It is a quiet Saturday night. I am working on pitches, cleaning my house, and puttering around. For some reason I decide to turn on the tv and fall into almost 4 hours of fabulous historical drama. Yep people, I started watching GONE WITH THE WIND. Imagine me saying that with a loud booming voice and an echo.
Have you watched it recently?? It’s work a re-watch. Just grab a glass of wine (I didn’t have one) and play the fiddli-dee game. Before you get all p.c. on me about the movie I’m cutting you off at the pass: this movie was made at a time that wasn’t politically correct. So, just deal.
Regardless of that, I throughly enjoyed this movie and had completely forgotten that Scarlett O’Hara was batsh$t crazy. And a wanna be homewrecker. And, a great case study for business. Scarlett O’Hara clearly has a business manifesto, here it is, and why it ultimately won’t work.
The Scarlett O’Hara Business Manifesto
- Be ruthless-Scarlett is a ruthless b$tch. Period. She thinks only of herself and her survival and is deeply scarred by her experience during the war. She vows never to suffer in the way that she did again and maneuvers constantly to make sure that she is always secure. She marries for money not once…but, three times.
- Be single minded-This is similar to being ruthless except that Scarlett is driven by a single purpose-survival and saving her plantation Tara. She does both, but at a cost to her soul.
- Care only about yourself-This never works well because you need other people in your life. If you only love yourself there is no room for anyone else. She is in the end a very lonely person.
- Lie-She lies whenever she can to get what she wants. No one can believe her word because she is never honest.
- Hire Cheap Labor-Shows a lack of respect for the people that work for her. She hires convicts because they are cheaper than slaves. Dang. And, she mistreats them even after other people ask her not to run her business in the way that she does.
My Takeaways From Gone With The Wind:
- Birds of a feather flock together-Both Scarlett and Rhett are ridiculous. They are conceited, selfish, and self-absorbed. It is always said that you have to be careful of who you spend time with. Those too illustrate the truth of this.
- Don’t stab people In the back-Scarlett stabs a number of people in the back and ends up alone. What I would say is this: whatever comes around goes around.
- Be Kind-If you’re kind (without expecting anything in return) people will have your back.
- Treat people fairly-Scarlett didn’t care who she had to step on to get to where she needed to go. She may have gotten what she wanted with true friendship and honesty.
- Be honest about your intentions-She marries 3 times for money. She is the most honest with Rhett about her intentions but she started both of her previous marriages through spite and lies. They didn’t end well.
This movie gave me a lot to think about. I understand why certain components of the move still survive the test of time. The one thing I do agree with Scarlett about is the following:
Tomorrow is Another Day-Scarlett O’Hara
Have You Watched Gone With The Wind?
What Did You Think?
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I love GWTW. It’s a guilty pleasure because, like you said, um. Not politically correct. Hello! She slaps the fire out of Prissy while Melanie is giving birth.
The only thing I’d argue in your whole piece is that she marries TWICE for money and once for spite. Poor Charles was just to see if Ashley would stop her… But the other two. Greed, greed, greed.
Didn’t she marry Rhett for money too? I thought all three of those marriages were for money. Either way, none of the worked out and she ended up alone…or did she?? And, yes, she did slap the sh$t out of Prissy as Melanie is giving birth. I want to say that may have been a stress reaction…but, my gut is saying that Scarlett would have eventually slapped Prissy anyway-because she was not nice…um, and she owned slaves. Just saying!
TOTALLY a guilty pleasure!
I would say she also married Rhett for money but there was an element of love there too. Still, she wound up alone.
I think it was a love hate relationship and I like to speculate about what happened after the end of the movie.
Michelle, I’ve read the book and I’ve seen the movie (and the book is better). I loved it! Then again, I do like novels that use the canvas of very important historical events as a background to telling the story of individuals. You said that some of the traits of character of Scarlett don’t work. Did you notice that the ones that don’t work under normal circumstances were the ones that helped her survive (and her family) during times of crisis? I also never thought that Scarlett and Rhett are ridiculous – I think of them as people who are so much out of kilter (their characters are our balance) that they needed as serious crisis to address that. And I like Rhett.
You know Maria, you’re right that those traits were what helped Scarlett survive and she is a survivor through and through. Which is probably why people have a grudging respect for her. The issue that I have with her is that she is so ruthless, focused, and just kind of mean that she never considers that she could be “Kindly” ruthless. Do you know what I mean? I think you can get what you want and be a nice person. I think the crisis of the war just amplify the negative traits that both Scarlett and Rhett have because they aren’t necessarily nice people. And-I love Rhett because he is honest about his motives and his own personal character. He “owns” his process.
It’s such a great movie but yes, she is batshit crazy! lol! i guess the one POSITIVE takeaway about her is her ability to survive. Granted she brings a lot of pain on herself, but dang that girl is relentless. An important skill as a business owner or freelancer. 🙂
When I think of Scarlett I think of the song “Survivor.” And you’re right-she is her own worse enemy!
It’s sounds as if Scarlett has read “The 48 Laws of Power” one time too many by seeing what is included in her business manifesto. I’ve never seen “Gone with the Wind” even though I grew up learning about Margaret Mitchell.
Scarlett is also completely nuts.
LOL! Im a long time fan of the book and movie, and I have enjoyed this conversation about Margaret Mitchell’s character Scarlett Ohara, and her Business Manifesto. Many good points made, but the GWTW era was what it was. Everything that Scarlett did, would have caused Aunt Pitty Pat, to faint; running a household, managing property, running a business, and so on. Her methods, questionable for sure, but if she were a man, would one even bat an eye? I personally find her quite inspiring when you strip away the aforementioned negatives from the previous posts. You’ll all be happy to know that in the sequel to GWTW, the book and min-series, Scarlett, written by Alexandra Ripley (1991), our protagonist gets her just drsserts and learns from past mistakes; although, she always believed she had good reason for extreme action. In the end, she learns to be genuine, and love truly.
I found myself absolutely enthralled as I re-watched the movie. I still think that Scarlett was a bit batsh$t crazy. But, she knew what she wanted and went for it! I also think that if more women/etc. admitted what they want and went for it we might change the mindset of upcoming generations about going for what you want. She does end up loving…but does Rhett return?