Gone with the Wind: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Scarlett can smell the barbecue even before they arrive. She knows the meats will be turning on spits above the fire pits and the picnic tables will be laid with fine linen. A dozen “darkies” will be carrying laden trays for the guests. Scarlett hopes she’ll be able to eat without belching from her tight corset. Twelve Oaks, which Scarlett loves even more than Tara for its stately beauty, comes into view. The driveway is full of carriages, and the hall is full of girls in bright dresses.

The whole County seems to be at Twelve Oaks. John Wilkes stands on the steps beside his daughter, Honey. Where John Wilkes is poised and dignified, Honey is clearly desperate to get every man in attendance to notice her. Scarlett wonders if Mrs. Tarleton is right that inbreeding weakened the family. John and Ashley Wilkes are handsome, but Honey and India Wilkes are pale and rabbit-like. John helps Scarlett from the carriage while Frank Kennedy, Suellen’s 40-year-old beau, rushes to help Suellen. Stuart and Brent Tarleton rush to greet Scarlett, who wonders where Ashley and Melanie are.

Scarlett joins the party. Suddenly, her eyes fall on a stranger who’s staring at her in a cool, almost rude way. He’s muscular and pirate-like, with “animal-white” teeth and a black mustache. He looks to have good blood. She feels she should be insulted by the way he looks at her but isn’t. She hears him called “Rhett Butler,” a name she doesn’t recognize.

Scarlett starts up the stairs to fix her hair, briefly runs into India, and is distracted when a shy voice calls her name. It’s Charles Hamilton, a timid boy with brown curls and pink cheeks. Scarlett usually ignores him, but since she’s determined to flirt with everyone, she greets him warmly and teases him about breaking her heart. Charles goes into a flutter. Although he’s expected to marry Honey, he’s always wanted a vivacious and romantic girl. Scarlett playfully asks him not to flirt with anyone else. He promises. Secretly, Scarlett thinks he looks like a calf waiting for the butcher.

Scarlett’s eyes fall on Rhett Butler again. He looks at her in a way that seems as if he knows what she looks like without clothes. Indignant, Scarlett tries to pull her bodice higher. She asks Cathleen Calvert—a pretty girl Scarlett’s age—who Rhett Butler is. Cathleen says he came with Frank Kennedy. He was expelled from West Point and wasn’t “received”—he wasn’t formally invited to any social events. This excites Scarlett, who’d never met someone not received. Cathleen says that Rhett once spent the night out with a girl in Charleston and then refused to marry her, saying he hadn’t done anything with her. Secretly, Scarlett admires him for refusing to marry a “fool.”

Later, Scarlett sits in the shade surrounded by boys. The barbecue is at its peak and the air is full of laughter, waving fans, and good smells. The married women sit together engrossed in discussions about babies and their family trees. Scarlett thinks they look like old crows and doesn’t consider that she might be like that when she’s married. 

Although she’s surrounded by boys, Scarlett is miserable. Her plan is failing, as Ashley hasn’t joined her circle. He greeted her initially, but Melanie had been with him. Melanie is pale and childlike with a plain face, but Scarlett also recognizes that Melanie is mature and dignified. Since exchanging pleasant greetings, Ashley has been on a stool at Melanie’s feet. Melanie is clearly in love.

Outwardly, Scarlett is the “belle of the barbecue.” Charles Hamilton, emboldened by Scarlett’s attention, sits right beside her, fanning her. Honey looks ready to cry. All the girls share looks of disapproval that Scarlett was so “fast.” Hetty Tarleton and the Munroe girls finally drag three men away to the rose garden. Scarlett again catches sight of Rhett Butler, who’s staring at her and laughing aloud. She feels he can see right through her. She’s angry at both Rhett and Ashley. Then she decides that between the barbecue and the ball, when the ladies are napping, she’ll sneak down to talk to Ashley. This gives her new hope. She continues flirting with Charles, making the other boys jealous.

After everyone is done eating, they idle in the shade. Suddenly, Gerald’s voice shouts over the crowd that compromise with the Yankees is impossible, since they insulted the South. All the men jump up, joining in that the Yankees asked for war and the South will give them a real war. Scarlett is bored by this talk; it interrupts her plans with Ashley. There won’t be a war—the men just want to hear themselves talk.

Charles stays by Scarlett. He tells her that he plans to join a troop in South Carolina, and timidly asks if she’d be sorry when he left. Not understanding why men think women cared, Scarlett says sarcastically that she’d cry every night. Missing her sarcasm, Charles confesses that he loves her. Scarlett, looking over at Ashley and Melanie, doesn’t answer. Then Charles asks Scarlet if she will marry him.

Scarlett is annoyed that this “calf-like creature” is intruding on her thoughts of Ashley. Used to marriage proposals, Scarlett gives the practiced response that it all seems a little fast. Charles is filled with hope, mistaking Scarlett’s annoyance over Ashley as shy love for him. Scarlett wants Charles to be quiet so she can hear what Melanie and Ashley are talking about. She finally hears that they are discussing authors. This strikes Scarlett as silly. She’s relieved and beams, leading Charles to think she’s in love with him.

Someone asks Ashley to give his opinion on the war. Ashley rises and says he hopes there’ll be peace but that if Georgia fights, he’ll fight. Scarlett rolls her eyes, and many others start to argue. An old man interjects that war shouldn’t be glorified—he saw war back in his day, and it was horrible. Someone leads the old man away, embarrassed. Rhett Butler suddenly asks everyone to consider that the North has cannon factories, immigrants, and shipyards, while the South only has “cotton, slaves, and arrogance.” The North will beat the South in a month, he says.

There is silence. Then an angry murmur starts. Deep down, Scarlett feels what Rhett said makes sense. Brent and Stuart confront Rhett, who explains that he’d only meant what Napoleon meant when he said God is on the side of the strongest army. Then Rhett bows and excuses himself. The crowd continues murmuring. Scarlett sees India placating Stuart and feels guilty for breaking them up. Finally, the barbecue ends. Ashley strolls over to Scarlett and Charles and proclaims Rhett an “arrogant devil,” comparing him to the Borgias whom Scarlett doesn’t know. Ashley pities Charles because he is clearly ashamed of Scarlett’s naivete, but adores her too much to say anything.

Scarlett stands on the landing, looking down over the banister. The girls in the bedrooms gossip as they settle down for the customary afternoon nap between a barbecue and a ball. Scarlett made sure that Melanie, Honey, and Hetty were all lying down before she slipped out. The men are outside drinking, but Ashley is in the drive bidding farewell to guests. Scarlett starts down the stairs, her heart beating at the thought of getting caught. She goes into the library, hoping to intercept Ashley as he comes inside. The serious atmosphere of the library is not where Scarlett had hoped to have this conversation. She leaves the door cracked and waits. She doesn’t remember what she planned to say to Ashley. She starts to pray.

Suddenly, Ashley says Scarlett’s name. He stands in the hall, peering through the crack of the door. He asks her teasingly who she’s hiding from. Unable to speak, Scarlett pulls him into the room by the wrist. He asks her what secret she has to tell him. Finally finding her voice, Scarlett confesses that she loves him. Ashley looks troubled. He says it should be enough that she has every other man’s heart. Scarlett knows something is wrong; things aren’t going to plan.

Scarlett stammers, asking if she has Ashley’s heart. He puts his hand to her lips and tells her not to say these things; she’ll hate herself and him for saying them. Angry, Scarlett snaps that she’d never hate him; she loves him. Ashley admits he cares for her too, then asks if they can forget this happened. Scarlett sinks onto a stool and Ashley stands over her, talking like a father. He says love isn’t enough to make a successful marriage when two people are so different. Scarlett would want more than he can give her.

Ashley says he shouldn’t have said he cares for Scarlett. Scarlett calls him a “cad” for saying it. Turning white, Ashley admits that he was a “cad” to say it, since he is going to marry Melanie. He can’t help caring for Scarlett since she’s so passionate, like “fire and wind.” Scarlett pictures Melanie’s placid demeanor, then accuses Ashley of being a coward to choose a “flimsy” girl like Melanie; he’s a coward for making Scarlett believe he’d marry her. He denies that he ever gave her this idea.

Suddenly, Scarlett remembers Mammy and Ellen’s warnings and wishes she’d never confessed her love for Ashley. She springs to her feet and shouts that she hates him. He reaches out to her, but she slaps him across the face. He quietly leaves the library, closing the door behind him. Scarlett laments that she’s as deplorable as Honey, brazenly pursuing men. She mostly wanted Ashley to make herself look better, but now that she can’t have him, she hates him and herself. Had she made a scene? She hurls a china figurine at the mantlepiece, and it smashes to pieces.

Suddenly, a voice says, “this is too much.” Frightened, Scarlett grips a chair. Rhett Butler rises from the sofa. He heard everything. Trying to pull herself together, Scarlett scolds him for not making his presence known. Laughing, Rhett says he’d hidden in the library where he thought he’d be in peace. Scarlett says he’s no gentleman. He says she’s right and observes that she’s no lady. He says ladies are boring and easy to see through, but Scarlett has an “admirable spirit.” She feels she could kill him, but instead turns and leaves the library with as much dignity as she can muster.

Scarlett runs upstairs, feeling ready to faint for the first time in her life. Her heart is beating against her tight corset. What would everyone think of her? Slowly, she feels better. She decides to go quietly into the napping room and pretend nothing happened. She watches the men outside, wishing she could be a man so she could have no cares in the world. As she watches, a man on a horse gallops up to the house. The men swarm around him and one of them lets out “the Rebel yell.” There’s an uproar. Scarlett assumes someone’s house is on fire.

Scarlett starts to enter the napping room when she hears Honey saying that Scarlett acted “fast” at the barbecue. Melanie urges Honey to be kind, saying she found Scarlett charming. Scarlett hates to hear Melanie, that “mealy-mouthed little mess” defend her. Then Honey insinuates that she is engaged to Charles. Hetty chimes in that Scarlett is as good as engaged to Stuart, but Honey says Scarlett only cares for Ashley. Scarlett is humiliated. The girls continue to gossip about all the men Scarlett stole today.

Scarlett wishes she could be magically back at Tara. She quietly backs away from the napping room, runs downstairs, and goes onto the porch. She pounds the white pillars with her fist, realizing she can’t run away and must deal with this heartbreak and humiliation. She hates everyone and is determined to hurt them worse than they hurt her. Suddenly, Charles hurries towards her. He tells her the news: Mr. Lincoln had called for soldiers. Scarlett is too caught up in her own troubles; how can “this fool” expect her to care about Lincoln when her heart is broken?

Charles leads Scarlett to a bench, and they sit. Scarlett is beautiful when she’s upset, and her emotional state makes Charles feel masculine—but too shy to speak. Scarlett realizes that if she marries Charles, Ashley will think she didn’t care about him. Charles has money, and she’ll have everything she wants. Charles says that the war is scary, but it will be over soon.

Charles asks if Scarlett will wait for him. Scarlett says she doesn’t want to wait. Stammering, Charles asks if Scarlett can love him. She doesn’t answer, but Charles takes her silence for shyness. Charles asks if she will marry him, and suggests they have a double wedding with Melanie and Ashley. Scarlett exclaims “no!” Realizing that Scarlett wants her own wedding, Charles asks when he should speak to Gerald. When Scarlett asks him to do so quickly, Charles runs to find Gerald.

Scarlett waits on the bench. Men stream past her on horseback, giving the “Rebel yell.” The stately white house will never be Scarlett’s now. An “adult emotion” is developing in her: she loves Ashley and had never loved him more than she does now, as she’s losing him.