CHAPTER 5

Summary 

Scarlett begins the day of the party by searching for a dress. Her best dress has a stain on it which she fears Melanie may notice even if she pins a brooch over it. Thus she chooses a sleeveless dress with a low-cut neckline; this and her refusal to eat a tray of food brings about a confrontation with Mammy. It is inappropriate to show one’s arms and bosom before 3:00, and according to Mammy, girls are supposed to stuff themselves with food prior to going to a party so they will be unable to eat more than a mouthful or two at the party. The sentiment of the day is that only girls who eat like a bird will catch a husband.

On the way to the party we are introduced to Mrs. Tarleton and her daughters as their carriage meets up with the O’Hara carriage. They engage in friendly informal banter, the girls teasing their mother for flirting with Mr. O’Hara. Scarlett is shocked at the freedom with which the Tarletons act; yet it is obvious that they adore each other. She envies the assuredness with which the Tarleton girls conduct themselves. Gerald and Mrs. Tarleton discuss horses for a bit, then the conversations shifts to Ashley’s engagement to Melanie. Mrs. Tarleton disapproves of marriage among cousins, as she believes it "weakens the strain." Gerald begins to get embarrassed as such frank conversation would be considered most improper if Ellen were to hear about it. Finally Hetty Tarleton urges them to move on to the party. Gerald manages to detain them long enough to ask Mrs. Tarleton if she has reconsidered her unwillingness to sell her horses to the Troop when they go to war. She says she will do no such thing, but then suggests that perhaps there will be no war anyway. 

CHAPTER 4

Summary 

During supper, Pork arrives with the new slave Dilcey and her daughter Prissy who will be given to Scarlett for her personal maid. Then Ellen arrives home with the news that the Slattery baby is dead. The family undertakes their usual ritual of evening prayers, directed by Ellen who is a devout Catholic. During the prayers, Scarlett’s mind wanders to Ashley. It occurs to her that the only reason Ashley has proposed to Melanie is because he doesn’t know that she is in love with him herself. She plots for some way to tell him during the upcoming barbecue. In her imagination, she convinces herself that if Ashley only knows of her love, he will abandon Melanie and beg her to run away with him.

After prayers, Scarlett overhears her mother tell Gerald that he must fire Jonas Wilkerson, his overseer, as Jonas is the father of the dead Slattery baby. Jonas is a "Yankee man." 

CHAPTER 3

Summary 

hapter three is the background of Ellen and Gerald O’Hara. Ellen had been a Savannah girl who had not been permitted to marry the boy she loved. He had later been killed in a barroom brawl. Ellen was angry and desperate to get away from the people she blamed for Philippe Robillard’s death. When Gerald appeared in Savannah and asked to marry her, she quietly agreed to go with him.

As for Gerald, he was a hot-tempered Irishman forced to leave his homeland after killing his landlord’s rent agent. He followed the way of his brother James and Andrew and worked in their store in Savannah for a while. One night he wins the Tara homestead in a gambling match. The original house had burned and the fields are untended, but Gerald is happy to get it nonetheless. He clears the fields and plants cotton, and the house is built by slave labor. At the age of 43, after building and developing Tara for ten years, he decides he needs a wife. With his slave Pork, he goes to Savannah, intending to propose to Ellen Robillard. He never finds out that the only reason Ellen’s father gives in to her is because she swears that she will either marry Gerald O’Hara or go into a convent.

The following year, Scarlett is born. A year later, Susan Elinor - called Suellen -comes along, and finally Carreen, whose name is short for "Caroline Irene." Ellen gives birth to three little boys as well, but none of them live. Because of her graciousness, Ellen is soon the best-loved neighbor in the county. She tries to teach her own manners and breeding to Scarlett, but although Scarlett behaves appropriately in sight of her mother, she teaching has little impact.

Scarlett adores her mother and hopes to be like her someday, but believes that she will miss out on too much of life if she tries to practice the same gentility, tenderness and justice while she is young. 

CHAPTER 2

Summary

Scarlett allows herself to react to the Tarleton twins’ news. She is unable to believe that Ashley could be marrying Melanie as she has had a crush on him herself for years.

We meet Mammy, the black woman who had been mammy to Scarlett’s mother Ellen and has led a life devoted to the O’Hara family. She oversees all the household servants and watches over the health and behavior of the O’Hara girls. Scarlett takes advantage of a moment when Mammy goes after a shawl for her to run down the long mansion drive where she can meet her father. He had been at the Wilkes making deals for another slave, and Scarlett thinks she can get him to talk about the supposed engagement without being suspicious of her motives.

Scarlett waits at the fence, musing on the blond Ashley whom she wants even though she must admit that she doesn’t understand him. Finally her father comes racing through the fields, recklessly jumping a fence, an action he knows his wife would not approve of. Scarlett deliberately laughs to let him know she has seen him. She will not tell on him, however, as the two of them have quite a few mutual secrets involving behavior that would be considered inappropriate for either a gentleman or a lady. Gerald O’Hara tells his daughter of the slave he has bought. He has purchased Dilcey and her daughter Prissy from John Wilkes. He intends to give Prissy to Scarlett.

When Scarlett asks after Ashley, Gerald confirms the news that Ashley is about to marry Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett pretends she is not really interested, but Gerald sees through her and scolds her for wanting someone whose interests are in books, poetry, music and paintings, topics that do not interest Scarlett at all. Gerald tries to console her by telling her that she will have Tara one day, but she is feeling sorry for herself and says that land doesn’t amount to anything. Gerald is momentarily angry with her, but he drops the issue. They arrive at home in time to see Ellen on her way out. She has received a call from the Slatterys, a "white trash" family near by who have a new, and dying, baby. Mammy objects to Ellen going to take care of the "white trash," but she cannot stop her. 

GONE WITH THE WIND

PART ONE

CHAPTER 1

Summary 

Scarlett O’Hara is seated on the porch of the O’Hara plantation. She flirts with Stuart and Brent Tarleton, two among many young men of the area who seem to be attracted to her. The boys are at the O’Hara home in order to prolong going to their own, as they have just been expelled from the fourth university in two years. The three of them think the expulsion quite amusing although the boys excuse their behavior by saying they would have had to come home as soon as war broke out anyway. Scarlett scoffs at the idea, refusing to believe that there will ever be a war.

During the conversation, Stuart and Brent remind Scarlett of a barbecue being held the following evening. They want her to promise them plenty of dances. They inform Scarlett that they have heard that Ashley Wilkes will announce his engagement to Melanie Hamilton at the barbecue. Although Scarlett retains her poise, the news is a shock to her, and she suddenly becomes distant from the young men, forgetting even to ask them to stay to supper.

After leaving Scarlett, Brent and Stuart introduce, by way of discussion about them, several other characters such as India Wilkes and Letty Monroe, both rivals of Scarlett’s. They have two more brothers named Tom and Boyd, and a black slave named Jeems. They decide to visit the Calverts for supper. They finally dismiss that idea because they dread another lecture at the hands of a Yankee stepmother. They finally decide to go to the Wynders.

The end of the chapter describes an assembly of upper class boys turned soldiers, called the Troop. They are a group of Calvary that had been organized on the day Georgia seceded from the Union. They are completely inexperienced and have selected officers merely by voting among themselves. Initially they recruited only among the rich planters, but for lack of numbers they also recruited from the families of small farmers, hunters and other "poor whites." The wealthier families purchased their horses and their weapons were a varied array of whatever could be gathered. The Troop meets twice a week to drill in Jonesboro, always ending up in saloons and in fights.