How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"What would a child do with the moon if it got it? And what would you do with Ashley?...you are such a fool you don't know there can't ever be happiness except when like mates like." (54.64)
Rhett explains to Scarlett that she wouldn't like Ashley if she got him; her dreams are self-deceptions. He's right… but he could maybe have talked to himself instead, since he's constitutionally unhappy when he gets what he wants, too. He wants Scarlett to marry him, she does, and he's sad; he wants her to love him, and she does, and he's sad. If he's so smart, why's he so dumb?
Quote #8
"She is the only dream I ever had that lived and breathed and did not die in the face of reality." (61.119)
Ashley is here saying that Melanie was a dream that came true. Is this really a tribute to her, though? She wasn't a dream; she was his wife, a real person. Maybe he could have treated her better if he wasn't trying to make her a dream, huh?
Quote #9
"He never really existed at all, except in my imagination," she thought wearily. "I loved something I made up, something that's just as dead as Melly is, I made a suit of pretty clothes and fell in love with it." (61.140)
Scarlett finally realizes that the Ashley she made up isn't real. This is doubly true since, you know, Ashley is really just a character in a book. So the dream Ashley of Scarlett's imagination isn't really any more real than the "real" Ashley. What do you think that says about the novel's portrayal of the Civil War? Is that real, or are some things (like, say, the evils of slavery) left out?