At the Lodge - 4th July 2005

Lodge Lecture | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

Appropriately enough for American Independence Day, Alex Trenoweth took us back in time to the American Civil War - the war on which Margaret Mitchell based her blockbuster book, “Gone with the Wind.

When the book hit the bookshelves in 1936, shops struggled to keep up with demand. The following year, Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature and the movie, made a couple of years later, would go on to break all box office records. Recently voted the most viewed movie of all times, “Gone With the Wind” won an unprecedented number of Oscars in 1939 and its leading role, Scarlett O'Hara, demonstrated its continued appeal when it was recently voted the most memorable female character. The line "Frankly my dear, I just don't give a damn", although costing MGM a fine for breaching obscenity laws, was practically guaranteed immortality. Gone With the Wind, however was not without controversy: it's almost unbearable portrayal of simple, happy slaves and unmistakable Southern sympathies coupled with the outrageous way the black actors and actresses were subjected to segregation laws at the Premiere ensured debate about the suitability of the film for American audiences.

Perhaps for this reason, readers and audiences have failed to notice Mitchell based her characters on the signs of the zodiac. Reading through descriptions of the characters, Alex asked which star sign the Lodge audience thought the characters represented. They were right every time.

Alex went on to demonstrate how Mitchell's chart so fits into the US (Sibley) chart, most notably, Mitchell's Uranus/Jupiter conjunction on the US Asc. She revealed the search for Scarlett lead by Gone With the Wind produced David O'Selznick and described how he eventually found his perfect Scarlett in unknown British actress Vivien Leigh. Alex showed how the composite chart for Mitchell and Vivien Leigh perfectly represented the character of Scarlett O'Hara and how this character could have such an enduring appeal to American audiences. She pointed out how Chiron, the wounded healer, was activated in Mitchell's chart when the book The Wind Done Gone, (written by Alice Randall) a parody of “Gone With the Wind was published in 2001. Mitchell's estate immediately tried to block publication of the book and a temporary injunction was filed as Pluto/Jupiter opposition connected to Mitchell's Uranus/Pluto conjunction. During this time, the publishing industry held its breath while the courts decided the meaning of the terms parody and plagiarism. The injunction was eventually lifted as Jupiter moved out of opposition to Pluto and The Wind Done Gone was available in bookshops a few weeks later.

In the second part of the evening, we looked at the charts of the major actors in the movie: Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes), Clark Gable (Rhett Butler) and Olivia DeHavilland (Melanie Wilkes). Alex showed the incredible synastry between Gable and Leigh and suggested their on screen chemistry was due to a Sun-Moon conjunction and Venus-Mars opposition

Although Gone With the Wind has had its share of fame and infamy, by still being used as an example of negative stereotyping against the black community, it has been forward in being backward about racial prejudice - which seems to encapsulate Mitchell's Uranus/Jupiter conjunction. Alex said the controversy was suitable in a book whose author using the zodiac as a basis for its characters.

Carole West and Alex Trenoweth

Charts Discussion

to follow

Claire Chandler

Lodge Lecture | Charts Discussion