Student Question

How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have?

Quick answer:

Scarlett O'Hara has three children: Wade Hampton Hamilton, Ella Lorena Kennedy, and Eugenie Victoria Butler, who is known as Bonnie.

Expert Answers

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Unlike in the movie, in the novel Gone With the Wind Scarlett O'Hara has three children, one with each of her husbands (Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy, and Rhett Butler). Her child with Charles Hamilton is Wade Hampton, her only son. With Frank, she has her daughter, Ella Lorena. With Rhett she has second daughter, Eugenie Victoria, who is nicknamed Bonnie Blue and called Bonnie.

Scarlett is only 16 when she marries Charles, and he soon dies of pneumonia at training camp. Perhaps because she is so young herself and never loved Charles, she is not a good mother, showing almost no interest in Wade. When they live in Atlanta, he largely fades from view until the family has to escape from the Union army.

Although she is older when she marries Frank, Scarlett is similarly disinterested in Ella, who she thinks is an ugly baby and whose father she is indifferent to. At this point in her life, Scarlett is most fixated on building her lumber mill business, as she has been traumatized by the poverty she experienced right after the war. She shows more interest in Bonnie, but Rhett is the parent who does the most for her, working hard so that she will be accepted into Southern society in Atlanta and loving her dearly. Overall, Scarlett is a terrible parent.

The neglected older two children, especially Wade, get most of their nurturing from Melanie.

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