Scarlett has a long awaited understanding with Ashley, but India and Mrs. Elsing appear at the wrong moment and misunderstand the situation. Melanie is planning a birthday party for Ashley. Since Scarlett has to ride to the mills with paychecks anyway, Melanie asks her to hold Ashley there until India and Mrs. Elsing come for him. Ashley sees through the ruse as all the men have already clued him in on the surprise, but he and Scarlett begin talking about old times. He reminds her of the way their lives used to be, and Scarlett realizes that nothing has turned out as she had planned. In fact, she doesn't even feel the passion she thought she had for Ashley. Her feeling seems to be just a warm and soothing friendship. She begins to cry and Ashley wraps his arms around her in comfort. At that moment, India and Mrs. Elsing appear.
Scarlett tries to skip the party, but Rhett-who also believes she was
throwing herself at Ashley, forces her to attend. In spite of her dread,
Scarlett's dignity is saved when Melanie greets her at the door and keeps
her at her side during the entire party. She tries to explain that she
really wasn't doing anything wrong, for once, but Rhett will not listen.
For herself, she has just realized that she was in love with a fantasy
all along, a fantasy into which she had inserted Ashley Wilkes.
Scarlett's emotions become very complicated here. She thinks that she simply doesn't love Ashley and never did. However, I believe that he was the one she really did love, even if he was part of a fantasy. The reason she feels no emotion now is because both of them have changed so drastically. She has become hard and businesslike, no longer interested in playing the coquette. He is no longer the dashing young son of a plantation owner, but is a beaten man, the last of his own kind; before the onslaught of overwhelming change, he is helpless and resigned. He is an example of the same weakness she thought she had seen in Charles and Frank, but she had misread them. Ashley's weakness is real; Scarlett's strength and determination puts her in a world so far from Ashley that she never could love what he has become.
The irony of this situation is that when she finally got Ashley alone
for a heart to heart talk, all the passion was gone. The embrace seen
by India and Mrs. Elsing was nothing more than brotherly comfort. Because
Rhett knows of her lifelong fantasy for Ashley, he immediately assumes
that a romantic moment was interrupted. When he begins insulting her,
she stiffens her own resolve and refuses to dignify his insults with explanation.
Following the party, Rhett berates Scarlet for chasing Ashley after
kicking her own husband out of her bed. She tries to explain, but he won't
hear it, and after a few moments of his insults, she no longer cares to
explain. He tells her that he has always loved her and has been waiting
for her to return his love. Finally he carries her off to bed and makes
savage love to her. She responds with equal passion, but in the morning
her bed is empty. She clings to his claims of love, but after two days
decides that it was all a lie. When he does come home, he gives her only
a casual hello and a sarcastic apology for his behavior. She vows to keep
her door locked in the future. Rhett takes Bonnie and leaves for a trip
to New Orleans.
Once again, Scarlett would return Rhett's love, but his own misunderstanding
prevents reconciliation between them.
Scarlett visits Melanie, intending to explain the incident with Ashley
and to tell her the whole truth of her long fantasized love affair with
him. However, Melanie refuses any explanation and clearly does not believe
there was ever anything other than sisterly love between her sister-in-law
and her husband. Melanie has accused India of inventing lies and has kicked
her out of the house. She calls on the rest of her lady friends and insists
that Scarlett go with her. In the end it becomes a scandal that splits
the entire town, half siding with India, the other half with Melanie.
Most people have no idea whether Scarlett is truly guilty, but they don't
want to lose Melanie's friendship. Scarlett herself is well aware of and
deeply humiliated by the fact that if she did not have Melanie's support,
the whole town would be against her, and she would be an outcast.
Melanie shields herself with her refusal to believe anything bad about Scarlett.
One almost feels as if she knew the truth, but protected them both with
her own denial. This is one humiliation that Scarlett cannot walk away
from with a haughty, I-don't-care, attitude. The town disapproves of her
anyway, so how much worse could it be? The fact that she goes along with
Melanie is an indication of the strength of Melanie's character as well
as a demonstration that Scarlett does indeed care what her people think
of her.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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