As I noted in my last post on Forever Amber, it was brought out with much fanfare by Macmillan, who also published Gone With the Wind and were entirely transparent about making this book its successor. There’s a lot in Winsor’s book that makes me think she was influenced by Mitchell’s work, so in this post I’ll be comparing the heroines of Gone With the Wind and Forever Amber.
Similarities between Gone With the Wind and Forever Amber
Let’s look at what’s the same between the characters of Amber and Scarlett. They’ve both got color names and spend close to 1000 pages sleeping their way to better economic options while keeping an eye on the prize of “enough money to spit in the eye of whoever was mean to me,” but that’s just the beginning.
1. They’re both lovely, which makes men stupid and women jealous.
Amber
From the very first moment we see Amber on the page, she’s subject of snark from other female characters, who are speculating about whether or not she’s slept with her two suitors in their little village. The two men in question are both eager to marry her, and she has, in fact, fooled around with both, though not to the point of losing her virginity. Later we see her disliked by other women when she’s in prison, when she’s part of a thieves’ gang, an actress, and, of course, by all the other women at court. Nearly all of the men she meets are deeply interested in sleeping with her, and many of them do.
There was about her a kind of warm luxuriance, something immediately suggestive to the men of pleasurable fulfillment—something for which she was not responsible but of which she was acutely conscious. It was that, more than her beauty, which the other girls resented.
She quickly established a gay friendliness with the actors and was prepared to do likewise with the women, but they would have none of it.
Scarlett
Gone With the Wind quickly sends Scarlett to a neighborhood picnic where she is the subject of attention for nearly all the men in attendance, and has opportunity to overhear the other young ladies talking smack about her. She continues through the book getting men to do the things she wants them to do while getting a frosty reception from nearly all the women she meets.
“Well, you saw how she was carrying on with every man she could get hold of—even Mr. Kennedy and he’s her own sister’s beau. I never saw the like! And she certainly was going after Charles.” Honey giggled self-consciously. “And you know, Charles and I—”
2. The only time they’re not pretty is when they’re pregnant, a fact which they are both aware and resentful of.
Amber
Having once been pregnant, Amber takes pains (literally) to avoid another. She has several abortions, which are “take some herbal potion and go for a bumpy carriage ride, then lie in bed with the ‘ague’ for the next week.” (Reminder to call your Congress critters about Supreme Court nominees if you are in the US because that’s not a thing we want to go back to.) She dislikes having her figure ruined and frequently disparages marriage as an excuse to keep wives pregnant.
“Oh!” she cried in exasperation, and stamped her foot. “How ugly I look! I hate having a baby!”
Scarlett
Scarlett dislikes having her figure ruined by pregnancy and disparages marriage as an excuse to keep wives pregnant. She apparently doesn’t have access to any birth control other than abstinence.
Even in her sorrow at Gerald’s death, she did not forget the appearance she was making and she looked down at her body with distaste. Her figure was completely gone and her face and ankles were puffy. Heretofore she had not cared very much how she looked but now that she would see Ashley within the hour she cared greatly.
But all a woman gets out of it is something to eat and a lot of work and having to put up with a man’s foolishness—and a baby every year.
3. …or maybe when they’re “old.”
Amber
Amber is sixteen at the start of the book, which covers nearly a decade of her life and gives her plenty of time to become an aged crone…
Women were almost tragically conscious of age, and once out of their teens everything conspired to make them feel that they were growing old. Amber, not two months past twenty-three, now felt all at once that she was ancient and decayed.
Scarlett
Scarlett is sixteen at the start of the book, which covers nearly a decade of her life and gives her plenty of time to become an aged crone…
The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely on her shoulders now. She was twenty-five and looked it, and so there was no longer any need for her to try to be attractive.
4. Unhappy as a widow, but only because it means they have to wear black.
Amber
Amber is twice widowed, and finds it is crimping her fashion style.
She looked down at herself—at the severe black gown of mourning—the gown she must wear until she died, unless she married again.
Scarlett
Scarlett is twice widowed, and finds it is crimping her fashion style.
“And God only knows,” thought Scarlett, listening obediently to her mother’s soft voice, “matrons never have any fun at all. So widows might as well be dead.” A widow had to wear hideous black dresses without even a touch of braid to enliven them, no flower or ribbon or lace or even jewelry, except onyx mourning brooches or necklaces made from the deceased’s hair.
5. Willing to marry for money and social position.
Amber
Amber’s second marriage is to an elderly merchant, Dangerfield, who dies of a stroke less than a year afterward, leaving her sixty-six thousand pounds and one of the richest women in England. She parlays this into a second marriage to the Earl of Radclyffe, essentially purchasing herself an aristocratic title.
“Yes! He’s got a fortune! Oh, I can’t remember! Two hundred thousand pound or something like that! John says everybody knows how rich he is! He’s a merchant and he’s—”
“Two hundred thous—Is he married?” demanded Amber suddenly, as her wits began to revive.
It came after a boresome week of impatient waiting on her part, for though she had been so scornful of him at first and still was, the more she thought about it the more she wanted to become a countess. And marriage with him did not seem any formidable price to pay for the honour.
Scarlett
Scarlett’s second marriage is to store-owner Frank Kennedy who provides her money to keep her family estate of Tara in the family and to open a lumber mill which she uses to become a rich woman.
Frank gave her the three hundred dollars, bewildered by her sweet urgency, reluctant at first, because it meant the end of his hope of buying the sawmill immediately. But he could not see her family evicted, and his disappointment soon faded at the sight of her radiant happiness, disappeared entirely at the loving way she “took on” over his generosity. Frank had never before had a woman “take on” over him and he came to feel that the money had been well spent, after all.
6. Ready, willing, and able to steal useful men from other women.
Amber
Amber’s first protector, Captain Rex Morgan, is originally interested in Beck Marshall, another actress from Amber’s theater company. Since Beck is a professional rival of Amber’s, she decides to take him just to spite the other woman.
But Amber was so little impressed by their threats that whenever she saw him in the pit, as she often did, she flirted openly with him. It would have pleased her a great deal to steal Beck Marshall’s admirer, even if he had been much less attractive than he was.
Scarlett
Scarlett convinces Frank Kennedy, her sister Suellen’s beau, that Suellen is tired of waiting for him and then scoops him up for herself.
As Scarlett thought of Suellen’s secure future and the precarious one of herself and Tara, anger flamed in her at the unfairness of life. Hastily she looked out of the buggy into the muddy street, lest Frank should see her expression. She was going to lose everything she had, while Sue— Suddenly a determination was born in her. Suellen should not have Frank and his store and his mill!
7. Men die for them.
Amber
Amber’s long term protector, Captain Rex Morgan, discovers her with Bruce Carlton and feels himself honor-bound to challenge Carlton to a duel. He is killed and it’s her fault.
“Bruce!”
He swung around and looked at her, incredulity on his face and violent anger. When he spoke his teeth were clenched and the muscles at one side of his mouth twitched with nervous rage. “There’s a man dying over there—Go back to him!”
Amber stared at him for a moment in stunned helplessness, unable to believe the contempt and loathing she saw on his face. As though from a distance she heard Rex’s voice, calling her name.
Scarlett
Scarlett’s second husband, Frank Kennedy, is involved in the KKK and, when Scarlett ignores warnings about traveling in dangerous areas, feel himself honor-bound to get revenge on the ex-slave community where she was attacked. He is killed and it’s her fault.
“Was Frank at—Belle Watling’s?”
“No.” Rhett’s voice was blunt. “Archie’s carrying him to the vacant lot near Belle’s. He’s dead. Shot through the head.”
8. Always yearning for love and marriage to the one man they can’t really have.
Amber
Despite the many men she goes through, Amber is still in love with her first lover, Bruce Carlton. She goes back to him repeatedly, wanting him to marry her although he has maintained from the beginning that he won’t.
She had yet to hear Lord Carlton say that he loved her, and she would have learned to eat fire or walk a tightrope if she had thought it could call forth the magic words.
“I don’t know why I married him! I don’t know why I ever married anyone! I’ve never wanted to be married to anyone but you, Bruce! Oh, darling, we could have had such a happy life together if only you—”
“Bruce!” she cried suddenly. He paused and slowly turned to face her. “I don’t care if you are married! I’ll never give you up—never as long as I live, d’ye hear! You’re as much mine as you are hers! She can never have all of you!”
Scarlett
Scarlett spends the vast majority of the book in love with Ashley Wilkes, who isn’t exactly in love with her, and is married to someone else.
For the first time, she realized that this was Ashley’s baby and suddenly wished with all the strength left in her that he were her baby, hers and Ashley’s.
If only Ashley were her husband, instead of Melanie’s, how sweet it would be to go to him and lay her head upon his shoulder and cry and shove her burdens onto him to work out as best he might.
No doubt there are other details in common between Gone With the Wind and Forever Amber, but these are what jumped out at me!
