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Chapter 39
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
After a sleepless night, Scarlett watches the sun rise over Tara. Despite having no master, Tara looks good and the cotton is growing. Scarlett feels thankful for Will. She knows he is responsible for the plantation’s success, not Ashley. Tara is now a small farm, not a “planter-aristocrat” estate, but it’s saved thanks to Will.
Tara has survived by going back to the basics. Instead of being a lavish plantation where its masters live at ease, it is a humble farm. Scarlett knows that Ashley—who can’t detach himself from the beauty of the old “planter aristocrat” days—won’t be able to take pride in Tara’s new look.
Themes
Pork has dug Gerald’s grave beside Ellen’s. Four men carry out the coffin, followed by a crowd of neighbors. Scarlett notices that Pork’s hair is newly grey. Suellen cries noisily, irritating Scarlett because Suellen caused Gerald’s death. The neighbors all think Suellen has done something worse than murder Gerald by trying to make him break loyalty to the South. Mr. McRae, Grandma Fontaine, and Mrs. Tarleton—Gerald’s closest friends—are particularly angry at her. Will and Ashley talk in Ellen’s office about what to do about the angry neighbors. Will is afraid of someone causing a scene. Ashley just sighs; he’s giving the service later. Usually neighbors can speak after the service, so Will suggests he speak first to head off bad comments from others.
As far as the neighbors are concerned, Suellen committed a crime worse than murder. Southerners feel that loyalty to the Cause is the most important thing in the world, and that it is worth dying for. Therefore, Suellen did the worst thing possible in trying to persuade Gerald to break loyalty to the Cause. Scarlett, on the other hand, is angry at Suellen for bringing about Gerald’s death. Before she found out that Suellen’s trick led to Gerald’s death, she approved of her scheme to comply with the Yankees to get money. In this way, Scarlett isn’t a faithful Southerner—and neither is Suellen.
Themes
The coffin is laid in the grave as the neighbors file in. Scarlett is surprised to see that so many people came. Scarlett notices Cathleen Calvert, acting as if her husband hadn’t helped bring about Gerald’s death. Cathleen is greasy and her fingernails are dirty. Scarlett realizes she’d be just like Cathleen if it wasn’t for luck and her “gumption.” Scarlett lifts her chin proudly. Ashley steps to the front with Carreen’s bible. Scarlett thinks he is better than any priest would be as he proceeds with Hail Marys instead of words about Purgatory. Reaching the end of the Catholic prayers, Ashley launches into an Episcopal service.
Cathleen Calvert and Scarlett both resorted to different tactics to save themselves for absolute ruin. Cathleen married her family’s old Yankee overseer, Hilton, which allowed her to keep her plantation house. Scarlett, on the other hand, married Frank and took over his businesses to save Tara. Both women had to adapt to a changing postwar world, but Scarlett is still so self-centered that she refuses to give any women credit unless they’ve done exactly as she’s done.
Themes
When he finishes, Ashley asks if anyone wants to say a few words. Before anyone else could volunteer, Will rises. He says he didn’t know Gerald well, but in a few weeks he would’ve called him Pa. He announces he is going to marry Suellen. The crowd mutters. Mrs. Tarleton’s eyes snap, but Will’s eyes silently dare her to criticize his fiancé. Will says that Gerald was a true Georgian and had Georgians’ good points and bad points. He was fearless and resilient, and nothing from the outside could beat him. But he was beaten from the inside: when Ellen died, his heart died.
Will explains that Gerald represents the quintessential Georgian—hard on the outside but soft-hearted on the inside. The war proved this to be true of Georgians: before and during the war, Georgians were confident and brave. When poverty and hardship swept the state after the war, many Georgians, such as Ashley, didn’t know how to keep going. This continues to associate Ellen with the ideal Southern life before the war.
Themes
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Scarlett finds Will’s common sense comforting. Will says every Southerner is like Gerald: they can be beaten from the inside when their mainspring—whatever it is—is broken. Mourning would be selfish, for Gerald is happier dead. Then Will asks Mrs. Tarleton to take Scarlett out of the hot sun. Scarlett is humiliated that Will has drawn attention to her pregnancy. Mrs. Tarleton takes her inside, and Grandma Fontaine goes with them.
Will claims that Gerald is happier dead, suggesting that Gerald was not fit to live in the new South that is completely changed from the old one. The war seems to have acted as a test of strength and resiliency for everyone; some can adapt to the changing times and survive while others can’t.
Themes
Grandma Fontaine says Will was really just trying to remove her and Mrs. Tarleton before they said anything disruptive, and to spare Scarlett the sight of the dirt piling up on Gerald’s grave. Grandma Fontaine observes that Scarlett has nothing now that her parents are dead, but that she’s strong enough to stand alone. Mrs. Tarleton warns Grandma Fontaine not to upset Scarlett into a miscarriage, but Scarlett says she isn’t one of those “miscarrying girls.” Grandma Fontaine sends Mrs. Tarleton for glasses of buttermilk.
Now that both of Scarlett’s parents are dead, she has no one to look up to. However, Scarlett believes she’s strong enough to stand alone. Further, Scarlett shows how powerful she believes she is by insisting she’s not a “miscarrying girl[].” Essentially, she implies that her ability to carry pregnancies to term makes her a stronger, better woman.
Themes
Scarlett unbuttons her tight bodice and looks at the portrait of Grandma Robillard with her breasts half-out. Grandma Fontaine asks if Will is serious about marrying Suellen. Scarlett says he is, and Tara is lucky to have him. Grandma Fontaine says Scarlett loves Tara so much that she doesn’t mind Suellen marrying an uneducated man from poor lineage to keep it. Scarlett asks why class matters right now. Grandma Fontaine says some people would say she is ignoring rules that should never be ignored, but Scarlett holds firm. Grandma Fontaine asks Scarlett to kiss her, proud of how tenacious she is. She says Will is a gentleman at heart, and he’ll do good by Tara. She says he was right when he said people are beaten when they hold onto things that are gone.
Unlike many Southerners, Scarlett believes that her land is more important than class. Class markers, such as education, manners, and lineage, were important before the war, but Scarlett thinks they serve no purpose now. Scarlett now sees that anyone who is strong and smart enough to make their own money and hold onto their land at all costs is basically high-class. In this way, Scarlett values a person based on their tenacity and ingenuity (and specifically, their ability to make money) rather than their breeding.
Themes
Grandma Fontaine says Southerners always stand back up after being beaten, because Southerners are like ripe buckwheat with sap in it; it knows how to stand back up after it’s blown down. Grandma Fontaine says that some people don’t know how to stand up, like Cathleen Calvert, but the Fontaines and the Tarletons knew how. Scarlett adds that the Wilkeses do too. Grandma disagrees, saying India and Honey haven’t tried to catch rich husbands, and Ashley can’t even raise a plow. She says Ashley is built for reading books. Alex Fontaine was like that, but necessity made him a good farmer. Grandma Fontaine says Melanie keeps Ashley afloat. Melanie reminds Grandma Fontaine of a young Ellen.
Grandma Fontaine implies that the South will make a comeback, even though it seems utterly beaten at the moment. She lists the people who’ve stood up after the war, and they’re all people who’ve been able to adapt to the changing times by becoming farmers or marrying for money. In her view, Ashley hasn’t adapted, and is one of the people who won’t stand back up. Likening Melanie to Ellen suggests that more people than Scarlett now recognize Melanie’s strength and tenacity.
Themes
Scarlett is angry that Grandma Fontaine is insulting Ashley. Grandma says Ashley is so different from Scarlett, who went to Atlanta to scrounge money however she could. Scarlett says she’s wrong. Grandma says Scarlett is smart with money, but not smart like a woman: she knows nothing about people. Scarlett realizes that Grandma made her mad so she’d forget about Gerald, and thanks her. The old lady smiles. Mrs. Tarleton comes back with the buttermilk and says the guests are coming inside.
Grandma Fontaine suggests that Scarlett is more like a man than a woman: she understands money but isn’t emotionally intelligent. Her tenacity, practicality, and determination all make her a great businesswoman and survivor, but they seem to come at the cost of her perceiving and sympathizing with others’ feelings. Grandma Fontaine implies too that Scarlett’s business sense will cost her love as well.
Themes
