I'm sorry, Rhett kind of sucks

Entirely based on the movie again. There is something very wrong with Rhett. Scarlett is honest to everyone about her feelings, of whatever nature, as soon as she finds out about them herself. And, of course, both Charles and Frank were in no doubt about how little she loved them. Rhett however, is scared to bits to admit his. Concerning Scarlett even towards Belle, he would never dare to attend her or anyone's sickbed unless explicitly asked, notice how he left just before Melanie died too. With all the script rewrites, I often wonder if they did manage to keep hold of the whole thing, or, if it just somehow fell into place in the end - either way, the dialouge fits perfectly. "There is one thing that I do know, that is that I love you Scarlett", vs "Heaven help the man who ever really loves you", a few years later. "Someday I want you to say to me the words you said to Ashley Wilkes, I love you" - and when she finally does, he packs and runs! Something in his childhood must have gotten really screwed up, maybe another reason he is almost obsessed to do everything right for Bonnie.


"Print both three." - Alex Korda

I like movies with a bit of real human behavior. Scarlett was a fool! She spent most of her adult life mooning over that ding dong Ashley, who left her hanging all those years while he hung onto Melanie, who actually was the strong one in that relationship!
I personally feel that movies with happy endings are downright DULL!

As for Scarlett? I think Rhett was better off without her.

He (Rhett) was very controlling and threatened her (Scarlett) with violence. He also may have raped her.

I think the fact that he aws controlling was the reason why she loved him at the end of the story. Ashley was just her imagination of love. But Rhett was her real world love affair. And her major flaw (and the reason why this relationship broke) was, that she never realized that line between imagination and reality. And Rhett tried to explain that to her and forgive many of Scarletts flaws resulting of the missing line drawn ..... but at the end if was more then he could handle.

"Scarlett is better off without Rhett"

Then the ending should be happy for you.

Nice post.

I'd like to add that threatening means little with no history. I doubt Rhett ever struck a woman and I'm sure Scarlett knew this.

There are those who watch the old Honeymooners and complain about Ralph threatening to send Alice "to the moon". Ralph never hit her, never would hit her, Alice knew this, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a snowflake.

Well done, otter and strntz; OP, not so much, and it is clear that you had no idea of what marriage was like in the time when the movie, let alone the book, was produced. There's this thing called history. I'd tell you to look into it, but you're no longer here.
The classic literary definition of tragedy is that a person is placed in
an impossible situation that no person can overcome, which, therefore, takes his/her full measure, and we marvel at HOW CLOSE s/he comes to transcending the problem. Tragedy in fact aggrandizes and celebrates the greatness of the human spirit, while comedy mocks and trivializes it. The greatness of Gone With The Wind, the movie, is its two legendary, flawed, HUMAN protagonist lovers.

No but hey... She's the women, so basically, the victim...

It's funny how things simply swept places instead of reaching equality. Women nowadays don't even seem to realize that most of them behave like hypocritical, self-centered and arrogant bitches. It's like now we have to expect it because it's the norm.

If anything, GWTW kinda showed the best of the two worlds. Both Rhett and Scarlet are flawed human beings, who try as much as they can to make things works and by the end, it doesn't work. Yes, Rhett was mean, but so was Scarlet if you really think about it. But Rhett never went the whole way with his threats, while Scarlet went the whole way with her selfishness.

Both are wrong on their own ways, but both are humans raised in a society that allowed way worse.

Uh... that's not at all what I said? Here's a direct quote from my OP:  "I don't mean to imply Scarlett was not cruel too, but IMHO her reasons were more sympathetic. Almost all her outbursts at him are in response to something he did or said."

I meant their verbal cruelties toward each other, not the scope of their entire motivations. Obviously Scarlett does many unsympathetic things.
I'm always so surprised how many fans of this movie/book just despise Scarlett and any defense of her.

What movie did you watch?

"Scarlett was super rude to Rhett when he returned from London."

Did you miss the part where she was elated he'd returned, and then he said only to bring back Bonnie and reiterated that Scarlett was a terrible mother? How is she supposed to give the good news that she's pregnant when he thinks she's a terrible mother?

"So she has a horrible tantrum and insults him for getting her pregnant. So he simply says "Cheer up, maybe you'll have an accident." Then she screams and falls down the stairs. Yet this is HIS Fault?"

He continues insulting her to the point where she gets so upset she tries to hit his chest. He jukes out of the way and she falls down the stairs. She didn't just scream and fall down the stairs on her own. I'm not saying it's his fault. It was an accident. But he should certainly feel guilty for antagonizing his pregnant wife and for what he said.

"Scarlett was always passive aggressive with Rhett. Even after that night he gave it to her good in the sack, she's all smiles when he walks in and then dismisses him when he apologizes."

Pretty sure that was her defenses going up after seeing that he regretted what she thought was a good night for their relationship.