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

[Jane379]

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?

The early scene when she throws an ornament at the wall after Ashley turns her down and up gets Rhett Butler off the sofa is one of my favourite scenes in literature.

Yes, it's almost unbearable to watch Seryozha turn from a lively, happy, confident boy into a miserable, repressed child. And it's heartbreaking to think that Annie will follow the same path, since Karenin takes over raising her after Anna's death.

Tolstoy definitely loves Levin, his alter ego. He also approves of Kitty who is well on her way to becoming the ideal Tolstoyan woman, as well as poor long-suffering Dolly.

Kitty is the Natasha Rostova of Anna Karenina. Both similar to his own wife. Funnily enough he grew to absolutely HATE his own wife in later years

In the book it's explained that she stays with Melanie and protect her because she had promised Ashley that she would. She knew that if she bailed on Melly and let her die, Ashley would never forgive her. Though definitely heroic, her actions don't have selfless motives.

He's abandoned all the women hasn't he.

Yes but he didn’t have much choice as he and all physically fit men of fighting age were expected to go and fight in the Civil War.
He came back as soon as he could.