Asked By: Gilbert Gonzales Date: created: Dec 17 2023

Who is Scarlett O Hara and what did she do

Answered By: Jason Hill Date: created: Dec 19 2023

The protagonist of Gone with the Wind, Scarlett is a dark-haired, green-eyed Georgia belle who struggles through the hardships of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Scarlett exhibits more of her father’s hard-headedness than her mother’s refined Southern manners.

Although initially she tries to behave prettily, her instincts rise up against social restrictions. Determination defines Scarlett and drives her to achieve everything she desires by any means necessary. This determination first manifests itself in her narcissistic and sometimes backstabbing efforts to excite the admiration of every young man in the neighborhood.

Later, under threat of starvation and even death, she is determined to survive and does so by picking cotton, running her entire plantation, forging a successful business, and even killing a man. Scarlett also aims to win Ashley Wilkes, and her failure to do so guides the plot of the novel.

  • Ashley’s marriage to Melanie Hamilton and rejection of Scarlett drive nearly all of Scarlett’s important subsequent decisions.
  • Scarlett marries Charles Hamilton to hurt Ashley, stays by Melanie’s side through the war because she promises Ashley she will, and loses her true love, Rhett Butler, because of her persistent desire to win Ashley.

Scarlett possesses remarkable talent for business and leadership. She recovers her father’s plantation, Tara, after the war leaves it decimated, and she achieves great success with her sawmill in Atlanta. Despite her sharp intelligence, however, she has almost no ability to understand the motivations and feelings of herself or others.

  • Scarlett lives her life rationally: she decides what constitutes success, finds the most effective means to succeed, and does not consider concepts like honor and kindness.
  • She often professes to see no other choices than the ones she makes.
  • Scarlett’s development precisely mirrors the development of the South.

She changes from spoiled teenager to hard-working widow to wealthy opportunist, reflecting the South’s change from leisure society to besieged nation to compromised survivor. Scarlett embodies both Old and New South. She clings to Ashley, who symbolizes the idealized lost world of chivalry and manners, but she adapts wonderfully to the harsh and opportunistic world of the New South, ultimately clinging to dangerous Rhett, who, like Scarlett, symbolizes the combination of old and new.

Asked By: Rodrigo Rogers Date: created: May 14 2024

What kind of person was Scarlett O Hara

Answered By: Carter Mitchell Date: created: May 16 2024

Character summary – When the novel opens, Scarlett O’Hara is sixteen. She is vain, self-centered, and very spoiled by her wealthy parents. She can also be insecure, but is very intelligent, despite the Old South’s pretense of ignorance and helplessness. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara Outwardly, Scarlett is the picture of southern charm and womanly virtues, and a popular belle among the country males. The one man she truly desires, however, is her neighbor, Ashley Wilkes – the one man she can’t have.

The Wilkes family has a tradition of intermarrying with their cousins, and Ashley is betrothed to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton of Atlanta. Scarlett’s motivation in the early part of the novel centers on her desire to win Ashley’s heart. When he refuses her advances—which no “Southern Lady” would be so forward as to make—she takes refuge in childish rage, and spitefully accepts the proposal of Charles Hamilton, Melanie’s brother, in a misguided effort to get back at Ashley and Melanie.

Rhett Butler, a wealthy older bachelor and a societal pariah, overhears Scarlett express her love to Ashley during a barbecue at Twelve Oaks, the Wilkes’ estate. Rhett admires Scarlett’s willfulness and her departure from accepted propriety as well as her beauty.

He pursues Scarlett, but is aware of her impetuousness, childish spite, and her fixation on Ashley. He assists Scarlett in defiance of proper Victorian mourning customs when her husband, Charles Hamilton, dies in a training camp, and Rhett encourages her spirited behavior in Atlanta society. Scarlett, privately frustrated from the strict rules of polite society, finds friendship with Rhett liberating.

The Civil War sweeps away the lifestyle in which Scarlett was raised, and Southern society falls into ruin. Scarlett, left destitute after Sherman’s army marches through Georgia, becomes the sole source of strength for her family. Her character begins to harden as her relatives, the family slaves and the Wilkes family look to her for protection from homelessness and starvation.

Scarlett becomes money-conscious and more materialistic in her motivation to ensure her family survives and Tara stays in her possession, while other Georgian farmers lose their homes. This extends to first offering herself as a mistress to Rhett; although after Rhett’s rejection, Scarlett resorts to marrying her younger sister’s beau, Frank Kennedy, investing in and starting a business herself, engaging in controversial business practices and even exploiting convict labor in order to make her lumber business profit.

Her conduct results in the accidental death of Frank, and shortly after she marries Rhett Butler for “fun” and because he is very wealthy. They have a little girl named Bonnie, but she dies from a horseback riding accident that leaves Rhett and Scarlett’s relationship unstable.

  • Scarlett is too fixated on Ashley Wilkes to realize her pursuit of him is misdirected until the climax of the novel.
  • With the death of Melanie Wilkes, she realizes her pursuit of Ashley was a childish romance and she has loved Rhett Butler for some time.
  • She pursues Rhett from the Wilkes home to their home, only to discover he has given up hope of ever receiving her love, and is about to leave her.

After telling him she loves him, he refuses to stay with her, which leads to the famous line in the movie, ” Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” Wracked with grief, but determined to win him back Scarlett returns to Tara to regain her strength and create a plan to reunite with Rhett.

What did Scarlett O Hara say?

‘After all, tomorrow is another day!’ ‘I’d cut up my heart for you to wear if you wanted it.’ ‘Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back.’ ‘And apologies, once postponed, became harder and harder to make, and finally impossible.’

Asked By: Bernard Cook Date: created: May 28 2024

Who was Scarlett O Hara’s daughter

Answered By: Ryan Griffin Date: created: May 31 2024

Eugenia Victoria “Bonnie Blue” Butler (1869-1874) was the daughter of Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, Bonnie was much like Scarlett: beautiful, vivacious, charming, and spoiled. Bonnie was described as physically resembling Scarlett as well, but she had inherited her grandfather Gerald’s Irish blue eyes.

Did Ashley really love Scarlett?

Fictional biography – Ashley is the man with whom Scarlett O’Hara is obsessed. Gentlemanly yet indecisive, he loves Scarlett, but finds he has more in common with Melanie, his first cousin and later his wife. However, he is tormented by his attraction to Scarlett.

Unfortunately for him and Scarlett, his failure to deal with his true feelings for her ruins any chance she has for real happiness with Rhett Butler, Ashley is a complicated character. He is not sympathetic to the cause of the North. However, he isn’t an ardent Confederate patriot, either. What Ashley loves about the South is the serene, peaceful life that he and his dear ones know at Twelve Oaks and similar plantations.

At one point (following the war) he comments to Scarlett that “had the war not come he would have spent his life happily buried at Twelve Oaks.” In short, Ashley loves the South, but not necessarily the Confederacy. And he hates war, even telling his friends in the beginning of the book who are eager to start fighting the North that “most of the misery in the world has been caused by war”, though he fights because of his loyalty to the above-mentioned peaceful life he had in Georgia,

  • Ashley serves as an officer in Cobb’s Legion,
  • He claims that he would have freed the slaves after the death of his father if the war hadn’t freed them already.
  • His willingness to free the slaves further demonstrates his impractical nature, because if the slaves were free, he would not be able to run the plantation.

However, he has a great deal of affection for the slaves on his plantation, and the role that they played in his serene, bucolic life. There is a sense in which the end of Ashley’s life (as he knew it) is more than just the burning of Twelve Oaks. The four Tarleton brothers (Boyd, Tom, Brent and Stuart) are all killed, three of them at Gettysburg,

  1. Cade Calvert returns home terminally ill from tuberculosis.
  2. Little Joe Fontaine is killed in battle, and Tony Fontaine has to flee forever to Texas after killing a Yankee (specifically, Scarlett’s family’s former slave overseer, Jonas Wilkerson, during Reconstruction ; after Wilkerson encouraged a former slave to attempt to rape Tony’s sister-in-law).

These were Ashley’s childhood friends, all represented in the happy scene at the barbecue, close to the beginning of the book. When the “family circle” of the county is decimated, the life Ashley loved is gone. At one point in the book Ashley pleads, in vain, with his wife Melanie to move to the North, after he comes back from fighting in the war,

This isn’t, however, because of any affection for the North, but because he wants to be able to stand on his own as a man, something he will never again be able to do in Georgia now that his plantation is gone and his home burned. However, he ends up working for Scarlett due to her manipulative entreaties and Melanie’s naive support of her.

Melanie also states that if they move to New York, Beau will not be able to go to school. This is because in New York black children are allowed to attend class, and they could not permit Beau to attend class with black children. In Georgia the schools were segregated by race, so Beau would be able to attend school if they remained in the South.

Asked By: Daniel Lopez Date: created: Jun 21 2024

Who is the villain of Gone with the Wind

Answered By: Cameron Flores Date: created: Jun 24 2024

Rhett Butler

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Aristocrat from Charleston Soldier and blockade runner in the Confederate Army (temporarily) Some military training and abilities CharismaWealth Courting Scarlett O’Hara (initially), Maintain the Southern way of life (slavery) by helping the Confederate army against the Union Army (failed), Marry Scarlett O’Hara (succeeded),Get by in a post-slavery American South (failed),

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.
~ Rhett’s callous famous response to Scarlett when she asks him where she will go and what she will do without him.

Rhett Butler is one of the main characters in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind and the novel of the same name upon which the movie is based. He is a man from Charleston who becomes romantically attracted to and involved with the protagonist Scarlett O’Hara.

Why did Scarlett O Hara wear a red dress?

In Gone With the Wind, when Rhett Butler discovers that his wife, Scarlett O’Hara, still harbours feelings for another man, Ashley Wilkes, he forces her to wear the most audacious red velvet gown, trimmed in red feathers and swaddled in a cloud of red tulle, to attend his rival’s birthday party.

What happened to Scarlett after Rhett left?

Plot summary – The book begins where Gone with the Wind left off, with Scarlett attending the funeral of her former sister-in-law and rival for Ashley Wilkes ‘ affection, Melanie Wilkes, at which her estranged husband, Rhett Butler, is not present.

  1. Scarlett, heartbroken and aggravated that Rhett left her, sets out for Tara and is saddened when she learns that Mammy, her mainstay since birth, is dying.
  2. She sends a telegram to notify Rhett about Mammy under the name of Will Benteen (her sister Suellen’s husband), because she knows that Rhett won’t come if he suspects Scarlett is there.

Before Mammy dies, she makes Rhett swear to look after Scarlett. Rhett agrees, although he has no intention of honoring the request. After Mammy’s death, Rhett and Scarlett fight, which culminates in Rhett leaving and Scarlett returning to the Atlanta house, determined to win Rhett back.

  • Scarlett travels to Charleston to visit Rhett’s family and tries to corner him by winning his mother’s affection.
  • She convinces Rhett to take her for a sail on the harbor, where their boat capsizes during a terrible storm.
  • Scarlett and Rhett swim to an island, where they make love in a cave.
  • Rhett initially denies, then admits, that he loves Scarlett, but he does not want to “lose himself” over her again.

Back in Charleston, Rhett leaves Scarlett near death at his mother’s house, telling her, in a letter, that while he admires her bravery, he will never see her again. After Scarlett regains her strength, she leaves Charleston with her two aunts, Pauline and Eulalie, to attend her maternal grandfather’s birthday celebration in Savannah,

She leaves a note to Rhett’s mother with Rhett’s sister, Rosemary, who burns the note. Scarlett connects with the Savannah O’Haras against her maternal family’s wishes. Scarlett’s grandfather offers Scarlett his inheritance if she remains with him in Savannah until his death and avoids contact with her father’s side of the family.

Scarlett refuses and storms out of the house. She goes to stay with her cousin Jamie and his family. Soon another cousin named Colum, a priest from Ireland, joins them. Scarlett agrees to travel to Ireland with him. By this time Scarlett has realized that she is pregnant with Rhett’s child but she keeps her pregnancy hidden.

In Ireland, Scarlett is heartily welcomed by her Irish kin. Exploring with Colum, they pass an old house called ‘Ballyhara’; it was O’Hara land long ago before the English seized it. Scarlett soon receives a notification of divorce from Rhett. She makes plans to leave for America but learns that Rhett is now married to Anne Hampton, who is said to resemble Melanie Wilkes.

Heartbroken, Scarlett decides to remain in Ireland. She works with lawyers and leaves her two-third share of her father’s plantation, Tara, to her son Wade Hampton (fathered by her first husband, Charles Hamilton, brother of Melanie Wilkes), buys Ballyhara and settles down in Ireland, to her Irish family’s delight.

She and Colum tell everyone that her husband died rather than tell the truth that she was divorced. As Ballyhara is restored, Scarlett eagerly awaits the birth of her child, praying for it to be a girl and vowing to be a good mother. She is well respected by the townspeople and her family, earning her a reputation as a hard worker.

She becomes known as The O’Hara, a title reserved for the undisputed leader of a family clan. On Halloween night, her water breaks. Her housekeeper, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and the midwife whom Colum summons are unable to handle the situation, and it appears that Scarlett will die.

Instead, she is saved by a wise old woman who lives near the haunted tower. The caesarean birth is successful, but internal damage is done to Scarlett, who can no longer have children. The baby, a girl, is born with dark skin like Rhett’s, but with blue eyes that slowly turn green. Scarlett names her Katie Colum O’Hara, and calls her “Cat” because of her green eyes.

Ashley Wilkes—her past lover, whom she wished to marry during her youth—proposes to Scarlett. She is grateful but kindly declines, telling him that she is not interested in marrying him. Instead, Scarlett and Ashley decide to remain friends. After Scarlett has settled down in Ballyhara, she runs into Rhett a number of times—in America while she is on the boat to Boston, at a fair where she admits she still loves him, and at a foxhunt a week later.

He still does not know he has a child. He then seeks her out at a society ball and Scarlett realizes he still loves her. Lord Fenton, one of the wealthiest men in Europe, pursues Scarlett, wanting to marry her. He wants Scarlett to bear his children after seeing Cat’s fiery spirit and fearlessness. He also plans to unite their estates; he owns Adamstown, the land adjacent to Scarlett’s.

Angered by his arrogance, Scarlett refuses and orders him out of her house. Scarlett leaves for Dublin for her yearly visit for parties and hunts. She later decides to accept Lord Fenton when she hears that Anne is pregnant with Rhett’s child. The news leaks out about her engagement and a drunken Rhett insults her when she runs into him at a horse race.

  1. A friend tells Scarlett that Anne and the baby both died, and she rushes back to Ballyhara hopeful that Rhett will come looking for her.
  2. She finds English there with a warrant to arrest Colum, who is the head of a group of Irish terrorists.
  3. Colum is murdered and Rosaleen Fitzpatrick sets fire to the English arsenal to avenge him.

The villagers, thinking Scarlett is in league with the English, burn her house down. Rhett comes to her rescue and tries to convince her to escape with him, but Scarlett runs around her house yelling for her daughter. When she tells Rhett that he is Cat’s father, he helps her search.

Asked By: Logan Gonzales Date: created: Mar 06 2024

What did Scarlett O Hara look like in the book

Answered By: Angel Hernandez Date: created: Mar 07 2024

By | On May 24, 2017 | Updated January 14, 2019 | Comments (0) – “Scarlett O’Hara had an arresting face, pointed of chin, square of jaw. Her eyes were pale green, and above them her thick black brows slanted upward, cutting a startling oblique line in her magnolia-white skin ” This search for an actress to portray Scarlett O’Hara in what was to become the 1939 film of Margaret Mitchell ‘s epic novel, Gone With the Wind, was born of necessity.

Before he could make his deal with MGM for the loan of Clark Gable, David O. Selznick was required to fulfill his contract with United Artists for a number of films. Thus he was unable to begin production on Gone With the Wind until two and a half years after he had purchased the rights to the book. Ever the showman, Selznick conceived the idea of conducting a worldwide search for the right person to play Scarlett O’Hara.

The campaign, directed by Selznick’s publicity chief, helped occupy the public mind during the long months before the producer was ready to begin filming. See also: Gone with the Wind: A Publishing Phenomenon,,

Asked By: Walter Harris Date: created: Jan 06 2025

Why didn t Ashley marry Scarlett

Answered By: Blake Moore Date: created: Jan 09 2025

Blond, dreamy, and honorable, Ashley Wilkes is the foil to Rhett’s dark, realistic opportunism. Ashley courts Scarlett but marries Melanie Hamilton, thus setting in motion Scarlett’s central conflict. Ashley is the perfect prewar Southern gentleman: he excels at hunting and riding, takes pleasure in the arts, and comes from an excellent family.

Scarlett’s idealization of Ashley slowly fades as time goes on, and she finally sees that the Ashley she loves is not a real man but a man embellished and adorned by her imagination. Ashley admits to his love for Scarlett, but as a gentleman he ignores this love in order to marry Melanie, the more socially appropriate match for him.

He excels at battle despite his doubts about the Southern cause. As the novel progresses, though, Ashley displays signs of weakness and incompetence. After the war he is worthless on the plantation and cannot adjust to the new world. Whereas Rhett and Scarlett survive by sacrificing their commitment to tradition, Ashley cannot or will not allow himself to thrive in a changed society.

  1. He sinks even lower as he sacrifices his honor—the only thing he still values in himself—by accepting charity from Scarlett in the form of a share in her mill and by kissing her twice.
  2. Ashley represents the Old South and Southern nostalgia for the prewar days.
  3. He epitomizes the old lifestyle and cannot function in the New South that emerges during and after the war.

Scarlett clings to him like many Southerners cling to dreams of their old lives, but her eventual recognition of Ashley’s weakness and incompetence enables her to see that dreaming of a lost world makes one weak.

What were Scarlett’s last words?

The last line of the novel Gone with the Wind is ‘ After all, tomorrow is another day. ‘ The line is spoken by main character Scarlett O’Hara as she is thinking about ways to get Rhett Butler back into her life.

What was Scarlett O Hara’s most famous line?

Which character is known for saying “I’ll think about it tomorrow”? – Scarlett O’Hara is the character known for saying “I’ll think about it tomorrow”. In Gone with the Wind, it became a mantra for Scarlett O’Hara and a mechanism she used to repress her fears and insecurities.

Who is Scarlett O Hara’s love interest?

Scarlett O’Hara, perhaps the best example of the true, rational pragmatist from either of the two, novels, continually redefines herself in the situations she encounters. Scarlett is romantically drawn to both Ashley Wilkes, her romantic ideal of the South, and Rhett Butler, the man most like Scarlett in temperament and desire for action.

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Scarlett feels most at odds with Melanie Wilkes, who is more successful than Scarlett in finding balance in an ideologically divided New South. As the person left responsible for her childhood plantation, Tara, Scarlett perhaps most resembles Thomas Sutpen from Absalom, Absalom! Both characters literally reinvent their selves and their plantations, dragging their families with them as they go.

In the following passage, Scarlett has just returned to a war torn Tara and discovered her father, Gerald O’Hara, unable to cope with the death of his wife. For Scarlett, the corn whiskey she drinks is a communion with what she holds dear about the South, and in drinking it, she weds herself to Tara’s renewal. (from chapter 24 of Gone With the Wind ) The long road from Atlanta to Tara had ended, ended in a blank wall, the road that was to end in Ellen’s arms. Never again could Scarlett lie down, as a child, secure beneath her father’s roof with the protection of her mother’s love wrapped about her like an eiderdown quilt.

  • There was no security or haven to which she could turn now.
  • No turning or twisting would avoid this dead end to which she had come.
  • There was no one on whose shoulders she could rest her burdens.
  • Her father was old and stunned, her sisters ill, Melanie frail and weak, the children helpless, and the negroes looking up to her with childlike faith, clinging to her skirts, knowing that Ellen’s daughter would be the refuge Ellen had always been.

Through the window, in the faint light of the rising moon, Tara stretched before her, negroes gone, acres desolate, barns ruined, like a body bleeding under her eyes, like her own body, slowly bleeding. This was the end of the road, quivering old age, sickness, hungry mouths, helpless hands plucking at her skirts.

And at the end of this road, there was nothing-nothing but Scarlett O’Hara Hamilton, nineteen years old, a widow with a little child. What would she do with all of this? Aunt Pitty and the Burrs in Macon could take Melanie and her baby. If the girls recovered, Ellen’s family would have to take them, Whether they liked it or not.

And she and Gerald could turn to Uncle James and Andrew. She looked at the thin forms, tossing before her, the sheets about them moist and dark from dripping water. She did not like Suellen. She saw it now with a sudden clarity. She had never liked her. She did not especially love Carreen-she could not love anyone who was weak.

  • But they were of her blood, part of Tara.
  • No, she could not let them live out their lives in their aunts’ homes as poor relations.
  • An O’Hara a poor relation, living on charity bread and sufferance! Oh, never that! Was there no escape from this dead end? Her tired brain moved so slowly.
  • She raised her hands to her head as wearily as if the air were water against which her arms struggled.

She took the gourd from between the glass and bottle and looked in it. There was some whisky left in the bottom, how much she could not tell in the uncertain light. Strange that the sharp smell did not offend her nostrils now. She drank slowly but this time the liquid did not burn, only a dull warmth followed.

She set down the empty gourd and looked about her. This was all a dream, this smoke-filled dim room, the scrawny girls, Mammy shapeless and huge crouching beside the bed, Dilcey a still bronze image with the sleeping pink morsel against her dark breast-all a dream from which she would awake, to smell bacon frying in the kitchen, hear the throaty laughter of the negroes and the creaking of wagons fieldward bound, and Ellen’s gentle insistent hand upon her.

Then she discovered she was in her own room, on her own bed, faint moonlight pricking the darkness, and Mammy and Dilcey were undressing her. The torturing stays no longer pinched her waist and she could breathe deeply and quietly to the bottom of her lungs and her abdomen.

She felt her stockings being stripped gently from her and heard Mammy murmuring indistinguishable comforting sounds as she bathed her blistered feet. How cool the water was, how good to lie here in softness, like a child. She sighed and relaxed and after a time which might have been a year or a second, she was alone and the room was brighter as the rays of the moon streamed in across the bed.

She did not know she was drunk, drunk with fatigue and whisky. She only knew she had left her tired body and floated somewhere above it where there was no pain and weariness and her brain saw things with an inhuman clarity. She was seeing things with new eyes for, somewhere along the long road to Tara, she had left her girlhood behind her.

  1. She was no longer plastic clay, yielding imprint to each new experience.
  2. The clay had hardened, some time in this indeterminate day which had lasted a thousand years.
  3. Tonight was the last time she would ever be ministered to as a child.
  4. She was a woman now and youth was gone.
  5. No, she could not, would not, turn to Gerald’s or Ellen’s families.

The O’Haras did not take charity. The O’Haras looked after their own. Her burdens were her own and burdens were for shoulders strong enough to bear them. She thought without surprise, looking down from her height, that her shoulders were strong enough to bear anything now, having borne the worst that could ever happen to her.

She could not desert Tara; she belonged to the red acres far more than they could ever belong to her. Her roots went deep into the blood-colored soil and sucked up life, as did the cotton. She would stay at Tara and keep it, somehow, keep her father and her sisters, Melanie and Ashley’s child, the negroes.

Tomorrow-oh, tomorrow! Tomorrow she would fit the yoke about her neck. Tomorrow there would be so many things to do. Go to Twelve Oaks and the MacIntosh place and see if anything was left in the deserted gardens, go to the river swamps and beat them for straying hogs and chickens, go to Jonesboro and Lovejoy with Ellen’s jewelry-there must be someone left there who would sell something to eat.

  • Tomorrow-tomorrow-her brain ticked slowly and more slowly, like a clock running down, but the clarity of vision persisted.
  • Of a sudden, the oft-told family tales to which she had listened since babyhood, listened half-bored, impatient and but partly comprehending, were crystal clear.
  • Gerald, penniless, had raised Tara; Ellen had risen above some mysterious sorrow; Grandfather Robillard, surviving the wreck of Napoleon’s throne, had founded his fortunes anew on the fertile Georgia coast; Great-grandfather Prudhomme had carved a small kingdom out of the dark jungles of Haiti, lost it, and lived to see his name honored in Savannah.

There were the Scarletts who had fought with the Irish Volunteers for a free Ireland and been hanged for their pains and the O’Haras who died at the Boyne, battling to the end for what was theirs. All had suffered crushing misfortunes and had not been crushed.

  • They had not been broken by the crash of empires, the machetes of revolting slaves, war, rebellion, proscription, confiscation.
  • Malign fate had broken their necks, perhaps, but never their hearts.
  • They had not whined, they had fought.
  • And when they died, they died spent but unquenched.
  • All of those shadowy folks whose blood flowed in her veins seemed to move quietly in the moonlit room.

And Scarlett was not surprised to see them, these kinsmen who had taken the worst that fate could send and hammered it into the best. Tara was her fate, her fight, and she must conquer it. She turned drowsily on her side, a slow creeping blackness enveloping her mind.

Asked By: Martin Patterson Date: created: Nov 13 2023

How many babies did Scarlett O Hara have

Answered By: Luke Morgan Date: created: Nov 16 2023

Casting – While the studio and the public agreed that the part of Rhett Butler should go to Clark Gable (except for Clark Gable himself), casting for the role of Scarlett was harder. The search for an actress to play Scarlett in the film version of the novel famously drew the biggest names in the history of cinema, such as Bette Davis (who had been cast as a Southern belle in Jezebel in 1938), and Katharine Hepburn, who went so far as demanding an appointment with producer David O.

  1. Selznick and saying, “I am Scarlett O’Hara! The role is practically written for me.” Selznick replied rather bluntly, “I can’t imagine Rhett Butler chasing you for twelve years.” Jean Arthur and Lucille Ball were also considered, as well as relatively unknown actress Doris Davenport,
  2. Susan Hayward was “discovered” when she tested for the part, and the career of Lana Turner developed quickly after her screen test.

Tallulah Bankhead and Joan Bennett were widely considered to be the most likely choices until they were supplanted by Paulette Goddard, The young English actress Vivien Leigh, virtually unknown in America, saw that several English actors, including Ronald Colman and Leslie Howard, were in consideration for the male leads in Gone with the Wind,

  • Her agent happened to be the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency, headed by David Selznick’s brother, Myron.
  • Leigh asked Myron to put her name into consideration as Scarlett on the eve of the American release of her picture Fire Over England in February 1938.
  • David Selznick watched both Fire Over England and her most recent picture, A Yank at Oxford, that month, and thought she was excellent but in no way a possible Scarlett, as she was “too British”.

But Myron Selznick arranged for David to first meet Leigh on the night in December 1938 when the burning of the Atlanta Depot was being filmed on the Forty Acres backlot that Selznick International and RKO shared. Leigh and her then lover Laurence Olivier (later to be her husband) were visiting as guests of Myron Selznick, who was also Olivier’s agent, while Leigh was in Hollywood hoping for a part in Olivier’s current movie, Wuthering Heights,

  1. In a letter to his wife two days later, David Selznick admitted that Leigh was “the Scarlett dark horse”, and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939.
  2. Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed Ed Sullivan : “Scarlett O’Hara’s parents were French and Irish.

Identically, Miss Leigh’s parents are French and Irish.” In any case, Leigh was cast—despite public protest that the role was too ” American ” for an English actress—but Leigh was able to pull off the role so well that she eventually won an Academy Award for her performance as Scarlett O’Hara.

Asked By: Timothy Green Date: created: Nov 11 2023

Did Scarlett O Hara have more than one child

Answered By: Clifford Flores Date: created: Nov 12 2023

Some of you might know that whenever GRRM is subjected to questions about how much the show spoils the books, he immediately replies with the question in the title. For example this one from an interview: three children in the book, one by each husband.

She had one child in the movie. And in real life, of course, Scarlett O’Hara had no children, because she never existed. Margaret Mitchell made her up. The book is there. You can pick it up and read Mitchell’s version of it, or you can see the movie and see David Selznick’s version of it. I think they’re both true to the spirit of the work, and hopefully that’s also true of Game of Thrones on one hand, and A Song of Ice and Fire on the other hand.

Or this one from his blog post for the end of GoT: Book or show, which will be the “real” ending? It’s a silly question. How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? I did not read Gone with the Wind and I did not see the movie. As I understand it from google search, the story is set during the American Civil War, which again I know next to nothing about.

Asked By: Luke Martinez Date: created: Jan 26 2024

Why is Scarlet so obsessed with Ashley

Answered By: Connor Gonzales Date: created: Jan 29 2024

She was a spoiled, vain, self-centered, and immature but beautiful and captivating Southern belle who believed the world and all who lived in it were there for her pleasure and whims. She was completely infatuated with the Ashley of her imagination and was too stubborn to let go of that.

Why did Rhett leave Scarlett?

Role – Rhett’s personality is that of a cynical, charming, and mocking philanderer. He frequently declares that he has no honor, though he respects those he considers true gentlemen or ladies. He often thinks the worst of Scarlett, even as he admires and loves her.

  1. During their first meeting, he says she is no lady, just as he is no gentleman.
  2. He often mocks her attempts to be gentle, kind, or ladylike, believing it doesn’t suit her, and encourages her scheming ways, even as he despises them.
  3. He presents a fickle and dapper front, saying things he doesn’t mean and causing Scarlett to misunderstand him.

His constant, defensive teasing causes her to distrust his true intentions, even when she manages to perceive them. In turn, he does not recognize that Scarlett uses charm and acid to protect herself, rather than out of malicious intent. As the novel begins, Rhett is first mentioned at the Plantation barbecue, the home of John Wilkes and his son and daughters Honey and,

The novel describes Rhett as “a visitor from “, a who was expelled from and is not received by any family with a reputation in the whole of Charleston, and perhaps all of South Carolina. He is considerably older than the 16-year-old Scarlett, being about 32-33 at the time, and has made a name for himself as a wealthy scoundrel and professional gambler.

Rhett witnesses Scarlett’s young confession to Ashley at the plantation barbecue and is immediately attracted to her boldness in breaking social conventions and her beauty. Rhett mocks Scarlett over her confession, which causes a lasting negative impression.

  1. After Scarlett is widowed for the first time, Rhett makes significant headway in gaining her favor by showering a depressed and isolated-in-mourning Scarlett with attention, though he tells her he isn’t going to marry her and keeps her flirtatious advances at arm’s length.
  2. She requests that he help her return to Tara with her family in order to wait out the war.

However, partway on the dangerous journey, his convoluted convictions lead him to give her a kiss and a gun before he abandons her on the road in order to enlist in the doomed American Civil war. Following, Scarlett undergoes one of the most significant and traumatizing times in her life without support, facing starvation, disease, and violence as she becomes the sole support for her family.

During the war, Rhett’s wealth and influence balloon as he acts as a smuggler and blockade runner, often in and out of prison. Southern society marks him as an outsider, though they are occasionally charmed by him. An impoverished and desperate Scarlett seeks him out to request a loan of $300 to save Tara, and after leading her in circles to see how much she’d be willing to debase herself for the funds, including her offering to be his mistress (to which he replies she wouldn’t be worth that much) reveals he was never going to lend her the money, lacking sufficient liquid assets.

Scarlett is furious and humiliated. In response, Scarlett convinces Frank Kennedy, her sister Suellen’s beau, to marry her instead in order to save her family, since her sister intended to abandon the family and enjoy Frank’s wealth. Rhett is upset, since he actually was going to lend her the money once out of prison, and later praises her scheming and ability to steal her newest husband from under her sister’s nose.

  • During this time, Rhett admires that Scarlett makes ventures as a businesswoman, running and expanding Frank’s businesses, but deplores her hard-nosed and miserly tactics, which earn her few fans, and does not understand her all-consuming need to hoard money.
  • Her unladylike and brutal business behavior causes Scarlett to be attacked in, and when her husband, Frank, dies during a retaliatory raid, Rhett saves Ashley Wilkes and several others by alibiing them to the Yankee captain, a man with whom he has played cards on several occasions.

Though he blames her for the death of her husband, Rhett laughs at Scarlett’s sincere fears that she’s going to hell for her role in Frank’s life and death, and proposes to the newly-widowed Scarlett, saying he always knew he’d have her, one way or another, and she should marry him for fun and their physical compatibility.

Scarlett agrees, though only for his money. In the novel, Rhett’s fortune is estimated at $50,000,000 (equivalent to $936 million in 2022) Rhett secretly hopes that Scarlett will eventually return the love he’s had since the day he saw her at Twelve Oaks. But, Rhett is also determined not to show Scarlett he loves her, believing those who love Scarlett become wretched, and the pair have volcanic arguments from the start of their marriage.

Rhett’s jealousy over Scarlett’s continuing affection for Ashley Wilkes becomes a problem for the couple, however, as well as their low opinions of each other. Scarlett does not view Rhett as a gentleman or good person and resents that he does not see her as a lady.

  • She does not believe or trust that he loves her, and often uses her idealized infatuation with the gentlemanly Ashley Wilkes to comfort herself from the worldly, and frequently flippant, Rhett.
  • Rhett views her money-grubbiness as tacky, loathes the position Ashley continues to play in her heart, and is unable to sway her hardened affections with his sardonic teasing.

Still, Rhett completely adores their daughter, Bonnie. Rhett is an infatuated and doting father, showering his daughter with the affection Scarlett will not accept from him, which further isolates him from his wife. In contrast with his wife, Rhett forms a genuinely warm and fond friendship with Melanie Wilkes, Ashley Wilke’s wife, and Scarlett’s only friend, whom he considers a rare, true ‘lady’, and often performs acts of service for her and relies on her for consolation.

He also continues his shadier associations, much to Scarlett’s displeasure and suspicion. The Butlers’ marriage becomes tattered and eventually wrecked by scandal, the death of their daughter, an accident where Rhett causes Scarlett to tumble down the stairs and miscarry, and the final nail in the coffin, the death of Melanie, Ashley’s wife.

Melanie makes Scarlett promise to care for Ashley after she’s gone and speaks of how much Rhett loves Scarlett. Rhett, believing Scarlett has never loved him and will jump at the chance to marry the now free and receptive Ashley, becomes apathetic to Scarlett’s declarations to the contrary.

Asked By: Cody Price Date: created: Aug 05 2024

Why did Ashley reject Scarlett

Answered By: Wallace Lee Date: created: Aug 07 2024

1861 – In keeping with the family tradition, in April 1861, Melanie becomes engaged to her first cousin, Ashley Wilkes, Melanie is unaware that Scarlett O’Hara intended to marry Ashley. For Scarlett, the news is shocking. Nevertheless, she is present at the engagement celebration, along with her family and most other plantation owners of the county.

  1. According to her description, Melanie is a rather petite and delicate young woman with the height and weight of a child.
  2. Her most notable feature is a pair of large brown eyes.
  3. To Scarlett, she seems quite shy and sweet but not particularly beautiful.
  4. However, her way of movement is described as graceful beyond her years.

To Scarlett, she seems more interested in discussing books than in flirting with men. While most young girls present at the celebration seek to impress the young men with their dress sense, Melanie is plainly clothed, discussing the works of William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens,

  • Scarlett is certain that Ashley will prefer her to Melanie.
  • Confronting him privately, she confesses her love for him.
  • Ashley admits he is attracted to her but he is determined to marry Melanie.
  • His main stated reason is that he believes he has more in common with Melanie than with Scarlett.
  • Scarlett feels disappointed and hurt.

In her confusion she decides to hurt Ashley in return by accepting a marriage proposal by Melanie’s brother Charles. Scarlett also considers that she is taking revenge against Melanie by marrying her brother. The wedding takes place two weeks later on April 30, 1861, but Melanie is actually pleased about the marriage as she views her new sister-in-law as a true sister.

  • Melanie seems to take an instant liking to Scarlett and welcomes her to their family.
  • On May 1, 1861, Melanie herself marries Ashley.
  • Meanwhile, the American Civil War has broken out and Georgia is now part of the Confederate States of America,
  • Charles has to leave two weeks after his marriage to enlist in the forces of Wade Hampton, known as ” Hampton’s Legion “.

A week later Ashley follows him. In his absence Melanie accepts the invitation of Aunt Pittypat to stay with her in Atlanta. The fortunes of both women are still under the management of Uncle Henry. In Atlanta, Melanie receives two important pieces of news.

  1. Her brother has died less than two months after his enlistment, having contracted and recovered from the measles but then succumbing to pneumonia,
  2. His share of the family fortune is inherited by Scarlett, his widow.
  3. This sad news is followed by the news of Scarlett’s pregnancy.
  4. Melanie’s nephew is born by the end of the year and is named Wade Hampton Hamilton.

Throughout the year both Melanie and her aunt send Scarlett several invitations to join them. Melanie expresses an interest in getting to know her “sister” better and later in seeing her nephew. On the other hand, Scarlett is going through a state of depression,

Her mother is concerned about her and finally manages to convince her to accept the invitations. Following a short visit to maternal relatives in Savannah followed by Charleston, South Carolina, Scarlett and her son, accompanied by her maid, Prissy, arrive in Atlanta during the first months of 1862.

She is welcomed by Uncle Peter, aging but still determined to take care of his new charges. He brings her to the house of her aunt and sister-in-law. At first feeling awkward with the thought of living under the same roof with Ashley’s wife, Scarlett progressively regains her interest in life.

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Partly responsible for that is Melanie’s interest and affection towards her, though her occasional crushing hugs are hard for Scarlett to get used to. Melanie is serving as a volunteer nurse in the local hospital. Soon Scarlett joins her. Scarlett is somewhat impressed with Melanie’s ability to keep a straight face and a smile in the presence of the wounded and her willingness to help and comfort them.

Even if some of the gravest wounds make her pale and even cause her to vomit privately, Melanie avoids letting others find out. Scarlett starts considering that her sister-in-law is braver than she appears. At the same time Melanie maintains correspondence with Ashley, and Scarlett is still interested in hearing of his activities.

  • Scarlett has come to Atlanta intending to stay for a short while and as a visitor, but soon she finds herself settled more permanently and one of Atlanta’s socialites.
  • Melanie seems content with the new situation as Scarlett proves to be a better companion than their elderly aunt.
  • At the time Atlanta is seemingly populated mostly by women, by men too old or too young to fight, and the wounded returning from the front.

However, a number of men eligible to fight still remain in the city as part of the local militia, Melanie harshly criticizes their presence in the city, while more forces are needed at the front. Scarlett soon finds that, as passively as Melanie usually acts, she can become surprisingly passionate and even aggressive in support of her ideals.

Was Rhett sleeping with belle?

Biography – Belle (possibly Isabelle) was born at some point after 1828. Details of her early life are shrouded in mystery but she knew Rhett Butler and his family for years before she became a prostitute. Rhett and Belle had a short affair, which got Rhett kicked out of West Point Academy and disinherited by his father.

In 1849, Rhett permanently left Charleston and went to California during the gold rush. In 1850 (estimated), Belle gave birth to her son Tazewell Butler, who was adopted by Rhett as his ward and sent to school at his expense. It is also most likely that Tazewell was Rhett’s biological son. Sometime after this, Belle Watling moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

Here, she became a well-known prostitute and eventually madam up until the Civil War. During the Civil War (1861-1864), Belle had both Confederate and Yankee customers and was able to secure herself a café as a steady source of income. Scarlett O’Hara first meets Belle on her visit to Pittypat Hamilton,

  • Uncle Peter warns her that Belle is a “bad woman”, because of her dyed hair, revealing clothes and, of course, her profession.
  • Later, Belle offers her money to the hospital for wounded soldiers Caroline Meade is running, but Mrs Meade chases her away.
  • It is only when Melanie intervenes, that Belle is allowed to donate her money.

When Tara is taxed 300 dollars, Scarlett O’Hara visits Rhett in prison and tries to manipulate the money out of him, even offering to become his mistress. Rhett refuses and the two end their interaction in a fight. On her way out, Scarlett meets with Belle again, who is on her way in.

  • Throughout the war years, she is still Rhett’s best friend.
  • In 1868, the Ku Klux Klan attacks Shanty Town and during the attack, Yankee police officers kill Frank Kennedy and Tommy Wellburn,
  • Rhett saves the remaining men ( Ashley Wilkes, Dr Meade, Hugh Elsing ) and brings them to Belle’s brothel, providing them with an alibi.

Afterwards, Ashley’s wife Melanie calls on Belle to thank her for saving Ashley’s life, and they form a friendship. Belle recalls how during the war, Melanie stood up for her when nobody else did. She also tells Melanie about her son, a subject she rarely talks about.

During Rhett Butler ‘s marriage to Scarlett O’Hara (1868-1873) Belle remains Rhett’s confident. After Scarlett’s refusal to sleep with her husband out of fear of having another child, Rhett sleeps with Belle again. Even so, they are more friends than lovers and Rhett frequently just comes to Belle to rant about Scarlett and have a drink.

Even so, Belle reminds Rhett that he will always love Scarlett because they are made for each other. In 1873, Rhett loses his daughter Bonnie and not even Belle is able to console him. The only one who is able to talk to him, Melanie, dies soon after. Belle is present at Melanie’s funeral.

Asked By: Sean Bennett Date: created: Jan 24 2025

Why doesn’t Scarlett love Rhett

Answered By: Thomas Johnson Date: created: Jan 24 2025

Biography – Rhett was born and raised in Charleston in the respectable Butler family. His father was a gentleman, and they didn’t get along, leading to Rhett’s dislike of the term “gentleman”. His father at one point abandoned the family, and left Rhett’s mother and sister on their own.

  1. It is also said, however, that his father disinherited Rhett at age 20, kicked him out penniless and scratched his name out of the family bible.
  2. He was banned from West Point Academy for his involvement with prostitute Belle Watling He was involved in a controversy when he took a girl out buggy riding without a chaperone and then refused to marry her.

Her brother challenged him to a duel and Rhett shot him dead. After this, he wasn’t received in any household in Charleston or Clayton County, In 1849, Rhett (aged 21) travelled to California for the gold rush and then became a professional gambler and gun smuggler in South America and Cuba for several years before returning to the States.

  • As the novel begins, Rhett is first mentioned at the Twelve Oaks Plantation barbecue, the home of John Wilkes and his son Ashley and daughters Honey and India Wilkes,
  • The novel describes Rhett as “a visitor from Charleston”, a black sheep who was expelled from West Point and is not received by any family with reputation in the whole of Charleston, and perhaps all of South Carolina.

He is considerably older than the 16 year old Scarlett, being about 33-34 at the time, and has made a name for himself as a wealthy scoundrel and professional gambler. Rhett witnesses Scarlett’s young confession to Ashley at the plantation barbecue, and is immediately attracted to her boldness in breaking social convention and her beauty.

Rhett mocks Scarlett over her confession, which causes a lasting negative impression. After Scarlett is widowed for the first time, Rhett makes significant headway in gaining her favor by showering a depressed and isolated-in-mourning Scarlett with attention, though he tells her he isn’t going to marry her and keeps her flirtatious advances at arms length.

She requests he help her return to Tara with her family order to wait out the war. However, partway on the dangerous journey, his convoluted convictions lead him to give her a kiss and a gun before he abandons her on the road in order to enlist in the doomed American Civil war.

Following, Scarlett undergoes one of the most significant and traumatizing times in her life without support, facing starvation, disease, and violence as she becomes the sole support for her family. During the war, Rhett’s wealth and influence balloon as he acts as a smuggler and blockade runner, often in and out of prison.

Southern society marks him as an outsider, though they are occasionally charmed by him. An impoverished and desperate Scarlett seeks him out to request a loan of $300 to save Tara, and after leading her in circles to see how much she’d be willing to debase herself for the funds, including her offering to be his mistress (to which he replies she wouldn’t be worth that much) reveals he was never going to lend her the money, lacking sufficient liquid assets.

  • Scarlett is furious and humiliated.
  • In response, Scarlett convinces Frank Kennedy, her sister Suellen’s beau, to marry her instead in order to save her family, since her sister intended to abandon the family and enjoy Frank’s wealth.
  • Rhett is upset, since he actually was going to lend her the money once out of prison, and later praises her scheming and ability to steal her newest husband from under her sister’s nose.

During this time, Rhett admires that Scarlett makes ventures as a business woman, running and expanding Frank’s businesses, but deplores her hard-nosed and miserly tactics, which earn her few fans, and does not understand her all-consuming need to hoard money.

Her unladylike and brutal business behavior causes Scarlett to be attacked in shanty town, and when her husband, Frank, dies during a retaliatory Ku Klux Klan raid, Rhett saves Ashley Wilkes and several others by alibiing them to the Yankee captain, a man with whom he has played cards on several occasions.

Though he blames her for the death of her husband, Rhett laughs at Scarlett’s sincere fears that she’s going to hell for her role in Frank’s life and death, and proposes to the newly-widowed Scarlett, saying he always knew he’d have her, one way or another, and she should marry him for fun and their physical compatibility.

  1. Scarlett accepts for Rhett’s money.
  2. In the novel, Rhett’s fortune is estimated at $50,000,000.
  3. Rhett secretly hopes that Scarlett will eventually return the love he’s had since the day he saw her at Twelve Oaks.
  4. But, Rhett is also determined not to show Scarlett he loves her, believing those who love Scarlett become wretched, and the pair have volcanic arguments from the start of their marriage.

Rhett’s jealousy over Scarlett’s continuing affection for Ashley Wilkes becomes a problem for the couple, however, as well as their low opinions of each other. Scarlett does not view Rhett as a gentleman or good person, and resents that he does not see her as a lady.

  • She does not believe or trust that he loves her, and often uses her idealized infatuation of the gentlemanly Ashley Wilkes to comfort herself from the worldly, and frequently flippant, Rhett.
  • Rhett views her money-grubbiness as tacky, loathes the position Ashley continues to play in her heart, and is unable to sway her hardened affections with his sardonic teasing.

Still, Rhett completely adores their daughter, Bonnie. Rhett is an infatuated and doting father, showering his daughter with the affection Scarlett will not accept from him, which further isolates him from his wife. Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes In contrast with his wife, Rhett forms a genuinely warm and fond friendship with Melanie Wilkes, Ashley Wilke’s wife, and Scarlett’s only friend, whom he considers a rare, true ‘lady’, and often performs acts of service for her and relies on her for consolation.

He also continues his shadier associations, much to Scarlett’s displeasure and suspicion. Rhett’s marriage becomes tattered and eventually wrecked by scandal, the death of their daughter, an accident where Rhett causes Scarlett to tumble down the stairs and miscarry, and the final nail in the coffin is the death of Melanie, Ashley’s wife.

Melanie makes Scarlett promise to care for Ashley after she’s gone and speaks of how much Rhett loves Scarlett. Rhett, believing Scarlett has never loved him and will jump at the chance to marry the now free and receptive Ashley, becomes apathetic to Scarlett’s declarations to the contrary.

How many husbands did Scarlett O Hara have in Gone with the Wind?

Abstract Gone with the Wind, written by Margaret Mitchell has been one of the bestsellers and popular with the reader ever since its publication in 1936. It is her first and only long novel. Since 1936, the novel has been widely spread and well received.

Most of their researches concentrate on the historical background of the American Civil War, the abolitionist thought and the cultural discrepancy between the North and the South, narrative mode and ideological value. In the light of feminist theory, this essay attempts to analyze the female characters in Gone with the Wind,

Scarlett, who’s clever, coquettish, stubborn and diligent, is different from other aristocratic women. She is different, and also damned. But she is judged as a new woman in the old time, she is a Steel Rose opening in the war and her story will give some inspiration for modern women.

Through the influence of internal and external environment on Scarlett, the characteristics of her rebellious, awakening, strong character and persistent pursuit of freedom and happiness are analyzed. It reveals the cause of Scarlett’s multi-character in the patriarchal society. Share and Cite: Guo, P.

(2019) Analysis of the Character of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, Open Journal of Social Sciences, 7, 335-346. doi: 10.4236/jss.2019.74026,1. Introduction 1.1. Introductory Paragraph Gone with the Wind is a novel about the civil war by Margaret Mitchell.

  • It tells the story of the protagonist during Scarlett’s twelve years of experience from the American Civil War to the post-war reconstruction.
  • Scarlett is a woman of ambivalence.
  • On the one hand, she is rebellious and capricious, greedy and vain; On the other hand, she is strong, determined and persistent in love.

This character has manifested the American bourgeoisie which is a kind of indomitable spirit, a spirit of daring to be a pioneer that is enterprising as an American. She is a heroine who is good at building her new life on the ruins of the old world! This is the manifestation of Scarlett’s feminist thought.

  1. In Gone with the Wind, the author depicts the diverse character characteristics of Scarlett in different life stages and social backgrounds, revealing the indomitable spirit of women in the face of difficulties and their intimate relationship with the environment.
  2. This paper attempts to analyze the complex character of Scarlett Hao in the novel from the perspective of feminism, reveal the cause of Scarlett Hao’s character in the patriarchal society, and analyze the author’s feminist consciousness.1.2.

Literature Review After published, Gone with the Wind usually caused a lot of controversies. There are a lot of people studying and analyzing how Scarlett completes her transformation from 16 years old girl deeply influenced by traditional Southern Womanhood to a serious-minded and far-sighted woman.

  • And many researchers comparatively analyze Scarlett with Melanie: they are quite different girls, and those differences make their life very different; anyway, attitude is everything.
  • Gone with the Wind is the name of the novel, and Melanie is the wind; she is traditional, graceful and tolerant.
  • The old South has gone with the wind, and so Melanie.

Scarlett was not, she is new, and she is decisive and firm. She is quite an opponent of the old South. New American comes, and so Scarlett. Some researchers comparatively analyze Scarlett with other women except Melanie, such as other tough ladies: Wang Xifeng (from A Dream in Red Mansions), Yao Mulan (from Moment in Peking), and so on.

It is not rare to meet some difficulties in your lifetime. If you can overcome them, you are a hero, a strong man. Love and hate intertwined nerd around, while good and evil battled again and again in the ultimate return of human nature into self-transcendence. Margaret Mitchell is a woman writer. She has strong feminism.

We can get it from the novel, especially from Scarlett. Bravery is a great wisdom in one’s life. Facing death bravely and going towards death, bravery finally completes the pursuit of the value of death in literary creation and finally surpasses death.

Some researchers comparatively analyze Scarlett with other tragic female characters, for example, Emily (from A Rose for Emily), Wang Jiazhi (from Lust, Caution) and so on. Hardness in life is the examination on people’s adaptability to life and it is also the gauge distinguishing the strong and the weak.

The weak try hard to avoid pain and conflict. They would rather go without than have a hard time in bettering themselves. The characters in these works were more authentic and their characters had both merits and shortcomings. The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the weak.

Life is always ongoing, and those souls that have lost all sense of their true selves, will eventually find their way back home to the Light. Gone with the Wind was considered as a very classic work. But many opponents do not agree with that. In their eyes the novel will never have the chance to enter the scared palace of American literature and Scarlett the protagonist in the novel is an extremely selfish, vain, and merciless woman who will not hesitate to resort to any means in order to reach her ends.1.3.

The Significance of the Research The protagonist Scarlett in Gone with the Wind is extremely distinct meaning of characters in the world literature. She is a true reflection of the American spirit and its culture: the spirit of freedom, strong character and realistic attitude, the spirit of tenacious struggle and courage to face reality and to the pursuit of love is its enduring.

This article will focus on analyzing awakened Scarlett’s survival wisdom by combining civil war novel and the historical background of southern culture change, and with the help of Scarlett and the rest of the novel’s main character, so as to show its unique personality charm. Through analyzing Scarlett’s character, this paper puts forward the contemporary women can learn from her and take reference from Scarlett’s career learning innovation ability and self-confidence.

Although many people have explored Scarlett from the perspective of feminism, but as time passed, the novel spread more and more widely, sweeps the world and has aroused interest of a large number of fascinated viewers. And the readers more and more favored the heroine Scarlett, so this issue still deserves to be further discussed.

The research of the Character of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind is very important to impel modern woman to develop from “me” to “I”. In our life, we will meet lots of difficulties, but I’m sure if we never say die, we will be the winners. Modern woman should become a powerful life on the road; let yourselves and everything around it better, more beautiful and more meaningful.1.4.

Organization of This Paper There are five chapters in this thesis and the main content as follows: The first one is preface, which introduces some background and motive of this research as well as summarization of relative literatures and framework of this paper.

The second chapter gives an introduction to the social and historical background of the society Gone with the Wind. The third chapter mainly introduces Scarlett’s special characters and styles. Scarlett’s secret of survival is introduced in Chapter Four. The fifth chapter is the summary and thought of this thesis.

No matter what pain and misfortune he suffers from, a real strong character will never sink and drown in the rapids of life. We want to live stronger, and we want to live Not to be outdone in this arena, who strive to create a good stage for their own efforts to decorate their own lives and life.

  • Life shouldn’t be dependent on tears; it only cheers those who press forward in the face of difficulties.2.
  • Feminism in Gone with the Wind This chapter is separated into two parts, namely, female characters and feminism, initiates a close-reading of the stylistic features of this novel, and analyzes feminism in the book in different aspects, such as the true feminism, the new feminism, and the self-estimate.

Also, it looks into the form and the cause of feminism from the angles of the feminine thought, the feminine mind, the feminine language and the feminine image. It is the hope of the author to bring some new light to the understanding and cognition of this great work.2.1.

Pursuit of Women Let us review the novel, because the whole novel is just like the process of Scarlett’s change of mind, and the men and the things which she has met and experienced are largely transformed into her psychological behavior. This classic novel tells us a woman who named Scarlett who is a strong woman.

She can bear anything romantic. Scarlett falls in love with Ashley since “that day two years ago when Ashley, newly home from his three years Grand Tour in Europe, and called to pay his respects, she had loved him.” Scarlett loved him since she was 16-year-old and no matter how hard her love is for him, she always insists on it.

  1. She wants him though he is her sister-in-law’s husband; she has never let him go.
  2. She hopes Melanie, her sister-in-law, will die when she has childbirth during the war, so that she can get Ashley.
  3. But when Melanie had a miscarriage and was dying.
  4. She suddenly finds how deep her love is to Melanie.
  5. She feels so sorry that she has done something wrong to Melanie, to Ashley and also to her husband Rhett.

She always thinks Ashley and money consist of everything in her life. Making money is her obligation. If she has enough money, she will be far away from starvation and cold, and show off her money to all the people she hates and show contempt to them. Scarlett is a brilliant image with feminist color that Michel Margaret creates in Gone with the Wind.

She dares to go against the tradition and the treatment of females as inferior to males, and she dares to go out of the family and enter into the patriarchal world in order to obtain the female’s independence in economy and personality. Meanwhile Scarlett is also indecisive and perplexed in her love life.

The meaning of her struggling for herself can’t be ignored. Scarlett has married three times. The first time is to marry Charles who is Melanie’s brother. The second is to marry Frank who is her sister Suellen’s husband. The third is to marry Rhett. It is wrong of her either to marry Charles or to marry Frank.

The first is for grudge, the second is for money, but Rhett is just her Mr. Right. But she does not know that, “Wife is the last one to know”. One thing Scarlett has done wrong is that she has understood none of the men she has loved and so she has lost them all. If she understood Ashley, she would not love him so long, and if she understood Rhett, she would never lose him.

Not until Melanie is dead does, Scarlett realizes that she doesn’t love Ashley, she says “I loved something I made up, something that’s just as dead as Melanie is. I made a pretty suit of clothes and fell in love with it. And when Ashley came riding along, so handsome, so different.

I put that suit on him and make him wear it, whether it fitted him or not. And I wouldn’t see what he really was, I kept on loving pretty clothes and not him at all”. He’s never existed at all, except in my imagination.” For Ashley, he is someone that denies her, “Even now, she could recall each detail of his dress, how brightly his boots shone the head of a Medusa in cameo on his cravat pin, the wide Panama hat that was instantly in his hand when he saw her.” Scarlett is just a woman he doesn’t really love, but wants to get a woman’s body, let alone her heart.

But for Rhett, he wants Scarlett’s mind and heart more than any other things. He loves her not just for her body because he know how little bodies mean, so he cares little about for body, but about her heart, but he has never got it before his heart breaks into pieces.

  • When his sweet daughter Bonnie is dead, everything is lost; Bonnie has taken everything from him.
  • Rhett’s tragedy is that he loves Scarlett too much to let her go, but Scarlett realizes that too late.
  • When Scarlett is aware of her love to Rhett, everything is too late.
  • She hurts Rhett’s heart so deeply that he can’t take his broad bosom to her, and he can’t be hurt any longer, any more.
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She is such a stupid fool that she has lost everything at the beginning. In spite that she is strong enough, her big desire makes her lose everything, because she never know what the real love is. Desire and achievement are two different things, so she loses both Ashley and Rhett.

From my point of view, after the death of Scarlett’s first husband, the widow hasn’t been trapped in the traditional custom of widowhood, she stepped out of her former marriage and seeking her true love in a positive manner instead. It is obviously that the consciousness of feminism has sprouted in Scarlett’s mind.

Scarlett, as a representative of the women at that time, can adapt to the new situation, and the new life, reject all the old tradition, and take to the road of her own, it is the war which will prompts her to rise up and fight. And those who find it hard to accept the reality and unforgettable past are taking the way by memories.

  • They can not adapt to the change of environment, to the tragedy of life and destiny.
  • Except for change they have no choice.
  • The novel has created a glorious character, her pursuit of true love and her attempt to fight against the conventional customs.
  • Her implicit beauty enriched her status in Gone with the Wind.2.2.

Scarlett’s Practice Scarlett is like a cat. With the cat-like eyes, and the cat-like smile, and the cat-like pace of the agile, this cat-like woman offers some of the reality and tells how we should treat our life, love, the difficulties, and frustrations of the attitude and experience.

First she meets with the difficulty with responsibility, though there is also hesitation, finally she still assumes responsibility. For example she saves Melanie, and she revives Tara. Also she dares to love or to regret. Her whole youth is spent in love with Ashley, without return, but she still never gives up, until the limit of the ability to do so.

The third is she is trying to correct her mistakes. When she finally understands what she has done wrong, she immediately apologizes, and asks for forgiveness. Then, Scarlett’s action has generated the image of a woman with her strong mind to earn her living through her utmost encouragement.

  • This show there has aroused the consciousness of feminism, that is, the independence and the autonomy of the women.
  • In another word, women are able to work as well as men to survive in that period of tough time.
  • After her husband has left, she works independently after her pregnancy in her second marriage.

Poverty and difficulty can’t defeat her. She has dropped into the ocean of business and works independently. Scarlett, protagonist in Gone with the Wind, is one of the most impressive images in the world literature. Her charm lies in her perverse personality of independence, her spirit of freedom, her firm characteristic and real life attitude.

  1. Her charm lies in the spirit of refusing to sink into depravity in the hard time, the persistent pursuit of love.
  2. Her charm lies in her image of being the representative of some modern spirit and being close to readers in their mentality and the feminine value which it reflects.
  3. She is gradually strong enough to take care of her family.

She has burdened herself with the heavy pressure to feed her family and spare no efforts to get money. We have noticed the growing maturity and artful behavior of Scarlett to earn a living with any possible measures. Scarlett is a brilliant image with feminist color whom Michel Margaret creates in Gone with the Wind.

  1. She dares to go against the tradition and the treatment of the female as inferior to males, and she dares to go out of the family and enter the patriarchal world in order to obtain the female’s independence in economy and personality.
  2. Meanwhile Scarlett is also indecisive and perplexed in her love life.

The meaning of her struggling for herself can’t be ignored. You can’t help but like Scarlett. She’s hopelessly selfish, vain, manipulative, deluded and foolish, but she’s also an extremely vivacious, loyal and strong character who can be relied upon to say and do just exactly what she thinks, regardless of the impact on other people.

Again and again through the novel you find yourself thinking “don’t do that” but you know she’s going to do it anyway. Rhett Butler is the perfect foil to her exuberance and willfulness, and though immensely frustrated by to Scarlett, proves to be the only man who can help her at certain points through the novel.

The book is very dramatic, though written 60 years after the events it describes. For example, racism and snobbery is blatant and frustrating to a modern reader, but this just serves to evoke the period more accurately. The strictures imposed on the life which Scarlett and her companions live in is a key feature of the novel, and the gathering rebellion against these constraints a parallel with the emancipation of the slaves.3.

Scarlett’s Special Characters and Styles Before the Civil War, Scarlett lives in a nearly perfect family. A gentle mother, a rich father, and a black mummy look after her well, and they make her a beautiful but spoiled girl. On the other hand, she’s clever, diligent, brave and stubborn. Owing to these characters, her actions make her very welcome in gentlemen but unwelcome in ladies.3.1.

Background of Scarlett’s Family Scarlett shows her difference at the right opening of the novel. Ellen, has never been seen “stirred from her austere placidity nor her personal appointments anything but perfect, no matter what the hour of day or night”,

There was a steely quality under her stately gentleness that awed the whole household”, Scarlett regards her mother as “something holy and apart from all the rest of humankind” and “the embodiment of justice, truth, loving tenderness and profound wisdom―a great lady.” Young Scarlett, or Scarlett antebellum, wants very much to emulate Ellen, but in order to avoid missing joys of life, she will follow her mother only on condition that “some day when she was married to Ashley and old, some day when she had time for it”,

Nevertheless, Ellen does influence Scarlett much. On the other hand, Scarlett’s father, Gerald, a little, hard-headed and blustering Irish man, is not well educated, he believes that a man who wants to be rich should be strong and unafraid of work. And Gerald is hardy.

“When Gerald wanted something, he gains it by taking the most direct route”, This conclusion seemed to fit for Scarlett, too.3.2. Antebellum Life As for Scarlett, in her face “were too sharply blended the delicate feature of her mother, a coast aristocrat of French descent, and the heavy ones of her florid Irish father”,

At the age of sixteen, thanks to Mammy and Ellen, “she looked sweet, charming and giddy, but she was, in reality, self-willed, vain and obstinate. She had the easily stirred passions of her Irish father and nothing except the thinnest veneer of her mother’s unselfish and forbearing nature”,

  1. She is high hearted, vivacious and charming, different from other ladies’ elegance.
  2. She is beautiful that she has made almost all the young men in the neighborhood court her; she has her own view that she always tries her best to gain what she wants―Ashley, or Tara, then Rhett.
  3. She will never know, and she would be pleased but unbelieving if she has been told, that her own personality, frighteningly vital though it was, was more attractive than any masquerade she might adopt because “the civilization of which she was a part would have been unbelieving too, for at no time, before or since, had so low a premium been placed on feminine naturalness”,

Undoubtedly, she is different, and because of this difference, Scarlett is destined to be damned―”No girl in the county, really liked Scarlett”,3.3. Rebellious Activities during the Civil War After her impulse (marry Charles Hamilton to “retaliate” Ashley Wilkes’ marriage to Melanie Hamilton) Scarlett is soon widowed, to her dismay, motherhood follows.

  • Of course Scarlett can not fell contented in her widow life, she still wants to dance, laugh and be courted as Scarlett O’Hara, not Scarlett Hamilton.
  • And so, with the help of Rhett Butler, Scarlett begins to search for another paradise in her life.
  • When she is still in mourning, Scarlett “tossed her head and sped out of booth”, hurriedly steps into the dancing floor, and begins her another rebel life.

She begins to think for herself instead of letting others think for her again. At that very time, she forgets herself and her rearing neglects the look on the chaperons’ faces, cares not what she will be criticized, she just wants to dance, to release her partly from mourning.4.

Scarlett’s Secret of Survival 4.1. Scarlett’s Pursuit of Freedom and Happiness One whole year after Charles Hamilton’s death, Scarlett is partly liberated. Despite wearing mourning, she is back again where she has been before she marries Charles, as if she were Scarlett again, the belle of the county.

Careless of the disapproval of others, “she behaved as she had behaved before her marriage―went to parties, danced, went riding with soldiers, flirted”, Life is still attractive, like she is. She enjoys her normal-like life again. She, Scarlett, energetic and animated, how can she be defined forever? Much less, the man she married has never gained her love at all! So that Scarlett, who is willing to, and destined to, pursue a passionate life.

  1. Obviously, she is different, and still is scolded for being different from the social code.
  2. However, in modern society, no one has the right of obstructing a widowed lady from pursuing happiness, especially remarriage.
  3. Scarlett’s emotion, as the Christmas season of 1863 coming, is surged up because Ashley Wilkes will come home on furlough.

When Scarlett looks at Ashley, she “knew her feeling of that long-past night were those of a spoiled child thwarted of a toy”, But unfortunately, she still looks upon her feeling to Ashley as “love”, even more than before. According to such deep feeling, or love, at least she thinks so; Scarlett promises Ashley that she will look after Melanie for him.4.2.

Scarlett’s Wisdom and Diligence in the Reconstruction Out of Scarlett’s expectation, the more terrible disaster occurs―Ellen, her gentle, amiable mother, has died; her father has turned to a terribly old man with schizophrenia. Now he is like a child, no longer a strong man, the backbone of Tara. Both of her sisters are ill in bed; slaves have run away, with only three darkies still remaining.

There remains not enough food, and all their cotton has been burnt to ashes. Meanwhile, their lot of Confederate cash becomes worthless. The most important is that she, Scarlett Hamilton, will continue to carry her burdens. The long road from Atlanta to Tara has ended, “in a black wall, the road that was to end in Ellen’s arms”,

  1. Never again can Scarlett lie down, as a child, secure beneath her father’s roof with the protection of her mother’s love wrapped about her like an eiderdown quilt.
  2. There was no security or heaven to which she could turn now” ; there is no one on whose shoulders she can rest her burdens.
  3. Now Scarlett is seeing things with new eyes, for somewhere along the long road to Tara, she has left her girlhood behind her.

She is a woman now and youth is gone. The Scarlett does not take charity. The Scarlett looks after them. Her burdens are her own and they are for shoulders strong enough to bear them. She can not desert Tara, “She belonged to the red acres far more than they could ever belong to her.

Her roots went deep into the blood-colored soil and sucked up life, as did the cotton”, The next morning Scarlett forces her to endure body’s stiffness and sore, goes out to search for some food. In the Negroes’ garden patches of Wilkes’ plantation; she is licked down by hunger and tiredness. When she arises at last and sees again the black ruins of the plantation, her head is raised high and something that is “youth and beauty and potential tenderness” has gone out of her face forever.

The lazy luxury of the old days is gone, never to return. “There was no going back and she was going forward throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter-eyed woman who looked backward But Scarlett was never to look back” At that moment hunger grows at her empty stomach again and Scarlett says aloud: “As god is my witness.the Yankees aren’t going to lick me.

I’m going to live through this, and when it’s over I’m never going to be hunger again. No, or any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill―as God is my witness, I’m never going to be hunger again”, This is her dauntlessness. What an announcement of struggle! Indeed it is a day that is worthy of celebration.

That symbolizes the birth of a completely new woman, a heroine in the old time. From then on, the shell of hardness, which has begun to form about her heart when she lies in the slave garden, is slowly thickening. Scarlett, who is more advanced than others, firstly realizes that her mother’s ordered world is gone and a brutal world has taken its place.

  1. She sees, or she thinks she sees that her mother has been wrong, and she changes swiftly to meet this new world for which she is not prepared”,
  2. This is her perceptivity.
  3. Both of Scarlett’s two sisters and the slaves all refuse, or do not dare, to face the reality.
  4. Melanie, who can face the situation, but only endures and suffers passively, and she is not willing to, or can not, struggle against the bad luck positively and energetically.

That is to say, once again, Scarlett is different and complained by everyone except Melanie―why does she become so cool, so chilly? As for her courage and fieriness, Scarlett kills a thieving Yankees soldier, imperturbably and determinately―right before the Yankee’s shoot.

Such an act is mass criticized by the critics; they accuse her of brutality and murderer. They condemn her living by hook or by crook, not like a fair lady, but actually she only “does what under the circumstances must be done if she survives”, In modern society, that is called “legitimate defense,” is therefore guiltless.

Anyway, Scarlett saves other three sick girls and the babies. That is worthwhile. Even if Melanie were in the same situation, “she’d have done the same thing”, With Scarlett’s wisdom and diligence, the Tara can surely offer a better and better life if there were not the taxation affair.

Then, in order to raise money, Scarlett has to go to Atlanta to drop on Rhett, “being a mere woman in a society that is bankrupt and still dominated by men who are either stupid or idealistic―and in any case ineffectual―Scarlett must use the only means available to her for saving the family plantation: sex”,

However, this decision is not an easy one for her, Scarlett fights a quick battle with the “.three most binding ties of her soul―the memory of Ellen, the teachings of her religion and her love for Ashley. She knew that what she had in her mind must be hideous to her mother even in that warm far off heaven where she surely was.

  1. She knew that fornication was a mortal sin.
  2. And she knew that loving Ashley as she did, her plan was doubly prostitution.”,
  3. Unfortunately, although she has planned to sacrifice herself to Rhett, she fails, for Rhett is in prison.
  4. But in any case she will not give up Tara, and her folks.
  5. She will seduce her sister’s fiancé in order to get his memory” ―If her sister is a little less selfish than her, Scarlett will need not to marry such an old man.

After all, she victimizes herself. To get and save enough money, Scarlett buys a sawmill herself. She shuttled back and forth in Atlanta city with the whole town talking about her. And she makes a success. Simultaneously, she is excluded out of social contacts.

  • All she has done is to be different from other women and she has made a little success of it.
  • That is the one unforgivable sin in any society.
  • Be different and be damned”.
  • As Rhett says to her, “Scarlett, the mere fact that you’ve made a success of your mill is an insult to every man who hasn’t succeeded.

Remember, a well-bred female’s place is in the home and she should know nothing about this busy brutal world”, By now, we know, perhaps only partly, the reason why she is “different and damned”.4.3. Summary Only Grandma Fontaine, “gives Scarlett the formula for survival and supplies the rational for Scarlett’s tooth-and-fang code of morality” : “we play along with lesser folks and we talk what we can get from them, and when we are strong enough, we kick the necks of the folks whose necks we’ve climbed over.

  1. That, my child, is the secret of survival”,
  2. Scarlett, too, refuses to be one of the lesser folks, she wants not only to survive but also “prevail and will use any means at hand to gain her ends.” And Scarlett wins the economic battle at last, though she loses the battle of heart,
  3. Scarlett’s tragedy lines in her “inability to understand the meaning of being a lady”,

“No lady would admit that she, and not her husband, ran the plantation. No lady would admit to being hungry in public. No lady would admit to sexual desire or pleasure” 5. Conclusions Indeed, Gone with the Wind has been translated into 35 languages, and sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide over 75 years.

Along with Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Gone with the Wind was one of the first Hollywood products to be widely merchandised, according to Don Rooney, a Margaret Mitchell expert at the history center. The 1939 movie adaptation of Mitchell’s book is regarded as the most successful movie of all time. Gone with the Wind, director Victor Fleming’s almost four-hour blockbuster film, was the longest feature released up to that time, and it was the major Oscar winner of the year.

Gone with the Wind was released in 1947, 1954 and 1961. It earned an inflation-adjusted $1.48 billion domestically compared to Avatar’s $760 million. To trace back history, women have been despised because of their inferior social positions. In the developing of human history, women have suffered a lot.

  1. From what has been discussed above, a conclusion can be drawn that women have wakened from the long sleep.
  2. The feminist movement in the West has contributed a lot to the social development and its influence could be felt nearly in every aspect of society.
  3. Now, women are beginning to be aware of their existence in society.

A famous man has once said that women hold half the sky. A wise writer has said that half the man is a woman. In fact, women are just like the deep-hidden treasure which has not been explored completely. It is not deniable that with the economic globalization, knowledge economy, women have stepped into a bigger arena.

  1. Women have a better sense of interpersonal relationship, family and business success.
  2. They have the desire to be admitted by the society.
  3. But all these good wishes are not easy to accomplish.
  4. Scarlett can love and hate with violence, “her voice was brisk and decisive and she made up her mind instantly and with no girlish shilly-shallying.

She knew what she wanted and she went after it by the shortest route, like a man, not by the hidden and circuitous routes peculiar to women”, She wants not only to survive, but also to prevail and will use any means at hand to gain her ends, and she wins, still keeping an uneasily known kind heart.

Those are characters needed for success, in the 21st Century. If Scarlett were living in modern society, instead of the old time, she surely could lead a happy and comfortable life, as many other white-collar women do. The conclusion summarizes the whole thesis and reiterates the main viewpoint: Scarlett is a new woman in the old time.

She is different and damned. However, the society which we live in is an advanced one, so we can imitate her, of course not in all her ways. Fortunately, we could “be different” as she is, moreover, not “damned” as she is. Her bitter experience has turned her into a strong woman.