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
The next morning, the sun streams into Scarlett’s bedroom. Summer is on its way. Scarlett leans out the window and thanks God that it isn’t raining. Her apple-green ball dress is lying on the bed, but if all goes to plan and she elopes with Ashley, she won’t even wear it. First, though, she has to decide what to wear to the barbecue. None of her dresses are quite right—she’s worn them too recently, they’re stained, or they don’t quite suit her. Scarlett finally decides to wear a cotton afternoon dress. It’s low-necked and she likes the way her bosom looks in it. Having made her choice, she stands in front of the mirror admiring her figure.
Scarlett knows she is very beautiful and uses her beauty to get what she wants. She has tons of dresses to choose from, and she picks the one that best shows off her body. She believes that the more beautiful she looks, the more likely Ashley will be to confess his love and marry her, not understanding that there is perhaps more to love than attraction. Again, she sees Ashley as simple and easy to manipulate, when the novel has already said this isn’t the case.
Themes
Scarlett calls for Mammy to come lace her waist, which is only 17 inches around. Mammy lumbers into the room carrying a plate of food. She always makes Scarlett eat before parties so that she won’t eat too much in public, an attempt to make Scarlett more ladylike. But Scarlett refuses to eat so she can eat at the party. Mammy tells her she could eat in public once she’s married, but eating in public now won’t appeal to suitors. Scarlett retorts that Ashley Wilkes once said he liked her appetite, but Mammy reminds her that what men say and what men think are different things. Then Mammy comments that Melanie Hamilton never eats in public. Irritated, Scarlett agrees to eat after she’s been laced in her dress.
Even though Scarlett is very concerned with her looks, she disregards the rules about how women are supposed to behave. However, Scarlett’s society encourages women to conceal their true selves—how much they eat, and their true opinions—to get husbands. For the most part, Scarlett doesn’t understand this law, and only obeys it when she think it’ll get her what she wants. Therefore, when he hears that Melanie never eats at barbecues, she decides not to eat because apparently, Ashley finds women who don’t eat in public attractive.
Themes
When Mammy sees what Scarlett plans to wear, she says it’s inappropriate. Scarlett protests that if she changes what she’s wearing now, she won’t have time to eat. Mammy reluctantly laces Scarlett into her dress while Scarlett holds onto the bedpost. Out of breath, Scarlett says proudly that she’s never fainted from a tight corset. Mammy says it would be ladylike for her to faint more at snakes and spiders. Scarlett starts to force down some food. She says she wishes she was married so she can do the things she wants to do, like eat and run. She wonders why girls have to act silly to get husbands. Mammy says it’s because men don’t want girls who have more sense than they do. Yankee girls don’t have to act like fools to get married, but that’s only because they have money.
In Scarlett’s society, women are supposed to act frail, sweet, and silly. As Mammy says, it would be attractive—a opposed to pathetic—for Scarlett to faint on occasion and subsequently look weak and frail. Yankee girls, according to Mammy, rely on money and class to win over men, showing that Yankee women gain power in different ways than proper Southern women do. This also suggests that Scarlett is not altogether Southern, as she isn’t as weak and frail as a proper Southern girl should be.
Themes
Scarlett eats and muses over why all mothers taught their daughters they have to be silly to get husbands. It’s actually hard work to act this way. Scarlett wonders if Ashley is turned off by her outspokenness. If he feels that way about women, she doesn’t think she could respect him. But now that time is running out, she’s ready to look as silly as necessary to win Ashley. In truth, Scarlett’s personality is more attractive than any masquerade, but no one has ever told her this. Her society doesn’t encourage women to behave naturally.
Deep down, Scarlett believes she can only love and respect a man who embraces women for who they are and treats them as equals—and yet, she moves forward with her plan to woo Ashley. So on some level, she acknowledges that perhaps Ashley won’t make her happy (if he actually likes silly girls), but she’s too selfish to back down now.
Themes
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The carriage departs for the Wilkeses’ house, Twelve Oaks, carrying Scarlett, Suellen, Carreen, and Gerald. Scarlett is glad neither Mammy nor Ellen are with them; she’ll have the freedom to do what she wants. Gerald dismissed Jonas Wilkerson earlier, so Ellen and Mammy are staying home to manage matters. It’s a beautiful day, and Gerald sings Irish ditties. He’s proud of his beautiful daughters and is looking forward to talking about the war at the barbecue. Scarlett looks at him with motherly affection, knowing he’ll come home drunk, jumping his horse and nearly breaking his neck, as usual. But she’s just as happy as he is.
Even though Scarlett says she wants to be a great lady like her mother, all her actions so far have been ones her mother would disapprove of. She doesn’t want Ellen to come to the barbecue, and instead of taking this as a sign that her plans for Ashley are misguided, she just feels excited and free. Gerald sets this example for her, because he also does things behind Ellen’s back that she wouldn’t approve of.
Themes
The roses and blackberries conceal the “savage” red earth and there are blossoms everywhere. Perhaps this beautiful day will be Scarlett’s wedding day. Her elopement will upset her parents, but they’ll eventually see how happy she is and all would be well. Suellen, jealous of Scarlett’s dress, says she doesn’t know why Scarlett is so happy; doesn’t she know Ashley Wilkes is engaged? Scarlett brushes this off. Gerald hears the Tarletons’ carriage coming and his face lights up. He likes Mrs. Tarleton almost as much as his own wife; he admires how well she handles her horses.
The blossoms conceal the “savage” earth, suggesting that something bad lurks beneath everyone’s excitement and happiness. Scarlett is so deep in her fantasy about her marriage to Ashley that she ignores all potential problems that might get in the way. When Mrs. Tarleton appears, she seems to be Gerald’s equal, despite being female—she loves horses, and she’s very outspoken.
Themes
The O’Haras’ carriage stops at a crossroads as Beatrice Tarleton drives up, the reins in her hands and her four daughters squeezed into the back. Mrs. Tarleton is small, with flaming red hair and tireless energy. She raised eight children with the same love and discipline she shows her colts. All she talks about is horses. She understands them better than anyone in the County. She’s an excellent breeder and horsewoman, and always wears her riding habit in case she has a moment to ride her red mare Nellie.
Mrs. Tarleton is very unlike Ellen O’Hara; she is a spirited, independent woman who does all the things Ellen would tell Scarlett are unladylike. In this way, Mrs. Tarleton merges Old Southern values and modern female standards. She is outspoken and athletic but also deeply in tune with the Southern lifestyle, loving horses and running a plantation.
Themes
The Tareltons greet the O’Haras as if they hadn’t seen them in years. Gerald says to Beatrice that her daughters, fine as they are, have nothing on their mother. The four Tarleton daughters, Hetty, Camilla, Randa, and Betsy, joke that they have no chance next to their mother when a handsome man like Gerald is around. Scarlett feels a guilty pang of jealousy that these girls can joke with their mother as if she were one of them. Although she idolizes Ellen, Scarlett wishes she could be candid and playful with her like these “true Southerners”—the Tarletons—can. It’s the same internal conflict she experiences when she wants to be both decent and playful with boys.
Scarlett struggles between two ways of being: honest, like the Tarletons, or modest, like her mother. She suspects that even relationships with boys can be open and playful, but she lives in a world where the rules of decency are strict, and where she can’t confide in her mother. Then, it's interesting that she refers to the Tarletons as “true Southerners.” This implies that Scarlett doesn’t see herself as a true Southerner, and she doesn’t feel like she fits in with old Southern society.
Themes
Gerald asks Beatrice why she isn’t riding Nellie. After several playful remarks, Beatrice says Nellie foaled this morning. The Tarleton girls joke that the foal is red-haired like Hetty. Beatrice explains that her girls are giddy because of the news of Ashley and Melanie’s engagement. It’s painful for Scarlett to hear it brought up so casually. But she brightens again when she remembers her plan, confusing Hetty who’d been scrutinizing her reaction to the news.
Based on Hetty and Suellen’s comments, everyone seems to know that Scarlett likes Ashley and must be upset about the news of his engagement. This proves both that Scarlett has been obvious in her pursuit of Ashley, and also that she has a reputation for getting every boy she wants.
Themes
Beatrice insists it’s wrong to marry one’s cousins. She explains that human breeding is like horse breeding; new blood keeps the family strong. Even a great family like the Wilkeses needs new blood. They’ve become weak from inbreeding and overbreeding, she says. Gerald becomes uncomfortable, knowing that Ellen would disapprove of this subject. He politely interrupts and everyone agrees they must be going.
Beatrice Tarleton challenges Gerald’s idea that like should marry like by insisting it’s inappropriate for cousins to marry. Mrs. Tarleton believes that when unlike minds marry, a family’s lineage is strengthened. This raises the question of whether it would be better for Ashley to marry someone like him—his cousin Melanie—or someone unlike him, such as Scarlett.
Themes
Before parting, Gerald asks Beatrice if she’ll donate horses to the Troop. She can’t pay so little attention to the Confederacy, he says teasingly. Beatrice feistily explains that she doesn’t want her fine horses ridden by poor farmers who won’t take care of them. As she drives away, Gerald proclaims her a “fine woman” and decides to persuade her about the horses. They continue to the barbecue, Scarlett composing her face into “attractive lines.”
Gerald and Beatrice tease each other flirtatiously—a relationship that Gerald and Ellen don’t have. The fact that it seems as though Beatrice, like Scarlett, hasn’t been paying attention to the war shows that Scarlett isn’t the only woman more concerned with her own affairs than with the impending war. Scarlett continues to show how focused on herself she is when she works on arranging her face to look as attractive as possible.
Themes
