Is Rhett Butler a rapist?

Question

An age old argument between my friend and I. My friend thinks he is but I think Scarlett was gagging for it.

Answer 1

I think its a fine line between the two, though in the context of the novel he technically isn't. In the time it is set in, not having s*x with your husband is grounds for divorce (which was pointed out in the movie by Rhett, though I don't remember if the line was also in the book)- so really, if you're married, it's sort of like consenting in advance. Thats not to say that it's right by our modern considerations of sexuality, but within the time he is in he can't actually rape his wife. If another man forced himself on Scarlett (ie. the black man who stops her cart and tries to assault her) it would be rape.

If you're talking about the book and removing the context, I think that the arguement could go either way. The only reason Scarlett didn't want to have s*x with him was not because she objected to the act of having s*x, but because she wanted an emotional connection with Ashley through the solidarity created from them both being 'physically faithful' to one another (though Ashley is only abstaining because his wife is too ill to have another child). As is suggested in the novel she actually has no problem with the fact she and Rhett slept together that night after the initial proposition. On the other hand, he suggests that he will sleep with her whether she likes it or not.

I think though that you would be right, simply because you cannot take characters out of their time context because their entire value system and personality is based on their place in history. For example, In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, f***y marries Edmund who is her cousin. I had a long arguement with someone in my University English class because they said it was disgusting and incest, and I claimed it was not incest because the book was set in the early nineteenth century when it was common and completely accepted to marry ones cousin. You can't really judge them by our standards, simply because they lived in a time where cousins getting married was NOT incest. This same arguement would go for Rhett Butler. He is not a rapist because he couldn't have an identity as one in his time. It's like the fact that Socrates isn't a paedophile- we believe he had sexual relations with underage men, as was part of the culture at the time, though it is not a part of ours.

Answer 2

Today we would probably say yes but when that book was written it was a romantic fantasy that the handsome hero (macho man himself) would "forcefully" take the beautiful and supposedly unwilling maiden to bed.  And Scarlett wanted it bad!

Answer 3

In think he's a forceful character, and that's a big part of what turns Scarlett on about him.

At the same time, in real life, it could happen that way; but if the woman says it was rape after, we have to take her word. Period.

Answer 4

well in the book it makes it sound like he is doing it forcefully but i didn't take it that way i think it was made to show a love hate relationship