Gone with the Wind: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Scarlett’s mother, Ellen O’Hara, is 32 years old. She is of French descent, with black hair and eyelashes, and stands much taller than her husband. She’s proud and serious and oversees matters at Tara with grace. Next to Gerald’s chaotic presence, she’s a calm “pillar of strength.” When her three sons died in infancy, she grieved stoically. She always keeps busy. Scarlett remembers how, as a child, she’d listen to the enslaved persons tiptoe to her mother’s room at night to tell her about a birth or death among them. Her mother would get up quietly and go tend to the matter. Scarlett can’t picture her mother laughing. Everyone looks to Ellen for wisdom and strength.

What Scarlett doesn’t know is that Ellen used to be very vivacious. In her hometown of Savannah, she’d been in love with her cousin Philippe. But when Philippe left Savannah, Ellen transformed into only a “gentle shell” of her former self, and then she married Gerald O’Hara.

Gerald immigrated from Ireland to America when he was 21. He arrived with nothing after leaving Ireland in a hurry. He was involved in a fatal dispute with a land agent whom Gerald had insulted by calling an Orangeman, a reference to the Battle of the Boyne in which the O’Haras and their neighbors had lost their wealth to William of Orange and his troops. The O’Haras left Ireland because of Gerald, as the government began to suspect the family was conspiring against the English. He was too outspoken and fiery to live undercover.

Gerald had very little education and only knew how to read and write. He went to live with his brothers, James and Andrew, who’d already settled in Savannah. He helped them run the store they’d opened. Gerald fell in love with the South and took a liking to poker, racing, and politics. Like native Southerners, he hated Yankees and was avid about slavery and cotton.

Although he admired the Southern lifestyle, Gerald could never be as elegant as it required. He was too coarse and rugged. However, he desperately wanted to be an enslaver and own his own plantation. He won his first enslaved person, his valet Pork, in a poker game. Then, he gambled with another man for the man’s large plantation in northern Georgia and won. The plantation—which at the time was unkempt and uncultivated—immediately felt like home. Gerald slowly built his plantation with enslaved labor and borrowed money. He’s extremely proud of his work.

Gerald gets along with all his neighbors except the MacIntoshes and the Slatterys. The MacIntoshes are Irish Orangemen, which offends Gerald; however, no one likes them much. They’re also rumored to be Abolitionists, although the rumors are still unfounded. The Slatterys are a poor white family who tend three acres of cotton. They had no enslaved labor force, have lots of children, and never prosper.

When Gerald turned 43, he wanted a wife. He recognized how disorganized his plantation was, in part because his enslaved staff knew he was too kind to be commanding, so they took advantage of that. Gerald envied other households where wives managed everything, but he couldn’t find an appropriate woman to marry. Gerald took Pork to Savannah to see if James and Andrew could help. At a party, Gerald met the most unattainable girl, Ellen Robillard. She was young enough to be his daughter and in love with her cousin. It seemed hopeless. But she agreed to marry Gerald after learning Philippe died in a bar brawl. It would allow her to leave her memories of Savannah behind. She left for his country plantation with Mammy and 20 enslaved house staff.

The next year, their first daughter, Scarlett, was born. Gerald was disappointed that she wasn’t a boy. No one could tell if Ellen regretted marrying Gerald or not. She had left Savannah’s constant sunshine and a gracious home for the County, the rural landscape in northern Georgia. The people in the north came from all different places, and this gave the County a lively informality. Also, the fever for cotton was sweeping the north, making it prosperous. Ellen never fully became one of the County people, but she was respected for her devotion to her family and household.

After Scarlett, Susan Elinor (Suellen) and Caroline Irene (Carreen) were born. Ellen transformed Tara, bringing to it dignity, order, and grace. She planted wisteria around the house, which added to the house’s charm. She would sit an enslaved boy on the front stoop with a towel to swat away the fowl that came in the yard to pick at the plants. She had all enslaved boys do this for 10 years before they could rise to a higher position on the plantation. Ellen accepted that she lived in a man’s world. Men could own things, take credit for everything, and express their feelings, while women managed everything while keeping their feelings inside. She had been taught to be a great lady and carry her burdens with grace. 

Ellen had a hard time teaching Scarlett to be ladylike. Scarlett preferred to play with boys and the enslaved children rather than her sisters. Ellen and Mammy joined together in trying to get Scarlett to behave like a girl. She learned to appeal to men by concealing her intelligence with sweetness and innocence. She also learned to act ladylike, but it’s only for show. On the inside she is willful, self-centered, and obstinate.

Mammy and Ellen admire Scarlett’s charm and spirit, but they fear that her headstrong nature will make her undesirable to suitors. Scarlett wants to marry and is willing to appear gentle in order to achieve this, but she’s never stopped to think of why she plays this game. People’s minds, including her own, are too complicated for her to understand. She approaches courting like a mathematical formula.

Scarlett understands the female mind even less than the male mind. She views all women as her enemies in the pursuit of men. However, Scarlett regards her mother as something entirely separate; she’s holy, dependable, and loving. Scarlett wants to be like her mother, but she isn’t ready to give up the fun of courting in order to be more like Ellen. Perhaps she will when she marries Ashley.