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
Scarlett has a lot of fun on her honeymoon in New Orleans. Although Carpetbaggers are looting the town and many people are starving, Rhett moves in wealthy circles. He knows lots of beautiful women and men with the same reckless air. His friends seemed to have no pasts or futures. When Rhett talks to them alone, Scarlett hears names and places she doesn’t recognize. She likes them because they’re exciting and worldly. Rhett says he knew she’d like them because they are “Carpetbag aristocrats.” When Scarlett says she thinks they are nice, Rhett says that’s because she’s only met two great ladies in her life: Ellen and Melanie.
Unlike loyal Confederate Southerners who are stuck in the past, Rhett’s Carpetbagger and Scallawag friends have no pasts or futures. They live in the contemporary post-war world that is completely changed from the past. These people excite Scarlett, but she doesn’t admire them the way she admires “great ladies” like Ellen and Melanie, both of whom are loyal to Southern tradition—suggesting that on some level, Scarlett is loyal to that tradition.
Themes
Rhett buys Scarlett the latest fashions, and Scarlett buys extravagant gifts for her family. When Rhett asks what she’ll get Mammy, Scarlett says Mammy has been too mean to deserve a present. Rhett decides to make Mammy a red taffeta petticoat, even though Scarlett says Mammy will never wear it. Scarlett and Rhett shop and dine and drink. Scarlett indulges in delicious Creole food, remembering how hungry she’d been a few months ago. Because girls stare at Rhett, Scarlett realizes he’s very handsome. She’s proud to be with him.
Mammy is not one to like a flashy red petticoat. Such a garment indicates garish wealth and loose morals, both of which Mammy despises. Scarlett finds New Orleans so exciting because for the first time in a long time, she can live a life that resembles her life prior to the war. She has lovely clothes and more than enough food to eat—and she feels powerful, too, as she realizes how handsome Rhett is.
Themes
Scarlett learns a lot about marriage. Unlike Charles and Frank, Rhett isn’t afraid of Scarlett and does whatever he wants whether she likes it or not. She doesn’t love him, but Rhett is exciting. He always seems to be restraining his emotions, which she finds tempting. Scarlett learns everything about Rhett except who he really is. He reminds her what it’s like to play and have fun, but he’s frustratingly superior; he and Ashley are the two men she can’t treat like silly children. Sometimes Rhett looks at Scarlett with a puzzling expression of eagerness and patience. When she asks him why he looks at her like this, he laughs it off.
Although Scarlett says she doesn’t love Rhett, she feels positive emotions around him, unlike she did with her previous husbands. She also can’t manipulate him as she can most men, which suggests he’s one of the few men who isn’t her intellectual inferior. Scarlett thinks Rhett doesn’t love her, although he seems to be eagerly hoping she’ll fall in love with him. But Scarlett finds that he restrains his emotions exciting, suggesting she’s not inclined to express her emotions or encourage him to open up.
Themes
It’s fun to live with Rhett—except when Scarlett thinks of Ashley. At night when she lies in Rhett’s arms, she wishes he were Ashley. One night, she sighs aloud thinking of Ashley. Rhett “damns her cheating soul” and leaves the room furiously. He is away all night and the next day, Scarlett treats Rhett coldly. The next night, Scarlett has her recurring nightmare of starving in the fog. She wakes, terrified, to Rhett leaning over her. He holds and comforts her. She says it feels horrible to be hungry and to be searching and searching. He asks if she thinks she’s looking for a person or a thing. She doesn’t know, but she wonders if she’ll ever find it. Rhett promises to always keep Scarlett safe.
Rhett’s jealousy when he realizes Scarlett is thinking about Ashley suggests that he genuinely cares for her, but Scarlett seems totally unaware of this—she’s selfishly caught up in what she wants and ignores everyone else. That Scarlett continues to have this nightmare raises the question of what Scarlett really seeks in her life. She has been focused on obtaining material wealth, but her nightmare suggests she’s still unsatisfied.
Themes
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Rhett says that he recently invested his money in the United States government. Scarlett is shocked that Rhett would let Yankees handle his money. She suggests he buy property in downtown Atlanta, but he says that seems like a bad idea now that the Carpetbaggers have gotten hold of Georgia. Rhett says he’s going to build Scarlett a house. When they return to Atlanta, they’ll stay in a hotel until the house is finished. Scarlett says she wants the house to look like a Swiss chalet, with red wallpaper inside. He asks why not something Creole or Colonial, and she says she’s wants nothing old-fashioned.
Rhett expresses that he has become distrustful of Carpetbaggers and doesn’t want to invest money in Atlanta where they will have control of it. Scarlett’s dream house is something modern with no nods to anything old-fashioned. This is another sign that she has left the past behind and doesn’t feel any nostalgia for old ways and traditions of the South. She is becoming more of a true Scallawag.
Themes
Scarlett wants to host parties and make everyone envious. Rhett observes that none of the Atlantans will come to their parties because he and Scarlett are Scallawags. Rhett says he’ll give Scarlett lots of money for the new house, and for Tara, but he won’t give her money for the mills. Scarlett, disappointed, says he's not as feminist as he pretends to be. Rhett says he just doesn’t want his money to support Ashley. He plans to check her expenses to make sure she’s saving nothing aside for Ashley.
Scarlett believes that since she’s now rich, she’ll be popular too. Rhett cautions that there’s more to popularity than money—she has to get people to like her, after all. He also reveals that he is jealous of Scarlett’s feelings for Ashley, but now that they’re married, he’s in a position to try and stop Scarlett’s feelings with control and force.
Themes
