Dilcey is Pork’s wife and Prissy’s mother. Early on, Gerald buys Dilcey and Prissy from the Wilkes so that the family can be together. Dilcey is diligent and faithful, staying on at Tara even after the war. She is the only person who doesn’t complain about picking cotton with Scarlett in the fields.
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Dilcey Character Timeline in Gone with the Wind
The timeline below shows where the character Dilcey appears in Gone with the Wind. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
Gerald explains that he bought Dilcey, the wife of their enslaved man Pork, from the Wilkeses where she’d been enslaved. He...
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Chapter 4
...back. She hears Black voices. Pork comes into the dining room to introduce his wife Dilcey, who’s just arrived. Dilcey enters with her daughter Prissy, whom Gerald had also purchased. Dilcey...
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Chapter 21
...and tells her to get news of the fighting in Jonesboro. Thinking of Tara and Dilcey, Prissy starts to cry. Scarlett sends her to the hospital with a note written in...
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...to meet her. Prissy says the Confederates are losing in Jonesboro, and she’s scared for Dilcey and Pork. Scarlett asks where Dr. Meade is. Prissy says he’s at the train depot...
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Chapter 24
...a “dutiful dog.” She asks him who else is here. He says only Mammy and Dilcey are here; all the “trashy niggers” left with the Yankees. Scarlett asks if there’s anything...
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...speak of pregnancy, she says Melanie doesn’t have milk for the baby. Pork shares that Dilcey just had a baby boy and has milk to spare. Again, Scarlett muses that unintelligent...
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Dilcey enters, holding Melanie’s baby and the whiskey gourd. Her dress is open, and the baby...
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Scarlett finds herself alone in her moonlit room. Mammy and Dilcey undress her and bathe her feet. She is drunk and tired. She knows she left...
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Chapter 25
...that no one has left Tara. Scarlett decides to go to Twelve Oaks and send Dilcey to the McIntoshes, ignoring Pork’s warning that it’s too dangerous with the Yankees around.
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...at Tara complains of hunger except Melanie, who tells Scarlett to give her portion to Dilcey. Her selflessness irritates Scarlett. Wade acts very strange, but Scarlett doesn’t realize he’s constantly terrified....
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Chapter 26
So, Dilcey, Prissy and Scarlett pick the cotton. Dilcey works hard and whips Prissy when she is...
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Chapter 27
...with baskets of food, and Pork running with Gerald and two pigs under his arms. Dilcey complains that the sow bit Prissy and has trapped her under the house. Scarlett gathers...
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Chapter 38
...with them. Scarlett trusts “darkies” more than she trusts white people. She thinks of Mammy, Dilcey, and Pork who have stuck by her despite the promises the Freedman’s Bureau made them.
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Chapter 41
...marry and Carreen goes to the convent, Ashley, Melanie, and Beau move to Atlanta, bringing Dilcey with them. They move into a house with a backyard that connects to Pitty’s. The...
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Chapter 62
Scarlett opens the door and walks into the parlor. The tearful faces of Dilcey, Peter, India and Pitty greet her. India and Pitty come to her, but she snaps...
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