Plot
Outline
Cast
Homework
Timeline
Music
Links
Guestbook
Email
Download
Search
Home |
As Gone With The Wind begins, Scarlett O’Hara is shown with two men flirting with her. This is
nothing unusual -- Scarlett makes men act like this all the time. There is talk of a
Barbecue the next day at neighboring Twelve Oaks, the Wilkes’ plantation down the
road from Tara. Gerald O’Hara is coming back from Twelve Oaks, and Scarlett meets him
on the road to ask if the rumor Mammy, her slave, had told her is true. That Ashley Wilkes
is going to ask his cousin Melanie to marry him. Gerald tells Scarlett the same, and she
is heartbroken. As Scarlett is getting ready for the party, she and Mammy fight over
Ashley Wilkes. When they arrive at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett is the
center of attention, all of the men, even those who have girlfriends, talk to Scarlett.
She is the most popular girl there. All of the other girls resent her except for Melanie.
Melanie and Ashley talk of their marriage as they overlook the garden. Scarlett is sitting
beneath a tree with all the men surrounding her, at her beck and call. She is enjoying
this until she spies Ashley and Melanie together. The girls all have to go take a nap, but
once they are all asleep Scarlett sneaks out and listens in on the conversation the men
are having about the upcoming war.
Everyone is sure the war will be short and glorious. After all,
"southern gentlemen are worth any ten Yankees. Everyone knows that." Everyone,
that is, except Rhett Butler -- he thinks the war will be hard fought. After Rhett and all
the men get into a confrontation, he leaves. Shortly after, Ashley follows him. Scarlett
intercepts Ashley, and she gets him alone in the library to confess her love for him.
Ashley says he loves her too, but they are too different and cannot be together. After
Ashley leaves, Rhett Butler shows himself, he was in the room the whole time. Scarlett
comes out of the room and she hears all of the other girls talking about her, but Melanie
sticks up for her.
The war started! All the men are going to enlist. Charles Hamilton asks
Scarlett to marry him. She says yes to try to make Ashley jealous. In a double wedding,
Ashley and Melanie and Charles and Scarlett get married.
The men go off to war and Charles dies shortly after of pneumonia
(1862). Scarlett is widowed. Ellen O’Hara gives Scarlett permission to go to Atlanta
and stay with Melanie and her Aunt Pittypat. They are at a charity dance for the Rebel
army, when Scarlett runs into Rhett again. He bids $150 to dance with her. All of the
people at the dance were scandalized by this since she was just recently widowed. Scarlett
and Rhett become close and she spends time with him, because he is the only man around to
take her out. Rhett says that Scarlett should be, "kissed and often, by someone who
knows how."
At Christmas time (1863), the soldiers get three days leave. Ashley asks
Scarlett to look after Melanie. Scarlett and Melanie volunteer at the hospital for the
wounded from the war. Belle Whatling donates money to the hospital, but no one but Melanie
will take it because she runs a brothel. Scarlett recognizes the handkerchief that the
donation comes in, it is Rhett Butler’s. Scarlett, nursing at the hospital, helps to
show how gruesome the injuries were and how desperate the conditions were. In the summer
of 1864, Sherman starts to attack Atlanta and everyone is fleeing the city. Scarlett sees
Big Sam, her slave and he gives her word that her mother is sick. Scarlett is caught up in
the refugee traffic and Rhett comes by and saves her. Then he asks Scarlett to run away to
Mexico with him. Scarlett says that she wants to go back to Tara, but Dr. Mead convinces
her that it wouldn’t be the best thing to do, because Melanie is pregnant and she
cannot make the journey.
The siege of Atlanta is on in earnest, the Yankees are coming! Melanie
goes into labor. Scarlett goes to find Dr. Mead, but he cannot help her because there are
so many dying soldiers that need his help. Scarlett has to deliver the baby herself.
The baby is a boy, and Melanie names it Beau. Scarlett sends Prissy to
get Rhett and ask him to bring his horse and carriage. Rhett, Scarlett, Melanie, Prissy,
and Beau start on their journey to Tara. They have to cross through the fires set by the
retreating Confederates in downtown Atlanta. Brigands try to steal the horse and carriage
from Rhett, but he escapes. Rhett acts very heroic, and then he leaves them at the road to
Tara, and he goes to join the war.
The journey was long and hard, but Scarlett gets them through it. They
get back to Twelve Oaks, but it is demolished. So they head to Tara, and miraculously,
it’s still there, dirty and damaged, but standing. Scarlett leaves the carriage, and
runs towards the house. Her father greets her at the door, but he is changed. His mind has
gone. Their house has been looted, but it's still standing because it was used as a Yankee
headquarters. Scarlett finds out that her mother died, she is very upset. Scarlett’s
father still thinks that her mother is alive. Scarlett is the only one that the family can
depend on. She vows her famous line, "As God as my witness I will never be hungry
again."
INTERMISSION
|
