I used to carry around a notebook and write down quotes from
books that I was reading. When I read some books, I felt like writing down
quotes every other page, because there were so many great lines and
thought-provoking passages. I still get annoyed when I’m flicking through a
book, trying to find a passage that stood out to me, and I can’t find it!
If the only thing you know about Gone with the Wind is
the line ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’, you’re missing out on a treat.
A 1000-page, epic treat. Like many people, I only read the book after falling
in love with the film. I remember watching different films with each of my
parents as a child. With my dad, we watched The Great Escape, Fiddler on the
Roof, Casablanca and lots of Laurel and Hardy. With my mum, we watched Gone
with the Wind…and as the film was four hours long, there wasn’t much time for
anything else. As a child, it’s difficult to identify with an adult sometimes,
because they seem so different. I absolutely adored the heroine of Gone with
the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara, and perhaps it was because she was childish, loud, stubborn
and wore flamboyant clothes. It wasn’t until later, when I read the book (which
took me a long time, by the way!), that I really felt I understood her
character. Literature and cinema are full of strong, male protagonists, and it’s
so refreshing to find a female lead as full of life and as complex as Scarlett.
Unlike Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she’s not sweet and innocent and she’s
often not especially likeable, but if you let her character speak to you, then
you see her tremendous willpower and physical strength, as well as her
vulnerability and honesty.
This is an encounter from Margaret Mitchell’s wonderful
book, when Rhett Butler proposes to Scarlett:
'I always intended having you, since the 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 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.'
'Rhett Butler, is this one of your vile jokes?'
'I bare my soul and you are suspicious! No, Scarlett,
this is a bona fide honourable declaration. I admit that it's not in the best
of taste, coming at this time, but I have a very good excuse for my lack of
breeding. I'm going away to-morrow for a long time and 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.'
