MovieChat Forums > Gone with the Wind (1940) Discussion > Why are these people so shallow?

Why are these people so shallow?

posted 18 days ago by telmarine (426)
17 replies | jump to latest

It’s annoying the way Scarlett literally throws herself at Ashley. They have nothing in common. It’s obvious she only cares about how he looks.

And it’s annoying the way all the young guys at the BBQ throw themselves at Scarlett as well. She’s obviously arrogant and narcissistic and they simply don’t care. It’s obvious it’s only because she’s pretty. Especially Scarlett’s late husband at the beginning. Get a clue dude; she don’t care about you. It’s obvious only Mammy and Rhett see things for how they are!

Melanie is cool but a bit blinded by her kindness.

[–] liscarkat (19031) 18 days ago

Young people tend to be attracted to pretty faces and fit bodies more than they are to other attributes. It's just the way it is.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14793) 18 days ago

I personally can't stand this movie. Scarlett is an absolute bitch, and pretty much deserved everything she got with her bad behavior and not appreciating what she had right in front of her, including Rhett Butler. Much of the story is very depressing. I usually quit watching after the barbecue and Scarlett's first wedding. The costumes are interesting, but the 1860s/70s are not really my favorite in the historical clothing dept.

[–] MCguy (1292) 18 days ago

She's a text book sociopath.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14793) 18 days ago

And a stubborn bitch that refuses to learn from her mistakes. Even in the book she was detestable. Someone even pointed out to Scarlett that Ashley is not the right man for her, and she then pulls the line, "But I can change him!" Even being a spoiled, 17-year-old naive brat didn't excuse her from that stupidity. I can't imagine why anyone would admire her other than her strength and stubbornness in the face of adversity, but honestly, she was not a good person at all, and there are far better literary/movie heroes that could do a better job than she did in the stubborn/strength dept.

[–] telmarine (426) 5 days ago

At the end, she realizes that Ashley truly loves Melanie and Scarlett says “why didn’t you tell me before?”

Damn, he’s been telling her the whole movie, and we’ve been enduring hearing him say that for hours … despite him stringing her along with the occasional kiss. Ashley is so wishy-washy, but DID tell her. She’s so stupid.

[–] strntz (12735) 5 days ago

Yes, Ashley did tell Scarlett that he loved Melanie, but it always seemed he was still leaving a door slightly ajar - maybe for his own ego because he knew she was infatuated with him (something that any man would find a bit irresistible). What he should have done was to simply tell her to F off in no uncertain terms instead of being wishy washy about their relationship. Maybe he was stuck between the two women but only fell deeply in love with Melanie after they married or indeed maybe only realized it after Melanie died.

[–] strntz (12735) 5 days ago

Not "textbook" sociopath even if she did show some tendencies.

Scarlett grew as the story progressed - she cared deeply for her parents and her family and fought to improve not only her lot, but theirs as well even if she was very superficial. Her cathartic moment and speech right before intermission when she pulls dirty radishes out of the ground and eats them because she's starving is revealing - she swears to God she will rise above the poverty and that she, nor any of her kinfolk, will ever go hungry again.

[–] [email protected] (6082) 5 days ago

It is true that Scarlett showed loyalty to family. She took care of her kinfolk including Mammy, Pork and some of their other former slaves who stayed on at Tara.

But if you ever getting around to around to reading the book (as I suggested before😀), you would see that she dealt with family obligations and not because she was motivated by love all the time.

There is a scene in the book where she is watching over her two sick sisters who are recovering from typhoid. She thinks to herself that she never loved Suellen. She just didn’t.

Then she thinks that she did not particularly love Careen. She thinks that she could never love someone so weak. That’s a big irony considering how she pined for the beta male Ashley for years!

[–] strntz (12735) 5 days ago

You are right, I haven't read the book (yet), but to be fair, my comments are about the 1939 film.

Still, I think we should take another look at this - there are a lot of siblings who not only don't love each other but actually dislike them, and there's nothing sociopathic or even all that unusual about that (I'd bet there are few families that don't have some level of that going on), but if Scarlett didn't care for her sisters, yet still made sure they didn't go hungry, that's pretty impressive growth for her. She must at least on some level had a working moral compass.

[–] [email protected] (6082) 5 days ago

Yes, I figured you were talking about the movie and not the book.

But also to be fair, I was not the one who first called her a sociopath.😋 Actually I just think she was extremely spoiled and self centered.

When it comes to siblings, I have known some people who treated theirs way worse. I used to date a guy who had a major chip on his shoulder about his half sister. His mother divorced his abusive drunk of a father. She remarried and had another child. This guy could never deal with that.
He used to refer to her as “my mother’s daughter.”

One time we stopped by his mom’s house and he was surprised that his sister was there. He refused to go in the house! I went in to be sociable. After about ten minutes he called to me and said we were leaving.

So when it comes to treating people poorly, I have seen worse than Scarlett’s!

[–] MCguy (1292) 5 days ago

You are correct. I should have said movie/TV show sociopath. Sociopaths who giving non-sociopathic qualities because they're the protagonists. Happens a lot. Don Draper is a prime example.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14793) 5 days ago

Yeah, and then she first goes and screws over her sister by marrying her sister's fiance to get money for Terra, and then she ends up getting the guy killed due to her stupidity at the lumber mill. Gotta love a woman who makes deep, strong choices one minute, and then acts like a selfish, idiotic bitch the next.

[–] strntz (12735) 5 days ago

I never said she was Mother Theresa, I was just pointing out for discussion's sake that she wasn't a textbook socio and did have some latent good qualities to her.

Oh, and Frank Kennedy got *himself* killed - not a terrible end for an avid member of the KKK in my opinion.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14793) 5 days ago

He got killed because Scarlet made the stupid mistake of driving a wagon through the lumberyard, getting assaulted by the men working there, and her husband was duty-bound to try and restore her honor by going and teaching those ruffians a lesson. But everyone knew he didn't have the strength or manpower to survive such a thing, and he ended up getting killed. If Scarlet hadn't driven her wagon through the lumberyard (like everyone told her not to, her second husband wouldn't have gotten killed. Frankly, it was her fault.

If you understood how strong a hold honor worked in that society, you'd know that nobody questioned the strong desire for someone to restore the honor of people they cared about. Honor means so little in today's society that seeing people adhere to it in the past is a foreign concept for today's audience.

[–] strntz (12735) 4 days ago

Frank was stupid and impulsive. All he had to do was go to the authorities like the Yankee Captain Tom was telling Rhett and they would have taken care of the attackers. If Frank did manage to not get himself killed, he would have been in trouble with the law. Dumb move. If you want to be a vigilante you take risks from your target *and* from the law.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14793) 4 days ago

Well, frankly, most of the people in that story were stupid, Scarlett included.

[–] Furienna (3357) 5 days ago

It is true that Scarlett isn't a very likable protagonist, but I guess that she never was supposed to be.
But she did what she had to do to survive both during the war and after it.