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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—Triumvirate :
When Scarlett arrives in Atlanta following the death of her husband Charles, Mitchell employs both allusion and metaphor in her portrayal of Mrs. Merriwether, Mrs. Elsing, and Mrs. Whiting, three prominent and influential women in Atlanta society:
These two ladies with a third, Mrs. Whiting, were the pillars of Atlanta. They ran the three churches to which they belonged, the clergy, the choirs and the parishioners [...] They knew what was decorous behavior and what was not and they never failed to make their opinions known—Mrs. Merriwether at the top of her voice, Mrs. Elsing in an elegant die-away drawl and Mrs. Whiting in a distressed whisper which showed how much she hated to speak of such things. These three ladies disliked and distrusted one another as heartily as the First Triumvirate of Rome, and their close alliance was probably for the same reason.
Despite the various restrictions placed upon women's public activities at this time, these three women "were the pillars of Atlanta," a metaphor that highlights just how important a role they play in determining social mores in the city's upper classes. Though they present themselves as a united front who agree on what does and does not constitute polite or "decorous behavior," Mitchell notes that they "disliked and distrusted one another as heartily as the First Triumvirate of Rome." Here, she alludes to a political alliance in the late Roman Republic between three prominent statesmen: Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. After the death of Crassus in 53 B.C.E., the alliance between Caesar and Pompey deteriorated into civil war. This allusion, then, suggests that these three prominent Atlanta women are united only for strategic and political reasons and feel no genuine warmth for each other.
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