Gone With The Wind

Rhett is a handsome rogue who has already offended most of Georgia’s elite early in the novel. He is approximately 30, dark-haired, and muscular. Although he comes from an aristocratic Charleston family, Rhett is a risk-taker who makes his money through a variety of questionable enterprises. He is briefly the hero of Atlanta for running blockades as a ship captain to bring supplies to the South. However, his sardonic temperament and cynical views about Southern honor alienate his supporters. Rhett is just as ruthless as Scarlett when it comes to building a fortune. He is attracted to her precisely because both of them have a singular focus on getting what they want from life.

Although Rhett falls in love with Scarlett, he fears trusting her with his heart because of her ruthlessness. He initially offers to make her his mistress and later proposes marriage. Even after the wedding, Rhett remains jealous of Scarlett’s attachment to Ashley. Without disclosing his true feelings to Scarlett, he waits silently for a sign that she returns his love. Scarlett doesn’t awaken to Rhett’s emotions until after their daughter’s death. By this time, he is so emotionally drained that he leaves Scarlett, saying that he no longer cares what she does or if she loves him. Rhett’s fate at the end of the novel is uncertain, though Scarlett is confident that she can win back his affections.

Throughout the novel, Rhett serves as a foil to the Old Guard elite, challenging their assumptions about a Southern victory and their notions of pedigree and honor. While he indulges in occasional backward glances at the lifestyle he enjoyed in his youth, he is a dynamic character who does not succumb to stagnation as Ashley and others do.

Melanie is a tiny, soft-spoken cousin of the Wilkes family. Scarlett frequently describes her as “plain.” She is also Scarlett’s chief rival for Ashley’s affections. At the beginning of the novel, Melanie weds Ashley shortly before he goes off to join the Confederate Army. For the most part, Melanie is oblivious to the shortcomings of those she loves. She demonstrates a saintlike innocence and devotion to her family. Although her health is delicate, Melanie wants to have a family. The birth of her son, Beau, nearly kills her, and Melanie must depend on Scarlett to get the family out of Atlanta before the Yankees descend.

At Tara, Melanie proves her strong will when it comes to protecting her loved ones. She brandishes a sword to help Scarlett defend Tara against a Yankee looter, then conceals the murder after Scarlett shoots him. In peacetime, she proves instrumental in keeping Atlanta society from shunning Scarlett for her scandalous behavior. Melanie never believes the gossip about Scarlett and Ashley. On her deathbed, she makes Scarlett promise to take care of her husband and son. At this point, Scarlett belatedly realizes Melanie’s true strength and how much she needs her.

Ashley is a tall, handsome, blue-eyed blond whose family owns a neighboring plantation to Tara. He is an intellectual who would prefer to spend his days reading and in quiet contemplation. Although his temperament is the polar opposite of Scarlett’s, she becomes infatuated with him from her early teen years. For his part, Ashley deludes himself into thinking that he loves Scarlett in return. However, his sense of honor prevents him from cheating on Melanie or abandoning her for Scarlett.

Ashley finds himself disoriented after the war because the quiet world he knew is gone forever. He tries his hand at managing a mill but never succeeds in turning a profit. Well aware that he no longer has a place in the world, he feels himself adrift in the hustle of post-war Atlanta. When Melanie dies, Ashley comes to the blinding realization that he truly loved his wife and not Scarlett. He will go through the rest of his life being protected by Scarlett because she promised Melanie she would do so. Oblivious to hard realities to the end, he will never realize that his future survival depends on Scarlett and her financial resources. Ashley’s stagnation in the postbellum period represents the outcome of the inability to embrace Adaptability as Key to Survival.

Mammy is the middle-aged head servant in the O’Hara household. In both name and appearance, Mammy reflects a pervasive caricature of Black female house servants that endured throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th century when the novel was written. The stereotypical “mammy” figure is typically depicted as a physically large woman who is both fiercely loyal and nurturing toward the white family she serves, a portrayal that serves the planter class. Mammy is a controversial figure in the novel, as her depiction—like the caricature she reflects—reinforces the Lost Cause myth of enslavement as a benign, and even warm, experience.

Mammy was Scarlett’s nurse when the child was little and still takes a proprietary attitude toward her headstrong charge. Considering herself a member of the family—another facet of the “mammy” stereotype—Mammy bosses around both the Black and white inhabitants of the plantation. She reinforces the class system as it relates to both races because she believes in the social hierarchy to which she is accustomed. She looks down her nose at field hands and enforces the pecking order of the Black house servants. She is especially critical of the formerly enslaved people who deserted planters when the Union liberated them.

Mammy isn’t afraid to intervene in white affairs either. She frequently lectures Scarlett on the proper behavior expected of a Southern lady and stands in as a surrogate mother when Ellen isn’t around to instill good manners in her daughter. Mammy is also instrumental in saving Rhett when he is grief-stricken by Bonnie’s death. By the end of the novel, Mammy leaves Atlanta over Scarlett’s objections. She points out that she is free and she can go where she likes. To her, freedom means going home to Tara.

Gerald is an Irish immigrant who wins Tara in a poker game. He is short and barrel-chested with bright blue eyes. Determined to become a success in America, he transforms Tara into a grand plantation and grows rich in the process. He is devoted to his wife, Ellen, and dotes on his eldest daughter, Scarlett.

The Civil War impoverishes Gerald, but he manages to hold out until Ellen succumbs to typhoid. Afterward, he is a broken man whose mind frequently loses touch with reality. Near the end of the novel, Gerald tries jumping a fence on horseback while drunk. When his mount throws him, he breaks his neck, foreshadowing his granddaughter Bonnie’s later death by the same cause. His death creates a brief stir in the county because many believe that his daughter Suellen indirectly caused his demise by trying to get him to sign a Union loyalty oath. Gerald refuses and goes to his death as a Confederate loyalist.

Ellen is the tall, soft-spoken wife of Gerald and the mother of Scarlett. She comes from the aristocratic Robillard family of Savannah. After her true love dies in a barroom brawl in New Orleans when Ellen is 15, the brokenhearted Ellen marries Gerald. As a staunch Catholic, she insists on family prayers every night and instills moral values in her daughters. Much of Ellen’s time is spent nursing sick servants and the poorer white families in the county. One of these errands of mercy costs her life.

Ellen is the real decision-maker at Tara, and the plantation runs smoothly only because of her tireless efforts. Scarlett idolizes her calm, saintly mother and is devastated when she dies. For her part, Ellen always worries about Scarlett’s headstrong disposition but doesn’t live to see her daughter’s business success, which she might deem unladylike.

Pittypat is an overweight 60-year-old spinster. She is the aunt of Melanie and Scarlett’s first husband, Charles. Representing the Old Guard, Pitty lives in a house in Atlanta and spends her time paying calls on friends in society’s upper crust. Indecisive and childlike, her affairs are managed by her brother Henry and her faithful servant Uncle Peter. Pitty is sensitive to criticism and lives in mortal terror of what other people might think. After Charles dies, Scarlett comes to live in Pitty’s house in Atlanta, where Melanie is already in residence.

Pitty briefly flees to Macon during the siege of Atlanta, though her house withstands the vandalism that follows. After the war, she returns and frequently begs Scarlett and Melanie to come back to stay with her. She eventually gets her wish and remains an indecisive, silly woman as the novel concludes.

Bonnie is the only child of Scarlett and Rhett. She has her grandfather’s blue eyes and her mother’s strong temperament. Rhett transfers his affections from Scarlett to Bonnie because he can lavish love on the child and receive love in return. Bonnie breaks her neck at the age of four while trying to jump her horse over a hurdle. Her death is the decisive event that drives a wedge between Rhett and Scarlett, potentially making their marriage irreparable.

Suellen is Scarlett’s scheming middle sister. She is initially engaged to Frank Kennedy until Scarlett steals her beau. Suellen eventually marries Will Benteen and manages Tara. She indirectly causes Gerald’s death by plying him with brandy and trying to force him to sign a Yankee oath of allegiance.

Carreen is Scarlett’s youngest sibling. She is very religious. Although Will is interested in marrying her, Carreen treats him like a brother. After her sweetheart dies in the Civil War, she joins a convent and retreats from the world forever.

Will Benteen is a Confederate soldier with one leg who recovers from pneumonia at Tara. He remains on the property as a faithful steward, guarding Scarlett’s interests in the plantation. Although he comes from poor farmer stock and is called a “Cracker,” Will manages to make Tara a going concern. Since he loves the plantation as much as Scarlett does, he marries Suellen and settles there permanently.

Frank is a middle-aged, timid store owner who is first engaged to Suellen but falls prey to Scarlett’s charms. He marries Scarlett and allows her to help with his business. Before he knows it, Scarlett has bought two lumber mills and is managing them independently. Frank becomes involved in the Ku Klux Klan and dies while trying to defend Scarlett’s honor after she is attacked in Atlanta’s shantytown.

Charles is Melanie’s soft-spoken sibling and Scarlett’s first husband. He forms an adolescent crush on Scarlett that she exploits. In a fit of spite against Ashley, she convinces Charles to marry her before joining the army. He dies two months later from disease before ever seeing battle.

Uncle Peter is the majordomo of Aunt Pittypat’s household. Peter considers himself a member of the family, and his indecisive mistress is utterly dependent on him. He bosses around the white members of the Hamilton family just as Mammy bosses the O’Haras. Like Mammy, Uncle Peter is depicted as being stereotypically contented with his station in life, perpetuating The Myth of Benign Enslavement.

Wade is Scarlett’s son by her first husband, Charles. He is shy and nervous, having been traumatized during the siege of Atlanta. While he warms to Rhett and Melanie, Wade remains fearful of his mother.

Ella is Scarlett’s daughter by her second husband, Frank. She is almost invisible in her mother’s life, and Scarlett considers her a scatterbrain. The fact that she looks like her father does nothing to endear her to her mother.