Gone with the wind-who suffers most

[downing]

Which one of these characters from Gone with the Wind do you think suffers the most and why?

[Mary Sue]

I think that Ashley suffers the most because of his own basic nature. He's too much the "ivory tower" dreamer. He barely survives in the face of a harsh reality. His whole world is turned upside down by the war. And afterwards, he can't quite adapt to the new order of things. He leans on Melanie, the one "dream" that remains to him, and with her death he has nothing left. If it hadn't been for the war----if he'd been able to maintain his original, idealized plantation life, with Melanie and his books as constant companions----he'd have been quite happy. But deprived of these things, he's a wreck. Nice guy and all that...but let's face it, WEAK. He never coyuld have made Scarlett happy, being so essentially unhappy himself.

[Shea]

It's been a few years since I read this, but I chose Scarlett only because she suffers at her own hand and has no idea why she is suffering. If she would only just let go, stop worrying about lavish comfort, being the one to be envied, wanting Ashley without really thinking about why. She creates her own troubles and doesn't realize that it's really up to herself to refrain from misery. Melanie is her perfect foil.

[valvaljean]

I chose Frank only because Scarlett's sisters weren't on there. I don't think Scarlett really 'suffered'. Certainly her inability to have Ashley didn't prevent her from engineering unsuitable marriages, no matter who was hurt.

I don't believe devoted puppy, Charles Hamilton, was hurt and probably died happy about his marriage to Scarlett. But Frank had to have known that she didn't love him and had a regret or two. Suellen must have suffered tremendously over Scarlett's treacherous behavior.

[downing]

I chose Rhett, because he was the character who suffered a lot because of Scarlett: he married her under his powerful love, during years and loved her all their entire marriage. I think that he suffered because, even she was loyal and didn't give her body to another person, and here i'm thinking of Ashley, she didn't give Rhett her heart and her soul, as he says at the end of the book. As you see, they were very alike and that's why,probably, they hesitate in the same moments: for example, after he took her on the stair and went in the bedroom and spent a beautiful night together, he was a bit ashamed and that's why he left home and came drunk. When he came, she wanted to kiss him, to go into his arms, but he kept his irony and said that all what happened was because he was drunk that night. He also wanted to kiss her and tell his real thoughts, but Scarlett hesittated and he also hesitated, and their entire marriage hestitated. I think that Rhett's irony is just a mask, because he hides a wonderful sensible soul after this mask.

[mtpspur]

Melanie--though she would be the very last of this crew that would think that and that's the tragedy of her--she is the only one who's content with who she is and how her life is turning out-good, bad or indifferent. Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley--all in their interesting aspects rarely able to get past WHAT I WANT!!! Oddly enough when I first read GWTW I thought Ashley was 'noble' compared to Rhett. Now he's just an inneffectual dreamer.

[Pattra]

Ashley
Because of his mind, his point about the world around him.
Because he lived in his own dream, but such dream had gone for ever.

[Danika_Valin]

What about Wade?

He's barely in the novel, completely absent from the movie, and Scarlett is so self-absorbed that she forgets about him. He never knew his own father. Rhett naturally favors Bonnie over him because Wade was fathered by a different man. He was a child in the middle of Atlanta when it was under seige, and if that little kid didn't have it rough, I don't know who did!