Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
Scarlett’s Achilles heel was the weak and namby pamby Ashley Wilkes. I did not admire her for that when she had sexy baddie Rhett Butler at her finger tips.

GWTW is not great literature, it is not highbrow, but it is an engaging story.

One of the few assignments I remember from college was when I wrote a paper comparing Scarlett O’Hara and Becky Sharp, a main character in Vanity Fair. Becky also had her goody two shoes nemesis in Amelia, just like Scarlett had in Melanie.
I mean it's probably not GREAT, but it's good. Scarlett does NOT know herself. The romance was the least important part of Scarlett's character. There's a great scene where she returns home to Tara and visits the neighboring plantation, where she has a conversation with the destitute matriarch. And the woman tells Scarlett that it is her ability to endure, to persevere, to bend with the winds of change that makes her strong, that makes her successful, that makes her a survivor, while about her, the gentry class is dying, "gone with the wind." THAT is a great scene. if you get bogged down with Scarlett's love interests, it's missing the point of the story. And Scarlett doesn't even get it. She thinks the matriarch is stupid and boring. That's the point. People overlook the power of Scarlett's character. Is she nice? No. Is she good...not really, but not really bad. But Scarlett is a survivor.