Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

by

Margaret Mitchell

Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) Character Analysis

Melanie Hamilton is Ashley Wilkes’s cousin and wife, and Charles Hamilton’s sister. She has a small, childlike figure with large eyes “like candles.” Her delicate health is severely weakened after she has her first child, and throughout the story she never fully recovers. At first, she seems merely sweet, ardent, and naïve—very different from Scarlett who is bold, practical, and selfish. However, when she rushes like Scarlett to kill the Yankee who is trying to rob Tara, Scarlett sees that Melanie contains tremendous courage. Through Melanie’s fiercely loyal and selfless eyes, some of the worst characters are better than their true selves. Scarlett is brave and good in Melanie’s eyes, even though all that Scarlett ever does for Melanie is for selfish reasons. Also, she sees good in Rhett Butler even when he acts unpatriotically or violently. Melanie, like Ellen O’Hara, is a feminine ideal throughout the story whose unconditional love and loyalty contrast with Scarlett’s practicality and selfishness. Every character depends on Melanie so that, when she dies of a miscarriage at the end, it seems that everything falls apart without her.

Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) Quotes in Gone with the Wind

The Gone with the Wind quotes below are all either spoken by Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) or refer to Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Civil War and Reconstruction Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Only when like marries like can there be happiness.”

Related Characters: Gerald O’Hara (speaker), Scarlett O’Hara , Rhett Butler , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) , Ashley Wilkes
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

Now, struggling against hatred for Ashley’s wife, there surged a feeling of admiration and comradeship. She saw in a flash of clarity untouched by any petty emotion that beneath the gentle voice and dovelike eyes of Melanie there was a thin flashing blade of unbreakable steel, felt too that there were banners and bugles of courage in Melanie’s quiet blood.

Related Characters: Scarlett O’Hara , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton)
Page Number: 420
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

“[before the war] there was a real beauty to living. […] And now it is gone and I am out of place in this new life, and I am afraid. Now, I know that in the old days, it was a shadow show I watched. I avoided everything which was not shadowy, people and situations which were too real, too vital. […] I tried to avoid you too, Scarlett. You were too full of living and too real and I was cowardly enough to prefer shadows and dreams.”

Related Characters: Ashley Wilkes (speaker), Scarlett O’Hara , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton)
Page Number: 498
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 61 Quotes

[Scarlett] could see so clearly now that he was only a childish fancy, no more important really than her spoiled desire for the aquamarine earbobs she had coaxed out of Gerald. For, once she owned the earbobs, they had lost their value, as everything except money lost its value once it was hers. And so he, too, would have become cheap if, in those first far-away days, she had ever had the satisfaction of refusing to marry him.

Related Characters: Scarlett O’Hara (speaker), Rhett Butler , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) , Ashley Wilkes
Page Number: 940
Explanation and Analysis:
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Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) Quotes in Gone with the Wind

The Gone with the Wind quotes below are all either spoken by Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) or refer to Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Civil War and Reconstruction Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Only when like marries like can there be happiness.”

Related Characters: Gerald O’Hara (speaker), Scarlett O’Hara , Rhett Butler , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) , Ashley Wilkes
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

Now, struggling against hatred for Ashley’s wife, there surged a feeling of admiration and comradeship. She saw in a flash of clarity untouched by any petty emotion that beneath the gentle voice and dovelike eyes of Melanie there was a thin flashing blade of unbreakable steel, felt too that there were banners and bugles of courage in Melanie’s quiet blood.

Related Characters: Scarlett O’Hara , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton)
Page Number: 420
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

“[before the war] there was a real beauty to living. […] And now it is gone and I am out of place in this new life, and I am afraid. Now, I know that in the old days, it was a shadow show I watched. I avoided everything which was not shadowy, people and situations which were too real, too vital. […] I tried to avoid you too, Scarlett. You were too full of living and too real and I was cowardly enough to prefer shadows and dreams.”

Related Characters: Ashley Wilkes (speaker), Scarlett O’Hara , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton)
Page Number: 498
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 61 Quotes

[Scarlett] could see so clearly now that he was only a childish fancy, no more important really than her spoiled desire for the aquamarine earbobs she had coaxed out of Gerald. For, once she owned the earbobs, they had lost their value, as everything except money lost its value once it was hers. And so he, too, would have become cheap if, in those first far-away days, she had ever had the satisfaction of refusing to marry him.

Related Characters: Scarlett O’Hara (speaker), Rhett Butler , Melanie Wilkes (Hamilton) , Ashley Wilkes
Page Number: 940
Explanation and Analysis: