Gone with the Wind: Chapter 63 Summary & Analysis

Scarlett enters the front hall. Rhett isn’t in the hall, and she thinks anxiously that he’s at Belle’s. She starts up the stairs but then sees a light on under the dining room door. She thinks fearfully that if Rhett laughs at her, her heart will break. She opens the door and finds Rhett in a chair. She wants to run to him, but his expression stops her. He looks at her steadily and has no reaction. Drink and grief has worn away his handsome figure. He asks if Melanie is dead. Scarlett nods, wanting to shout that she loves him.

Rhett says he didn’t go in with Scarlett because he couldn’t bear it. He says Melanie was a great lady, his expression like the one he had when he joined the army—a man who has discovered he’s loyal. He looks through Scarlett, as if seeing Melanie walking through the room. Scarlett shivers, knowing that Rhett is saying goodbye to the only person he ever fully respected. Rhett’s expression turns mocking, and he says Melanie’s death must be nice for Scarlett. Scarlett says he doesn’t know how much she loved Melanie. She says Melanie thought of everyone but herself and even her last words were about Rhett.

Suddenly interested, Rhett demands to know what Melanie said about him. Scarlett tells him that Melanie said Rhett loved Scarlett. Rhett goes to the window and asks if she said anything else. Scarlett relays her promise to look after Beau and Ashley. Rhett says Scarlett finally has permission to divorce him and marry Ashley. Scarlett cries that she doesn’t want a divorce. Her face shows her whole heart, but he looks at her blankly. She starts to confess her love, but he interrupts, saying she should go to bed. Rhett says he can see it in Scarlett’s face: she’s fallen out of love with Ashley and suddenly finds Rhett attractive, but it’s no use.

Scarlett admits that she’s been a fool. Rhett tells her to spare him, but she cries that she loves him. He believes her but asks what happened to Ashley. Scarlett explains that Ashley was a habit she clung to, but he’s a weak person. She confesses her love again, stammering with shyness. He gives her a drained look and asks if it ever occurred to her that the most “deathless love” can die out. Scarlett says love can’t die out, but he says hers for Ashley did. She says she never really loved Ashley, but Rhett says she did a good job pretending.

Scarlett sits down, and Rhett talks to her plainly. He asks if she ever wondered if he loved her as much as a man could ever love a woman? He loved her, but he couldn’t let her know it because she’s brutal to people who love her. When he married her, he knew she loved Ashley, but he hoped he could make her love him. He wanted to take care of her and make her feel safe because she’d been through so much. He wanted to make her play again. Rhett’s weary voice reminds Scarlett of Ashley’s wistful words that day in the orchard. She’s frightened.

Rhett goes on and says that if Scarlett had let him, he would’ve loved her so well, but he couldn’t be honest or she’d hold his love over his head. He couldn’t bear that she’d lie in his arms and wish they were Ashley’s. That drove him to Belle, who comforted him. Then, the night he carried Scarlett up the stairs, he hoped but was too afraid to believe she loved him, and she gave him no sign. Scarlett cries that she wanted him that night. Rhett says he realizes that they misunderstood one another, but it no longer matters. When Scarlett was sick, he wanted her to call him, but she didn’t. He channeled his love for Scarlett into Bonnie, who loved him back. When Bonnie died, everything ended.

Scarlett feels compassion for Rhett that wipes out her own feelings. This is the first time she’s come close to understanding another person. She can see that his pride is just like hers. She holds out her arms, saying there can be more babies. Rhett says he won’t risk his heart again, and that by saying sorry, she doesn’t erase the bad memories. He gives her his handkerchief and looks at her with a kindness that scares her. He asks how old she is, and Scarlett says she’s 28. He says at least she still has time to figure out what she wants, now that money and Ashley aren’t enough after all. But Scarlett thinks Rhett is her soul and she’s losing him.

Scarlett says there must be something left of Rhett’s love. He says all that’s left is pity and kindness. Rhett says he’s going away and, if Scarlett doesn’t want a divorce, he’ll come back now and then to keep gossip down. In her anguish, Scarlett decides if she can’t have his love, she must at least earn his respect. She lifts her chin and asks where he’ll go. He says he’ll go to Charleston to see family. His eyes have the same wistful look Ashley’s had that day in the orchard.

Rhett’s nostalgic words sound just like something Ashley said in the orchard at Tara. Rhett says he doubts Scarlett will ever know why Rhett wants to seek out the old places, because she’s always preferred “glister to gold.” Scarlett asks Rhett to stop, unable to bear his loveless voice. She cries that if he leaves her, she won’t know what to do. Rhett pauses and then says what’s broken is broken; he can’t live a lie with her. He says he wishes he could care where she went and what she did, but he “doesn’t give a damn.”

Scarlett watches Rhett go upstairs. She feels she’ll die from the pain and feels like the last thing in her life that matters is dying. She knows he meant what he said; he’s strong and won’t change his mind, since he’s so unlike Ashley. She’d never understood anyone all her life. If she’d understood Ashley, she wouldn’t have loved him, and if she’d understood Rhett, she wouldn’t have lost him. She tries to push her agony off to tomorrow, but she can’t.

Then Scarlett thinks of Tara, and her spirits lift slightly. She went to Tara once in her defeat and emerged strong and ready for victory. She’ll go there and find a place to heal and plan how to get Rhett back. She sees the white house, the raw red earth, and feels the country twilight in her mind. Mammy will be there, the last link to the old days. Tomorrow at Tara, she’ll think of a way to get Rhett back; “After all, tomorrow is another day.”