MovieChat Forums > Gone with the Wind (1940) Discussion > Characters not getting what they wanted ...

Characters not getting what they wanted and what happened after the movie ended

posted 3 years ago by greenvelvet (90)
13 replies | jump to latest

I've seen the movie a few times and read the book but after my most recent watch I noticed the running theme of characters losing by not getting what they wanted.

Scarlett - wants Ashley, then Rhett
Rhett - wants Scarlett's love and to raise Bonnie
Melanie - wants another baby
Ashley - wants Scarlett a little? success? growing old with Melanie?
Bonnie - wants her mother's love
Charles - wants Scarlett's love
Belle - wants Rhett
Suellen - wants Frank
Frank - wants Suellen, then Scarlett's love
Everyone - wants to win the war

Mammy is the only one who doesn't seem to want anything, though perhaps at a stretch you could say she wants Scarlett to behave. You can also add that Aunt Pittypat wanted to know what Belle's place is like, Prissy wanting to be respected as someone knowledgeable about birth, and the couple who wanted to buy Tara, though these were only in one scene each.

I'm sure it's no coincidence that on the same day, at the the BBQ, that Rhett states that the war will not be won and that Scarlett is confronted with the fact that Ashley loves and is going to marry Melanie. Yet they still enter the war and Scarlett still pursues Ashley. Double foreshadowing.

From this theme, we can see that Scarlett and Rhett can never be happy together. They can't both want each other at the same time. As soon as Scarlett realises it's Rhett she wants at the end of the movie, he no longer wants to try with her, even if some feelings might remain. This means after movie ends, Rhett divorces Scarlett. Rhett truly gives Scarlett everything she ever wants, including the freedom to pursue Ashley once he became a widower as this is what Rhett thought she still wanted.

This is why Margaret Mitchell didn't write a sequel: Rhett and Scarlett can't have a happy ending. The sequel would have had to be Scarlett chasing Rhett, only for them not to end up together, unless a new theme was chosen. However, this then would have diminished the first book and wouldn't have reflected the civil war being lost and staying that way. Rhett joins the war when he knows it will be lost and similarly pursues Scarlett when he knows he she does not want him. The end of the story where he gives up on Scarlett and accepts the situation parallels everyone accepting that the war has been lost and moving on.

As for what happens next, following the theme, Scarlett would then marry Ashley, only to fully realise how weak and boring he is compared to Rhett. Ashley did want Scarlett a bit (or didn't bluntly tell her no anyway) but by the end of the movie he only cared about Melanie, which would continue throughout his marriage to Scarlett. Finally Scarlett would have to accept that she had lost both Rhett and Ashley. Rhett ends up spending more time with Belle, but doesn't marry her (which Belle wants). He never gets over his feelings for Scarlett but does not want to be with her either as he doesn't find her new feelings for him genuine (similar to how she was pretending to want him in the jail scene). Things have just changed too much for the relationship to work. It's likely he would marry someone else and his wife would never get his full affections.

If you consider that the first half of the sequel miniseries "Scarlett" has Scarlett and Rhett divorce, Scarlett not wanting Ashley when she is finally able to have him (though they do not marry), Scarlett pursuing Rhett (only for him to leave her), Rhett marrying someone else but being hung up on Scarlett, and Scarlett unable to have Tara (what she wanted at the end of the movie), then I actually think they did a pretty good job continuing the story. Things fall apart however when Scarlett moves to Ireland and ends up winning in everything and the end just goes completely off the rails. Unfortunately Alexandra Ripley and whoever made the miniseries had no choice but to give everyone the happy ending they thought they wanted but I like to think they would have gone their separate ways again soon after. I'm yet to read the book of the sequel but it will be interesting to see if they follow the theme better than the miniseries.

(Edited to expand some parts)

[–] Furienna (3335) 3 years ago

You know, it is an "open ending".
So there's a possibility that Scarlett and Rhett patched things up.

But that is an interesting analysis about the characters not getting what they want.
It is maybe supposed to show how the times were changing...

[–] greenvelvet (90) 3 years ago

That's an interesting point about the times changing. The characters are mostly wealthy and used to getting whatever they desire. The war changes all of that and while they might go back to living in wealthy surroundings, like the losing the war they wanted to win, they lose out on other things they wanted.

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

I see Mammy as the protagonist or maybe moral center of the film. She is easily the smartest and most likable character. Rhett, the second most likable character spends as much time trying to win her approval as he does Scarlett's love.

[–] strntz (11736) 3 years ago

Exactly. Mammy was the least flawed character in a whole group of very flawed people. My grandmother loved this film because of the dignified way that Mammy was portrayed. She was absolutely the moral center of this film.

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

The film is her struggle to tolerate a bunch of nimrods of both races.

[–] greenvelvet (90) 3 years ago

Completely agree. Her red petticoat scene is one of my favourite parts.

[–] kwestmo (4385) 3 years ago

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[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

You know, I think you're onto something, the whole book is full of people wanting things and not getting them. Maybe that was intended as a theme or metaphor, because as you say the entire Confederacy failed to get what it wanted.

But I'm going to slightly disagree about Ashley... he wanted to lie around reading and never do a day's honest work in his life, he wanted to marry his cousin and have inbred kiddies, he wanted to fuck Scarlett on his side, and he wanted to feel like he was a better person than the rest of the slave-owning class. Well, he got to marry his cousin, for a while, that was it.

[–] strntz (11736) 3 years ago

I saw Ashley differently. Ashley was an intellectual, refined, and not well suited to the post-war Southern economy. I also see him as a gentleman. He knew Scarlet crushed on him, and maybe he didn't do enough to dissuade her because of a typical male ego, but he could have had her if he wanted. But when Scarlet told him that she wanted him, he told her in so many words that he loved Melly unconditionally.

[–] greenvelvet (90) 3 years ago

While I think that Ashley wanted success, I also think it's own his poor choices that prevent him from doing that, such as not working hard as you mention. He was also bad at managing the lumber business. The best chance at success he had was moving away to work for the bank but Scarlett prevented that.

Saying that, he was the hardest one to pin down what his "want" was so it might be something else entirely that is more clear in the book.

[–] marktayloruk (2465) 2 years ago

Ashley should have taken up.teaching - preferably in a university.

[–] PaladinNJ (21284) 3 years ago

They kind of answer your questions in this:
https://moviechat.org/tt0108915/Scarlett

BTW: Ashley never wanted Scarlett. He was just too much a gentleman to call her out on her antics. That's what Scarlett realizes in the end and why she goes running to Rhett.

[–] greenvelvet (90) 3 years ago

I go back and forth between whether he actually wanted her a little or not. I did find he was the hardest one to think of what his "want" was so perhaps it wasn't Scarlett after all but growing old with Melanie which he didn't get.

[–] strntz (11736) 3 years ago

I would say he wanted her "a little" in the same way that most men would have when a girl fawns over you. I have no doubt that Ashley's true love was Melly, and you're right: he didn't get to grow old with her which is something he definitely would have wanted.