Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gone with the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Looking Forward vs. Looking Back
Classism and Racism
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness
Women and Power
Summary
Analysis
January and February of 1864 are gloomy. The Yankees break through the Southern line and take control of Tennessee. However, the South is still hopeful. Thanks to Atlanta’s railroads, the South celebrates one victory—but still, it’s impossible to ignore that the Yankees are good fighters. They also have great generals, though none as good as Lee.
Atlanta is a huge part of why the South has hung on this long in the Civil War. Atlanta has both railroads and industry—two very Northern, modern, and therefore anti- Southern attributes—which keep the Yankees out of Georgia for a while.
Themes
The war drags on, killing, wounding, and leaving many widows. The South starts to distrust President Davis. Army supplies and soldiers are dangerously short, but the governors refuse to send the home militia troops. At home, prices for food and warm clothing are high. People wear cardboard shoes and pants made from old scarves. The North holds the South in a virtual state of siege and blocks up ports. The South lived on selling cotton, and now, with no passage open to England, the richest planters—such as Gerald—become poor. Everyone hates speculators like Rhett Butler. Despite all this, Atlanta’s population increases, and it’s still the hub of the South.
The South’s economy crashes during the Civil War but, by contrast, Atlanta flourishes. This is because Atlanta is a modern city whose economy is not based on agriculture. The South’s plantation economy goes stagnant during the war because there’s no use for cotton to the war effort, especially without machines to work it into clothing. The South usually flourishes solely from selling cotton, but the war demands industry. Therefore, only Atlanta flourishes.
Themes
Scarlett doesn’t care about these hardships because she only cares about Ashley, and he isn’t here. She’s happy because she knows he loves her. She decides that when the war is over, Ashley will get divorced, and although her parents will disown her, she’ll marry him. Ashley said the Yankees had won, but Scarlett doesn’t believe him. She thinks everything will be alright somehow.
In the midst of the nationwide hardship and suffering, Scarlett is still caught up with her own personal concerns. The war has still not dealt her any personal blows (since she wasn’t sad that Charles died), and so she still knows no other fear besides losing Ashley.
Themes
One day, Melanie comes into Scarlett’s room and announces shyly that she is pregnant. The news pains Scarlett. She pictures those nights when Ashley shut the bedroom door behind him and Melanie. She felt as though Ashley has been unfaithful to her. Melanie babbles on about how wonderful the news is. Scarlett shouts at her to hush. Upset with herself, Melanie apologizes for forgetting that Charles is dead and reminds herself that Scarlett is grieving. Scarlett asks Melanie to leave her alone.
This is a very painful moment for Scarlett. She covets Melanie and Ashley’s baby, knowing that, if she had a baby with a man she loved, she would love that baby. She hardly cares for Wade Hampton because she didn’t care at all for Charles. She sees the motherly pride she’s never felt in Melanie and wishes that she could feel it herself.
Themes
Get the entire Gone with the Wind LitChart as a printable PDF.
Scarlett decides she can’t live in a house where another woman is having Ashley’s baby. The next morning, she decides to go back to Tara. But, at breakfast, a telegram comes from Ashley’s servant Mose saying that Ashley is missing. A note from Ashley’s colonel confirms Mose’s report. Scarlett tries to pray. Melanie says that Scarlett is all she has now, and they cry together in bed. Melanie whispers that at least she has Ashley’s baby. Scarlett is too distraught to be jealous. All she has is the look Ashley gave her when he left.
Scarlett almost leaves Melanie because her jealousy is too hard to bear. But when the war gets worse and Ashley goes missing, she feels she must stay and fulfill her promise to take care of Melanie in Ashley’s place. Because Scarlett is sworn to protect a woman she hates, she will have to painfully confront her jealousy again and again throughout the story.
Themes
The next day, Ashley’s name appears in the casualty list as “Missing—believed killed” and then “Missing—believed captured.” Melanie hangs around the telegraph office, waiting for news. Because she’s pregnant, she tires more easily. One afternoon, Rhett Butler witnesses her faint and brings her home. He settles her into bed and asks if she’s going to have a baby. She nods, and he says she needs to take care of herself. He offers to go to Washington and find out where Ashley is. Melanie is grateful but also ashamed for discussing her pregnancy with him. She cries, and Rhett pats her hand.
Rhett Butler is particularly attentive to Melanie’s needs. Although Ashley is the kind of man Rhett disdains—dreamy, impractical, and determined to fight even though he thinks it’s foolish—he is very important to both Scarlett and Melanie. Therefore, Rhett’s offer to go to Washington to find out if Ashley is alive suggests that he cares for these two women even though there is little that he seems to care about seriously.
Themes
Rhett finds out that Ashley is a prisoner at Rock Island, in Illinois. Melanie and Scarlett are relieved, but then afraid—Rock Island is an infamous prison where the Union is starving Confederate prisoners to pay back the South for treating Union prisoners badly. Most of the prisoners at Rock Island don’t survive. Has Ashley died from neglect? Rhett says Ashley had a chance to escape—he could’ve sworn an oath to fight with the Union against the Indians, but he refused. Scarlett is upset that he refused, but Melanie is glad. She couldn’t respect him if he betrayed the Confederate army. Scarlett says she knows Rhett would’ve saved himself. Rhett smirks. He would’ve agreed to fight for the Union, but he isn’t a “gentleman” like Ashley.
Scarlett’s feeling that it’s foolish of Ashley to refuse a chance to escape is similar to her feeling about him enlisting in the war. She doesn’t understand why he can’t do the practical thing, and why he is so concerned with the Southern honor that is only getting everyone killed. Ashley himself confessed that he didn’t believe in the war, so his loyalty in the Cause seems, to Scarlett and Rhett, like a lack of conviction. In this instance, Scarlett and Rhett are of the same opinion.
Themes
