Gone with the Wind (Plot Summary)

Plot Summary

Twilight of the Old South

Scarlett O'Hara is the antiheroine of Gone with the Wind, a character who breaks the conventions of a romance novel from the first line of the book — "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it." A spoiled, high-tempered, and strong-willed sixteen-year-old Southern belle, Scarlett is the eldest of three O'Hara daughters who live an idyllic life on a North Georgian plantation called Tara. In the opening scenes, the O'Haras prepare to entertain their neighbors with a barbecue, and Scarlett plots to capture the man she loves — Ashley Wilkes — from her friend, Melanie. However, Ashley rejects her, and Scarlett's nemesis, Rhett Butler, overhears her humiliation. Rhett, a wealthy outcast from high society who "looks like one of the Borgias," is both amused by and interested in Scarlett.

The Civil War

News of the war reaches Tara, and Scarlett's life and the lives of everyone around her are immediately and irrevocably altered. Frustrated by circumstances and rejected by Ashley, she marries Melanie's brother, Charles, stealing him away from India Wilkes. Charles goes to war and dies, like most of the young men who attended the O'Haras' party. Inglorious in Scarlett's eyes, Charles dies from measles, not fighting. The widowed Scarlett grows restless at her plantation home, and relocates to Atlanta, moving in with her sister-in-law Melanie and her Aunt Pitty. Melanie feels great love and respect for Scarlett, but Scarlett is jealous of her and hates her. Scarlett scandalizes Atlanta society with her defiant refusal to mourn her husband appropriately, and in a key scene dances at a charity ball despite the breach of etiquette such an action creates. Rhett is the winning bidder in the "auction" for her next dance, and though still in love with Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett soon comes to enjoy Rhett's company.

Rhett's "shady" activities now include blockade-running, and his outspoken views on both the war and Southern society make him even more of an outsider, albeit a gentlemanly one. Rhett and Scarlett argue incessantly, but he is the only person who really understands her. For the next few years, the condition of the Confederacy grows worse. Union troops begin to draw closer to Atlanta as Melanie is about to deliver a child, so Scarlett refuses to flee the city with the majority of its inhabitants. The city is set on fire and in a highly dramatic sequence, Scarlett is forced to deliver Melanie's baby. After Melanie gives birth, she, Scarlett, and the servants flee with the aid of Rhett.

Scarlett returns to Tara, and learns that the region has been nearly destroyed, along with her family. Her sisters have fallen ill, her father has had a mental collapse, and her mother is dead. The Union army has moved through the area, burning and looting the properties of her neighbors. Tara has been ransacked but left intact. There is no food to be had, and Scarlett searches the grounds of the plantation and the surrounding countryside for something to eat. She does manual labor for the first time, and after her struggle, vows that she will "never go hungry again."

Reconstruction

When the war ends, the plantation recovers. Enormous taxes are levied on the property, and Scarlett decides to move to Atlanta to steal her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, whose modest fortune will pay her debts. With the family home and finances secured, Scarlett now becomes an outstanding businesswoman, expanding Frank's sawmill business until it flourishes. On one outing she is harassed by a group of men, which includes some black men. This leads to a Ku Klux Klan response, which Rhett despises. During the attack, Frank is killed, and Scarlett becomes a widow once again.

Next, Scarlett marries Rhett. Their relationship is not a smooth one, but they have a child — Bonnie Blue — whom Rhett adores. Scarlett's ongoing obsession with Ashley begins to frustrate Rhett more and more, climaxing in a dramatic scene in which he forces her to have sex with him. In a deeply ambiguous sequence, this gives Scarlett the only true physical passion that she has ever had, underlining the themes of dependence, enslavement, force, and love that run throughout the novel. Scarlett becomes pregnant again, but loses the baby — another of the bitter disappointments that are growing between Rhett and his wife. Bonnie Blue — beautiful, headstrong, and high-spirited like her mother — is killed when she is thrown from a horse while making a jump that is far too high for her. Rhett is crazed with grief. Stunned, Scarlett retreats into coldness and, having already given birth to a son and a daughter by her two previous marriages, informs Rhett that she wants no more children. She insists that they maintain separate sleeping quarters and their relationship disintegrates.

Revelations

Melanie dies while giving birth, asking Scarlett to look after her bereft husband. Scarlett finally realizes that Ashley has always loved Melanie, and that she has never loved him — he's just a "child." Rhett is the "man" — the one she's loved all along. The knowledge comes too late. Tired at last of her feelings for Ashley, Rhett leaves her, no longer in love. She begs him to stay, asking him what she will do without him, and he replies with the book's most famous line, "My dear, I don't give a damn." Scarlett watches him go, and gradually gathers her strength. Vowing to go back to Tara and rebuild her life, she swears to get him back. As doubts assail her, she utters the novel's ambiguous closing words — "Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day."