The role of staircases in "Gone with the Wind"

This weekend I was three kinds of sick, so I took the day off from life and watched "Gone With the Wind", as well as several hours of bonus features. Something I had never noticed before is just how many staircases are in that movie, and how many important things happen on staircases. I guess if you haven’t seen the movie (and why haven’t you? It’s like the greatest movie EVER), you shouldn’t read anymore, because I am about to reveal all the things that happen on staircases.

Sure, there are the famous scenes that take place on staircases—Rhett carrying Scarlett up the stairs in a passionate rage, then Scarlett falling down the stairs a few weeks later, miscarrying the child that had been conceived on the passionate rage night. But here are all the other stairs scenes:

Scenes where the people are walking UP the steps:
• Scarlett and her friend Cathleen walking up the stairs at the barbeque at Twelve Oaks. On this walk, she flirts with local boys and sees Rhett Butler for the first time (standing at the bottom of the steps)
• Melanie and Ashley walk up the steps to their bedroom during Ashley’s three day furlough from fighting the war. Scarlett watches from the bottom.
• The scene where Rhett carries Scarlett up the stairs.
• Mammy and Melanie walk up the stairs after Bonnie’s death, and talk about the issues between Scarlett and Rhett, as well as Rhett’s refusal to bury his child.

Scenes where the people are walking DOWN the steps:
• Rhett, Scarlett, Melanie, and Prissy descend the steps of Aunt Pittypat’s house in Atlanta, escaping a burning Atlanta to return to Tara.
• Ashley meets Scarlett at the bottom of the steps in Atlanta, when he is about to return to the war. She confesses her love again.
• Scarlett falls down the stairs and has a miscarriage.

Scenes where the people STAND ON OR NEAR STEPS and things happen to them:
• Scarlett stands under the steps at Twelve Oaks and hears all the other girls talking about her. She cries.
• Scarlett accepts Charles Hamilton’s proposal on the steps of Twelve Oaks, after being rejected by Ashley and spying Ashley and Melanie saying goodbye.
• Prissy confesses that she doesn’t know nothing bout birthing no babies, and Scarlett realizes that she’ll have to deliver her nemesis’ baby.
• Scarlett stares up at the remains of Twelve Oaks, after it’s been burned by the Yankees. All that’s left is the staircase.
• Scarlett kills a Yankee deserter who’s entered Tara on the stairs.
• The final scene, where Scarlett sits on the steps and decides to return to Tara.

So, why does all that matter? I guess I am not convinced that it does, but here’s what I’m reading into it. Based on dream symbolism, going up stairs in a dream is making progress. Going down is regressing or a setback. Based on the song “Stairway to Heaven,” I am going to guess that up is heaven, and down is hell. I think any way you look at it, up is good, and down is bad. Standing in the middle of a staircase is like being in the middle of a journey. Gone with the Wind is the story of how Scarlett O’Hara met every challenge that was handed to her, in the face of great adversity, and I’m thinking this staircase motif provides a visual cue as to how she was dealing with any challenge at the given moment.

First, let’s look at the staircase at Twelve Oaks. When Scarlett first walks up that staircase with her friend Cathleen, she is filled with all the confidence in the world. She has decided to tell Ashley that she loves him, so that he can’t marry Melanie, and she is easily flirting with all the boys in town. Later, after she’s rejected, she hides under the stairs, listening to what an awful person she is. But as she will continue to do throughout the story, she perseveres, wipes her eyes, and starts climbing again. Midway up, she accepts Charles’ proposal, thinking that the spiteful marriage will make Ashley jealous. She thinks she is making progress with Ashley, hence why she is halfway up the stairs.

When we see the Twelve Oaks staircase again, it’s all that’s left of Twelve Oaks. Scarlett looks up at it longingly, this burned-out staircase representing all the work she has in front of her in restoring herself and her family after this terrible war. She is in the midst of great challenges, having just walked down that staircase in Atlanta. That one doesn’t represent a setback, just the fact that Scarlett was descending into hardship and struggle, with no one to help her---she has two helpless women (Melanie and Prissy), Melanie’s baby, and Rhett, who will soon desert her to fend for herself. Soon she’ll have to take care of her entire family and her home.

Most of Scarlett’s personal setbacks are based on loving the wrong man, Ashley. Scarlett is left at the bottom of the steps as she watches Melanie and Ashley go to their bedroom on Christmas break, and that’s where she is in the next scene as well—waiting for Ashley to come downstairs to catch his train. Scarlett can never get any higher, or further on her journey, while she’s hung up on Ashley.

Scarlett gets halfway up the stairs when she’s realizing her unknown strengths and overcoming obstacles. For example, when she kills the Yankee deserter to protect her home, she is standing about halfway up Tara’s staircase. Also, when she realizes that she’ll have to deliver Melanie’s baby without the help of a doctor, she is on a landing between two staircases, and she has to drag Prissy back up to where Melanie is laboring.

So, now, the famous scene where Rhett carries Scarlett up the stairs. “The rape scene,” as it is commonly referred to. I don’t really want to get into the politics of it, and I can understand if the scene offends you. But I think that scene goes “up” the stairs not just because the bedroom is up there, but because it’s a forward progression in Scarlett’s life. It kind of helps her to realize that Rhett is the man for her. Unfortunately, she soon falls down the stairs, both physically and emotionally, and loses everything.

The movie ends with Scarlett sitting on the bottom of the steps, deciding to go home and try to win Rhett back. She’s at the bottom of the steps because she has yet another mountain to climb, another challenge to vanquish, another goal to reach. She has to climb the metaphorical stairs again. This determination is the hallmark of Scarlett’s character, and the steps help the viewer to determine how far she is on her journey.

Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.