Gone with the Wind

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Gone with the Wind

Image:Gone with the Wind cover.jpg 1936 first edition cover of Gone with the Wind
Author	Margaret Mitchell
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Macmillan Publishers
Publication date	June 30, 1936
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	1037 (first edition) 1024 (Warner Books paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-446-36538-6 (Warner)

Gone with the Wind is a 1936 American novel by Margaret Mitchell set in the Old South during the American Civil War and Reconstruction.^[1] The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name in 1939. It is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. Over the years, the novel has also been analyzed for its symbolism and mythological treatment of archetypes. ^[2][3]

Contents 1 Title 2 Plot summary 2.1 Part Two 2.2 Part Three 2.3 Part Four 2.4 Part Five 3 Characters 3.1 Butler household 3.2 Wilkes household 3.3 O'Hara household 3.4 Other characters 4 Setting 5 Politics 6 Inspirations 7 Symbolism 8 Sequels 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Title

The title is taken from the first line of the third stanza of the poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae^[4] by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind." The novel's protagonist Scarlett O'Hara also uses the title phrase in a line of dialogue in the book: when her hometown is overtaken by the Yankees, she wonders if her home, a plantation called Tara, is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia".

[edit] Plot summary

Mitchell's work relates the story of a rebellious Georgia Southern belle named Scarlett O'Hara and her experiences with friends, family, lovers, and enemies before, during, and after the Civil War. Using Scarlett's life, Mitchell examined the effect of the War on the old order of the South, and the aftermath of the war on what was left of the southern planter class. The plot of Gone with the Wind contains many details which have triggered spin-off concepts,^[5] parodies, and cultural influences over the past decades; however, the plot has been shortened here for brevity.

The novel opens at Tara, the O'Hara plantation in Georgia, with Scarlett O'Hara flirting idly with Brent and Stuart Tarleton, twin brothers who live on a nearby plantation. Amidst the chatter, the pair tell Scarlett that Ashley Wilkes, the man Scarlett secretly loves, is to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton, a plain and gentle lady from Atlanta. Scarlett hurries to find her father, Gerald O'Hara, to probe him for further information. Gerald confirms that Ashley does intend to marry Melanie. He sharply warns Scarlett that she and Ashley would make a terrible match and encourages her to consider the attentions of one of the other local beaux.

Scarlett is miserable with the news until she realizes that Ashley does not know she is in love with him. She plots to make Ashley jealous by surrounding herself with men at the barbecue the next day at the Wilkes plantation of Twelve Oaks, then admit to him that she prefers him above all the others. Among the fawning gentlemen is Charles Hamilton, Melanie's brother, and Frank Kennedy, the beau of her sister, Suellen O'Hara. Things do not go according to plan. Although Ashley returns her affections, he tells Scarlett that he will still marry Melanie. The unreceived Rhett Butler, hidden behind a couch during the emotional scene, sees Scarlett throw a vase across the room in anger after Ashley leaves and is impressed by her fire. Charles Hamilton, himself in love with Scarlett, proposes later in the evening. To hurt Ashley, Scarlett accepts him, to the great distress of Ashley's sister Honey Wilkes. Honey, it was generally understood, was intended for Charles.

Both couples marry within weeks. Scarlett bitterly regrets her decision but receives a warm welcome from Melanie, who now considers Scarlett to be her sister. Two months later Charles dies of pneumonia at a military camp, before he has had the opportunity to fight on the battlefield, confirming Scarlett's opinion of his unheroic weakness.

Once the belle of the ball, Scarlett is now relegated to the stringent mourning rituals of the day: years of wearing unadorned black, living a quiet life at home, and limited social interaction. She is more distressed over her boredom and new motherhood than at Charles' death. She gives birth to a son Wade Hampton Hamilton. (In keeping with tradition, Scarlett names him for his dead father's commanding officer). Her mother, Ellen O'Hara, believing Scarlett to be pining away from a broken heart, sends her to Atlanta to Charles' elderly maiden Aunt Pittypat and Melanie in an attempt to raise her spirits.

[edit] Part Two

In Atlanta, Scarlett quickly inserts herself into the hustle and bustle of the city. Melanie treats Scarlett like a sister and is blind to Scarlett's contempt and jealousy. At a charity ball, they encounter Rhett Butler. He has a scandalous reputation and creates more outrage that is social by asking Scarlett to dance, despite her mourning, an invitation that Scarlett happily accepts.

Against the background of war, Scarlett stays in Atlanta and enjoys the company of Rhett. He ostensibly calls on Aunty Pittypat, as widows cannot properly receive male callers. His sharp wit and sarcastic charm both infuriate and beguile Scarlett, though she continues to carry a torch for Ashley. When Ashley comes home for Christmas, Scarlett becomes acutely aware of the privileges Melanie holds as his wife. The day Ashley leaves, Scarlett again reveals her feelings to him, hoping Ashley will also break down and allow himself to tell Scarlett that he loves her too.

Ashley has a more important matter to discuss with Scarlett. Sensing the end of the war and the fall of the South, he makes Scarlett promise that she will look after Melanie and see his family through the upcoming crisis in his absence. Scarlett blindly agrees to his promise. As Ashley heads for the door, Scarlett clings to him desperately and they share a passionate, forbidden embrace. Scarlett sobs that she loves him and that she only married Charles to hurt him. Ashley says nothing and wrenches himself from her grasp. He hurries from the house and away from Scarlett.

[edit] Part Three

As the tide of war turns against the South, Atlanta is bombarded constantly. When the Yankees finally begin their siege of Atlanta, the city evacuates. Melanie and Scarlett remain behind as Melanie is pregnant and about to give birth. After futile attempts to get help, Scarlett delivers Melanie's baby herself. Scarlett then sends her maid, Prissy, to find Rhett Butler to take them out of Atlanta. Eventually, Rhett shows up with a broken-down horse and carriage, which he stole from the Army. He carts the weakened Melanie, her infant son Beau, Scarlett's son Wade, Prissy, and Scarlett out of Atlanta. In a fit of conscience, he abandons them on the road back to Tara to turn back and fight for the South. Before he leaves, he kisses Scarlett and tells her he loves her, but she angrily pushes him away.

Arriving at Tara, Scarlett finds the house in ruins, the crops burned, most of the slaves run off, her mother dead, her father demented, and her two sisters sick with typhoid. The reins of authority are thrust into her hands. She finds that some of her neighbors managed to survive the pillaging of the Yankees and they share with her all that is possible. Scarlett forces her family and the slaves to tend fields and pick cotton. Suellen complains about the labor but the youngest sister Carreen does it willingly. When a lone Yankee soldier arrives looking to loot and assault Scarlett, she shoots him. The still-weak Melanie comes running with Charles' sword, but it is too heavy for her to lift. Nonetheless, Scarlett feels the beginnings of comradeship with her sister-in-law. The two loot the dead soldier's pockets and knapsack before swearing each other to secrecy about his death.

After more trials, months pass. People at Tara finally receive word that the war has ended and the Confederacy is no more. Soldiers begin straggling home. On their way, some seek the refuge of Tara for food and hospitality. Comrades bring a wounded soldier named Will Benteen, whom Carreen nurses back to health. Having nowhere to go, Will stays on at Tara, helping with the plowing. Slowly he takes on more responsibility and shifts Scarlett's heavy load onto his own shoulders. Suellen's beau Frank Kennedy asks Scarlett for her sister’s hand in marriage, and she gives her consent.

The only word of Ashley is that he was in a Yankee prison for the last year of the war. One day he finally appears coming up the long road towards Tara. Melanie and Scarlett both rush to greet him, but Mammy stops Scarlett by saying, "He's her husband, ain't he?" Scarlett reluctantly hangs back, but is nonetheless euphoric over Ashley's return.

[edit] Part Four

Tara's former overseer, evil Yankee Jonas Wilkerson, newly a Scallywag, raises the taxes on Tara to force the O'Haras out so that he and his wife can live there. Frantic to save Tara, Scarlett plots to go to Atlanta and get Rhett to give her the money to pay the taxes. She finds Rhett in jail and unable to help her despite her offer to marry him. She then runs into Frank Kennedy, now a successful storeowner, and in desperation, she manipulates Frank to believe that an impatient Suellen is to marry someone else. Frank, saddened by Suellen's supposed defection and unable to resist Scarlett's charms, marries her and gives her the tax money. After Rhett gets out of jail, he lends her more so that she can buy a sawmill, with the promise that she will not use the money to help Ashley Wilkes.

To her dismay, Scarlett becomes pregnant with Frank’s child. She shows herself in public for a time when pregnant. This, combined with doing well in the man’s world of business, earns her the ire of the Old Guard. Scarlett gives birth to a daughter, Ella.

Scarlett receives word from Tara her father Gerald has died. When she returns to Tara for the funeral, Will tells her about the circumstances of his death. Suellen had tried to persuade a disoriented Gerald to sign the Ironclad Oath (to the Yankee government) for money. Briefly lucid, Gerald realizes her intentions, flies into a rage and disowns Suellen. In an attempt to jump a fence with his horse, he falls and breaks his neck. The community despises Suellen for her part in Gerald’s death. Scarlett, struggling with her family’s poverty, quietly agrees with her. Despite his love for Carreen, Will announces his intention to marry Suellen to assuage the community’s animosity toward her. Carreen, unable to recover from the death of Brent Tarleton at Gettysburg, enters the convent. After Gerald's funeral, Scarlett manipulates Ashley into returning to Atlanta to run her sawmill, wanting to stop him from leaving for the North to find work. Being dependent on Scarlett and having to work for her breaks Ashley's spirit and independence.

Scarlett regularly drives alone to and from the sawmill; such boldness is frowned upon by her neighbors. One day she is assaulted by a poor white man and his black companion as she drives through the woods near shantytown. Her former slave Big Sam appears and fights off the attackers. To avenge the attack, Frank, Ashley, and the rest of the local men (as part of the Ku Klux Klan) raid the shantytown. Ashley is injured and Frank is killed.

Following Frank’s funeral, Rhett unceremoniously proposes to Scarlett, wanting to marry her before she marries someone else. Belle Watling, a local madam and Rhett’s mistress, stops by Melanie's house in a closed carriage to see Melanie. Belle heard that Melanie wanted to pay a visit to thank her for the crucial role she played in saving Ashley's life on the night of the raid. Belle discourages Melanie from visiting and risking a scandal for Melanie and her family. Melanie offers Belle her friendship in return.

[edit] Part Five

Scarlett marries Rhett and finds marriage to him surprisingly pleasant. Other than refusing to help Ashley Wilkes, Rhett completely spoils her. Scarlett begins spending time with the newly rich Yankees, who are portrayed as having few if any scruples. Scarlett builds a mansion and spends money lavishly. The Old Guard decide to cut Scarlett and Rhett out of society for keeping company with Yankees and flaunting their wealth.

Only Melanie's undying loyalty keeps Scarlett in the fold at all. Scarlett soon learns that she is pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. While they name the infant Eugenia Victoria (for Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie of the French), her blue eyes inspire the lasting nickname of Bonnie Blue Butler. Rhett is immensely proud of the child and spoils her unabashedly. Not wanting to betray her continuing love for Ashley and chagrined at the ruin of her figure, Scarlett informs Rhett that as she does not want to have any more children, they will no longer share a bed. Rhett becomes bitterly angry.

Rejected by Scarlett, Rhett turns to their daughter Bonnie for comfort. He decides that Bonnie should have everything and turns to winning over Atlanta.

Soon after, Melanie plans a surprise birthday party for Ashley. Scarlett goes to his mill and the two chat about old times at Twelve Oaks. They hug as friends. However, India Wilkes and Archie misinterpret this embrace, both suspecting Scarlett's true feelings for Ashley. They eagerly spread the rumor. Later that night, Rhett, having heard from Archie, forces Scarlett out of bed and to the party in her most flamboyant dress. Incapable of believing anything bad of her beloved sister-in-law, Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false.

At home later that night, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk. Blind with jealousy, he tells Scarlett that he loves her and could kill her to make her forget Ashley. Picking her up, he carries her up the stairs and the two make passionate, uninhibited love. Scarlett wakes up alone the next morning, eager to see her husband. Rhett stays away as he is horrified at his behavior. Rhett takes Bonnie on an extended trip abroad. All of Atlanta chooses sides between India and Scarlett. Melanie continues to support Scarlett and rejects India, her husband's own sister.

Scarlett discovers that she is pregnant again. For the first time, she is glad. When Rhett returns after three months and rebuffs her attempts at reconciliation, she tells him she does not want the baby. Hurt, Rhett scornfully says, "Cheer up. Maybe you'll have a miscarriage." Enraged, Scarlett tries to attack him, falls down the stairs, and suffers a miscarriage. Rhett, frantic with guilt, cries to Melanie about his jealousy. He refrains from telling Melanie about Scarlett's true feelings for Ashley.

After she recovers, Rhett tricks Scarlett into selling the sawmills to Ashley. Rhett spends his time edging Bonnie back into Southern society. Tragically, Bonnie dies while trying to jump her horse, just as her grandfather Gerald O'Hara did. Scarlett blames Rhett, Rhett blames himself, and they refuse to see each other. Scarlett regrets what she said and desperately wants to see him. While attempting to mediate between the two, Melanie falls gravely ill. After having Beau, she was warned by doctors not to have any more children. She always desired more children and became pregnant.

On her deathbed, Melanie tells Scarlett to watch out for Ashley and to be good to Rhett because he loves her. Scarlett realizes she never really loved Ashley. Rather she loved the noble "knight" and her memories of her carefree childhood, which he represented to her.

She rushes to share her revelation with Rhett, now finally drained of his love for Scarlett. He rejects her overtures and tells her that he is leaving her. Scarlett cries, "But what will I do? Where will I go?" Rhett replies with the infamous line, "My dear, I don't give a damn." (The movie inserted the word "frankly.") He returns, presumably, to his hometown of Charleston. Devastated by her realization of true love and the consequences of her past selfishness, Scarlett decides to go back to Tara. She is sure she can think of a solution. She still believes that Rhett will return to her if she tries to reconcile. The book ends with Scarlett's proclamation: "After all, tomorrow is another day!"

[edit] Characters

[edit] Butler household

• Scarlett O'Hara – protagonist, willful and spoiled Southern belle. Scarlett will do anything to keep her land and get what she wants.
• Rhett Butler – Scarlett's love interest and third husband, often publicly shunned for scandalous behavior, sometimes accepted for his charm. He is portrayed as the perfect man's man.
• Wade Hampton Hamilton – Scarlett and Charles Hamilton’s shy, timid son.
• Ella Lorena Kennedy – Scarlett and Frank Kennedy’s homely daughter.
• Eugenie Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler – Scarlett and Rhett's pretty, beloved, pampered daughter.

[edit] Wilkes household

• Ashley Wilkes – the man Scarlett loves, Melanie's husband, a dreamer and a gentleman.
• Melanie Hamilton Wilkes – Ashley's wife and second cousin, Scarlett's sister-in-law, a true lady. Called "mealy-mouth" by Scarlett, but she quietly has a backbone of steel.
• Beau Wilkes – Melanie's and Ashley's lovable son, delivered by Scarlett.
• India Wilkes – Ashley's sister. Almost engaged to Stuart Tarleton, she bitterly hates Scarlett for stealing his attention before he is killed at Gettysburg.
• Honey Wilkes – boy-crazy sister of India and Ashley. Originally "intended" to marry Charles Hamilton until Scarlett marries him.
• John Wilkes- Owner of Twelve Oaks Plantation and patriarch of the Wilkes family

[edit] O'Hara household

• Mammy – Scarlett's nurse from birth; a slave. Cited by Rhett as "the real head of the household."
• Gerald O'Hara – Scarlett's fiery Irish father.
• Ellen O'Hara – Scarlett's beloved mother, of aristocratic French ancestry, a true southern lady.
• Suellen O'Hara – Scarlett's younger sister, whiny and lazy.
• Carreen O'Hara – Scarlett's youngest sister, gentle and kind.
• Pork – first and loyal slave of Gerald O'Hara.
• Dilcey – Pork's wife, purchased from Twelve Oaks.
• Prissy – slave daughter of Dilcey, silly and foolish.
• Rosa – Upstairs slave maid.
• Teena – Upstairs slave maid.
• Jack – Dining room slave servant.
• Big Sam – Overseer and slave; rescues Scarlett in Shantytown.

[edit] Other characters

• Charles Hamilton – Melanie's brother, Scarlett's first husband, shy and loving.
• Frank Kennedy – Suellen's former beau, Scarlett's second husband, an older man who only wants peace and quiet.
• Belle Watling – prostitute; Rhett is her friend and loyal customer.
• Jonas Wilkerson – former overseer of Tara, father of Emmie Slattery's illegitimate baby.
• Emmie Slattery – later wife of Jonas Wilkerson
• Will Benteen – Confederate soldier who seeks refuge at Tara and eventually stays on to help with the plantation, in love with Carreen but marries Suellen.
• Aunt Pittypat – Charles’ and Melanie’s vaporish aunt who lives in Atlanta.
• Archie – Scarlett's driver and protector, former convict.

[edit] Setting

• Tara Plantation – The O'Hara home and plantation
• Twelve Oaks – The Wilkes plantation.
• Peachtree Street – location of Aunt Pittypat's home in Atlanta, where much of the book takes place, and site of Scarlett and Rhett's own large home.

[edit] Politics

Many historians regard the book as having a strong ideological commitment to the cause of the Confederacy and a romanticized view of the culture of the antebellum South.

The book includes a vivid description of the fall of Atlanta in 1864 and the devastation of war. Some of that aspect was missing from the 1939 film). The novel showed considerable historical research. Mitchell's sources were almost exclusively Southern writers and historians. According to her biography, Mitchell herself was ten years old before she learned that the South had lost the war. Mitchell's sweeping narrative of war and loss helped the book win the Pulitzer Prize on May 3, 1937.

An episode in the book dealt with the early Ku Klux Klan. In the immediate aftermath of the War, Scarlett is assaulted by poor southerners living in shanties, whereupon her former Black slave Sam saves her life. In response, Scarlett's male friends attempt to make a retaliatory nighttime raid on the encampment. Northern soldiers try to stop the attacks, and Rhett helps Ashley, who is shot, to get help through his prostitute friend Belle. Scarlett's husband Frank is killed. This raid is presented sympathetically as being necessary and justified, while the law-enforcement officers trying to catch the perpetrators are depicted as oppressive Northern occupiers.

Although the Klan is not mentioned in that scene (though Rhett tells Archie to burn the "cloaks"), the book notes that Scarlett finds the Klan abominable. She believed the men should all just stay at home (she wanted both to be petted for her ordeal and to give the hated Yankees no more reason to tighten martial law, which is bad for her businesses). Rhett is also mentioned to be no great lover of the Klan. At one point, he said that if it were necessary, he would join in an effort to join "society". The novel never explicitly states whether this drastic step was necessary in his view. The local chapter later breaks up under the pressure from Rhett and Ashley.

Scarlett expresses views that were common of the era. Some examples:

• "How stupid negroes were! They never thought of anything unless they were told." — Scarlett thinks to herself, after returning to Tara after the fall of Atlanta.
• "How dared they laugh, the black apes!...She'd like to have them all whipped until the blood ran down...What devils the Yankees were to set them free!" — Scarlett again thinking to herself, seeing free blacks after the war.
• However, she is kind to Pork, her father's trusted manservant. He tells Scarlett that if she were as nice to white people as she is to black, a lot more people would like her.
• She almost loses her temper when the Yankee women say they would never have a black nurse in their house and talk about Uncle Peter, Aunt Pittypat's servant, as if he were a mule.

Scarlett has many spiteful and selfish opinions in the novel, and is callous toward her children, her sisters, and of course, Melanie, who has every virtue Scarlett lacks. Whether Mitchell shared Scarlett's views is unknown.

The book is far more open in the matter of freedom of speech than the film, and it leaves no doubt that this was necessary in order to show what people really felt without putting "makeup" that would take out the accurate nature of the book.

[edit] Inspirations

As several elements of Gone with the Wind have parallels with Margaret Mitchell's own life, her experiences may have provided some inspiration for the story. Mitchell's understanding of life and hardship during the American Civil War, for example, came from elderly relatives and neighbors passing war stories to her generation.^[6]

While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with the Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as to individuals she knew or she heard of.[2] Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, was born in 1845; she was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who owned a large plantation on Tara Road in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, and who married an American woman named Ellen, and had several children, all daughters.

Researchers believed Rhett Butler to be based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. She divorced him after she learned he was a bootlegger. Other historical evidence suggests the Butler character to be based on George Trenholm, a famous blockade-runner. See link The Real Rhett Butler Revealed. (Another model may have been Sir Godfrey Barnsley of Adairsville, Georgia. After a stay at the plantation called The Woodlands, and later Barnsley Gardens, Mitchell may have gotten the inspiration for the dashing scoundrel.)

Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of US president Theodore Roosevelt may have been an inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. Roosevelt biographer David McCullough discovered that Mitchell, as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, conducted an interview with one of Martha's closest friends and bridesmaid, Evelyn King Williams, then 87. In that interview, she described Martha's physical appearance, beauty, grace, and intelligence in detail. The similarities between Martha and the Scarlett character are striking.

[edit] Symbolism

Over the past years, the novel Gone with the Wind has also been analyzed for its symbolism and mythological treatment of archetypes.^[2][3] Scarlett has been characterized as a heroic figure struggling and attempting to twist life to suit her own wishes.^[2] The land is considered a source of strength, as in the plantation Tara,^[3] pronounced the same as the Latin word terra, meaning the land.

[edit] Sequels

Alexandra Ripley wrote the novel Scarlett, in 1991, as the authorized sequel to Mitchell's novel.

Author Pat Conroy was approached to write a follow-up, but the project was ultimately abandoned.^[7]

In 2000, the copyright holders attempted to suppress publication of Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone, a book that retold the story from the point of view of the slaves. A federal appeals court denied the plaintiffs an injunction against publication in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin (2001), on the basis that the book was parody protected by the First Amendment. The parties subsequently settled out of court to allow the book to be published. After its release, the book became a New York Times bestseller.

A second sequel has been released in November of 2007. The story covers the same time period as Gone with the Wind and is told from Rhett Butler's perspective. Written by Donald McCaig, this novel is titled "Rhett Butler's People" (2007). ^[5]

[edit] See also

• Southern Renaissance
• Southern literature
• Lost Laysen, a 1916 novella written by Mitchell and the only other known literary work of hers to ever be published.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• O. Levitski and O. Dumer, "Bestsellers: Color Symbolism and Mythology in Margaret Mitchell’s Novel Gone with the Wind" (literary analysis), Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture, Sept. 2006, webpage: APC-Mitchell.

[edit] External links

• The story behind Gone with the Wind
• Gone with the Wind (the film)
• Photos of the first edition of Gone With the Wind
• Life Response in Gone with the Wind on Humanscience wikia

Preceded by Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis

Pulitzer Prize for the Novel 1937

Succeeded by The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand

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