Gone with the Wind (1936) is the only novel by author Margaret Mitchell published during her lifetime. It is an enduring but controversial classic of American literature, and according to one poll, its popularity among American readers is only exceeded by the Bible. Thirty million copies have been sold worldwide.

The novel’s tale of the Civil War is told from the perspective of the wealthy planter class that ruled the antebellum South, a class from which Mitchell herself descended. Before writing Gone with the Wind, Mitchell had been a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, though her patrician family discouraged her aspirations of becoming a professional writer.

Published during the Great Depression, Gone with the Wind became an instant bestseller and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. It was made into an equally successful film in 1939 starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, which won multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The novel is both a bildungsroman and a romance, as well as an example of Southern Romanticism.

This study guide and all its page citations are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This story is told from the perspective of plantation owners who fought for the Confederacy. It paints a benign picture of enslavement and frames the Ku Klux Klan as a defensive organization whose purpose was to protect defeated Southerners from the abuses of the Reconstruction government. The novel is an ahistorical depiction of the time period that has many similarities to other artistic works of the Lost Cause movement. The source text contains depictions of sexual assault and attempted assault, in addition to outdated, offensive language to refer to Black people. This language is reproduced only when quoting the source material.

Plot Summary

Scarlett O’Hara is the eldest daughter of Gerald O’Hara, the wealthy owner of Tara, a prosperous Georgia plantation. A true Southern belle, Scarlett has her pick of suitors, but the 16-year-old has fallen in love with the gentle, scholarly Ashley Wilkes. As the story begins, Scarlett is getting ready to attend a barbecue at the nearby Wilkes plantation. When she learns of Ashley’s impending marriage to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, Scarlett declares her feelings at the barbecue, only to be told that Ashley intends to go through with the wedding no matter what his feelings for Scarlett might be. Although Ashley rejects Scarlett’s advances, she attracts the attention of Rhett Butler, a roguish gentleman who believes he is a good match for Scarlett’s fiery disposition.

In a fit of temper, Scarlett accepts a marriage proposal from Melanie’s brother Charles shortly before all the men go off to join the Confederate Army. Her husband dies two months later, leaving Scarlett a pregnant widow at the age of 17. To cheer herself up, Scarlett goes to Atlanta for an extended visit with Melanie and her Aunt Pittypat. She finds life in the bustling city to be far more exciting than the slow pace of Tara. In town, Scarlett renews her acquaintance with Rhett, who begins to court her. As the war intensifies, Scarlett finds herself stranded in Atlanta during the Yankee siege while Melanie goes into labor at the worst possible moment.

With the help of Rhett, Scarlett gets herself and her people out of Atlanta before the town falls to the Union Army. Back at Tara, she is faced with the death of family members and the devastation of her beloved home. Scarlett soon proves that her will to survive is strong enough to fend off attacks by Yankees and the Reconstruction government that hopes to tax her family out of existence.

As time passes, Scarlett manages to rebuild her plantation, and after a second marriage to Frank Kennedy, she develops a thriving lumber business. Ashley’s return complicates her life, as her obsession with him continues, even after she marries Rhett. It isn’t until Melanie dies that Scarlett recognizes her love for the softspoken woman and realizes that she idealized Ashley but didn’t love him at all. Finally understanding that Rhett is her true love, she tries to repair their broken relationship, but he leaves. Undaunted, Scarlett is sure that she will win back her husband’s affections.

The novel covers a period of 12 years, from the onset of the Civil War in 1861 to the late days of the Reconstruction period in 1873. Most of the action alternates between the city of Atlanta and the plantations of nearby Clayton County, Georgia. Mitchell employs an omniscient narrative technique, though many events are described from the perspective of the book’s protagonist, Scarlett, as the novel follows the ups and downs of her fortunes in the decade following the war. In the process, the narrative examines the themes of Planter Class Assumptions of Dominance, Adaptability as Key to Survival, Pining for Lost Love, and The Myth of Benign Enslavement.