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Chapter 59
Themes
and Colors
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 feels that everything is wrong. Even as her anguish fades into dull acceptance, the ground seems to crumble under her feet. She knows she can stand anything; she still has money and Ashley, but she feels she is living in her nightmare in which she is a lost child seeking a haven in the fog. Rhett has always been able to make her feel better, but now he is only friendly and distant. She’s lonely and wants to cry in his arms, but she can’t make herself break through his blankness.
Scarlett endures the loss of Bonnie as she has endured the losses of so many people she loves. However, she is left with an eerie feeling that she’s missing something. This feeling suggests that this time, she can’t move forward as she always does to carry out some clear future plan. She lives now in her terrible nightmare where she has no direction.
Active
Themes
Scarlett and Rhett have the unbreakable bond of two people who birthed and buried a loved child. Only Rhett’s arms can heal Scarlett, but to lie in them now would feel like lying in the arms of a stranger. He’s hardly ever home, and when he is, he’s drunk. He starts to look unwell. Scarlett assumes he spends his time with Belle. Once, she runs into Belle in town. Belle gives Scarlett a pitying stare that makes Scarlett blush. She feels like she can’t blame Rhett or apologize to him for saying he killed Bonnie.
Scarlett feels that Bonnie’s death created an unbreakable bond between her and Rhett. Now that she’s lost her most beloved child, she wants Rhett because only he can heal her. Meanwhile, Rhett has grown even more distant from Scarlett. Unlike Scarlett, he wants the comfort, not of the mother of his dead child, but of another woman. In this way, Scarlett and Rhett’s roles have reversed.
Active
Themes
Mammy leaves for Tara, saying Ellen’s voice told her it’s time to go home. Scarlett tries to stop her, but Rhett says no one wants to live in their house. When Scarlett asks Dr. Meade if Rhett has lost his mind, Dr. Meade recommends she and Rhett have another baby. Scarlett would happily have babies to get close to Rhett again. She leaves her door open, but he never visits. The neighbors grieve for Rhett’s loss and think that Scarlett is heartless. Nobody knows how hard Scarlett works to feel better after Bonnie dies. Her new friends drift away, not understanding the hardships she’s experienced. She wants to talk with her old friends, like Mrs. Merriwether and Mrs. Elsing, about hard times and tragedy. She understands now why ex-Confederates like to meet: they’re all veterans. She yearns for her people, but they’ve slipped away. Rhett is slipping away too.
Active
Themes
