Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

by

Margaret Mitchell

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Gone with the Wind: Chapter 36 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Two weeks later, Scarlett marries Frank. During these two weeks, she worries over his slowness, afraid a letter will come from Suellen and ruin things. Thankfully, Suellen is a poor correspondent. Scarlett hides her motive well, treating Frank with helpless admiration. It soothes his hurt feelings over Suellen to have a woman appreciate him. He calls on Scarlett every night, enjoying how she listens to him and asks foolish questions about his business. They get married without any family, “like an elopement.” Frank feels he’s done the first romantic thing in his life and doesn’t really know how it all happened.
Scarlett deceives Frank in much the same way she deceived Charles. Both men are timid and ingratiating. Neither really knows what is happening or what they are getting themselves into. They both feel that marrying Scarlett is romantic and wild, which flatters their timid natures. In this way, Scarlett takes advantage of men who are gullible and impractical because they easily allow her to hold power over them.
Themes
Women and Power Theme Icon
Frank gives Scarlett $300, so Scarlett sends Mammy to Tara to deliver the money and bring Wade back. Scarlett wonders what Ashley thinks of her. She’s homesick when she realizes she estranged herself from Tara in order to save it. There is suspicious gossip over why Frank married Scarlett when he was engaged to Suellen and Suellen sends an angry letter to Scarlett, but Scarlett doesn’t care. All she cared about is that Tara is safe.
It is ironic that in order to save Tara, Scarlett has to move permanently to Atlanta. This suggests that Tara is mostly a symbol for Scarlett: it represents her ownership of something and her success. Although she does miss it, she doesn’t need to live there to feel this way. She also feels no remorse after taking Frank from Suellen, illustrating her lack of morals.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
Scarlett realizes Frank needs to make more money so she can pay next year’s taxes. When she starts making business suggestions, Frank is upset: he’d been charmed by her naïve curiosity in business before they married, but he resents that she’s genuinely interested in business. He feels it’s unladylike for a woman to have a brain. Soon, he realizes that Scarlett deceived him when Tony Fontaine visits Atlanta and isn’t married to Suellen. Frank is too ashamed to write to Suellen and explain things. He pridefully believes Scarlett fell in love with him, and she’s sweet and loving if she gets her way.
Although Scarlett pretended to be sweet and naïve before she married Frank, it was only a power move in order to seduce him. Now that she’s married to him, she exercises her power by wielding her good business sense. Frank is very old-fashioned in that he believes women aren’t as smart as men, and that they should be submissive and sweet. He does not like that Scarlett acts like she’s a man’s equal—but the only way to get her to act “sweet” is to let Scarlett do whatever she wants.
Themes
Looking Forward vs. Looking Back Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
Two weeks after marrying Scarlett, Frank gets sick and has to stay in bed. Pretending to want to ease his worries about the store, Scarlett goes to check on it. She wants to see how Frank’s finances really stand. The store is dark and dingy with a dirt floor. The front is organized, but in the back, goods are piled chaotically and covered in grime. If Frank’s goods are this disorganized, what will his finances be like? The counter boy doesn’t think women should be involved in business, so he doesn’t want to show Scarlett the account book. But Scarlett dismisses him and studies the book.
It isn’t common at this time for women to be interested in business, let alone good at it—recall that women are taught how to woo men and little else. Scarlett, though, isn’t like most women in the novel because she’s so practical and power-hungry. As she’s done before, Scarlett manipulates Frank into thinking she’s being a sweet, loving wife—and then does what she wants and takes power for herself.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
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Scarlett discovers that many people owe Frank money, and if he hadn’t let people buy on credit, he’d have enough money for taxes and the sawmill. It’s startling to realize that Scarlett might be a better businessperson than Frank, especially since she was raised to think women are useless without men. But Scarlett ran Tara all by herself—clearly, she realizes, women can do anything. Scarlett copies down the names of the people who owe Frank and vows to make him collect the money.
Rhett had once said Scarlett was perfectly capable of protecting herself and getting to Tara on her own, but she didn’t believe him. But now that she has the time to look through Frank’s books and figure out what must be done to remedy his finances, she realizes Rhett was right. She realizes what’s held her back is traditional Southern society, not her intelligence.
Themes
Women and Power Theme Icon
Quotes
As Scarlett pores over the numbers, Rhett Butler walks in the store, extravagantly dressed in new clothes. He laughs merrily, calling Scarlett “Dear Mrs. Kennedy.” He says he stopped at Pittypat’s and heard of her marriage. She asks how he can face her after their last meeting, and he asks how she can face him. Scarlett says she’s sad he wasn’t hanged. Rhett says he knows Scarlett has forgiven him, and that she’s faking dignity. He asks if Frank is more alluring than him, and remarks that she’s now married two men for convenience. Scarlett wants to yell at him, but he is right. Rhett then explains that he got out of jail that morning with the help of blackmail and a friend in the federal government. He admits he’s guilty, and his nonchalance scares Scarlett. Rhett also says he now has access to his half a million dollars.
When Rhett finds out that Scarlett married Frank, he admires her practicality and tenacity. However, he exposes her selfishness and mocks her for being selfish, but at the same time he confidently admits how selfish he is with the Confederate money. This sets Scarlett and Rhett on an even playing field whether Scarlett likes it or not. Then, though Rhett doesn’t fit the Southern image of a gentleman in many ways, he suggests he shares white Southern gentlemen’s racism by admitting he killed a Black man.
Themes
Classism and Racism  Theme Icon
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Scarlett thinks it is unfair that an awful man like Rhett Butler is so rich while everyone else is poor. She says it’s dishonest of him to hold the Confederate gold, but privately, she knows he did the same thing as Frank. Rhett briefly explains how he ended up getting to keep money that initially belonged to the Confederacy—since the Confederacy doesn’t exist now, it’s his. Scarlett points out that there might not be a Confederacy, but there are starving Confederates. Rhett mocks Scarlett and says she must want his money. He asks what Suellen said when Scarlett married Frank. Scarlett lies that Suellen said nothing.
Rhett and Frank’s money-making strategy is essentially the same, but Scarlett only tries to shame Rhett for being dishonest and predatory—Frank’s money benefits her, while Rhett’s doesn’t if they’re not married. In much the same way she uses romance and her sexuality to manipulate men, Scarlett tries to now use morality as a tool to gain the upper hand in this conversation.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Rhett asks bluntly if Frank has as much money as Scarlett hoped. Scarlett considers asking Rhett to leave, but he’s the only person she can tell the truth to because he knows what she did and doesn’t judge her for it. Rhett asks if she paid the taxes and if Tara is safe. The look in his eyes makes her wonder if he really cares about her. She smiles and says Tara is safe. Scarlett says a lot of people owe Frank money and he is too shy to ask them to pay up. She paid Tara’s taxes, but she wants more money. Rhett says he’ll give her a loan without the “collateral” she offered last time.
Because Rhett and Scarlett are both selfish and practical, they can talk about even the things that aren’t considered polite or appropriate subjects. Scarlett keeps trying to look down on Rhett, but she can’t deny that she finds their similarities comforting. Rhett also asks Scarlett about Tara, seeming to actually care if she was able to save it—and by extension, he perhaps cares about her as well.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
Rhett says that Scarlett must promise not to buy anything for Ashley Wilkes with his loan. Furious, Scarlett says Ashley never took any money from her. Rhett says he knows Ashley’s been at Tara, abusing Scarlett’s generosity. Mockingly, he says he knows Ashley is “sublime,” but it’s unmanly of him to live on Scarlett’s charity and not make his own living.
Rhett looks down on Ashley because he isn’t doing what Rhett suggests a man should do (that is, making his own money and saving Tara or Twelve Oaks himself). Rhett also implies that he’s jealous of Ashley, or at least the attention Scarlett pays him.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
Scarlett says Ashley’s been working as a field hand. Rhett says the Wilkeses aren’t cut out to be field hands, so Ashley must not be much help. He asks what she needs the money for. Rhett laughs as he watches her struggle with her anger and her desire for the money. Scarlett says she wants to buy a sawmill and explains how lucrative the lumber business will be. She says she’ll tell Frank she sold Rhett her diamond earrings to buy the sawmill.
Scarlett wants money so much that she’s willing to put aside her anger at Rhett in order to get it, even when he insults Ashley. This suggests that Scarlett’s desire for money surpasses even her feelings for Ashley. Rhett points out that Scarlett and Ashley deviate in their major interests and talents—while Ashley is implied to be a terrible field worker, Scarlett is planning to create a lumber empire.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
Scarlett says money is the most important thing in the world. She plans to earn lots of money, so she’ll always have food, pretty clothes, and Tara. She says Rhett doesn’t understand because he’s never been hungry. Rhett reminds her of his stint in the army, but Scarlett says he’s never had to pick cotton. Rhett laughs that Scarlett’s mind used to be consumed with Ashley, but Scarlett cuts him off and tells him to stop talking about Ashley. He says that if she wants his loan, she’ll let him talk about Ashley.
Rhett further points out that Scarlett’s obsession with money has replaced her obsession with Ashley. Before the war, Scarlett believed that nothing mattered without the right man, but now she believes that money alone is the most important thing in the world. This suggests that Ashley and his lack of practicality don’t fit into Scarlett’s current world.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Rhett insists it’s obvious Scarlett still loves Ashley. Does Ashley still love her, or has he learned to love Melanie? Scarlett doesn’t want to talk about it; Rhett doesn’t understand how pure Ashley’s love for her is because Rhett only understands love like the kind he has for Belle Watling. Scarlett insists that Ashley would never do anything inappropriate with her. Rhett asks if Ashley loves her mind. He asks if she’s saying that her physical beauty doesn’t move Ashley, and that, if she were ugly, Ashley would still love her.
Scarlett asserts that Ashley’s love for her is nothing like the lust she believes men feel for sex workers. This implies that Scarlett thinks there are two kinds of love: love of one’s mind, and love of one’s body. Ashley oscillates back and forth between his feelings for Melanie and his feelings for Scarlett, and Rhett seems to be asking which girl he loves physically, and which more deeply.
Themes
Women and Power Theme Icon
Scarlett remembers how Ashley kissed her in the orchard and blushes. Her love for Ashley doesn’t seem so beautiful anymore. Rhett says if Ashley loved her for her mind then he wouldn’t have to resist her so much. He insists that Ashley’s desire for Scarlett must put him in hell, and now he has neither honor nor love. Scarlett cries that Ashley loves her, but Rhett asks why Ashley let her come to Atlanta. She says Ashley didn’t know what she was planning. Rhett says that if Ashley didn’t know, then he doesn’t love Scarlett.
When Scarlett thinks about when Ashley kissed her in the orchard, it seems more like lust to her than deep love. Rhett points out that Ashley talks about “honor,” but Rhett suggests Ashley is only trying to resist that he’s sexually attracted to her. Scarlett continues to make excuses for Ashley, but he is starting to sound weak in Rhett’s terms. Recall too that Ashley did have some inkling of what Scarlett was planning—so by Rhett’s logic, he doesn’t love her.
Themes
Women and Power Theme Icon
Scarlett thinks it is unfair of Rhett to expect Ashley to be a mind reader. But then she wonders if Rhett is right. If Ashley had said one tender word in the orchard, she never would’ve come to Atlanta. Scarlett decides Rhett is just trying to ruin her love with Ashley. Rhett says Scarlett has enough on her plate without Ashley and asks how much money she wants. Part of Scarlett wants to refuse Rhett’s money, but she needs it. She decides that when she’s rich, she’ll have nothing to do with Rhett. Rhett says she’s pretty, and he’ll buy her anything she wants. She tells Rhett to drive her to the sawmill. She wants to buy it, and she doesn’t care what people think if they see her driving around with Rhett Butler.
Scarlett can’t deny that Ashley didn’t make an effort to woo her and keep her at Tara. But when she decides that Rhett is just trying to ruin her love story by putting it in blunt terms, it suggests that her love story with Ashley is a fantasy that requires Scarlett’s constant effort to keep it intact. Scarlett’s relationship with Ashley has never made sense to her, and that’s why she finds it beautiful—even though in all other ways, she is a rational, practical thinker.
Themes
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Women and Power Theme Icon
Frank wishes he never told Scarlett about the sawmill. It was embarrassing that she bought the sawmill, that Rhett Butler helped her do it, and that she plans to operate it herself. He feels that a wife should submit to her husband. He can’t believe she wants to “go into the lumber business” because he’s never heard of any woman in business. To his horror, Scarlett drives to the mill daily and sells lumber in town. Once, she intercepts Tommy Wellburn, who is buying lumber elsewhere, and convinces him to buy from her instead.  How could a woman do business with men and publicly display her aptitude for math!
Now that Scarlett has married Frank and taken control of his business, she no longer pretends that she’s a sweet, submissive woman. She drives around by herself, manages the sawmill, haggles with people in the streets, and shows how smart she is—all of which are unladylike behaviors. Scarlett is breaking out of the confines of female standards. This makes her a successful businesswoman, but it makes things difficult for her at home.
Themes
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Frank hates that Scarlett sends all her money to Tara instead of giving it to him. Then, she has more crazy ideas that scandalize him. She wants to open a saloon at the mill because it would bring in good money, and then she could buy more mills. Her opinions also shock Frank: she hates how lazy free Black workers are and wishes the Freedman’s Bureau would let her whip them. Before marrying her, she’d been sweet and feminine. Now she talks and makes decisions like a man. Mrs. Elsing and Mrs. Merriwether are commanding women, but they at least pretend to submit to men’s opinions. Everyone talks about Scarlett. Also, Rhett Butler always visits Scarlett, and Frank can’t stand it. He worries that his neighbors think he’s allowing his wife to “unsex” herself.
Scarlett’s behavior and opinions challenge what’s considered proper for women to do. She has often been compared to a Yankee because of her desire for money and her practicality, but her feelings towards Black people are even more violent than other Southerners’. In this way, Scarlett seems to have gone beyond affiliations altogether and has become simply practical and businesslike. She doesn’t fit in with Southerners who think of the past, nor with the Yankees who view Black people as equals.
Themes
Classism and Racism  Theme Icon
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
Whenever Frank tries to stop Scarlett from doing anything, she flies into a rage. She is fond of Frank and appreciates that he saved Tara, but his shyness annoys her and he isn’t a good businessman. She forces him to collect what was owed to him, realizing he’d never make money without her help. He would’ve been a good businessman in the old days, but he lacks the aggressiveness required in these hard times.
Frank would’ve been a good businessman in the old days—that is, the prewar South—when good manners were all that mattered. In the rapidly changed times, ruthlessness is necessary because no one’s wealth is guaranteed. Scarlett believes these times call not for generosity but for selfishness.
Themes
The Civil War and Reconstruction Theme Icon
Looking Forward vs. Looking Back Theme Icon
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness Theme Icon
What with managing the mill, Scarlett is grumpy when she comes home. Frank wants peace and quiet in his old age. Sometimes, Scarlett makes him happy, but she doesn’t behave how he believes women should behave.  He decides that if she had a baby, she’d be happy to stay home. He knows she’s unhappy (she cries in the middle of the night), because all women are unhappy unless they have a baby.
Frank thinks a baby would make Scarlett happy, but she has never been inclined toward motherhood. Frank’s thought process then mostly reflects his habit of looking at women as all the same; he makes no effort to get to know who Scarlett is and what could be making her unhappy.
Themes
Women and Power Theme Icon