MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - MobileRead Discussion: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (spoilers)

Sparrow · 02-25-2010, 03:14 PM

I haven't read much romantic fiction; but a common theme seems to be the catharsis of the heroine by cruelty and rape.

It's an aspect of 'Wuthering Heights' that seems to appeal to a lot of its fans - the brutality of Heathcliffe.

We have another example in 'Gone with the Wind' when Rhett forces himself on Scarlett, Ch 54:

"He hurt her and she cried out, muffled, frightened. Up the stairs he went in the utter darkness, up, up, and she was wild with fear. He was a mad stranger and this was a black darkness she did not know, darker than death. He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. She screamed, stifled against him and he stopped suddenly on the landing and, turning her swiftly in his arms, bent over and kissed her with a savagery and a completeness that wiped out everything from her mind but the dark into which she was sinking and the lips on hers."

and then Scarlett the following morning:

"The man who had carried her up the dark stairs was a stranger of whose existence she had not dreamed. And now, though she tried to make herself hate him, tried to be indignant, she could not. He had humbled her, hurt her, used her brutally through a wild mad night and she had gloried in it. Oh, she should be ashamed, should shrink from the very memory of the hot swirling darkness! A lady, a real lady, could never hold up her head after such a night. But, stronger than shame, was the memory of rapture, of the ecstasy of surrender."

I'm curious to know how scenes like this speak to fans of romantic fiction?
What is their view of Rhett?

02-25-2010, 03:14 PM	#26
Sparrow Wizard Posts: 4,395 Karma: 1358132 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: UK Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3	I haven't read much romantic fiction; but a common theme seems to be the catharsis of the heroine by cruelty and rape. It's an aspect of 'Wuthering Heights' that seems to appeal to a lot of its fans - the brutality of Heathcliffe. We have another example in 'Gone with the Wind' when Rhett forces himself on Scarlett, Ch 54: "He hurt her and she cried out, muffled, frightened. Up the stairs he went in the utter darkness, up, up, and she was wild with fear. He was a mad stranger and this was a black darkness she did not know, darker than death. He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. She screamed, stifled against him and he stopped suddenly on the landing and, turning her swiftly in his arms, bent over and kissed her with a savagery and a completeness that wiped out everything from her mind but the dark into which she was sinking and the lips on hers." and then Scarlett the following morning: "The man who had carried her up the dark stairs was a stranger of whose existence she had not dreamed. And now, though she tried to make herself hate him, tried to be indignant, she could not. He had humbled her, hurt her, used her brutally through a wild mad night and she had gloried in it. Oh, she should be ashamed, should shrink from the very memory of the hot swirling darkness! A lady, a real lady, could never hold up her head after such a night. But, stronger than shame, was the memory of rapture, of the ecstasy of surrender." I'm curious to know how scenes like this speak to fans of romantic fiction? What is their view of Rhett?