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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that Scarlett's first 2 children are one of the most overlooked bits of Gone With The Wind?

177 replies

Jane379 · 25/05/2026 17:11

I was rereading it a few days ago and it struck me how at the end, Scarlett is totally focused on getting Rhett back, nothing else. What happens to poor Wade & Ella afterwards are anyone's guess - especially as Melanie has died and Rhett seems to have checked out, and they were previously acting as surrogate parents. I suppose Mammy would probably end up looking after them?
It's hardly Scarlett's fault that she was expected to have kids despite no desire to, but she should have treated them better once they were born. I think the film toned down her attitude to them a lot, probably because it was seen as too shocking and damaged her heroine sstatus.A retelling in retrospect by Wade or Ella would be an interesting spin-off idea...

Rhett seems a pretty negative parental figure too, I think he's often assessed too positively & romanticised. Unbelievable he had Bonnie jumping like that at only 4,..the whole thing with him & Bonnie was weird, at the end he essentially says he treated her as a substitute for Scarlett.

AIBU?

OP posts:
SarahAndQuack · 25/05/2026 17:32

I only know the book, not the film, but in the book, it's pretty clear most privileged white children are brought up by black nannies, as Scarlett was and as her children are. She's not even vaguely socialised to be a hands-on parent and no-one seems to expect it of her.

ParadiseIsNoBunker · 25/05/2026 17:28

GWTW is one of my favourite films for its cinematic efforts. The scale, ambition, casting, acting, cinematography, direction, script, design… beyond anything that had come before. It’s the first Block Buster and should be studied and celebrated for that.

It is a hugely problematic film.

The concept of ‘Happy and grateful slaves’ is horrific.
The South being ‘wronged’ is horrific.
The rape scene is horrific.
‘Good’ women (Melly and Mrs O’Hara Snr) finding peace in death (God) is horrific.
A prototype feminist meeting her comeuppance through the death of her child and divorce from her husband is horrific.

It remains a film to be studied for all its positives and negatives.