Monthly Archives: August 2013

Here’s my last batch of Rhett quotes, as things between him and Scarlett fall apart (heart-wrenching gasp, sob, sigh)

What a white livered, cowardly little bitch you are.  (Chapter 53)

I know you drink on the quiet and I know how much you drink.  For some time I’ve been intending to tell you to stop your elaborate pretenses and drink openly if you want to.  Do you think I give a damn if you like your brandy? (Chapter 54)

Oh, yes, you’ve been faithful to me because Ashley wouldn’t have you.  But hell, I wouldn’t have grudged him your body.  I know how little bodies mean – especially women’s bodies.  But I do grudge him your heart and your dear, hard, unscrupulous mind.  He doesn’t want your mind, the fool, and I don’t want your body.  I can buy women cheap.  But I do want your mind and your heart, and I’ll never have them, any more than you’ll ever have Ashley’s mind. And that’s why I’m sorry for you…  If I were dead, if Miss Melly were dead and you had your precious honorable lover, do you think you’d be happy with him?  Hell, no!  You would never know him, never know what he was thinking about…  Whereas we, dear wife of my bosom, could have been perfectly happy if you had ever given us half a chance, for we are so much alike.  We are both scoundrels, Scarlett, and nothing is beyond us when we want something.  We could have been happy for I loved you, Scarlett, down to your bones, in a way that Ashley could never know you.  And he would despise you if he did know…  But no, you must go mooning all your life after a man you cannot understand. And I, my darling, will continue to moon after whores.  And I dare say we’ll do better than most couples. (Chapter 54)

Oh spare me your moral indignation.  You never gave a damn what I did as long as I paid the bills.  And you know I’ve been no angel recently.  And as for you being my wife – you haven’t been much of a wife since Bonnie came, have you?  You’ve been a poor investment, Scarlett.  Belle’s been a better one. (Chapter 54)

And the final devastating speech he delivers before he leaves her:

Did it ever occur to you that I loved you as much as a man can love a woman? Loved you for years before I finally got you?  During the war I’d go away and try to forget you, but I couldn’t and I always had to come back.  After the war I risked arrest, just to come back and find you.  I cared so much I believe I would have killed Frank Kennedy if he hadn’t died when he did.  I loved you but I couldn’t let you know it.  You’re so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett.  You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip…  I wanted to take care of you, to pet you, to give you everything you wanted.  I wanted to marry you and give you free reign in anything that would make you happy…  You’d had such a struggle, Scarlett.  No one knew better than I what you’d gone through and I wanted you to stop fighting and let me fight for you.  I wanted you to play, like a child – for you were a child, a brave, frightened, bull-headed child.  I think you still are a child.  No one but a child could be so headstrong and so insensitive…  I tried everything I knew and nothing worked.  And I loved you so, Scarlett.  If you had only let me, I could have loved you as gently and as tenderly as ever a man loved a woman.  But I couldn’t let you know, for I know you’d think me weak and try to use my love against me. (Chapter 63)

Sometimes she thought that all the people she had ever known were strangers except Rhett…  She could tell Rhett anything.  He’d been so bad himself that he wouldn’t sit in judgment on her.  How wonderful to know someone who was bad and dishonorable and a cheat and a liar, when all the world was filled with people who would not lie to save their souls and who would rather starve than do a dishonorable deed.

Oh, Chapter 47, when Rhett and Scarlett finally get together!  And he’s so suave at talking her into marrying  him…

As I understand it, you are not really sorry for  marrying Frank and bullying him and inadvertently causing his death.  You are only sorry because you are afraid of going to hell.  Is that right?

I always intended having you , Scarlett, since that first day I saw you at  Twelve Oaks when you threw that vase and swore and proved that you weren’t a lady. I always intended on having you, one way or another.  But as you and Frank have made a little money, I know you’ll never be driven to me again with any interesting propositions of loans and collaterals.  So I see I’ll have to marry you…  …this is a bona fide honorable declaration…  I fear that if I wait till I return you’ll have married someone else with a little money.  So I thought, why not me and my money?  Really, Scarlett, I can’t go all my life, waiting to catch you between husbands.

I’m going away tomorrow and I’m too ardent a lover to restrain my passion any longer.  But perhaps I’ve been to precipitate in my wooing…  Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments, my dear Scarlett – I mean Mrs. Kennedy.  It cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have had in my heart for you has ripened into a deeper feeling, a feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred.  Dare I name it you?  Ah! It is love which makes me so bold.

God help the man who ever really loves you.  You’d break his heart, my darling, cruel, destructive little cat who is so careless and confident she doesn’t even trouble to sheathe her claws.

Separately, the two of them could be endured, but the brazen combination of Scarlett and Rhett was too much to be borne.

Talking to Rhett was comparable only to one thing, the feeling of ease and comfort afforded by a pair of old slippers after dancing in a pair too tight.

More Rhett-isms, from the time Scarlett returns to Tara through most of her marriage to Frank, when she does business with Rhett.

It’s written as plainly on your face as hard work is written on your hands.  You wanted something from me and you wanted it badly enough to put on quite a show.  Why didn’t you come out in the open and tell me what it was?  You’d have stood a much better chance of getting it, for if there’s one virtue I value in women it’s frankness.  But no, you had to come jingling your earbobs and pouting and frisking like a prostitute with a prospective client. (Chapter 34)

What do you want it for? And see if you can manage to tell me the truth.  It will do as well as a lie.  In fact, better, for if you lie to me, I’ll be sure to find out, and think how embarrassing that would be.  Always remember this, Scarlett, I can stand anything from you but a lie – your dislike for me, your tempers, all your vixenish ways, but not a lie. (Chapter 36)

Oh I’ve never denied coveting you…  But thank God, I’m not bothered about matters of honor.  What I want I take if I can get it, and so I wrestle neither with angels nor devils.  What a merry hell you must have made for Ashley!  Almost I feel sorry for him. (Chapter 36)

Yes, my dear, it is my much advertised chivalry that makes me protect you…  And why?  Because of my deep love for you, Mrs. Kennedy.  Yes, I have silently hungered and thirsted for you and worshipped you from afar; but being an honorable man, like Mr. Ashley Wilkes, I have concealed it from you.  You are, alas, Frank’s wife and honor has forbidden my telling this to you.  But even as Mr. Wilkes’ honor cracks occasionally, so mine is cracking now and I reveal my secret passion and my—(Chapter 38)

You’ll never get over being the belle of the County, will you?  You’ll always think you’re the cutest little trick in shoe leather and that every man you meet is expiring for love of you. (Chapter 43)

My pet, I’ve been to the devil and he’s a very dull fellow.  I won’t go there again, even for you…  You took my money when you needed it desperately and you used it.  We had an agreement as to how it should be used and you have broken that agreement.  Just remember, my precious little cheat, the time will come when you will want to borrow more money from me…  And you can whistle for the money. (Chapter 43)

As I’m reading Gone with the Wind, I’m taking note of great quotes, and a majority of them come straight from Rhett’s mouth.  Many of them either put Scarlett in her place or profess his love for her.  So here’s a batch from the first part of the book, up to the point when he leaves her outside of Atlanta on the night the city burns:

The South threw me out to starve once.  I haven’t starved, and I am making enough money out of the South’s death throes to compensate me for my lost birthright. (Chapter 13)

But Scarlett, you need kissing badly.  That’s what’s wrong with you.  All your beaux have respected you too much, though God knows why, or they have been too afraid of you to really do right by you.  The result is that you are unendurably uppity.  You should be kissed and by someone who knows how. (Chapter 17)

I like you because I have those same qualities in me and like begets liking.  I realize you still cherish the memory of the godlike and wooden-headed Mr. Wilkes, who’s probably been in his grave these six months.  But there must be room in your heart for me too.  Scarlett, do stop wriggling!  I am making you a declaration.  I have wanted you since the first time I laid eyes on you in the hall at Twelve Oaks, when you were bewitching poor Charlie Hamilton.  I want you more than I have ever wanted any woman – and I’ve waited longer for you than I’ve ever waited for any woman. (Chapter 19)

Dear Scarlett!  You aren’t helpless.  Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless.  God help the Yankees if they should get to you. (Chapter 23)

I love you, Scarlett, because we are so much alike, renegades, both of us, dear, and selfish rascals.  Neither of us cares a rap if the whole world goes to pot, so long as we are safe and comfortable. (Chapter 23)

Stay tuned for more Rhett-isms!

One of my goals when I set out to read Gone with the Wind was to verify whether the following statement made by The Ultimate Book of Useless Information was accurate:

In Gone with the Wind, Melanie’s pregnancy lasts 21 months based on the actual battles mentioned.

via http://movieboom.biz/movie/355/gone_with_the_wind

So here’s my timeline rundown:

• Melanie conceives when Ashley is home on furlough Christmas of 1863.
• She announces her pregnancy in March of 1864 and the doctor tells her she’s due end of August or early September.
• Battles occurring during this time include New Hope Church (May 25-26, 1864), Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864), Atlanta (July 22, 1864), Ezra Church (July 28, 1864), Confederate retreat (August, 1864), and finally Hood evacuates Atlanta on September 1, 1864.

So that all falls right in line with the 9 months of gestation!  Sure, there were other battles mentioned, like Ashley lamenting the loss at Gettysburg that occurred in July of 1863, but that doesn’t mean they took place DURING Melly’s pregnancy.  My conclusion is that Mitchell was absolutely accurate in timing the historical events since Melanie gives birth the day before Atlanta burns and they flee the city during the fire.

So there!