WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:02.910 Hi everybody, welcome back to Fiddle Dee Dee. 00:00:03.109 --> 00:00:06.690 It is Halloween night where I am. I hope you 00:00:06.690 --> 00:00:10.730 all have had a very spooky day if you celebrate. 00:00:11.730 --> 00:00:16.289 Today we have quite an interesting topic. It 00:00:16.289 --> 00:00:21.929 is about Rhett Butler and his early life. So, 00:00:21.949 --> 00:00:25.550 out of the four main characters in the story, 00:00:26.219 --> 00:00:30.800 I would say we probably know the least about 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:34.380 Rhett. I think an argument could be made for 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:40.420 Ashley. But in terms of Rhett, he's less genuine 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:44.740 than Ashley. He is quite mysterious, at least 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:47.079 to Scarlet. You never quite know what's going 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:51.939 on in his head. And he's always described as 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:57.250 being bland and impervious. completely unable 00:00:57.250 --> 00:01:02.909 to be touched in any way so scarlet doesn't really 00:01:02.909 --> 00:01:06.230 understand him and because she doesn't understand 00:01:06.230 --> 00:01:09.269 him we never get his point of view which is a 00:01:09.269 --> 00:01:13.189 really genius writing tactic i think because 00:01:13.189 --> 00:01:17.730 the reader sees him through Scarlet's eyes. And 00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:20.870 so we have to guess what his motivations are 00:01:20.870 --> 00:01:24.450 almost as much as she does. Although some things 00:01:24.450 --> 00:01:27.349 are quite obvious to us that are not to her, 00:01:27.409 --> 00:01:30.049 such as him being madly in love with her. But 00:01:30.049 --> 00:01:33.489 even that is up for debate at some points. So 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:36.870 today we're going to be looking at the text and 00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:41.579 talking about his early life. and how that might 00:01:41.579 --> 00:01:46.180 have influenced his behavior. I was kind of surprised, 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:49.120 actually, when I went back through the book and 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:52.359 I looked at all of the passages about his early 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:55.980 life because I realized that we actually do know 00:01:55.980 --> 00:01:59.459 a lot about it. We don't know a lot of the nitty 00:01:59.459 --> 00:02:01.620 -gritty details, and we don't know how he felt 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:06.250 about things, but we do... pretty much know where 00:02:06.250 --> 00:02:09.650 he was and what he was doing throughout his youth. 00:02:10.449 --> 00:02:15.750 So one of the early chapters in the book is pretty 00:02:15.750 --> 00:02:19.090 much all about Rhett. And it's talking about 00:02:19.090 --> 00:02:24.569 not only his image in Atlanta and his work as 00:02:24.569 --> 00:02:28.129 a blockade runner, but also there are several 00:02:28.129 --> 00:02:32.849 long paragraphs about his past. So let's start 00:02:32.849 --> 00:02:37.750 there and just talk about what that said. So 00:02:37.750 --> 00:02:41.030 here's how it starts. Outside of the Army Heroes, 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:43.569 he was the most talked about man in Atlanta. 00:02:44.129 --> 00:02:46.710 Everyone knew in detail how he had been expelled 00:02:46.710 --> 00:02:48.990 from West Point for drunkenness and something 00:02:48.990 --> 00:02:52.849 about women. So let's stop there. So West Point, 00:02:52.969 --> 00:02:59.009 as we know, was this very strict military school, 00:02:59.090 --> 00:03:04.039 basically. And there is a really good post about 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:07.500 it on the blog, How We Do Run On, which was one 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:09.439 of my favorite Gone With the Wind blogs back 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:12.000 in the day. And I highly recommend checking out 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:13.800 the post about that because it goes in depth 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:18.840 about his education. But I do kind of wonder 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:22.419 what the drunkenness and something about women 00:03:22.419 --> 00:03:26.000 thing really means. Because... This suggests 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.219 that Rhett was really into drinking even at a 00:03:29.219 --> 00:03:32.939 young age. We know that when he's married to 00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:36.740 Scarlett, he gets into the alcohol a little bit 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:41.379 too much. It says his face gets puffy and the 00:03:41.379 --> 00:03:44.560 lines on his face are really harsh and his eyes 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:48.340 are bloodshot, have heavy bags under them. So 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:51.969 that suggests that His drinking is a lot worse 00:03:51.969 --> 00:03:55.990 than it was before he married Scarlett. But this 00:03:55.990 --> 00:03:59.509 whole sentence about West Point suggests that 00:03:59.509 --> 00:04:04.629 he may have been drinking way too much even when 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:08.830 he was younger. So that's also interesting to 00:04:08.830 --> 00:04:11.150 me because Scarlett describes Rhett as somebody 00:04:11.150 --> 00:04:16.649 who at parties is always the one to help other 00:04:16.649 --> 00:04:20.839 drunk people. not ever lose control of himself 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:25.120 or really get so drunk that he is unable to function. 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:28.399 So that is really only something she witnesses, 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:31.139 firstly on the night of Ashley's birthday party, 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:34.100 and then again after Bonnie's death. Margaret 00:04:34.100 --> 00:04:37.060 Mitchell says during their marriage that he drank 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:40.839 heavily, but he was never actually drunk until 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:46.949 those moments. Maybe this means that at a young 00:04:46.949 --> 00:04:50.009 age, he had a lot of experience with partying 00:04:50.009 --> 00:04:53.709 and drinking, whatever that looked like back 00:04:53.709 --> 00:04:57.629 in the Victorian era. And he kind of learned 00:04:57.629 --> 00:05:02.670 from that how to control himself. So he went 00:05:02.670 --> 00:05:04.769 through his crazy years. And then as an older 00:05:04.769 --> 00:05:08.290 adult, he's no longer the guy to get super drunk 00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:11.230 at a party. I don't know. I'm just conjecturing 00:05:11.230 --> 00:05:14.939 here. Another thing that is something about women, 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:19.379 I do kind of wonder what that would be that would 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:25.000 cause somebody to get kicked out of school. I 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.339 don't know, maybe he got involved with a married 00:05:28.339 --> 00:05:31.800 woman or something like involving prostitutes. 00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:34.379 But I don't know, what would be grounds to get 00:05:34.379 --> 00:05:38.310 kicked out of school? Uh, for something like 00:05:38.310 --> 00:05:40.490 that, like would he have been sneaking women 00:05:40.490 --> 00:05:44.889 into his room at night? I don't know. Somebody 00:05:44.889 --> 00:05:48.569 look into that because that's interesting too. 00:05:49.649 --> 00:05:53.170 Um, so then it keeps going. That terrific scandal 00:05:53.170 --> 00:05:55.529 concerning the Charleston girl he had compromised 00:05:55.529 --> 00:05:57.750 and the brother he had killed was public property. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:16.420 Okay, let's stop again. So, the scandal with 00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:18.120 the Charleston girl was something we learned 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:21.639 about earlier. It's pretty much our first introduction 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:26.199 to Rhett. It says that he went out riding with 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.639 her. And that something happened to the carriage, 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:31.399 the wheel broke or something. They had to find 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:33.939 their way home in the dark, in the woods. And 00:06:33.939 --> 00:06:39.279 so when they got home, it was considered totally 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.920 inappropriate. And Rhett should have married 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:44.139 her to keep up with the standards of the day 00:06:44.139 --> 00:06:47.500 or something like that. But Rhett was like, no, 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:50.779 I didn't do anything to her. And I'm not going 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:52.620 to marry her because I think she's a stupid fool. 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:54.860 Then he fights a duel with the brother and he 00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:57.680 shoots the brother. Pretty much everybody knows 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.779 that, but that is for the benefit of the movie 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:03.620 fans because I don't think that they go into 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:07.680 it in the movie that much. But that's what got 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:09.819 Rhett kicked out of his home, even though his 00:07:09.819 --> 00:07:12.439 father never really liked him. And I think it's 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:16.180 interesting here that... They describe his father 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:20.720 as a charming old gentleman because Rhett later 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:24.040 on describes him as being pretty much the opposite, 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:26.660 not even just because they hold different views. 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:30.980 It's evidenced by his father's actions as well. 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.800 But we'll get onto that later. All we know at 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:38.279 this point is that Rhett was kicked out of his 00:07:38.279 --> 00:07:41.399 home when he was only 20, which is very, very 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:46.430 young to... be totally cast out without your 00:07:46.430 --> 00:07:49.129 family if you think about it but that happens 00:07:49.129 --> 00:07:52.769 to 20 year olds today still and kids even younger 00:07:52.769 --> 00:07:58.529 so let's move on after that he had wandered to 00:07:58.529 --> 00:08:02.490 california in the gold rush of 1849 and thence 00:08:02.490 --> 00:08:05.250 to south america and cuba and the reports of 00:08:05.250 --> 00:08:07.670 his activities in these parts were none too savory 00:08:07.670 --> 00:08:12.399 savory sorry scrapes about women, several shootings, 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:15.040 gun running to the revolutionists in Central 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:18.279 America, and, worst of all, professional gambling 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:20.680 were included in his career, as Atlanta heard 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:23.259 it. There was hardly a family in Georgia who 00:08:23.259 --> 00:08:26.019 could not own to their sorrow, at least one male 00:08:26.019 --> 00:08:28.819 member or relative who gambled, losing money, 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.180 houses, land, and slaves. But that was different. 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:34.059 A man could gamble himself to poverty and still 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:36.879 be a gentleman, but a professional gambler could 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:42.220 never be anything but an outcast. Okay, so that 00:08:42.220 --> 00:08:44.759 last sentence is really interesting to me because 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:47.740 that's something that Rhett says to Scarlett 00:08:47.740 --> 00:08:51.820 later on. Scarlett is asking Rhett, why does 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:53.759 everybody hate me? All I've done is make a little 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.019 bit of money. She's talking about running the 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:59.740 sawmills. And he tells her flat out, they hate 00:08:59.740 --> 00:09:02.379 you because you're successful. If you were trying 00:09:02.379 --> 00:09:06.879 to... run a sawmill and were failing at it, everybody 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:08.840 would just feel bad for you and then they would 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:10.460 still like you because it's pleasant to feel 00:09:10.460 --> 00:09:12.840 bad for people. But because she's succeeding, 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:15.539 they hate her. That's his argument anyway. So 00:09:15.539 --> 00:09:18.779 Rhett clearly is aware of how everybody feels 00:09:18.779 --> 00:09:21.799 about him being a professional gambler. He's 00:09:21.799 --> 00:09:26.440 not totally ignorant to this reputation he has 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:31.580 as someone who is hated for being successful. 00:09:33.610 --> 00:09:36.669 About the gambling too, I think it's important 00:09:36.669 --> 00:09:40.629 to note that the reason Rhett is always able 00:09:40.629 --> 00:09:45.529 to have that blank face all the time and to hide 00:09:45.529 --> 00:09:48.330 his true feelings from Scarlett is because of 00:09:48.330 --> 00:09:51.509 this background as a gambler, as a poker player. 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:54.330 It's very important to have a good poker face 00:09:54.330 --> 00:09:56.929 if you're going to be a professional gambler. 00:09:56.990 --> 00:10:00.649 So I think that that can explain. Where he got 00:10:00.649 --> 00:10:06.950 his skills in hiding his feelings from. So that 00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:13.230 is pretty important in the Rhett lore. So that 00:10:13.230 --> 00:10:18.850 is really all that it says about him in that 00:10:18.850 --> 00:10:22.090 passage. Obviously he has traveled everywhere. 00:10:22.289 --> 00:10:25.470 He has seen a lot of different things. California, 00:10:25.690 --> 00:10:31.129 South America, Cuba, Central America. That is 00:10:31.129 --> 00:10:37.950 really quite impressive for his young age. But 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:42.690 moving on, Rhett loves to talk. So he has a very, 00:10:42.750 --> 00:10:48.710 very long paragraph that he says to Scarlet later 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:53.590 when he is talking about the war and how it relates 00:10:53.590 --> 00:10:56.330 back to him and his history. I forget what chapter 00:10:56.330 --> 00:11:00.230 this was from, but I wrote it all down. So, I 00:11:00.230 --> 00:11:02.110 think he's talking to Scarla about her mourning 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:03.809 clothes or something like that, but he says, 00:11:04.049 --> 00:11:07.149 No, and yet you are a part of it like I was, 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:08.870 and I'll wager you don't like it any more than 00:11:08.870 --> 00:11:11.409 I did. Why am I the black sheep of the Butler 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:14.610 family? For this reason and no other. I didn't 00:11:14.610 --> 00:11:17.190 conform to Charleston, and I couldn't. And Charleston 00:11:17.190 --> 00:11:20.149 is the South, only intensified. I wonder if you 00:11:20.149 --> 00:11:22.350 realize yet what a bore it is. So many things 00:11:22.350 --> 00:11:24.169 that one must do because they've always been 00:11:24.169 --> 00:11:26.909 done. So many things, quite harmless, that one 00:11:26.909 --> 00:11:29.809 must not do for the same reason. So many things 00:11:29.809 --> 00:11:33.250 that annoyed me by their senselessness. Not marrying 00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:35.470 the young lady of whom you have probably heard 00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:38.590 was merely the last straw. Why should I marry 00:11:38.590 --> 00:11:41.029 a boring fool simply because an accident prevented 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:43.509 me from getting her home before dark? And why 00:11:43.509 --> 00:11:45.549 permit her wild -eyed brother to shoot and kill 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:47.889 me when I could shoot straighter? If I had been 00:11:47.889 --> 00:11:49.629 a gentleman, of course, I would have let him 00:11:49.629 --> 00:11:51.610 kill me and that would have wiped the blot from 00:11:51.610 --> 00:11:55.610 the butler escutcheon. I'm sorry, I don't know 00:11:55.610 --> 00:11:58.519 how to say that. But I like to live, and so I've 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:01.279 lived and I've had a good time. Okay, stopping 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:07.279 there. Rhett sounds kind of heartless here. I 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:10.399 mean, I know it was a different time that violence 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:14.100 was seen in a totally different light, but he 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:17.679 killed somebody in a duel, and he feels absolutely 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:22.340 no remorse for that. And as we see later on in 00:12:22.340 --> 00:12:26.309 the book, When he lands himself in jail for killing 00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:29.129 a black man, he also admits that he killed a 00:12:29.129 --> 00:12:31.789 Yankee and let someone else get blamed for it. 00:12:32.049 --> 00:12:35.549 Rhett really has no problem killing anybody. 00:12:36.330 --> 00:12:39.529 And it's those sort of cold -blooded comments 00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:42.769 that make you think, oh, you know, maybe he deserved 00:12:42.769 --> 00:12:45.570 to see his daughter break her neck in front of 00:12:45.570 --> 00:12:49.549 him if he's going to be that remorseless over... 00:12:50.909 --> 00:12:53.730 ending somebody's life I mean I'm sure those 00:12:53.730 --> 00:12:55.889 three murders aren't even the only ones he's 00:12:55.889 --> 00:12:58.710 done at the end of the book he admits he might 00:12:58.710 --> 00:13:01.789 have killed Frank all because he wanted to get 00:13:01.789 --> 00:13:06.070 at his wife so one has to wonder where he developed 00:13:06.070 --> 00:13:13.490 that you know complete lack of empathy for violence 00:13:13.490 --> 00:13:16.590 and for the people he's killed and their families 00:13:17.500 --> 00:13:20.539 that is something that is part of his culture 00:13:20.539 --> 00:13:26.399 but also might be based on his past so I don't 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:30.279 know if it's possible that maybe his parents 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.039 were cold maybe his well we know his father was 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:35.899 pretty cold but something along the way convinced 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:40.299 him you know you have to Do what you can to survive 00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:43.259 in the world and taking other people's lives 00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:46.379 is part of that. But then if we talk about the 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:52.639 Charleston girl and her brother, he murdered 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:54.779 their brother in the duel before he was ever 00:13:54.779 --> 00:13:57.620 disinherited. So that was before he was cast 00:13:57.620 --> 00:14:02.980 out without a penny. So, yeah. know, but all 00:14:02.980 --> 00:14:05.240 of the men in this book are kind of like that. 00:14:05.259 --> 00:14:07.899 A lot of them are murderers, so that's not really 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:12.620 specific to Rhett alone, I guess. You kind of 00:14:12.620 --> 00:14:14.460 have to wonder if it is mostly just the culture 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:17.799 he was raised in, but I don't know. Just his 00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:19.919 whole attitude toward it is kind of weird to 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:26.019 me. He also talks about Charleston being a bore, 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:28.860 which comes up again. I think he's like Scarlet 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:33.909 in that way. He's very easily bored. So that's 00:14:33.909 --> 00:14:35.950 also part of why he wants to break with convention. 00:14:36.429 --> 00:14:38.590 And that, I think, is just part of his personality. 00:14:39.389 --> 00:14:42.649 He doesn't really like rules and traditions weighing 00:14:42.649 --> 00:14:44.429 him down. I think that he's always been that 00:14:44.429 --> 00:14:46.929 way, and he's the opposite of his father in that 00:14:46.929 --> 00:14:50.350 way. But let's keep going with this long paragraph. 00:14:51.419 --> 00:14:54.279 When I think of my brother living among the sacred 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:57.440 cows of Charleston and most reverent toward them, 00:14:57.460 --> 00:15:00.120 and remember his stodgy wife and his St. Cecilia 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:02.919 balls and his everlasting rice fields, then I 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:05.039 know the compensation for breaking with the system. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:10.179 Okay, stopping after that. This is pretty much 00:15:10.179 --> 00:15:12.899 the only reference, well, not the only reference, 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:16.820 but one of the only references Rhett ever gives 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:22.039 his brother. And this seems to imply that he 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:25.159 does not care for his brother whatsoever. He 00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:27.639 doesn't care for his wife. He doesn't care for 00:15:27.639 --> 00:15:31.000 his way of living. And as Rhett will say later 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:36.379 on, Rhett is the older brother. So even after 00:15:36.379 --> 00:15:42.840 he was cast out, which was at age 20, he must 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:46.940 have kept up with this brother because his brother... 00:15:47.940 --> 00:15:51.399 probably was not married yet at the time that 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:55.379 Rhett moved on I guess he could have been but 00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:58.779 he seems like he's kept up with him like he knows 00:15:58.779 --> 00:16:01.379 how he's living his life that he's inherited 00:16:01.379 --> 00:16:04.440 things and he seems to know his wife relatively 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:07.840 well so I think that's interesting that he's 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:09.879 had correspondence with that side of his family 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:13.139 despite his father casting him out and disowning 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:17.559 him so I wonder if maybe they did still talk 00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:21.700 to each other later on in life, even if his brother 00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:24.379 didn't really like him and Rhett didn't really 00:16:24.379 --> 00:16:27.159 like his brother. I wish that we had his name. 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:30.879 I know in the Scarlet sequel, his name is Ross, 00:16:31.139 --> 00:16:34.279 I'm pretty sure, because all the kids have to 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:38.320 have our names or something. Oh, by the way, 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:41.519 I should have said this at the beginning. I know 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:46.509 about Rhett Butler's people. The book by Donald 00:16:46.509 --> 00:16:49.610 McCaig. I've read it before. I read it a long 00:16:49.610 --> 00:16:54.149 time ago, and I don't remember any of it. I am 00:16:54.149 --> 00:16:56.830 going to make an episode later on about that 00:16:56.830 --> 00:17:01.450 and Scarlet by Alexandra Ripley, but not right 00:17:01.450 --> 00:17:03.909 now. I actually just got Rhett Butler's People 00:17:03.909 --> 00:17:07.349 again today in the mail, so I have to go through 00:17:07.349 --> 00:17:11.670 that again. I'm not examining anything that happens 00:17:11.670 --> 00:17:15.670 in that book for this episode because to me, 00:17:15.670 --> 00:17:18.269 it's not canon. It's just like a fan fiction. 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:21.710 It's not by Margaret Mitchell. So a lot of you 00:17:21.710 --> 00:17:24.410 might be thinking, oh, they explain all of this 00:17:24.410 --> 00:17:27.269 in the Rhett Butler's People book, but we're 00:17:27.269 --> 00:17:29.210 just looking at Gone with the Wind. I should 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:30.710 have said that at the beginning, but oh well. 00:17:31.089 --> 00:17:35.920 Okay, so enough about his brother. um he keeps 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:38.460 talking scarlet our southern way of living is 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.700 as antiquated as the feudal system of the middle 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:43.579 ages the wonder is that it's lasted as long as 00:17:43.579 --> 00:17:46.640 it has it had to go and it's going now and yet 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.339 you expect me to listen to orators like dr mead 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:52.480 who tell me our cause is just and holy and get 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:54.579 so excited by the roll of drums that i'll grab 00:17:54.579 --> 00:17:57.240 a musket and rush off to virginia to shed my 00:17:57.240 --> 00:17:59.920 blood for marce robert what kind of a fool do 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:02.440 you think i am kissing the rod that chastised 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:20.059 me is not in my line So that line, ooh, that's 00:18:20.059 --> 00:18:23.420 kind of juicy because that implies... Rhett is 00:18:23.420 --> 00:18:26.819 kind of bitter. He says the South and I are even 00:18:26.819 --> 00:18:30.740 now. The South threw me out to starve. That sounds 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:33.559 like he is very resentful of everything that's 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:37.680 gone on in his past. And I kind of wonder if 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.819 at the beginning it was rough for him. If he 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:46.380 really did suffer when he was first thrown out. 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:49.359 If he did starve to an extent. Because we know 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:53.710 that he wasn't received. Since he went to California 00:18:53.710 --> 00:19:00.410 first, maybe he found his way there by luck and 00:19:00.410 --> 00:19:04.950 was able to do so by gambling. I don't know. 00:19:05.789 --> 00:19:09.970 It's interesting to think about if maybe that 00:19:09.970 --> 00:19:12.829 experience hardened him. Like I said, he's a 00:19:12.829 --> 00:19:16.920 bit cold -blooded about murders. Maybe that's 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:19.180 where he learned his hardness and his roughness 00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:22.059 were the way to survive. He's a survivor just 00:19:22.059 --> 00:19:24.579 like Scarlett is. And I think that he's probably 00:19:24.579 --> 00:19:27.559 seen a lot of harsh things. We know he's seen 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:30.380 a lot of different environments, a lot of different 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:32.519 cultures in his time. He's traveled everywhere 00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:36.559 all over Europe. He's been in Central America. 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:42.960 He has been in Asia. So yeah, I think having 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:47.240 all of those different experiences, enabled him 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:52.039 to see the South in a different way to kind of 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:55.000 see how traditions are different everywhere. 00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:58.779 That can kind of be noted earlier, too, when 00:19:58.779 --> 00:20:05.400 he's talking to Scarlet about how the Hindu women 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:08.259 burn themselves with their husbands when they 00:20:08.259 --> 00:20:11.920 die. I forget what that's called. Sute or something 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:13.740 like that. I sound really ignorant right now. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:17.890 Sorry. Yeah, that was something that was really 00:20:17.890 --> 00:20:20.349 controversial at the time, if I recall correctly. 00:20:20.769 --> 00:20:25.910 But where was I going with this? Yeah, I think 00:20:25.910 --> 00:20:30.230 that Rhett really despises the South. It seems 00:20:30.230 --> 00:20:33.690 like from the end of this passage that not only 00:20:33.690 --> 00:20:36.069 because it threw him out, but also because he 00:20:36.069 --> 00:20:40.170 really resents everything that the South stands 00:20:40.170 --> 00:20:45.430 for. And the fact that Their traditions kept 00:20:45.430 --> 00:20:48.029 him from doing what he wanted to do and that 00:20:48.029 --> 00:20:50.769 it caused his father to disown him because he 00:20:50.769 --> 00:20:53.789 didn't approve of him. I would probably be bitter 00:20:53.789 --> 00:20:56.410 too if I, you know, I got caught in an accident 00:20:56.410 --> 00:20:59.230 with somebody and it was deemed so inappropriate 00:20:59.230 --> 00:21:01.829 that I had to marry them or be cast out forever. 00:21:02.009 --> 00:21:07.269 I do understand Rhett to that extent. But let's 00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:12.339 move on. Um, okay, so the next time the book 00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:15.039 really talks about Rhett's early life is when 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:18.400 his father dies, and we learn about it after 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:21.039 the fact, but he's talking to Scarlet on the 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.680 porch when she's holding Ella, and he kind of 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:27.400 goes in depth with it. He talks about it for 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:30.960 several long paragraphs, so let's see what he 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.569 says. I cannot remember when the old gentleman 00:21:34.569 --> 00:21:37.269 did not disapprove of me. I was too much like 00:21:37.269 --> 00:21:39.630 his own father, and he disapproved heartily of 00:21:39.630 --> 00:21:42.730 his father. And as I grew older, his disapproval 00:21:42.730 --> 00:21:45.690 of me became downright dislike, which I admit 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:53.210 I did little to change. So this whole thing about 00:21:53.210 --> 00:21:57.710 Rhett being like his father's father, that is 00:21:57.710 --> 00:22:02.509 a motif that pops up often in the book. So Rhett 00:22:02.509 --> 00:22:05.390 is like his grandfather, who was apparently descended 00:22:05.390 --> 00:22:08.049 from pirates or something like that. And Scarlett 00:22:08.049 --> 00:22:11.609 is always referring to Rhett as a pirate. Scarlett 00:22:11.609 --> 00:22:15.509 is implied to be like her grandmother. Bonnie 00:22:15.509 --> 00:22:19.789 is like Gerald. So this whole thing about kids 00:22:19.789 --> 00:22:24.190 being like their grandparents is really common 00:22:24.190 --> 00:22:28.240 for some reason. I don't know if maybe that was 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:31.420 something Margaret Mitchell experienced. I think 00:22:31.420 --> 00:22:33.680 in her letters there was something about her 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:37.519 mother would always compare her to her grandfather 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:41.880 or something like that. So I don't know why it 00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:44.599 comes up so often, but I think it's to show that 00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:49.559 people often reject their parents' way of lives, 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:52.369 but then... And then their children might resent 00:22:52.369 --> 00:22:54.549 them and their peers resent them. But then their 00:22:54.549 --> 00:22:56.630 grandchildren think that they were awesome because 00:22:56.630 --> 00:23:00.150 times change and traditions change. And kids 00:23:00.150 --> 00:23:02.069 are able to look back at their grandparents who 00:23:02.069 --> 00:23:03.769 rebelled and are like, oh, they were ahead of 00:23:03.769 --> 00:23:06.210 their time or something like that. Or they just 00:23:06.210 --> 00:23:08.930 think that they were funny or really adventurous 00:23:08.930 --> 00:23:12.289 and they wish that they could be like them. That 00:23:12.289 --> 00:23:15.549 is one passage in the book that comes up at one 00:23:15.549 --> 00:23:19.930 point. Yeah, maybe it was just to expand on that 00:23:19.930 --> 00:23:25.029 to kind of show how people are so often disapproved 00:23:25.029 --> 00:23:29.089 of by their parents because they inherited some 00:23:29.089 --> 00:23:31.150 recessive gene that made them like their grandparents. 00:23:31.529 --> 00:23:33.609 I don't know. That's just worth thinking about. 00:23:35.289 --> 00:23:38.950 And then Rhett says he admits he did little to 00:23:38.950 --> 00:23:41.549 change his father's opinion of him. So he was 00:23:41.549 --> 00:23:44.809 definitely not a people pleaser. Growing up, 00:23:44.809 --> 00:23:48.980 he wasn't one of those kind of kids. And it seems 00:23:48.980 --> 00:23:52.559 like he may have even gone out of his way to 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:55.319 make his father mad at him when he was younger. 00:23:55.380 --> 00:23:57.720 He maybe had that kind of relationship with him. 00:23:58.859 --> 00:24:03.930 But... I'm sorry. Let's keep going. All the things 00:24:03.930 --> 00:24:06.190 father wanted me to do and be were such boring 00:24:06.190 --> 00:24:08.869 things. And finally, he threw me out into the 00:24:08.869 --> 00:24:10.950 world without a cent and no training whatsoever 00:24:10.950 --> 00:24:13.769 to be anything but a Charleston gentleman, a 00:24:13.769 --> 00:24:16.769 good pistol shot, and an excellent poker player. 00:24:17.529 --> 00:24:21.170 So this is kind of like Scarlet, how Scarlet 00:24:21.170 --> 00:24:24.390 was trained just to be pretty and ornamental. 00:24:25.930 --> 00:24:28.829 raised to please men and catch a husband and 00:24:28.829 --> 00:24:31.430 maybe one day run a plantation it didn't prepare 00:24:31.430 --> 00:24:34.549 her whatsoever for all of the trials and hardships 00:24:34.549 --> 00:24:38.829 that she would face after the war whereas Rhett 00:24:38.829 --> 00:24:43.250 in his situation he was probably raised to run 00:24:43.250 --> 00:24:47.990 a plantation or at least own one and to marry 00:24:47.990 --> 00:24:52.750 well and carry on the family's good name and 00:24:52.750 --> 00:24:57.700 like Scarlet he was suddenly stricken by poverty 00:24:57.700 --> 00:25:02.700 when he was cast off. So his early life, because 00:25:02.700 --> 00:25:05.579 this is when he was 20 that he was cast off, 00:25:05.740 --> 00:25:08.799 was kind of similar to Scarlett's, I think, because 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:11.400 she was 19 when her mother died and she suddenly 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:13.740 became head of the household and went through 00:25:13.740 --> 00:25:16.000 all that stuff. Now, Scarlett was living in a 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.359 more difficult time, I suppose, because it was 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:20.720 right after war and everybody around her was 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:23.650 poor and destitute. And there wasn't a lot of 00:25:23.650 --> 00:25:26.490 food to be found and they had been robbed and 00:25:26.490 --> 00:25:28.650 their houses burned down and stuff like that. 00:25:29.509 --> 00:25:34.789 So Rhett was not living in as turbulent of a 00:25:34.789 --> 00:25:38.430 time, but I think that he did have some of the 00:25:38.430 --> 00:25:43.410 same experiences as her growing up. And probably 00:25:43.410 --> 00:25:47.490 for the worse, honestly, because I think it hardened 00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:50.769 both of them in the same way. We see how with 00:25:50.769 --> 00:25:54.900 Scarlett, Right after the war, she becomes really 00:25:54.900 --> 00:25:58.900 cold, or right before the war ended, when they're 00:25:58.900 --> 00:26:02.960 first going through all of the poverty and the 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:05.680 starvation. There's a whole chapter about how 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:09.380 she changes and she loses her youthfulness and 00:26:09.380 --> 00:26:12.240 her sweetness forever. I think that possibly 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:14.259 something like that happened with Rhett. Maybe 00:26:14.259 --> 00:26:16.940 he used to be a lot kinder, a lot more innocent, 00:26:17.140 --> 00:26:21.779 even if he was a bit of a rascal. Might have 00:26:21.779 --> 00:26:24.279 had more softness in him at one point, and that 00:26:24.279 --> 00:26:27.279 was lost forever when he was thrown out, and 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:30.319 he suffered a lot. Just a guess. We don't really 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:32.920 know, again, how much he suffered when he was 00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:36.359 first thrown out. But he was kind of like Scarlet, 00:26:36.380 --> 00:26:39.339 where all he had were his two hands and what 00:26:39.339 --> 00:26:41.359 he had in his head in order to make his way. 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:45.339 And I think that he did that through gambling. 00:26:47.180 --> 00:26:50.410 Whereas Scarlet, you know... stole her sister's 00:26:50.410 --> 00:26:54.630 husband and bought a sawmill. So yeah, similar 00:26:54.630 --> 00:26:57.869 enough, comparable enough. Let's keep going. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:00.460 And he seemed to take it as a personal affront 00:27:00.460 --> 00:27:02.700 that I did not starve, but put my poker playing 00:27:02.700 --> 00:27:05.140 to excellent advantage and supported myself royally 00:27:05.140 --> 00:27:07.880 by gambling. He was so affronted at a butler 00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:10.359 becoming a gambler that when I came home for 00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:12.759 the first time, he forbade my mother to see me. 00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:15.259 And all during the war when I was blockading 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:17.779 out of Charleston, mother had to lie and slip 00:27:17.779 --> 00:27:20.180 off to see me. Naturally, that didn't increase 00:27:20.180 --> 00:27:24.000 my love for him. Okay, so how interesting is 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:28.420 that? So Rhett reiterates again, he did not starve. 00:27:29.140 --> 00:27:32.579 So if he did suffer, it was not for long. But 00:27:32.579 --> 00:27:35.200 we can kind of tell from earlier passages that 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:38.960 he was bitter and that it wasn't easy for him 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:45.859 to make his own way. But yeah, that... That pretty 00:27:45.859 --> 00:27:48.339 much sums up his relationship with his father 00:27:48.339 --> 00:27:51.579 right there. But we know that he did go back 00:27:51.579 --> 00:27:54.099 and see his father for the first time. And you 00:27:54.099 --> 00:27:59.339 do wonder why he came back home. If there was 00:27:59.339 --> 00:28:01.579 never any love lost between him and his father. 00:28:01.779 --> 00:28:05.000 Maybe he wanted to show him, hey, I'm successful 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:08.279 now. Maybe deep down he did want to be accepted 00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:14.099 by him again. And with his mother, maybe he... 00:28:14.490 --> 00:28:16.630 Always had this good relationship with her, at 00:28:16.630 --> 00:28:19.529 least. And he wanted to go back and see her, 00:28:19.670 --> 00:28:22.150 if not his father. I feel like that's the more 00:28:22.150 --> 00:28:23.990 likely option. I don't think he really cared 00:28:23.990 --> 00:28:26.049 about seeing his father again. I feel like he 00:28:26.049 --> 00:28:28.690 just wanted to go see his mother and maybe his 00:28:28.690 --> 00:28:32.609 sister. But his father forbade him, I guess. 00:28:32.809 --> 00:28:35.670 There's one part earlier in the book where Ellen 00:28:35.670 --> 00:28:40.109 writes to Scarlet and says, Rhett is not received 00:28:40.109 --> 00:28:44.660 anywhere and only his mother receives him. That 00:28:44.660 --> 00:28:46.980 implies that she does see him every now and then. 00:28:49.019 --> 00:28:51.240 Yeah, and it said she had to lie and slip off 00:28:51.240 --> 00:28:55.220 to see me. So he does have this continuing relationship 00:28:55.220 --> 00:28:59.319 with his mother at the very least. But he is 00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:02.359 very much rejected by his father, even if he 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:06.200 does have a little bit of contact with him. Okay, 00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:08.980 so then he's describing his father. He says, 00:29:31.959 --> 00:29:40.210 So... So... That is so cold that everyone was 00:29:40.210 --> 00:29:43.470 like, oh yeah, he did the right thing cutting 00:29:43.470 --> 00:29:47.109 off his son. No one appears to have any sympathy 00:29:47.109 --> 00:29:51.009 for Rhett, where he came from. So that's another 00:29:51.009 --> 00:29:53.490 way he might have been like Scarlet, because 00:29:53.490 --> 00:29:58.769 early in the book, Scarlet is mentioned to be 00:29:58.769 --> 00:30:02.950 rather disliked by her peers. It says that... 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:06.119 Nobody except maybe Kathleen Calvert really liked 00:30:06.119 --> 00:30:08.440 her. Among the girls, anyway. Obviously, the 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:11.779 boys all liked her. But as popular as she was 00:30:11.779 --> 00:30:15.640 with the boys, she never really had any close 00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:19.920 girlfriends growing up. So I kind of wonder if 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:26.140 with Rhett, he also was disapproved of. Probably 00:30:26.140 --> 00:30:30.869 he was not stealing all of his friends. girlfriends 00:30:30.869 --> 00:30:34.869 or something like that but he probably had some 00:30:34.869 --> 00:30:38.250 radical ideas that were maybe not accepted i 00:30:38.250 --> 00:30:40.049 don't know if he would have had trouble making 00:30:40.049 --> 00:30:45.329 friends as a guide though um as long as he was 00:30:45.329 --> 00:30:47.470 able to just get along with everybody but we 00:30:47.470 --> 00:30:50.650 know rat he likes to stir the pot and make everybody 00:30:50.650 --> 00:30:54.009 mad for no reason all the time so who knows um 00:30:54.009 --> 00:30:59.250 just another thought uh so then he goes on Well, 00:30:59.369 --> 00:31:01.250 I could forgive all that, but I can't forgive 00:31:01.250 --> 00:31:03.069 what he's done to Mother and my sister since 00:31:03.069 --> 00:31:05.829 the war ended. They've been practically destitute. 00:31:06.569 --> 00:31:08.730 The plantation house was burned and the rice 00:31:08.730 --> 00:31:11.089 fields have gone back to marshlands. And the 00:31:11.089 --> 00:31:13.150 townhouse went for taxes and they've been living 00:31:13.150 --> 00:31:16.250 in two rooms. I've sent money to Mother, but 00:31:16.250 --> 00:31:18.950 Father has sent it back. Several times I've gone 00:31:18.950 --> 00:31:21.170 to Charleston and given money on the sly to my 00:31:21.170 --> 00:31:24.029 sister. But Father always found out and raised 00:31:24.029 --> 00:31:26.289 Mary Hell with her until her life wasn't worth 00:31:26.289 --> 00:31:30.299 living, poor girl. Oh, so this is just a terrible 00:31:30.299 --> 00:31:34.960 line right here. We have to wonder what the father 00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:38.519 really did to his sister that made it that her 00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:41.819 life wasn't worth living. Did it go beyond just 00:31:41.819 --> 00:31:47.160 words at any point? Did he abuse her? I don't 00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:50.359 know. It sounds pretty awful the way Rhett describes 00:31:50.359 --> 00:31:55.279 it. Her life wasn't worth living. And just for 00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:59.799 taking money from Rhett, seems to imply that 00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:03.819 his father really hated Rhett. It wasn't just 00:32:03.819 --> 00:32:06.400 like, oh, he made me angry. I no longer approve 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:08.799 of him. I'm going to disown him. It makes it 00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:13.019 seem like I am so resentful of him that I am 00:32:13.019 --> 00:32:17.900 never going to let anybody see him. I don't know 00:32:17.900 --> 00:32:20.519 if anybody has somebody like that in their family 00:32:20.519 --> 00:32:28.299 where, like, say your sibling has cut ties with 00:32:28.299 --> 00:32:31.240 their parent but that doesn't mean they expect 00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:34.480 their siblings to do the same thing to also cut 00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:37.160 ties with their parent you know what I mean like 00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:41.980 but Rhett's father is like I stopped associating 00:32:41.980 --> 00:32:45.079 with Rhett so you have to as well that shows 00:32:45.079 --> 00:32:48.839 a lot of hatred that has built up over the years. 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:52.299 And it's kind of sad that a father could have 00:32:52.299 --> 00:32:55.720 that for his son. And I don't think Rhett's totally 00:32:55.720 --> 00:32:58.740 immune to that. I think that that probably affects 00:32:58.740 --> 00:33:03.799 him. So, and back the money came to me. I don't 00:33:03.799 --> 00:33:06.180 know how they've lived. My brother's given what 00:33:06.180 --> 00:33:08.779 he could, though he hasn't much to give and he 00:33:08.779 --> 00:33:11.740 won't take anything from me either. Speculator's 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:16.000 money is unlucky money, you see. Again, this 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:18.339 is the only other mention we have of the brother. 00:33:18.740 --> 00:33:23.099 And the brother also won't take his money. Who 00:33:23.099 --> 00:33:25.799 knows if he's just emulating the father. But 00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:31.259 this also shows once more that Rhett and his 00:33:31.259 --> 00:33:33.819 brother do not really get along. But he seems 00:33:33.819 --> 00:33:38.380 to have a fondness for his sister and for his 00:33:38.380 --> 00:33:42.640 mother. So for whatever reason, he gets along 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:45.539 better with Rhett. the female members of his 00:33:45.539 --> 00:33:51.119 family. And maybe this is a little bit of a hint 00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:55.900 as to why he loved that Bonnie was a daughter 00:33:55.900 --> 00:33:59.259 instead of a son. I don't know, just a little 00:33:59.259 --> 00:34:04.579 idea because, like, who knows? Maybe it was because 00:34:04.579 --> 00:34:09.840 of the whole thing with Belle Watling. And her 00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:12.679 son, who is his legal ward, most likely. It might 00:34:12.679 --> 00:34:15.860 even be Rhett's son. And that kid he doesn't 00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:18.280 really like. But we'll get to that in a minute. 00:34:18.940 --> 00:34:22.480 So, okay, and then it ends. And the charity of 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:24.659 their friends. Your aunt, you lolly, she's been 00:34:24.659 --> 00:34:26.739 very kind. Or is it you, Laylee? I don't know, 00:34:26.780 --> 00:34:29.320 sorry. She's one of mother's best friends, you 00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:31.420 know. She's given them clothes. And good God, 00:34:31.539 --> 00:34:35.139 my mother on charity. So Rhett loves his mother. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:38.429 Probably loves his sister. Hates his father, 00:34:38.530 --> 00:34:42.010 doesn't get along with his brother. Okay, so 00:34:42.010 --> 00:34:48.429 lots to unpack there. Rhett, as we know from 00:34:48.429 --> 00:34:52.769 the book and from the movie, is somebody who 00:34:52.769 --> 00:34:58.210 really cannot show any sort of emotional vulnerability. 00:34:58.829 --> 00:35:02.789 Vulnerability is just his biggest fear. He cannot 00:35:02.789 --> 00:35:06.159 even... entertain the idea of scarlet laughing 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:09.940 at him if he tells her he loves her so in the 00:35:09.940 --> 00:35:12.079 book at least he will never ever tell scarlet 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:15.000 that he loves her unless he thinks he's going 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:20.400 off to war and will probably die anyway um that's 00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:22.840 just something that he doesn't ever want to face 00:35:22.840 --> 00:35:27.380 head on and one working theory i've seen for 00:35:27.380 --> 00:35:30.059 this that relates back to his early life is that 00:35:30.889 --> 00:35:34.530 The pain of rejection from his father hurt him 00:35:34.530 --> 00:35:42.750 so badly that he is no longer able to let his 00:35:42.750 --> 00:35:46.710 guard down with anybody else because he doesn't 00:35:46.710 --> 00:35:51.349 want to be rejected again. And I think I can 00:35:51.349 --> 00:35:54.329 kind of get on board with this. I think that... 00:35:54.570 --> 00:35:56.650 the way that he talks in the book, it makes it 00:35:56.650 --> 00:36:00.909 sound like he does not really care what his father 00:36:00.909 --> 00:36:08.409 says. And that might be the case. But I also 00:36:08.409 --> 00:36:10.389 don't think he's totally immune to everything 00:36:10.389 --> 00:36:13.010 that happens because he says the South and I 00:36:13.010 --> 00:36:16.409 are even now. The South threw me out to starve. 00:36:18.650 --> 00:36:21.409 That was caused by his father. Now, it's implied 00:36:21.409 --> 00:36:24.570 everybody else followed suit, that everyone else 00:36:24.570 --> 00:36:28.769 applauded his father for basically cutting off 00:36:28.769 --> 00:36:33.690 his son and counting him as dead. So maybe that 00:36:33.690 --> 00:36:37.210 just extends to everybody he knows, that sort 00:36:37.210 --> 00:36:40.889 of resentment. But it all goes back to his father 00:36:40.889 --> 00:36:43.849 in the end. He has a lot of daddy issues. And 00:36:43.849 --> 00:36:49.739 that... may be the reason why he's not able to 00:36:49.739 --> 00:36:52.480 have this intimate relationship with Scarlett 00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:55.480 in the way he wants to because he doesn't know 00:36:55.480 --> 00:36:58.380 how to communicate his emotions. Maybe he never 00:36:58.380 --> 00:37:01.800 really learned how to do that or to do so in 00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:06.559 a healthy way. That is definitely something to 00:37:06.559 --> 00:37:08.980 think about. And then the last thing I want to 00:37:08.980 --> 00:37:13.440 touch on is his ward. So it's indisputable that 00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:19.579 Rhett has a ward, a little boy. And we also know 00:37:19.579 --> 00:37:23.280 that Belle Watling has a son who's off at school, 00:37:23.300 --> 00:37:26.559 who lives far away, and that these two characters 00:37:26.559 --> 00:37:29.760 are probably one in the same. It might also be 00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:33.510 Rhett's son, possibly. We don't really know the 00:37:33.510 --> 00:37:36.030 answer to that. I think signs point to yes, but 00:37:36.030 --> 00:37:38.550 I talked about that in a different episode. It 00:37:38.550 --> 00:37:40.449 doesn't really matter, though. What we do know 00:37:40.449 --> 00:37:44.250 is that along the way during his youth, before 00:37:44.250 --> 00:37:49.530 Atlanta, Rhett met Belle Watling. Well, I think 00:37:49.530 --> 00:37:52.949 he met her before Atlanta. I guess we don't really 00:37:52.949 --> 00:37:57.409 know that for sure either. But... Yeah, Belle 00:37:57.409 --> 00:38:00.710 Watling is another mysterious character. We don't 00:38:00.710 --> 00:38:04.610 really know how they met, when they met, if they 00:38:04.610 --> 00:38:07.849 have a kid together, or what would have made 00:38:07.849 --> 00:38:14.449 Rhett take on her son as his own, if it's not 00:38:14.449 --> 00:38:18.010 his son. That might be a good episode one day, 00:38:18.030 --> 00:38:20.849 one on Belle Watling. She is definitely an interesting 00:38:20.849 --> 00:38:29.500 lady. Imagine that. Let's say it's not that long 00:38:29.500 --> 00:38:33.900 after. When he becomes this kid's legal ward, 00:38:33.960 --> 00:38:37.099 he says he's a little boy. And Rhett is in his 00:38:37.099 --> 00:38:43.440 mid -30s. I think that he's 33 at the beginning 00:38:43.440 --> 00:38:50.599 of the book. So he must have been born when Rhett 00:38:50.599 --> 00:38:52.559 was a little younger than that. I wish we knew 00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:55.389 the kid's age. exactly, but we don't. We just 00:38:55.389 --> 00:38:58.429 know Rhett describes him as a little boy. So 00:38:58.429 --> 00:39:05.030 he really probably existed from the beginning 00:39:05.030 --> 00:39:09.489 of the book, but not that much before. And that 00:39:09.489 --> 00:39:14.469 means that Rhett has been a father or at least 00:39:14.469 --> 00:39:18.210 a guardian for quite a while um but also when 00:39:18.210 --> 00:39:21.170 he was younger when he was doing all of this 00:39:21.170 --> 00:39:26.210 crazy stuff in far off countries and maybe it 00:39:26.210 --> 00:39:28.829 was when he first came back to see his family 00:39:28.829 --> 00:39:31.889 for the first time that he got involved with 00:39:31.889 --> 00:39:35.869 bell something i also wonder is maybe bell was 00:39:35.869 --> 00:39:38.329 the reason he got kicked out of west point it 00:39:38.329 --> 00:39:43.579 said it was something involving women um So maybe 00:39:43.579 --> 00:39:46.699 that was where they met when he was at West Point. 00:39:47.519 --> 00:39:54.039 I don't know. But all of this is to say that 00:39:54.039 --> 00:39:56.699 that was an added burden that Rhett has. He says 00:39:56.699 --> 00:40:01.030 he wishes the child had never been born. And 00:40:01.030 --> 00:40:03.489 he seems to not really like that duty and those 00:40:03.489 --> 00:40:06.710 strings holding him down, even though he likes 00:40:06.710 --> 00:40:09.969 children and he likes Wade Hampton. He likes 00:40:09.969 --> 00:40:12.150 Ella and Bonnie. Well, he loves Bonnie. It's 00:40:12.150 --> 00:40:19.550 his daughter. Yeah, so I think that maybe that 00:40:19.550 --> 00:40:22.030 was another reason he viewed settling down as 00:40:22.030 --> 00:40:27.130 a burden. And then with Scarlett, I think that 00:40:27.130 --> 00:40:31.059 Rhett sees... A lot of the same qualities that 00:40:31.059 --> 00:40:34.019 he had. Someone who is easily bored. Somebody 00:40:34.019 --> 00:40:36.199 who doesn't really like convention but follows 00:40:36.199 --> 00:40:39.960 it anyway. But I think that he is a little mistaken 00:40:39.960 --> 00:40:43.780 about Scarlett. I don't think that she is quite 00:40:43.780 --> 00:40:47.340 as chaotic as he is. Naturally. I think that 00:40:47.340 --> 00:40:51.400 she's more neutral. She doesn't really care about 00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:55.800 breaking convention. She just is practical. wants 00:40:55.800 --> 00:40:57.960 to do what she feels like, but she also cares 00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:00.960 more about public opinion than Rhett ever did. 00:41:01.219 --> 00:41:03.880 Rhett purposely likes to go against the grain 00:41:03.880 --> 00:41:06.420 and to do things differently than everyone else, 00:41:06.519 --> 00:41:09.119 just for the heck of it, even if he didn't have 00:41:09.119 --> 00:41:13.559 to. And I think that this is a good point I saw 00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:16.400 somebody else bring up before. Rhett kind of 00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:19.699 wants Scarlett to take the same path he did and 00:41:19.699 --> 00:41:23.559 to break with society because That makes him 00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:27.179 feel better about who he is, about how he was 00:41:27.179 --> 00:41:31.639 cast off. And he wants validation. He wants proof 00:41:31.639 --> 00:41:34.980 that it's okay to be that way and that the South 00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:37.679 really is messed up, that the South was wrong 00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:41.480 for rejecting him and cutting him off. But I 00:41:41.480 --> 00:41:46.179 think that he assumes with Scarlett that they 00:41:46.179 --> 00:41:50.760 are so alike that she couldn't ever dream of 00:41:52.029 --> 00:41:54.110 Being happy. Well not that she couldn't have 00:41:54.110 --> 00:41:56.909 dreamed of being happy. But that she wouldn't 00:41:56.909 --> 00:42:01.010 be happy. Just going with the flow like everybody 00:42:01.010 --> 00:42:03.929 else. Because I think that Scarlett. Is somebody 00:42:03.929 --> 00:42:08.730 who can go either way. She. All she really wants 00:42:08.730 --> 00:42:10.969 is money. Enough money to be able to do what 00:42:10.969 --> 00:42:13.989 she wants. But then at the end of the day. When 00:42:13.989 --> 00:42:17.750 she breaks with society. Later on in the book. 00:42:17.829 --> 00:42:19.789 She's not really happy either. Because she loses 00:42:19.789 --> 00:42:26.139 everyone. who she was close to. And I think that 00:42:26.139 --> 00:42:29.920 she resents that too, and she pays the price 00:42:29.920 --> 00:42:32.559 for it when Bonnie dies. I mean, that's a whole 00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:37.880 other theme of the book is reputation and how 00:42:37.880 --> 00:42:44.139 losing it can be freeing. But towards the end, 00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:47.119 when you come to a tragedy in your life, it's 00:42:47.119 --> 00:42:49.079 also nice to have a community. So it's a two 00:42:49.079 --> 00:42:53.019 -edged sword. It's really hard to choose between 00:42:53.019 --> 00:42:56.559 the two sometimes. So I'll just leave it there. 00:42:56.719 --> 00:43:00.360 I think that we've talked a lot about Rhett and 00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:02.679 his early life. Oh my goodness, this has gone 00:43:02.679 --> 00:43:07.380 on longer than the other episodes. Yeah, a lot 00:43:07.380 --> 00:43:10.480 to talk about with Rhett. A lot that we don't 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:14.639 know. But that is pretty much a summary of everything 00:43:14.639 --> 00:43:19.829 we do know. I would love to know if anybody else 00:43:19.829 --> 00:43:22.309 has some theories for how he spent his early 00:43:22.309 --> 00:43:27.070 life. And what do you think about how this affected 00:43:27.070 --> 00:43:31.250 Rhett and his upbringing and his psychology? 00:43:31.710 --> 00:43:35.809 So thank you for listening. And it is still Halloween. 00:43:36.130 --> 00:43:39.150 So happy Halloween, if it is Halloween and you 00:43:39.150 --> 00:43:43.530 celebrate. And I'll see you next time. Bye.