Who is rhett butler

However, as the novel progresses, we see that Rhett does care about the Old South. At two critical points in the novel, Rhett abandons Scarlett to commit himself to the Old South. First, he leaves Scarlett in hostile territory and joins the Confederate army. Second, at the end of the novel he leaves Scarlett and goes in search of remnants of the Old South.

Ultimately, Rhett symbolizes pragmatism, the practical acceptance of the reality that the South must face in order to survive in a changed world. At the end of the novel, Scarlett realizes she loves Rhett, and instantly goes to tell him—because she has a spine, and isn't going to spend four hundred pages wavering and whining like Rhett did.

But when she tells Rhett, what does he say? He says that after being hurt by her before, and after losing Bonnie, he's simply too afraid to have a relationship with her. The book often presents Ashley and Rhett in opposition. Ashley is weak and vacillating, while Rhett is decisive and takes charge. Ashley is an incompetent dreamer; Rhett is a dashing doer. But in the end they're really more alike than not.

The last scene of the novel shows Rhett saying hard things about Scarlett—for instance, "It's a young age to have gained the whole world and lost your own soul, isn't it? It's Rhett, after all, who reveals that his whole life has, like Ashley's, been governed by his inability to act upon his love for Scarlett.

It's Rhett who has behaved with consistent and merciless cruelty simply because, like Ashley, he has been too weak to own and acknowledge his own feelings. Scarlett's tragedy, then, is not that she loved Ashley instead of Rhett. Rather, her tragedy is that she loved, in succession, two men who were afraid of her. Think of it, if you like, but never, never say it to a man" She's stronger than him, and so he spends his life trembling and whining. Maybe, after all, the novel does have a happy ending.

Certainly, it would have been a bittersweet victory at best for Scarlett to spend the remainder of her days with Rhett, a brave man physically but a cowardly excuse of a husband. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Margaret Mitchell. Previous Next. Selznick except for Gable himself. But as Selznick had no male stars under long-term contract, he needed to go through the process of negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio.

Gary Cooper was thus Selznick's first choice, because Cooper's contract with Samuel Goldwyn involved a common distribution company, United Artists , with which Selznick had an eight-picture deal.

However, Goldwyn remained noncommittal in negotiations. When Gary Cooper turned down the role for Rhett Butler, he was passionately against it. Selznick accepted this offer in August, and Gable was cast. But the arrangement to release through MGM meant delaying the start of production until Selznick International completed its eight-picture contract with United Artists. Gable was reluctant to play the role. At the time, he was wary of potentially disappointing a public who had formed a clear impression of the character that he might not necessarily convey in his performance.

In the film adaptation , Rhett was played by Clark Gable. Alice Randall 's The Wind Done Gone is either a parallel historical novel, or after litigation a parody. It is told from the slave point of view.

Both the Butler and Rhett families were, in fact, among the great aristocratic families of Charleston. The Rhetts specifically played part in the very founding of the city whereas a number of other such families, e. The Rhetts and Butlers are still prominent today. In the fictional Butler family Rhett is the eldest child. In Gone with the Wind only his younger sister Rosemary is named; his brother and sister-in-law are mentioned very briefly, but not by name. In the sequel Scarlett the Butler parents are called Steven and Eleanor, the younger brother is Ross.

In this sequel Rhett marries Anne Hampton after divorcing Scarlett and he reunites with Scarlett only after Anne dies. Rhett sees himself in Scarlett, and he is convinced that only someone who is also a rebellious outcast would allow him to be an important part of her life.

When Scarlett treats Rhett as an inferior, he focuses his affection on Bonnie, who he sees as the only person he will ever love unconditionally. Melanie Hamilton is able to see the gentler, nobler side of Rhett, and he in turn genuinely respects and admires her as he does few other people.