Can We Really Change?

As I wrote in my last post, the Southern way of life in Gone With the Wind changes dramatically with the Civil War. This external change affects not only the way of life, though; it changes the characters themselves.

Scarlett: Scarlett probably goes through more changes than any of the other characters. She starts out as a foolish child who wants nothing more than to catch as many beaux as possible. She wants to be petted and taken care of. However, by the end, Scarlett becomes much more than a silly girl. She becomes a survivor, a bussinesswoman, a plantation manager, and yes, even a murderer. She is a woman who can and will do anything to save herself and those closest to her from ruin, hunger, or death.

Melanie: Melanie begins as a very quiet, shy woman, but ends as just as strong as Scarlett in spirit if not in body. She is willing to talk to Belle Watling, a prostitute, although as a proper Southern woman she may never have dreamed of doing such a thing before the war. She spends countless hours helping in a hospital. Even down to her last shred of strength she's doing everything she can to help her family. When the Yankee breaks into Tara, Scarlett shoots him, but Melanie's dragging a sword even though she can barely stand. Her strength shines through to her last moment.

Ashley: Ashley's change, unlike Scarlett's and Melanie's, may not be for the better. Ashley starts out as a respectable, educated Southern man, poetic but down to earth and realistic. He's thoroughly used to his way of life. When the war comes, he dutifully goes and fights in it, but after he returns, he's consistently weary and bewildered. He tries to help at Tara but he's pretty much useless; he only knows how to run a plantation, not how to work on one. His confusion and depression drives him to foolish indulgences with Scarlett even though he really loves Melanie. By the end of the book, Ashley is weak and dependent.

Rhett: Rhett begins as a sort of Southern playboy, shrewd and cavalier. When he meets Scarlett, he continues his rather raucous lifestyle, but eventually has no trouble settling down and living in domesticity. He becomes a coddling husband and father, indulging his wife and child in every way possible, his heart softening as his hopes grow that Scarlett could love him. Rhett responds to the war by using it to his advantage to make even more money, but in many ways the war doesn't even really touch him, although he eventually goes to fight (prodded by his conscience). But were it not for the war, Rhett would never have been able to marry Scarlett and would not likely have had his heart so broken by Scarlett's rejection and the death of his only child. His strong personality leads him finally to leave Scarlett.

The Southern Ladies: The Southern women that Scarlett and Melanie are surrounded with, such as Aunt Pittypat and India Wilkes, never really change. The war only drives them to cling more tightly to their traditions and their straitlaced, judgmental ways.

But there's more to all this change than meets the eye. I recently asked Jillian from A Room of One's Own what she thought of Scarlett's character and she replied with some very interesting insights:


Her triumphs were due to her unrelenting spirit. What caused her to fixate on Ashley caused her to fixate upon survival — at any cost. There is (I think) a weakness in every strength, and a strength in every weakness. ...If there had been nothing to survive, and she’d lived her whole life in the plantation South as a pampered, useless woman, her resilience would have gone to waste. She would have been ill-fitted to that world. But thrown into the midst of the American Civil War? Her resilience became a strength.


Perhaps all the characters' supposed "changes" were not really changes at all--the characters' personalities were simply being manifest in a new way. Scarlett was always a survivor, but when she had nothing to survive, she was a foolish, silly girl. Melanie was always strong, but she never had to show it until the war came. Ashley, on the other hand, was never strong, but before the war he didn't need to do anything but read books and let everyone else do his work for him.

Can we really change? Do we really change? Or are we always inherently the same person and external change just brings out a different side of us?