Gone with the Wind (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Margaret Mitchell
- First Published: 1936
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Romance
- Time of Work: The Civil War and Reconstruction
- Setting: Georgia
- Principal Characters: Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler, Ashley Wilkes, Melanie Wilkes, Frank Kennedy
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction, War fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Self-discovery, Suffering, Love or romance, South or Southerners, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Marriage, Poverty or poor people, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Plantations or plantation life, Civil War, Farms, farmers, or farming, Upper classes, Death or dying, Greed, Reconstruction, Ambition, Stereotypes
- Locales: South (U.S.), Atlanta, GA
Form and Content
Gone with the Wind is a historical romance that uses Scarlett O’Hara as the symbol for Reconstruction in the South. Like Atlanta, which sheds its image of Southern gentility after the Civil War, Scarlett is allowed to break away from the conventionalities of proper Southern womanhood. The exigencies of war, its devastation and defeat, enable Scarlett to adopt behavior more suited to her energy and character as she struggles to support her family, to restore the plantation Tara to productivity, and later to become a commercially successful businesswoman...
[The entire page is 2500 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
