictions
betweenunderstanding
Scarlett
andlovingor forgiving
her.LacingScarlettintohercorset,forcing
herto
eat beforea barbecueso shewillnotdisgraceherself
byeatingat it,areto
Mammytheunavoidablerequirements
ofcorrectbehavior.Scarlett'srecalcitranceelicitsdisciplinary
action but not condemnation.
Mammy
couldhavemoldedScarlettintoa lady,preciselybecauseMammywould
have feltno need to repudiateScarletttheneedychildand thesensual
woman.Ellen, havingrepudiatedthose qualitiesin herself,could not
afford
torecognizetheminScarlettand,therefore,
couldnothelpherdeal
withthem.Mammy,swishing
proudly
inherredpetticoat,
knowsas much
aboutsexualityas BelleWatling.Mammyalso knowsthatyouwearyour
redsatinwhereitdoes notshow.ButifMitchellcould,consciously,
allow
Mammyto lay bear Ellen's failuresas a womanand as a mother,she
Scarlett O'Hara: The SouthernLady As New Woman
411
in orderto allowMamherclass and racialattitudes
couldnotsurmount
Heto provideScarlett'smaternalidentification.
my'sknowingnurture
of
condemnation
ifunintended,
rein,perhaps,lies hermostdevastating,
thevalues she soughtto support.
in
moment
inand spoketo a particular
Gone WithTheWindoriginated
theworldsofelite
Americanculture.Its verystatusas a novel,straddling
andmassculture,capturedthedilemmaofa bourgeoissocietythatstrugrebellion
andtoengagethe
gledtopreserveitsownvaluesagainstinternal
popularbase. Notunlikethenew
allegianceofa broadandheterogeneous
it appearedto offerAmericans
languagesofradio,film,and advertising,
and
an imageofthemselves
at oncespecificenoughtoinviteidentification
Mitchell'sre-creation
generalenoughto encompassnationaldiversity.22
ofan
initshistorical
detail,boundthedestruction
ofthe1860s,so faithful
equatedas the
orderedworldtothebirthofmedernAmerica.Structurally
two great opportunitiesfor makinga fortune,the building-upand
in humanafemergeas cyclicalrecurrences
of civilizations
breaking-up
distancein no waydetractsfromthepoignancy
fairs.Thatphilosophical
documentedtale. Nor does it ever soar to
and dramaof the carefully
encompassthefullrangeofhumandestinies.Rather,it subsumesa purtraditional
societyundertheaegisofbourgeoisnorms.Andthis
portedly
ofthosenormsina worldthatis
fusion,inturn,promisesthepersistence
itsoriginalsocial base.
outstripping
portrayed
therelationbetweenthepast and
No one morecompelling
thefutureof the nationand the SouththanMitchell.But, forher,the
bindingup of woundsrequireda sharedbourgeoisethic,and could ill
a "feudal" past. Underthebourgeoisruafford
theluxuryof mourning
as thedestinyoftheSouth,and the
bric,thenationcouldbe understood
Southas a generalized,rural,nationalpast. Perhapsit is a final,fitting
bourgeois
coreofMitchell'svisionofa revitalized
ironythatthemagnetic
orderlay in theunconsciouslifeof a mostdisorderly
girl.*
22
For example, see Lary May, Screening Out the Past (New York: OxfordUniv. Press,
1980).
* I would like to thankThomas Africa,HerbertAptheker,Sarah Elbert, Duncan Rice,
Lewis Rubin, SterlingStuckey,and, as always, Eugene D. Genovese.