The Only Cause I Know

Set in stark contrast to the insipid, languid Ashley Wilkes, Rhett Butler boasts the energy and dashing good looks of a buccaneer. Although Rhett shows a “cool recklessness in his face and a cynical humor in his mouth,” there is “undeniably a look of good blood in his dark face” (Mitchell, p. 96). 

Captain Butler depicts the Byronic hero in several striking ways. He “defies . . . conventional morality” by asking the widowed Mrs.Hamilton to dance, exudes “fiery rebellion” in denouncing the Confederacy, and experiences “alienation from [the] community” because of these shortcomings (Carson-Newman University, 2013). Rhett, deplorably lacking in manners and morals, still draws the sympathy of the reader by his unabashed acknowledgement of his faults and his constant, though unrequited, love for Scarlett.

Often maligned for his clear foresight into the hopeless future of the Cause, Rhett yields to an impulse that compels him to join the army regardless of the futility of such an action. Mitchell portrays Butler as a man of deep passion and decided opinions given to moments of intense introspection. Driven to despair by Scarlett’s unrelenting fantasies of Ashley Wilkes, Captain Butler gradually withdraws further into himself, becoming unbearably sarcastic and cynical. 

Citations:
Carson-Newman University. (2013). Byronic hero. Accessed November 16, 2013,                                   from http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_B.html

Mitchell, M. (1936). Gone with the wind. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.