WHY WAS RHETT WEARING WHITE DURING THE WAR?

 WHY WAS RHETT WEARING WHITE DURING THE WAR?

Have you ever noticed how Rhett Butler can look almost shockingly well-dressed while everyone around him is suffering through the Civil War?

Margaret Mitchell actually calls attention to this in the novel.

At one point, Rhett appears in a handsome white linen suit, with shining boots, a fine horse and an expensive cigar. Scarlett immediately notices the contrast between Rhett looking sleek and well-fed and the Confederate soldiers who are fighting hungry, barefoot and sick.

And the people around him notice too.

Mrs. Merriwether bitterly calls him a “Speculator!” — because Rhett has made money during the war while respectable Atlanta society believes men should be sacrificing themselves for the Cause.

The interesting part is that wearing white itself did not have some secret wartime meaning. A light linen suit was simply fashionable and practical in Southern heat.

But on Rhett, it creates quite an image.

While Atlanta is becoming poorer, dirtier and more desperate, Rhett still appears polished, prosperous and almost untouched by the war. Whether Margaret Mitchell intended the color itself as symbolism is impossible to prove, but the contrast in the scene is unmistakable.

And then comes the irony…

The man who mocked the Confederate Cause and refused to enlist eventually leaves Scarlett during the evacuation of Atlanta and announces that he is going to join the Confederate army after all.

Do you think Rhett cared about the Cause more than he wanted anyone to know?