Irony in Gone With the Wind Essay

Irony

Scarlett's self-absorbed blindness to the truth of many situations leads to our seeing more than she does, which in turn results in irony. The chief irony of the novel is that Scarlett's obsession with Ashley prevents her from appreciating that Rhett is the perfect match for her. Paralleling this is the irony that Ashley only realizes how much he loves and relies upon Melanie when she is dying. Similarly, it is ironic that Scarlett hates and despises Melanie throughout most of the novel while Melanie loves Scarlett and is her devoted champion, a fact that infuriates Scarlett. Like Ashley, Scarlett only recognizes how much she values Melanie when she is about to lose her through Melanie's death.

There is irony too in Melanie's persistent attribution of Scarlett's support of her to noble qualities like altruism and bravery, when in fact, Scarlett only acts the way she does because of a promise she made to her beloved Ashley.

The disruption of the social hierarchy by the war leads to many ironic situations. Jonas Wilkerson, the former overseer at Tara, ends up in charge of the local Freedmen's Bureau after the war. In his new position of power, he is able to raise the taxes on Tara so high that Scarlett looks set to be forced to sell the estate to him. Wilkerson and Emmie Slattery turn up at Tara in a fine carriage and expensive clothes and offer to buy the place. The irony is that before the war, the O'Haras had wanted to buy the Slatterys' land but the Slatterys had been too proud to sell. The war has brought about this reversal in fortune.

Another social irony is the power that (in Mitchell's view) is granted to the freed slaves by the victorious Yankee government, while the former ruling class is disenfranchised and disempowered. The freed slaves after the war are courted and manipulated by the Yankees, as their votes decide who is appointed to political office. Mitchell says, "The South had been tilted as by a giant malicious hand, and those who had once ruled were now more helpless than their former slaves had ever been." The white former ruling class is denied the vote, and the former slave class is given the vote.