Catherine is like Scarlett.

yea they are quite similar....

Wow.
Much similarity, yes. But sameness - No.

You bring up many different points - but I am interested in how you are focusing
mainly on Catherine in this thread and in your other! She is to me key #1 for understanding anything in this movie. She has inner strength and purpose like Scarlett. She seems to use men to her purpose intuitively knowing what it is that attracts them... but with an entirely different purpose!

In Gone With The Wind these ways often seem positive in that Scarlett survives and helps others survive with the use of these traits but I didn't see it as a positive all the time. And if it had not been for the deprivations and depravities of war it wouldn't have seemed positive at all. She was very good at using her advantages however, no doubt about that whatsoever.

But Catherine in Jules and Jim - positive? To me the one positive human trait above all others in that movie was friendship - between Jules and Jim. Catherine's ways were destructive, unravelling, mysterious, but not positive. They attracted Jules and Jim, but her ways did not seem positive. More than once her ways strained that friendship, but the friendship never broke and because of that it grew even stronger.

Catherine was unlike Scarlett in some key ways. At the top of the list: She never tried to act, never made an effort to act, with the interests of others in mind and it never occurred to her that she should have problems with her conscience for that.

A theory for this: The real difference is that Scarlett was human, Catherine was something else. "She was the statue." Her eyes were opal. If there was a heart it was actual stone.

____________________Spoiler ahead, proceed with caution____________



This sounds wierd and one might say, "No, it's meant to be a metaphor", or she seems inhuman because this story is told by Jules who found himself left behind and minus his close friend because of her selfish final act... but no.

He gives a steady and detailed narration, his voice never waivers with emotion. And in those details we get a clear vision put together with careful reflection and hindsight. Detail after detail is provided which when kept apart seem insignificant. But in this story the sum of the parts are really greater than the whole!
And he ends the story by NOT following Catherine's final wish - having her ashes scattered at sea! Instead he makes certain those ashes are eternally confined in a tomb. There is a reason for that. If you know who Catherine was it becomes clear.

Your other thread, "Conception as a metaphor", brings up key #2 - Her purpose! I don't know whether to continue here or go to the other thread but I sure would like to get into this question if I can get a few more minutes.

Until then, look at the name given to Jules and Catherine's daughter: Sabine.











It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.

[deleted]

Yes, Catherine is like Scarlett in many ways, and their stories have interesting parallels. Scarlett is closer than almost any classical Hollywood heroine to actually fighting doggedly, weapon in hand, no holds barred, for herself and for what she sees as right/her birthright (to her the boundary between right and "belongs to me" is very muddled, but isn't that a commonplace of how young women in love are portrayed in movies anyway?) And that kind of fighting for the Good, for Freedom, for country, home and family, fighting head on and risking to be killed on the spot if you fail, has long been a male prerogative, in movies and in the real world. You very rarely see women in films - at least films set in the contemporary world or close to it - actually taking on this crusading role, defying the goons directly in struggle (with arms or brains) and placing themselves at the helm, as distinct from romantic subterfuge. And if they do, they leave the main guiding wheel to a man as soon as they find one to trust and let him do the actual resistance, detective investigation or rallying of a guerilla.

Scarlett O'Hara has been a model to many women because she symbolizes pride, a wish to go all the way, not to give in, and not to wait for the strong man. Well actually it's only in minor stretches of the film that she does this. At other times, including all of the first half, she's the longing romantic heroine who admits her need for a man to strengthen her and guide her - but the point is that she is shown to have the potential and the guts to do whatever it takes, like a man, in a strained situation. Even to kill an enemy and hide his corspe, even to get out in the fields and work.

Catherine has that kind of double face too. She's got the feminine guile and "fickle charm" of a city girl, but there's also a hard-edged wish to be determined, independent and rough like a boy, and to jump out of any doubts, tear up the deceits and conveniences and head into something more natural and modern. That's part of what gives the film its breath of life and its significance.

Mr.Hitler has made life very difficult for Shakespearian companies.

Scarlett would totally destroy Catherine



so many movies, so little time