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Chapter 18
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 siege comes closer and closer to Atlanta. Wade and Prissy hide in the basement, but Melanie was told to stay in bed, so she and Scarlett cower upstairs as bullets fall around them. Scarlett fears Melanie’s water breaking more than she fears death. She worries about potentially having to deliver the baby. But Prissy says she’s seen her mother deliver many babies. Scarlett wants the birth over with so she can go home to Tara. Ellen wants Wade to go to Tara too. Happy to be rid of him, Scarlett plans to send him.
During this time in Southern society, wealthy women did not know anything about childbirth. Usually, a woman on their enslaved staff would be trained in midwifery and would assist during births in the household. Even though Scarlett has had a baby of her own, she doesn’t know anything about the process, and therefore fears Melanie’s upcoming birth.
Themes
When news comes that the Yankees and the Confederates are fighting along the southern train line, Scarlett cancels Wade’s trip. The siege continues, but Hood holds the Yankees out of the Atlanta. Slowly, Scarlett gets used to the gunfire and she becomes less afraid. Still, life feels like a dream. Blue skies are hazy with smoke, and bullets blow up animals and people in the streets. The nights are eerily quiet. Often, Scarlett wakes to a knock on the door, and goes downstairs to let in a wounded soldier.
Scarlett continues to feel that life is a scary dream. She is no longer in control of what is happening to her, and she lives in a state of fear. She is also trapped in Atlanta because the Yankees and the Confederates are fighting over the Southern trainline. The thought of going to Tara was unbearable to Scarlett a few months ago, but now that she can’t get there, she misses it.
Themes
One night, Uncle Henry Hamilton knocks on the door. He is barefoot and has lice but seems to be having a good time in the army. He visits briefly and soaks his feet in a tub of water. He tells Scarlett and Melanie he’ll be marching towards Jonesboro the next morning. The girls are scared, but he assures them the Yankees won’t win. But he notes he’ll be gone a while and wants to say goodbye.
Even Uncle Henry Hamilton, who has seen the war firsthand, is confident that the South will win. However, he may just be saying that to protect Melanie and Scarlett from the truth. Scarlett has slowly realized that men don’t like to tell women bad news because they don’t think they can handle it.
Themes
Before Henry leaves, Scarlett fixes him a lunch downstairs. She asks him if the fighting is serious. Henry says it is. Scarlett asks if the fighting will get to Tara. Ignoring how selfish this question is, Henry says that Tara is safe. But he has some bad news he wants Scarlett to give to Melanie: John Wilkes is dead. Henry pulls a gold watch from his pocket. Scarlett is shocked and sad to see John’s beautiful watch. Why did he have to go to war and die? He didn’t even believe in the war. Henry says that John Wilkes was brave and asks Scarlett to also tell Mrs. Tarleton that her mare is dead. Scarlett nods and kisses Henry goodbye.
Henry protects Melanie from the truth, but he doesn’t feel the need to protect Scarlett from it too. Similarly, Ashley had been honest with Scarlett about the war, but he lied to Melanie. This suggests that Scarlett, although incredibly selfish, has strength and practicality that most women don’t have during this time—and this is something some men respect and understand. She cannot see the glory in John Wilkes’s death; all she sees is that someone who didn’t believe in the war wasted their life on it.
Themes
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By the end of July, the Yankees are nearly at Jonesboro. Gerald sends a letter reassuring Scarlett that the Yankees haven’t gotten to Tara. Gerald boasts about the bravery of the Confederates and mentions that Carreen has typhoid fever. Ellen asks Scarlett to pray for her. Feeling guilty, Scarlett tries to pray, but her heart isn’t in it. That night, she sits on the porch feeling lonely. There are no visitors. She closes her eyes, imagining Tara and the Tarleton boys and all her old beaus. She cries out Ashley’s name, knowing she’ll never get used to him being gone.
All of Scarlett’s role models are falsely confident in the Cause. Gerald brags about the Confederate soldiers even though they are defending the last stretch of railroad they control. Scarlett is starting to feel like her old life is falling apart before her eyes. She dreams of the old days, and she to channel all her feelings into Ashley. In Scarlett’s mind, Ashley begins to symbolize her old life.
Themes
The front gate opens and Rhett Butler comes up the path. Scarlett is so happy to see another person that she forgets how angry Rhett made her last time she saw him. Rhett says he’s surprised that Melanie and Scarlett haven’t gone to Macon, especially since Melanie is pregnant. He laughs, thinking of Melanie and Scarlett alone together. It’s strange, he explains, given that Scarlett thinks Melanie is silly and stupid. He says he knows Scarlett stayed only because she promised Ashley. Angry, Scarlett says she only let him on the porch because she was feeling sad. When Scarlett admits she misses Tara, Rhett warns her that the typhoid fever there is more dangerous than the Yankees—the Yankees won’t rape her. It’s awful, Scarlett thinks, that Rhett knows what women are thinking and is willing to speak so openly about rape.
Many times, Rhett has insinuated that Yankees aren’t as horrible as Southerners believe they are. While most Southerners consider Yankees despicable monsters without question, Rhett suggests that they are just human beings with the same morals as Southerners have. Scarlett is appalled that Rhett mentions the word “rape,” because men usually never talk about such things to ladies. Rhett is progressive in that he doesn’t feel the need to shelter women (or at least Scarlett) from unpleasant topics. His frankness with Scarlett shows he considers her an equal.
Themes
When Rhett says that he’s surprised but happy to find Scarlett on her own, Scarlett’s heart beats faster. Is he about to say he loves her? If so, she can have fun torturing him with the knowledge. Rhett kisses her hand and wrist, exciting Scarlett—though she doesn’t know why since she doesn’t love him. Scarlett says Rhett is a “varmint,” and he says that’s why she likes him. Scarlett insists she actually likes nice men. They argue about whether they love each other. Rhett insists he likes, but doesn’t love, Scarlett. He likes how selfish and practical she is, and he’s liked her since he first saw her at Twelve Oaks.
Scarlett doesn’t understand the excitement she feels around Rhett because she doesn’t think she loves him. She doesn’t think she loves him because she believes she loves nice men. However, Rhett says he’s attracted to Scarlett because she isn’t nice—she’s selfish and practical. In other words, Rhett likes Scarlett because she’s similar to him, whereas Scarlett thinks that she’s a better person than Rhett says she is.
Themes
Scarlett thinks Rhett loves her but just won’t say it. She asks if he is proposing. Rhett says he’s asking her to be his mistress. Scarlett is too angry to realize how insulting the word “mistress” is. She asks what she’d get out of being his mistress besides a “passel of brats.” Rhett laughs, but Scarlett is ashamed of herself. She screams at him to get out or Gerald will kill him. Rhett is amused rather than ashamed. He bows, smiling. She tries to slam the door, but the latch is stuck. She storms away and Rhett slams the door for her.
It has never occurred to Scarlett that Rhett would want anything other than to propose or kiss her, because in her experience that’s always what boys want. However, she is not so modest that she won’t talk openly about what it would mean to be a mistress (that is, to have sex with Rhett and to possibly bear his children). That Scarlett is willing to say this reveals how supposedly immodest she is, per Southern society—but also how practical and down to earth she is.
Themes
