Sentimentality in Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind". Illusion or Inspiration?

Résumé ou Introduction

Entering the critical dialogue about sentimental books one has to ask if purely descriptive, real and “true” writing can evoke such deep feelings in the reader or if highlighting features in fictional representations and thus creating another “sentimental” reality is what makes writing a great piece of art. Margaret Mitchell’s work "Gone with the wind" takes the reader to the lost era of southern grandeur, plantations and grand festivities.

In describing this time with a sense of longing and nostalgia out of Scarlett O’Hara’s view, Mitchell idealizes this home and the time of slavery and oppression for a part of the population of the United States. But these idealizations serve to evoke feelings of greatness and longing, and thus enable the reader to feel the grief and despair at the loss of it with the female protagonist. It may be true that through idealizing this time a false reality is created and sentimentalists seek consolation by believing these false realities.

Sometimes sentimentalists may want to evoke certain emotions, maintain an illusion and thus entertain highlighted thoughts about an object or a time. But if we rule the commitment of presenting the truth of reality higher than the feelings and pleasures of the audience, the value of aesthetic perfection and escapism, then the higher truth of a great book, to be able to feel your way into the protagonist, is lost. Through evaluating a famous novel by Margaret Mitchell we will find that the terms “great” and “sentimental” are not mutually exclusive but that sentimentality is a necessary feature and a source of inspiration to contribute to a literary masterpiece like “Gone with the wind.”