Character Analysis
What Elsie is There?
Like most characters in The Birth of a Nation, Elsie is painted with broad strokes. Like finger-painted strokes. Like a five-year-old could probably put more nuance into a character.
She's a good daughter, as proven by her devotion to her father and brothers. She's a good person, as proven by her volunteer work at a military hospital during the Civil War. And she's a desirable woman, as proven by her relationship with the movie's so-called "hero," Ben Stoneman.
In other words, she's...yawn.
Elsie's primary purpose is to highlight the tension between the North and South in the aftermath of the Civil War. On one hand, she falls head over heels for Ben, the literal embodiment of Southern aristocracy. On the other, she balks when she learns that he's in the KKK, breaking off her engagement with him.
This reflects Griffith's perception that Northerners don't fully understand the way-of-life of the South...but it really should represent the fact that Elsie has a modicum of morality about her.
As Far as the Eye Can El-sie
Yet Elsie decides to marry Ben. Why?
Maybe her experience with the predatory Silas Lynch convinces her that Southerners are right to be skeptical of Northern intrusion. Maybe her love for Ben is just that strong. Either way, this is meant to symbolize the North and South coming together ideologically in the aftermath of a brutal conflict.
That might be heart-warming if that "coming together" was over something other than the mass subjugation of a group of people. It pretty much ruins the romance.
Still, this marriage is meant to be a massive symbolic triumph—Griffith wants to show that the best Northerners see value in protecting Southern culture. (We just threw up in our mouths a little bit.)