Chapter 51
Scarlett visits
Ashley at the mill. She looks at the accounts and discovers that Ashley is
barely breaking even, whereas Johnnie Gallegher is making large profits. He
tells her that he cannot drive men as Johnnie does, as he feels sorry for them.
He accuses Rhett of brutalizing Scarlett, not realizing that she has enough
brutality of her own without needing any from Rhett. When Ashley expresses
jealousy of Rhett's touching her, Scarlett feels delighted that Ashley still
loves her. She decides that, just as she assumes that Ashley does not have a
sexual relationship with Melanie because of Melanie's inability to have more
children safely, she will not have a sexual relationship with Rhett. That way,
she and Ashley can remain true to each other and she will not have to have more
children.
Scarlett informs
Rhett that she does not wish to continue a sexual relationship with him. He
responds with indifference, saying that there are plenty of other women's beds
in the world. Scarlett is mortified that he has taken her decision so lightly
and regrets that out of delicacy, she cannot even tell Ashley of it. She will
miss long conversations in bed with Rhett and the comfort of his arms when she
wakes from a nightmare.
Chapter 52
Rhett learns
that Wade does not get invited to any parties held by their former friends in
Old Atlanta society. Wade asks Rhett if he fought in the war, as the other boys
are saying that he did not. Rhett, who has kept his war record secret, tells
Wade that he fought in the artillery for eight months.
Rhett realizes
that his children are suffering from his own and Scarlett's exclusion from
society. He is determined that Bonnie will not be ashamed of her father. He
forms a plan to enlist Melanie's help to re-integrate himself into Old Atlanta
society. He will do whatever it takes to regain these people's favor:
contributing to their charities, attending their churches, even - though he
hopes it will not come to that - joining the Ku Klux Klan. He forbids Scarlett
to entertain Governor Bullock in their house again, and orders her to stop
inviting her unscrupulous new Yankee friends.
Scarlett tells
him that if he wants to overcome society's disapproval, he should sell Belle
Watling's house, which she suspects he owns. He agrees.
Rhett's campaign
for acceptance could not come at a worse time. Since the South surrendered,
Rhett's name has been linked with Yankees, Republicans and Scalawags, who are
now hated as never before. By co-opting the black vote, the Republicans and
their allies are ruling Georgia with no consideration for the Old Southern
population. An army of speculators and profiteers are seizing state government
contracts and growing rich. When the Georgians complain, the Governor goes
North and tells Congress of white outrages against blacks, leading to even
harsher rule by the Yankees and their allies.
As part of his
plan to become respectable, Rhett allows it to be known that he fought in the
war. Mrs. Merriwether at first does not believe him, but she writes to the
commander of the regiment Rhett claims to have been in, and the commander
confirms that Rhett fought bravely. When Scarlett throws a party for her Yankee
friends, Rhett takes the children out and drives them around, letting it be
known that he is keeping them away from the "white trash" in his house. Rhett
also persuades the bank to grant a loan to Mrs. Merriwether. He keeps Bonnie
with him constantly, placing her in front of him on the saddle as he rides
around town. He becomes known as a devoted father.
When Bonnie is
two, she develops a fear of the dark. Rhett arranges for her to sleep in his
room with a lamp lit.
One night, Rhett
stays out drinking with a friend and Bonnie is put to bed without a lamp. Rhett
comes home drunk to hear Bonnie screaming in fear. Rhett is angry with the
servant responsible and with Scarlett for not checking that the light was
burning, but Scarlett believes that Bonnie should not be humored. Rhett reminds
Scarlett that he has comforted her after a nightmare in exactly the same way as
he does Bonnie.
Bonnie complains
that Rhett smells bad when he has been drinking, so thereafter, he drinks no
more than a glass of wine.
Chapter 53
�
Melanie throws a
surprise birthday party for Ashley. Scarlett goes to the lumberyard to keep
Ashley there until five o'clock, so that he will not come home and witness the
party preparations. Scarlett is elated that she will have time alone with
Ashley.
At the
lumberyard, Ashley takes Scarlett's hands. Scarlett has longed to feel his
touch again, so she is surprised to feel nothing but a warm friendliness.
Ashley tells Scarlett that if it had not been for her help, he would have
descended into oblivion as surely as Cathleen Calvert did. He asks her
curiously where she wants to go with her life, saying that he only wants to be
himself and not be driven to do things he does not want to do. Scarlett
reflects that though she has everything she ever wanted except Ashley, these
things have not made her happy.
As Ashley
reminisces about the charm of the Old South, Scarlett notices that he looks old
and tired. She notes that he cannot see the present and fears the future; all
he can do is look back into the past. Ashley's talk of the old days prompts Scarlett
to cry. He gently takes her in his arms and comforts her. Suddenly, Ashley
pulls away and Scarlett sees India and Archie standing at the door, watching
them.
Scarlett leaves
the lumberyard and goes home. She is tortured primarily by what Melanie will
think of her, and secondarily, by the possibility that Ashley will hate her for
bringing ruin to his family. Rhett is the third person whose reaction she
considers. She tells herself that she will think of all this tomorrow. Unable
to face going to Ashley's party, she tells Rhett that she has a headache and
cannot go. Rhett, who has been told about Scarlett and Ashley's embrace by
Archie, calls her a coward. He forces her to accompany him to the party and
face everyone, if only for Bonnie's sake.
By now, Scarlett
cares only about what Melanie thinks of her. As she and Rhett enter the room,
everyone falls silent and stares at them. Then Melanie emerges from the crowd,
puts her arm around Scarlett and asks her to help receive the guests.
Analysis of
Chapters 51-53
Scarlett takes
huge risks with her relationship with Rhett, as she decides to pursue a
symbolic faithfulness to Ashley by refusing sex to Rhett. Rhett responds with
apparent indifference and a resolution to seek sex with other women, cementing
the distance between himself and Scarlett. It soon becomes apparent that
Scarlett's 'sacrifice' is not only futile (she cannot tell Ashley about it, out
of delicacy) but based on a delusion: in the scene in the lumber yard with
Ashley, Scarlett realizes that she does not love Ashley after all. All she
feels for him is a warm friendliness. She has endangered her marriage to no
purpose.
Why does
Scarlett realize now that she does not love Ashley? Though she has always
lacked insight into others, Scarlett finally notices what has been obvious to
everyone else from the beginning: that Ashley is wedded to the past and the Old
South, and is incapable of adapting to the present or of fully standing on his
own feet. He could not be more different to her. While she sheds the occasional
tear over the loss of the Old South, she is determined to make the most of
present opportunities to carve out a prosperous future.
It is a heavy
irony that until this point in the novel, Scarlett and Ashley have been able to
keep their love sufficiently hidden to avoid disgrace, but now that Scarlett no
longer loves Ashley, they are discovered in a chaste embrace and scandal looks
set to overwhelm them.
Rhett continues
to develop as a more sympathetic character. Thus far in the novel, he has won
our affection for his charisma, humor, strength, perceptiveness and refusal to
be bullied by Scarlett. But our sympathy for him has been challenged by the
fact that he has generally acted out of self-interest. Now, however, his
devotion to Bonnie shows us the soft, giving and self-sacrificing sides of his
nature. His painstaking campaign to become "respectable" in the eyes of society
shows that he values Bonnie's welfare more than his own pride. It is also an
admission on his part that there is a price to pay for treating society's
conventions and expectations with contempt, as Rhett has done, and as Scarlett
continues to do. Rhett's rehabilitation in Old Southern society parallels his
growth in stature in our own eyes.
Though Rhett's
campaign to court Old Southern society comes at a bad time insofar as he is
identified with Yankees and Scalawags, who have never been more hated than they
are now, it comes at the perfect time insofar as the Reconstruction is soon to
end and the Democrats are gaining power once more. If Rhett succeeds in
becoming respectable, he will once again be on the winning side. As ever, he is
one step ahead of everyone else, and his unerring political instincts tell him
which way the trends are moving.
Melanie's action
in welcoming Scarlett to her party in spite of India and Archie's report of
Scarlett's embracing Ashley at the lumber yard can be seen as heroically
generous (in that Melanie cannot see the bad in anyone) or willfully
self-blinding (in that the evidence surely suggests that Scarlett and Ashley
are having an affair) - perhaps both. There is no doubt that Melanie's gesture
is testament to her remarkable qualities of courage, loyalty and love. That
these qualities have great power is shown by the fact that even the
contemptuous Scarlett now cares only about what Melanie will think of her.
Scarlett's newly respectful attitude to Melanie is reminiscent of her attitude
to Ellen. Deep within Scarlett is a recognition that these two women have such
goodness and integrity that their opinions count for a great deal.
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