Gone With the Wind

There are a few differing perspectives on the current Anthony storyline that make it interesting:

1. The opinion of Anthony on the state of his marriage. As many people do when bad things happen to them that they deserve to have happen to them, Anthony is making excuses and blaming someone else. Not only that, but he is trying to manipulate John by punching a lot of his buttons. Thérèse met someone at work (career woman button). Thérèse has been lying to him (liar button). He didn’t know it was going on (hapless man button). He is a manipulative liar, but I liked the dialogue, because it seemed real to me.
   
2. The opinion of the Pattersons and their friends. These opinions are almost 100% united in favour of the perspective that it is all Thérèse’s fault. From Gordon Mayes and Liz last summer, to Shawna-Marie Verrano and Dawn Enjo over New Years, 2005, to April and Elly at the baby shower in March, 2005, to Mike Patterson’s many monthly letters, and finally to John Patterson’s opinion today about Anthony being an honest man who has been lied to. Everyone seems to be saying to Thérèse, “I’ll go to your baby shower, but I’ll tell everyone I think you’re tacky” or “I’ll go to your wedding, but I am going to practice my dance moves to show your husband what he is missing with me.” Or “I’ll go to this New Years’ Eve party your husband’s boss is throwing, but I will gossip about you while I’m there.” or “I’ll take your ex-girlfriend to your house while you’re not there and your husband is.” or “I will believe without question any disparaging remark your husband makes about you.” It is difficult to sympathize with people whose behaviour is so rude and hateful. The missing percentage which makes it not 100% is oddly enough Michael, who jumped all over Liz for taking dance lessons to show off in front of Anthony at his wedding, which ends up causing the show-off dancing to be postponed to a later party a few months later, where Thérèse is in attendance.
   
3. Your own opinion. This is what you get from observing the actions in the strip and making your own interpretation. I can’t interpret for you, but this is what I see:
   a. Thérèse. At Thérèse’s wedding, I see Thérèse trying in vain to stop Anthony from staring at Elizabeth during her wedding and failing. At Gordon’s New Years Eve party, I see Thérèse trying to keep her husband from running over to talk to or staring at Elizabeth every chance he gets. At Thérèse’s baby shower, I see Thérèse giving April a very gracious thank you for her gift. I also see Thérèse not getting publicly upset with her rude (presumably) mother begging for money to hold the baby.
   b. Anthony. I see many chance meetings between Elizabeth and Anthony. I don’t think much of the coincidence of this until the Howard attack last summer, where Anthony admitted the only reason he went to Lakeshore Landscaping was to see Liz, so it was not a coincidence at all he happened to be there. In my mind, this makes all the other chance meetings suspect. In those meetings, Anthony is holding onto her hand, or hugging her, or in the last and worst one, proclaiming his love for her and asking her to wait for him until his marriage was over just after she was attacked.
   

My observation makes it difficult for me to side with Anthony and it makes the opinions of the Pattersons and their friends more frustrating, because I would prefer to agree with them. I prefer to empathize with the protagonists and not the antagonists. There is a way to do that, which I will suggest to you.

If you take the story as a whole, you will realize what is going on. It isn’t that Anthony is a nice guy wronged by an evil Quebecoise woman. This is a story about how Liz went to university, stopped paying attention to a guy she really wanted from high school, found much to her surprise he had hooked up with another woman in university, and now she wants him back. Not only that but her friends and family realize what she wants and they are helping her achieve this goal. Think of Gone With the Wind. Think of Liz as Scarlett O’Hara and Anthony as Ashley Wilkes, Thérèse as Melanie Hamilton, and Paul Wright as Scarlett’s simpering first husband (I forget his name. The dies-and-leaves-me-money husband) and the story becomes more appealing. Liz / Scarlett is not that nice, but you still hope she wins out, because she is smart and sophisticated and she goes after what she wants. Lynn has replaced smart, sophisticated, and extremely aggressive Scarlett with “brave enough to leave her family and teach natives for 2 years” and extremely passive aggressive Liz.

The main problem with this analogy is that Anthony is Ashley Wilkes, whom no one wanted Scarlett to marry except Scarlett. We were all rooting for Scarlett and the much more interesting Rhett Butler. But Rhett Butler can’t exist in this strip, since there are no heterosexual men that have not been emasculated in there. So think of Gone With the Wind where Scarlett ends up with Ashley, and this tells you everything that is wrong with this storyline.