Gone with the Wind: Chapter 47 Summary & Analysis

Meanwhile, Scarlett sits alone in her bedroom. The house is quiet now that Frank’s body is buried and neighbors aren’t coming in and out. Scarlett’s grief isn’t like other griefs she’s been through; this time, she feels tormented by her conscience. Not only did she kill Frank, but she married him when he really loved Suellen. She had also made him very unhappy. The only thing she gave him was Ella, and she did that unwillingly.

Scarlett wishes Melanie were with her. She wants Ashley too, but if he knew the truth about her relationship with Frank, he won’t love her anymore. She won’t be able to live without her secret source of strength: Ashley’s love. Scarlett rummages in her bureau for the hidden whiskey bottle and drinks several glasses. She’d been tipsy at Frank’s funeral, and people noticed. She doesn’t care if the neighbors think she killed Frank, but she cares that God knows. She wants to get drunk so she can stop seeing the look on Frank’s face when he’d begged her to stay home the night she was attacked.

Downstairs, someone knocks at the door. Scarlett hears Rhett’s voice. She is glad; Rhett is the only friend she has tonight. Rhett wants to see Scarlett, but Pitty protests that Scarlett’s mourning and it would be inappropriate for him to see her. Scarlett buttons up her black bodice, gargles some cologne, and goes downstairs. Rhett says he has a business matter to discuss with Scarlett, and it can’t wait because he’s leaving town tomorrow. Scarlett doesn’t want to go into the parlor where Frank had lain, so she and Rhett go into the library to talk.

In the library, Rhett says he can smell that Scarlett’s been drinking heavily. He leads her to the sofa and asks if he can close the door. Scarlett consents because she doesn’t want Mammy to overhear them. Rhett sits by her and asks why she’s so upset. His blank expression comforts her; she and Rhett are so much alike, and she feels he is the only person she really knows. Scarlett tells Rhett she’s afraid she’ll got to hell. She knows Rhett won’t judge her for her sins because he’s just as dishonorable as she is.

Scarlett says she shouldn’t have deceived Frank and made him so miserable by running the mill and leasing the convicts; she feels terrible that she killed him. She says it doesn’t feel like her who did these things. Ellen was always so kind, and Scarlett has always wanted to be like her. She loved Gerald, but she doesn’t want to be thoughtless like him. She’d been mean to Frank because of her nightmare about starving in the foggy wilderness. She thought if she could make enough money not to be hungry, then she’d be nice to everyone again, but that turned out to be wrong.

Rhett pulls out his handkerchief and wipes Scarlett’s cheeks. Rhett says he doesn’t think Scarlett would act any differently if she could do it over again. She’s only worried now that she’ll go to hell, but she’s not actually sorry. He reminds her that her conscience didn’t bother her when she offered to be his mistress. Scarlett says she wasn’t thinking about God when she did that. Rhett says she’d had no choice other than to marry Frank, and that it was in her nature to run the mill and be independent. He says Scarlett is an opportunist, and that opportunists shouldn’t have consciences. Scarlett hopes that Rhett is right, and that God understands.

To distract Scarlett from her tears, Rhett tells her his news: he still wants Scarlett more than he’s ever wanted anyone. She jumps up, calling him the most ill-bred man in the world. Rhett says he’s asking her to marry him. She sits down, staring at him in disbelief. Rhett says he planned to have her since that day at Twelve Oaks and realizes now that he has to marry her to have her. Scarlett realizes Rhett isn’t joking, and he seems different somehow. Once, she’d hoped he’d propose so she could gain power over him—but now, he seems to have the power. Scarlett refuses to marry again, since marriage just means babies and foolish men. Laughing, Rhett says Scarlett has never really been married. He suggests Scarlett marry a man who knows how to make women happy.

Scarlett says this subject is vulgar; it’s indecent how much Rhett knows about women. Rhett says they can wait the expected interval before getting married, but he’s proposing now before he goes to Europe. He gets on his knee and makes her a mock proposal. He says if she doesn’t say yes, he’ll stalk her until she has to say yes to save her reputation. She repeats she doesn’t want to marry anyone. Rhett asks her what her real reason for refusing is. Really, Scarlett feels like she still belongs to Ashley, and she starts to cry again. But Rhett puts his arms around Scarlett and kisses her passionately until Scarlett feels faint and asks him to stop. He says he’s sure none of Scarlett’s other “gentlemen” have ever kissed her like this, and he kisses her again.

Rhett tells Scarlett to say yes—and Scarlett obeys. It is as though divine intervention makes her say yes, and she feels suddenly calm. She wants him to kiss her again, but he only holds her in his trembling arms. He asks her if she said yes because of his money. Scarlett says it is partly his money, but she’s also fond of him. But she says that she won’t lie and say she’s madly in love with him.

Rhett looks “queer, eager, hurt, mocking.” He puts his fists in his pockets. Scarlett asks why it matters because she’s fond of him, and they get along so well; they are two “rascals,” like he once said. He asks if she’s ever read a book where a disinterested woman ends up falling in love with her husband. She reminds Rhett that he once told her love was bad for a marriage. Rhett says angrily that he once said too many things. She asks why he’s upset when he doesn’t love her either.

Rhett says he’s not in love with Scarlett; if he was, he’d never tell her. Her pulls her to her feet and kisses her again, this time insultingly. He kisses her neck and bosom until she pushes him away. He says her heart is beating fast for only being fond of him, and then asks what kind of ring she wants. She asks for a huge diamond ring. Abruptly, he turns to leave. She follows him into the hall, asking if he’ll kiss her goodbye. He says she’s had enough kissing for the day. Scarlett retorts that she doesn’t care if he never comes back and flounces off. He promises to return and then leaves.

Scarlett tells no one she’s engaged until Rhett comes back. He brings her an enormous diamond and emerald ring. She knows everyone thinks the ring is vulgar, and now, the Atlantans hate her and Rhett even more. They hate that they owe their lives to Rhett and they believe he involved Belle Watling only to insult them. Scarlett and Rhett both scorn what the Atlantans value: pride in poverty, and loyalty to the Confederacy and tradition.

Hatred of the Yankees is at a climax in Atlanta. For three years, Georgia had been “terrorized” by Reconstruction. But now Georgia realizes that bad times have just begun. Many Black people are already in public office in many Southern states. Georgia has managed so far to avoid this “final degradation” and keep their government in the hands of white Georgians. But the North, chipping away at their resistance little by little, finally opens the polls to Black voters at about the same time that Rhett and Scarlett announce their engagement. Georgians are furious the Republican Bullock is elected governor. Scarlett doesn’t care, but since Rhett is friends with Bullock, she’s considered a Scallawag—a Republican supporter.

Mrs. Merriwether decides to tell Scarlett not to marry the Scallawag Rhett Butler. When Scarlett reminds her that Rhett saved Mr. Merriwether’s life, Mrs. Merriwether says it was only one of Rhett’s tricks. Scarlett reminds her that Rhett did serve in the army for eight months, but Mrs. Merriwether says he wasn’t wounded, and that’s what makes a hero. Scarlett says she’d marry Rhett even if he was a Yankee.

However, it hurts Scarlett that Mammy also dislikes Rhett. Mammy says she watched Scarlett do lots of things that would’ve hurt Ellen. She’s stood by while Scarlett took Charles from Honey and Frank from Suellen, and while Scarlett lied to lumber customers and starved convicts—but she won’t stand by while Scarlett marries “trash.” Scarlett says Mammy is forgetting her place, and that she’ll send Mammy back to Tara. Mammy says she’s free, but she won’t leave Ellen’s children and grandchildren. She says Rhett and Scarlett think that if they dress in fancy halters they’ll become horses instead of mules, but they’ll never be more than mules. Scarlett is insulted.

While on honeymoon in New Orleans, Scarlett tells Rhett that Mammy said they were mules. Rhett laughs and says Mammy is one of the few people whose respect he’d like to have one day. Scarlett wonders why everyone has to say mean things about her. Rhett says she knew people would talk when she married him, so why not tell them all to go to hell? She kisses him and he looks at her like he’s searching for something.