Gone With The Wind

In the weeks and months that follow, Rhett seems more subdued and less inclined to fight with Scarlett. He becomes the center of a Democratic political circle that is slowly reclaiming ground for the party in the state government. Rhett and Ashley join forces to convince the other members of their group to abandon the Ku Klux Klan, saying that it has caused more problems by radicalizing the South rather than building goodwill in Washington.

Eventually, these efforts pay off when the corrupt Governor Bullock flees town, and the state legislature once more has a Democratic majority. By 1871, “Georgia was back in the hands of her own people again, in spite of all the administration in Washington could do, in spite of the army, the Carpetbaggers, the Scalawags and the native Republicans” (1268). Much to her surprise, Scarlett notices that Rhett is now highly respected among the Old Guard in Atlanta.

By the time Bonnie turns four, she is as willful and obstinate as her mother. Rhett indulges her headstrong behavior, going so far as to get her a pony for jumping hurdles. Bonnie insists on a blue velvet riding habit, and she also urges setting the hurdle bar higher, even though her father says she ought to wait until she’s older. One day, as Scarlett watches Bonnie prepare to jump a hurdle, she flashes back to her father taking the fences at Tara and breaking his neck. She screams a warning too late. Bonnie is thrown from her horse and snaps her neck, just as her grandfather did.

A day later, Mammy comes to Melanie, pleading with her to talk to Rhett. He has been drinking and has locked himself in his room with the dead child. Even though Scarlett has arranged the funeral for the following day, Rhett won’t let anyone put his daughter in the cold ground because Bonnie has always been afraid of the dark. Melanie finally succeeds in reasoning with Rhett and sits up all night in his room while he sleeps. She thinks about all the hard words the Butlers have exchanged: “But he loved Scarlett. […] Scarlett loved him. What had come between them? How could a husband and a wife cut each other to pieces with such sharp knives?” (1282).

In the months following Bonnie’s death, a cold estrangement falls between Scarlett and Rhett. The latter drinks more and is gone many evenings. Scarlett assumes that he spends his nights at Belle Watling’s brothel. During this same time, Mammy announces her departure. She says her work in town is done, and she’s going back home to Tara.

Scarlett passes the time by receiving condolence calls from old and new friends. Although Rhett reverts to his sardonic self with the ladies of the Old Guard, they feel nothing but sympathy for him. Even after the tragedy has passed, Scarlett can’t shake a sense of impending doom: “This eerie sense of disaster to come persisted […] as though the ground beneath her feet might turn to quicksand as she trod upon it” (1287).

Scarlett is staying in Marietta with the children when she receives an urgent message from Rhett to come home because Melanie is dying. Even though she had been warned that another baby might kill her, Melanie pressed Ashley for another child. She is now a few months pregnant and has suffered a miscarriage. Scarlett rushes to the Wilkes house and finds India, Aunt Pitty, and Dr. Meade in attendance. When Scarlett goes to speak to the dying woman alone, Melanie extracts a promise that Scarlett will take care of her son Beau and will look after Ashley: “[…] the protection of Ashley Wilkes from a too harsh world was passing from one woman to another and […] Ashley’s masculine pride should never be humbled by this knowledge” (1301-02). Scarlett is shocked to realize how much she has always relied on Melanie’s quiet strength, just as she relied on Ellen’s. Melanie’s final words to Scarlett are, “Captain Butler—be kind to him. He—loves you so” (1302).

Scarlett finds this statement hard to believe but says nothing. As the other members of the household go to Melanie to make their farewells, Scarlett finds Ashley in his bedroom. He is dazed by his loss and belatedly confesses that he loves Melanie and not Scarlett, who tells him, “If you’d told me, years ago, I’d have— It would have killed me, but I could have stood it somehow. But you wait till now […] to find it out and now it’s too late” (1306). For her part, Scarlett finally realizes that she has idealized Ashley but has never seen the man he really was: “I put that suit on him and made him wear it whether it fitted him or not. And I wouldn’t see what he really was. I kept on loving the pretty clothes—and not him at all” (1309).

After Melanie dies, Scarlett rushes from the house. Her own home is only five blocks away, and she runs through a mist to get there, with Melanie’s words about Rhett’s love echoing in her ears. The fog reminds her of her recurring nightmare: “Ellen, Gerald, Bonnie, Mammy, Melanie and Ashley. She had to lose them all to realize that she loved Rhett—loved him because he was strong and unscrupulous, passionate and earthy, like herself” (1316). Now realizing this fact, Scarlett is determined to confess her own love for Rhett.

When she enters the house, she finds Rhett seated in the dining room, drinking. He seems listless and saddened by the news of Melanie’s passing, saying, “A very great lady” (1319). When Scarlett tries to tell him about her feelings, he expresses disinterest, explaining that he has been worn out by the battle to win her love. Instead, Rhett proposes going abroad and will return only occasionally to avoid gossip since Scarlett doesn’t want a divorce:

‘I couldn’t live with you and lie to you, and I certainly couldn’t lie to myself. I can’t even lie to you now. I wish I could care what you do or where you go, but I can’t.’ He drew a short breath and said lightly but softly: ‘My dear, I don’t give a damn’ (1332).

As Scarlett watches him go upstairs to pack, she immediately thinks of a new plan. First, she will return to Tara to regain her strength. After that, she will find a way to win Rhett back: “There had never been a man she couldn’t get, once she set her mind upon him. ‘I’ll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day’” (1334).