What's in a name?
“Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful…”
So begins Margaret Mitchell’s tour de force novel Gone with the Wind.
Well, while Scarlett O’Hara may not have been “beautiful,” Vivien Leigh, the actress who played her in arguably the best motion picture ever made, most decidedly was. In fact, “beautiful” would be a gross understatement. Vivien Leigh was drop dead gorgeous and incredibly photogenic, especially in black and white, in case you have never seen her heart-stopping close ups in Waterloo Bridge.
It is the character of Scarlett O’Hara, I think, which is the most captivating, however. When the novel starts out, in the glib, extravagant pre-Civil War South, Scarlett O’Hara is a young (only 16!), spoiled, manipulative brat. Yet, it is the incredibly bloody civil war and its complete devastation to her family’s (and the plantation South’s) way of life which brings out her true colors. Yes, she may be manipulative and self-centered, but she is also an incredibly brave, strong, and assertive woman who rises to the occasion. She is resourceful, resilient in ways she never imagined, and a leader. Her traits of being stubborn, strong-willed, and feisty end up being pluses instead of minuses. Life bites her in the butt multiple times over, but she perseveres. In the end she loses Rhett, who by then quite frankly doesn’t give a damn, but she still emerges as a survivor. You know in the end, that no matter what, Katie Scarlett O’Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler is going to push on through to the other side, the theme song of “Tara” playing virulently in the background.
Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara was far more complex than the one in the movie version. She had children with every marriage, for one thing, these all lost to the time and plot constraints of an already four hour long movie. Yet, to her credit, Vivien Leigh could convey complex character development merely by raising an eyebrow. Something she did at several key points in the movie. Leaving me weak-kneed and confused.
It is almost unfathomable to me that at one point Mitchell was seriously considering naming her heroine “Pansy O’Hara.” (There are rough drafts of the novel that begin: “Pansy O’Hara was not beautiful…”) I am not sure if the word “pansy” had the same connotation in the 1930s as it does retrospectively now. But Scarlett O’Hara was NO Pansy. In fact, I can think of no other name besides Scarlett that does this woman justice!
Scarlett. Not just RED, but scarlet. The Scarlet Letter. A color that implied scandal, intrigue, and a fallen woman in two short syllables. Red conveys strength, power. Red means STOP! Red is decisive. When we look at a human face, red implies anger, heat, intense feeling, even shame. The “scarlet” variation merely gives red an edge, a more complex depth.
Miss Scarlett in Clue. As kids we used to fight over who got to be Miss Scarlett. No one ever fought over being Mrs. Peacock, Colonel Mustard, or Professor Plum. Puhleeze! Miss Scarlett had mystery, allure, savoir faire, an undeniable sexiness. As children, we had no idea what any of these meant, but we knew that Miss Scarlett was IT.
I really have no idea what the point of this posting is supposed to be. Ramblings about beauty and characters and names and strength and character, I guess. I had a few minutes in my day to sit down and write and make a blog posting, and this is what came out.
The end.
So begins Margaret Mitchell’s tour de force novel Gone with the Wind.
Well, while Scarlett O’Hara may not have been “beautiful,” Vivien Leigh, the actress who played her in arguably the best motion picture ever made, most decidedly was. In fact, “beautiful” would be a gross understatement. Vivien Leigh was drop dead gorgeous and incredibly photogenic, especially in black and white, in case you have never seen her heart-stopping close ups in Waterloo Bridge.
It is the character of Scarlett O’Hara, I think, which is the most captivating, however. When the novel starts out, in the glib, extravagant pre-Civil War South, Scarlett O’Hara is a young (only 16!), spoiled, manipulative brat. Yet, it is the incredibly bloody civil war and its complete devastation to her family’s (and the plantation South’s) way of life which brings out her true colors. Yes, she may be manipulative and self-centered, but she is also an incredibly brave, strong, and assertive woman who rises to the occasion. She is resourceful, resilient in ways she never imagined, and a leader. Her traits of being stubborn, strong-willed, and feisty end up being pluses instead of minuses. Life bites her in the butt multiple times over, but she perseveres. In the end she loses Rhett, who by then quite frankly doesn’t give a damn, but she still emerges as a survivor. You know in the end, that no matter what, Katie Scarlett O’Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler is going to push on through to the other side, the theme song of “Tara” playing virulently in the background.
Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara was far more complex than the one in the movie version. She had children with every marriage, for one thing, these all lost to the time and plot constraints of an already four hour long movie. Yet, to her credit, Vivien Leigh could convey complex character development merely by raising an eyebrow. Something she did at several key points in the movie. Leaving me weak-kneed and confused.
It is almost unfathomable to me that at one point Mitchell was seriously considering naming her heroine “Pansy O’Hara.” (There are rough drafts of the novel that begin: “Pansy O’Hara was not beautiful…”) I am not sure if the word “pansy” had the same connotation in the 1930s as it does retrospectively now. But Scarlett O’Hara was NO Pansy. In fact, I can think of no other name besides Scarlett that does this woman justice!
Scarlett. Not just RED, but scarlet. The Scarlet Letter. A color that implied scandal, intrigue, and a fallen woman in two short syllables. Red conveys strength, power. Red means STOP! Red is decisive. When we look at a human face, red implies anger, heat, intense feeling, even shame. The “scarlet” variation merely gives red an edge, a more complex depth.
Miss Scarlett in Clue. As kids we used to fight over who got to be Miss Scarlett. No one ever fought over being Mrs. Peacock, Colonel Mustard, or Professor Plum. Puhleeze! Miss Scarlett had mystery, allure, savoir faire, an undeniable sexiness. As children, we had no idea what any of these meant, but we knew that Miss Scarlett was IT.
I really have no idea what the point of this posting is supposed to be. Ramblings about beauty and characters and names and strength and character, I guess. I had a few minutes in my day to sit down and write and make a blog posting, and this is what came out.
The end.
posted by delta at 11:58 AM
2 Comments:
I LOVE Gwtw, and Scarlett. I read it for the 1st time not too long ago and Scarlett blew me away with her strength and perserverance and character.I think she is one of the most underestimated, underappreciated heroines of literature ever.
People say I'm SCARLETT O'HARA, since we're both bitches. But I'm as genuine as she was, since we were from the same neck of the Georgia woods, and we both were stars of novels.
I saw MARGARET MITCHELL meet her tragic death on the sidewalk outside the Fox theater in 1949. (The Egyptian style theater in Atlanta where the movie GONE WITH THE WIND had premiered). A taxi hit her as she was crossing the street, looking up at the theater's marquee where her name was displayed prominently. I tried to warm her of the taxi, but she didn't seem to hear me.
www.ruthieblacknaked.blogspot.com
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