Characters / Gone with the Wind: Twelve Oaks

The Wilkes Plantation

John Wilkes

John Wilkes

Played By: Howard Hickman

• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the book, he's killed in battle. In the movie, Melanie sees his tombstone at the remains of his destroyed house, but it isn't clear how he died here.
• In the Blood: A gentleman philosopher, much like his son. Their bookishness is not really understood by their community, but no one would dare to slight such courteous people.
• Morality Chain: As seen in the film adaptation when he tells India that her feelings towards Scarlett are her brother’s business.
• Southern Gentleman: Along with his son, but in his case it's played straight. He was always courteous and pleasant, even with people he didn't really get along with.

India Wilkes

India Wilkes

I can't stand that Scarlett.

Played By: Alicia Rhett

• Alpha Bitch: She could be the Old South version of this troupe.
• Arch-Enemy / Jerkass: She’s hostile to Scarlett and Rhett for understandable reasons. This also extends to Melanie and her own brother and sister by some mild degree.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Margaret Mitchell describes India as no word other than plain and a costume sketch by Walter Plunkett remains true to this◊. Alicia Rhett, who plays her in the movie, is quite beautiful.
  • Pippa Guard, who plays her in the Scarlett miniseries, is slightly closer to Mitchell’s description.
• Bitch Alert / Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In the film adaptation, she is very civil with Gerald but gets nasty when she expresses her feelings towards Scarlett to her father.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Her hatred towards Scarlett seems to have subsided during Melanie's dying moments, though it resurfaces in Scarlett.
• Easily Forgiven: Melanie and Dr. Meade understand her plight to make amends with Scarlett during Melanie’s final moments.
• Green-Eyed Monster: To both Scarlett and Honey. Scarlett ended up marrying Charles while Honey got married to a rich gentleman from the West.
• Ice Queen: Becomes a vengeful one after Scarlett steals Charles Hamilton away from her and loses her second option Stuart Tarleton during the war.
• Hate Sink: She is easily dislikable for outcasting Scarlett and Rhett from respectable society. But when Melanie dies, her attempts to forgive Scarlett kills what little hatred you might have for her.
  • Subverted in the sequel Scarlett where she’s back to her old self to the point where she refuses to let Scarlett in her house when the former tries to speak to Ashley.
• Impoverished Patrician: She's the daughter of an established and wealthy plantation family but the war depletes the family estate and fortune, forcing her to be dependent on her brother's family.
• Jerkass Has a Point: India's accusations of Scarlett coveting Ashley are very true. She still is bitchy to make them in public, even if Melanie's not around to defend Scarlett.
• Kick the Dog: When it is announced that Scarlett and Rhett are getting married, India starts a smear campaign to cut them off from endowed society.
• Loving a Shadow: She was engaged to one of the Tarleton twins, but he's killed in the war and she never marries another man.
• No Sympathy: When she finds out Scarlett was attacked at Shantytown, she makes no effort to give her any kind of comfort or consolation. Instead, she says the attack was all Scarlett's fault for exposing herself all throughout town, even going as far as to say that she deserved to get attacked and that if there was any justice, she'd have deserved worse.
• Old Maid: She ends up a spinster, and quite a spiteful one. Although she is more respected because her fiancé died in war and she is virtually his widow, Mama Fontaine points out how silly of her is wasting what remains of her youth for the memory of a man that wasn't even her husband, while she could have easily married a widower or someone older.
  • She finally married in the sequel Scarlett.
• Plain Jane: The book describes her as thus, especially when compared to girls like Scarlett and the Tarleton boys' many redheaded sisters and even her own brother.
• Promoted to Parent: Becomes the head of Twelve Oaks after her mom dies.
• Terrible Trio: With herself, Archie and Mrs. Elsing.

Honey Wilkes

Honey Wilkes

Walter Plunkett's costume sketch of Honey

• Adapted Out: She is nowhere to be seen in the movie nor the sequel Scarlett and its adaptation. However a costume design by Walter Plunkett and Sidney Howard’s original screenplay reveal that she was intended to appear in the film. Honey does however appear in the 1972 West End musical.
• Cassandra Truth: She is the only one to notice before the war that Scarlett has eyes only for Ashley, but for a while no one believed her.
• The Ditz: Even more than Scarlett. While Scarlett is at least business savvy, poor Honey is dumb as a brick.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Honey is apparently not her real name.
• Happily Married: She marries a westerner from Mississippi.
• Impoverished Patrician: She's the daughter of an established and wealthy plantation family but the war depletes the family estate and fortune, forcing her to be dependent on the Hamiltons.
• Plain Jane: She isn't described as particularly attractive, all the family's good looks mostly going to her brother, while she ends up "lashless as a rabbit".

Ashley Wilkes

Ashley Wilkes

"Yes, there is something. Something you love better than me although you may not know it. Tara."

Played By: Leslie Howard

The man with whom Scarlett is obsessed. Gentlemanly yet indecisive, he loves Scarlett too, but finds he has more in common with Melanie, and eventually marries her, much to Scarlett's dismay.

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• The Ace:
  • For a Southern Gentleman; he's well bred, educated, genteel, and a man of honor and manners, and goes through the world expecting the same in return. After the war, he's kind of useless. He's much less effective when scaled down in socioeconomic status, and his old-fashioned values are antiquated and useless in the New South.
  • This was later discussed by Rhett when Scarlett accused him of being jealous of Ashley, and Rhett laughed it off. As Rhett sees it, as a Southern Gentleman, Ashley was a product of a specific time with specific economic and social factors. And while Ashley was a good Southern Gentleman, he didn't have the actual practical skills to adapt to the Reconstruction-era South.
• Adaptational Wimp: The movie cuts out much of Ashley's wartime letters describing his experience in the battlefield and other events highlighting his strengths of character, instead focusing on the incredibly few moments of romance he had with Scarlet in the novel. Combined with Leslie Howard's aging appearance and allegedly subpar acting, this led to many people who watch the film to bash Ashley as a wimp, often stating they cannot understand why Scarlet would prefer him over the vibrant Rhett. While he had fatal flaws, the original novel makes it clear Ashley has some clear moral character and was a valiant man in the battlefield.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • The Betty to Rhett's Veronica.
  • Inversely, Scarlett was his Veronica, compared to Melanie being his Betty. He was already engaged to Melanie, however, so there never was a competition.
• Birds of a Feather: Ashley and Melanie. Not only are they literally of the same blood, but have similar views and temperaments.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Scarlett would have given up on Ashley if he had just told her he truly loves Melanie.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Unlucky Scarlett in regards to Ashley, although Victorious Melanie likely knew him just as long.
• Cultured Warrior: Ashley is the leader of his troop due to his excellent marksmanship and leadership skills, but most of his men find his habit of reading literature and discussing philosophy very strange.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Rebukes Scarlett's pleas that he leave Melanie to be with her due to his claim that he cares for Scarlett by carefully wording it so that he says he has to be with Melanie out of honor, duty, and obligation (first because Wilkeses always marry their cousins, then later due to the baby), but never outright says that he loves Melanie and doesn't want to leave her. This helped fuel Scarlett's false hope for years.
• Exact Words: He never explicitly tells Scarlett that he loves Melanie, which gives her hope for years that she can eventually win Ashley over if she just persists hard enough. It isn't until Melanie is on her deathbed that he finally reveals that he truly loved her, and Scarlett (who comes to her own Love Epiphany) quietly berates him for letting her think she had a chance with him for years.
• Kissing Cousins: Members of the Wilkes family marry their cousins whenever possible, one of the main reasons Scarlett initially loses out to Melanie.
• Master of the Mixed Message: From the very beginning, he keeps calling on Scarlett even though he's practically engaged to Melanie, leaving her genuinely thinking that he wants to marry her—and genuinely stunned when she learns of his betrothal. He then refuses to explicitly leave or cheat on Melanie to be with Scarlett, but often half-heartedly reciprocates Scarlett's advances, accepts elaborate gifts she gives him, and even verbally agrees with her when she claims that he does love/care about her, only to tell her that he has to be with Melanie due to honor. When Melanie is on her deathbed and Ashley finally reveals he truly loved her and didn't just stay with her out of obligation, Scarlett (who is in the middle of her own Love Epiphany) quietly berates him for stringing her along with tidbits of affection for years.
• Middle Name Basis: George is his first name. Ashley is his middle name.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Ashley is the Noble Male, while Rhett is the Roguish Male.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Leslie Howard famously makes no real attempt to mask his British accent, particularly in the 2nd Act. Averted with American actor Stephen Collins who plays him in the Scarlett miniseries.
• Officer and a Gentleman: He is literally one on both accounts.
• Princely Young Man: He certainly gives off this vibe.
• Southern Gentleman: Ashley is the most prominent example, but seems a deconstruction of the trope.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Scarlett blackmailed Ashley into becoming her business partner by crying about it to Melanie.

Melanie Hamilton

Melanie Hamilton

"Be kind to Captain Butler. He loves you so."

Played By: Olivia de Havilland

Scarlett's naive sister-in-law and, eventually, best friend.

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• Ambiguous Situation: It's not entirely clear if Melanie knows deep down that Scarlett is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and chooses to overlook it because she cares about her so much, or if she honestly doesn't realize that Scarlett is not a Sheep in Sheep's Clothing. Either way, she loves Scarlett and won't hear anyone say one bad word about her.

• Beware the Nice Ones: Melanie's reaction to Scarlett killing a Union deserter was "I'm glad you killed him!" This, after she heard him threatening Scarlett, rose from her sick bed and took up a sword she was barely strong enough to hold. And she pulled out a pistol when she thought Yankee soldiers were about to break into her home.
• The Confidant: More by chance than willingly, but she becomes this to Scarlet. She is aware of most of Scarlet's shadier shenanigans, because she was there or rather because she is the only one who understands her.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Melanie has a miscarriage which eventually leads to her death.
• Determinator: More subtly than Scarlet, but the lady is a match for her fiery sister-in-law in willfulness.
• Family of Choice: She is Scarlett's sister-in-law (and just the first one) but she becomes closer to her than any of her other relatives. During the feud, she even severs her ties with both India and Aunt Pittypat.
• Friend to All Children: She adores babies and would had welcomed a dozen of her own. Little Wade adores her and is much more playful and outgoing in her company than with his own mother.

• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: As Rhett himself points out in the film, Melanie's biggest flaw is that she cannot conceive anyone she cares about is capable of any kind of cruelty or selfishness, and she loves Scarlett greatly.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She completely adores Scarlett and constantly defends her to gossips who correctly point out Scarlett's manipulative and selfish actions.
  • She also holds up Archie as some kind of paragon of virtue, despite being fully aware of his misogyny and that he murdered his wife, freely trusting him with the welfare of her female friends. Granted, he never does anything to harm her or any of them, but it's plain and simple a stupid decision. Her rationale? According to Archie, that people never commit more than one murder, and that fighting for the Confederacy evens out any wrongs a person did before.
• Irony: Completely loves and trusts Scarlett like a sister, even though Scarlett spends years secretly hating her and eager to steal her husband from her if given half the chance.

• Kissing Cousins: Members of the Wilkes family marry their cousins whenever possible, one of the main reasons Scarlett initially loses out to Melanie.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: She desires to have many children, but her body type makes childbirth very painful for her, almost killing her the first time and definitely killing her off when she tries have a second. Scarlett instead gets pregnant from each of her husbands with health, full pregnancies but she didn't want any of those children.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Melanie is the Light Feminine, while Scarlett is the Dark Feminine.
• Living Emotional Crutch: She's basically this for everyone. Scarlett comes to realize at the end of the book that it was Melanie's inner strength that fueled her own for years, Melanie is the only one who is able to help Rhett out of his grief-induced madness following Bonnie's death, and when Melanie is on her own deathbed Ashley completely fell apart without her, and any hope of Rhett's and Scarlett's failing marriage reconciling dies with her.
• Noble Bigot: As kind-hearted as she is, she holds some incredibly racist views of blacks and women. However her racist and sexist beliefs are not violent and contemptible in nature and represents the "paternal" type in which she believes blacks are by nature too inferior to last on their own and its duty for whites to look after them.
• The Pollyanna: She has a much more naive outlook on life than Scarlett, and she's a much happier person overall.
• Proper Lady: As befits a foil for Scarlett.
• Royal Inbreeding: Downplayed. While Southern aristocracy rather than outright royalty, nonetheless the film hammers home many times that the wealthy Wilkes family goes out of their way to marry their own cousins whenever possible, and Melanie marries her own cousin Ashley, and as a result she's a delicate girl (which runs in the family) whose first childbirth almost kills her and second one succeeds.
• Smarter Than You Look: At first, she appears oblivious to her sister-in-law hitting on her husband and Loving a Shadow, but she sees the pragmatic decisions that Scarlett makes as necessary, like picking the cotton to pay for the taxes on Tara with all the field slaves gone and shooting a Yankee deserter that broke into the house. All of these, she realizes, were a result of Scarlett protecting her loved ones, including Ashley and Melanie. And as Melanie points out when defending Scarlett from the accusations that Ashley is having an affair, that Scarlett saved her and newborn Beau when the Yankees invaded Atlanta and took care of her through her illness when an unfaithful woman would have left her to die and invoke Comforting the Widow. Scarlett to herself claims her care of Melanie was I Gave My Word, but later on when Melanie is dying she realizes the truth, that they had become Fire-Forged Friends.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Melanie is the most kind-hearted and frail of the family. Midway through the film a Union soldier breaks into the house to rape and steal. He encounters Scarlett, who shoots him with her pistol... and behind her is Melanie, still recovering from having given birth and brandishing a sword.
• Southern Belle: A much, much nicer example than Scarlett.
• Too Dumb to Live: She gets pregnant despite multiple doctors warning her that another pregnancy would be fatal, and indeed, dies after a miscarriage.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She eventually succumbs due to a spontaneous abortion.
• Tranquil Fury: She seems quite and meek but do not cross her. She readily banished lifelong friends because they mistreated Scarlet. Those ladies came begging to her in tears.
• Tragic Keepsake: One of the few things she has left of her brother Charles is his sword.
• White Man's Burden: Her racist attitudes are held out of paternalistic attitudes of race rather than malice; see Noble Bigot.

Charles Hamilton

Charles Hamilton

Played By: Rand Brooks

• Disappeared Dad: He does not live long to see his son grow up.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He gets drafted, but dies of pneumonia before engaging in actual combat.
• Hidden Depths: Despite practically being engaged to Honey Wilkes, he openly defies both of their families and tradition to marry Scarlett, in direct contrast to his wimpy personality. (Scarlett never realizes that her supposed valiant hero Ashley couldn't do the same thing). Scarlett later notes when reading Ashley's "boring", "crazy" letters to Melanie that "even Charlie wrote better letters than this!"
• Nephewism: He and Melanie grew up with Uncle Henry and Aunt Pittypat after their parents died.
• Operation: Jealousy: Scarlett marries him in order to make Ashley jealous.
• The Pollyanna: Like his sister, he is an orphan with a positive, if not, naive outlook on life.
• Proper Lady: A rare male example.
• Second Love: To either India or Honey Wilkes.
• Spear Counterpart: He could be seen as a male version of Melanie.
• Too Dumb to Live: He doesn’t realize that Scarlett is only marrying him out of spite and he gets drafted into war...with a fatal combination of measles and pneumonia.

Frank Kennedy

Frank Kennedy

Played By: Carroll Nye

• Asshole Victim: It's easy to miss given his bumbling personality and the Historical Hero Upgrade that the group gets, but he's killed during a botched Ku Klux Klan raid. When you consider what this organization was (and still is) like, he ends up fitting this trope perfectly.
• Disappeared Dad: He dies leaving his daughter Ella in the care of Scarlett.
• Henpecked Husband: After bamboozling him into marrying her, Scarlett pretty much makes his life hell throughout their marriage.
• Tranquil Fury: Scarlett is infuriated and bewildered when he has little to no reaction to her Attempted Rape, not even to blame her for it for ignoring his repeated warnings not to go out late/by herself. When it's revealed a few pages later that he's a member of the Klan and that the group has gone out to avenge her, it turns out that contrary to his supposedly uncaring attitude, he was exemplifying this trope.

The visitor from Charleston

Rhett Butler

Rhett Butler

"Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is."

Played By: Clark Gable

A wealthy bachelor who's older than Scarlett. He made his fortune through professional gambling, his brothel and war supplies.

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• Adaptational Badass: The book mostly describe his badass moments off-screen, the movie gives Rhett some onscreen, particularly in the Siege of Atlanta. While the book's description of escaping the city is no laughing matter (as artillery is being bombarded and union soldiers are approaching with the city's populace fleeing in hysteria), in the film blindfolding a panicking horse and leading it through a an alley of burning buildings and he fends off four bandits intent on robbing their wagon during the escape, knocking them out with single blows. All while a STORAGE of ammunition are set on fire (which destroyed pretty much the entire studio set block where the scene was filmed, so kudos for the stuntman who did this)!
• Adaptational Curves: Inverted by Clark Gable who, while having the basic description of Rhett in the books, had an average build for this film. In the books, Rhett is described as an all-round strong large man with muscular arms and a well-built body.
• Adaptational Heroism: Played straight forward as opposed to Scarlett. Much of his vile acts such as the duel before the story where he killed a Southern girl's brother, his murder of a yankee and freedman after the war, and his various acts of swindling are all removed from the film. In addition the film focused primarily on his charmy dashing side and romantic moments for Scarlett. So much that the movie led to the notion of Rhett being the "ideal Southern gentleman" and as the "ideal romantic lead".
• Analogy Backfire: At one point, Dr. Meade argues that General Johnston cannot be dislodged from the Kennesaw Mountain and brings up the Battle of Thermopylae. Rhett reminds him that "they died to the last man at Thermopylae."
• At Least I Admit It: Unlike most of the Southern upper crust, he's willing to admit to his faults.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He falls in love with Scarlett from the moment he overhears her passionately declare her undying love for Ashley, hoping that eventually she'd tell Rhett the same thing. However, Scarlett would spend years pining after Ashley (because the exact same stubborn passion she had for Ashley that made Rhett fall in love with her, she refused to dislodge from Ashley), and when Scarlett finally told Rhett what he wanted to hear, he was tired of years of their Destructive Romance.
• Betty and Veronica: With Ashley, though it is also a deconstruction when he does get married to Scarlett and she still pines for Ashley.
• Big Damn Heroes: Rhett does this a couple of times, but never completely successful.
• Birds of a Feather: Scarlett and Rhett.
• Black Sheep: Rhett's prominent, wealthy (before the war) family managed to blacklist him not only from their own estate, but the entire city of Charleston. Subverted in that for all his denouncement of Southern morals and norms, Rhett actually helped his family in secret during tough times in the war and Rhett is probably the most egalitarian character in the whole novel, viewing blacks as being far more capable and intelligent than most people in the time did. He is also ahead of his time in regards to women equality.
• Brutal Honesty: Angers Scarlett and the other Southern upper-crust by often telling the truth as plainly as he sees it, rather than mince words or sugarcoat it.
• Byronic Hero: He's a Tall, Dark, and Handsome man with a Dark and Troubled Past as a social outcast because of his unconventional opinions and actions, which often sound fine for modern audience but awful for contemporary people. He's also morally ambiguous in his and quite opportunistic, but at least he admits this instead of being a hypocrite like most of the people around him, and lives to his own interpretation of honor. He's also honorable and selfless to the people he cares the most, and there are glimpse of his struggling conscience and occasional self-deprecation. Not to mention his self-destructive romance with equally impetuous Scarlett.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Rhett does confess his feelings to Scarlett a few times, but he invariably subverts his confessions by chickening out and convincing her he's making fun of her. He justifies this by saying that if she knew about his feelings, she'd make his life a living hell; but it becomes more and more obvious as the story progresses that she's already done that.
  • Not to mention that Rhett outright lies, once or twice, when Scarlett asks him point-blank if he's in love with her. Once, when Scarlett reveals that she's been considering an abortion, Rhett reacts in outrage and horror, and then when the amazed Scarlett tells him she didn't know he cared that much about her, he switches gears and casually replies that he just doesn't want to lose a good investment.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Rhett, during the prelude to Sherman's March on Atlanta.
• Character Development:
  • Begins the tale with a low opinion of the Confederate braggadocios and wary of war only insofar as his finances are concerned. Years of bloodshed instil a certain patriotic fervour in Rhett, who personally takes up arms despite the inevitability of defeat and retains Confederate sympathies afterwards.
  • He realizes in turn that Wanting Is Better Than Having in terms of his relationship with Scarlett, and knows that his own role in Poor Communication Kills ruins their relationship.
  • He also coasts by his life intentionally pissing people off and not caring about his reputation, leading him to be the Black Sheep of the family. When his daughter's born he at least pretends to be a more presentable man-about-town entirely for her sake, building up a positive reputation so that she'll have better connections and social standing as she gets older. He even bullies Scarlett into being less antagonistic purely for the sake of his daughter.
• The Charmer: When Rhett wants people to like him, he's all but irresistible; but usually he can't be bothered.
• The Dandy: Pittypat claims that Rhett is one in the book.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rhett in regards to nearly everything, from the impossibility of the Confederacy winning the war to the ridiculous expectations put on women in the 1860s. Routinely, no one understands his comments/everyone is offended by them.
• Defiled Forever: Part of the reason why Rhett is not received by any fine family in Charleston is that he refused to marry a girl he had been out with for too long without a chaperone.
• Destructive Romance: Rhett and Scarlett. In Scarlett, this trope is deconstructed and played with continuously. The conclusion is basically that the most destructive force on earth to these two very strong and determined people is their love for each other. And then it becomes quite literally a fact of 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' by the end.
• Doting Parent: Lovingly fawns on Bonnie and gives her all the love, attention, and gentleness a father possibly can. Scarlet is visibly moved at just how much affection he doles out to her from the moment she's born.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Right after a misunderstanding has led the entire town to believe that Ashley and Scarlett are having an affair, gets really, really drunk.
  • He drinks when he believes Scarlett is about to die from a miscarriage that he is responsible for.
  • In the book he gets drunk after Bonnie's death.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Rhett, despite all his other moral failings, is very fond of his mother.
• Friend to All Children: When Scarlett laments her second pregnancy (with Ella) and declares that she hates babies, Rhett admits that he likes them and we see this throughout the book—his fondness for Wade and Ella, his utter devotion to Bonnie. It makes the moment where he declares his ward "a perfect little hellion who I wish had never been born" a very Out of Character moment.
• Handsome Lech: Very much downplayed in the movie.
• Heroic BSoD: When Bonnie dies, he's utterly broken: to start he kills the pony she was riding (and Mammy says she thought for a moment he considered using the second barrel of the shotgun on himself), then drinks himself simultaneously stupid and angry, railing against burying the child because she was scared of the dark.
• Hollywood Atheist: Averted; Rhett is privately an atheist, but not particularly vocal or strident. He does tease Scarlett when she is melodramatically convinced she's going to hell but his criticism is more centered around her obvious hypocrisy.
• Honor Before Reason: In the film, he decides to help fight in the war when it's clear they're about to lose anyway, and abandons Scarlett on her way home to Tara (with a sick Mellie, newborn baby, and Prissy in tow) to do so. Lampshaded by Scarlett, but downplayed as he knows Scarlett can handle herself if a Yankee came for her, and gives her pistol as protection.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Rhett is The Social Expert who can turn anyone into putty in his hands if he has half a mind to exert the effort, yet Scarlett remains firmly resistant to his advances for years. It's implied that the main reason he fall for her is because she's able to resist him for so long.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He's often downright verbally abusive to Scarlett. For someone who loves her, he doesn't seem to like her very much, as well as simultaneously resenting her for not returning his feelings.
  • Threatens her with physical violence on several occasions and ultimately carries it out the night he forces himself on her—this is after threatening to tear her "limb from limb" or "crush her skull".
  • Pulls a disappearing act afterwards and when he finally shows up, throws it in her face that he slept with another woman, completely oblivious to the fact that Scarlett wants to work things out with him.
  • He rebuffs Scarlett every time she genuinely tries to reach out to him. The most striking example is when she tells him she's pregnant again. Until then, she's been happy about it and hoping that they have a chance to reconcile. His reaction? To ask who the father is — knowing full well the child is the result of him using his Marital Rape Licence — and to tell her, "Cheer up, maybe you'll have a miscarriage."
• Ladykiller in Love: Rhett is one of these in regards to Scarlett.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Perhaps one of the most famous examples in cinema history. He loves Scarlett, but years of their Destructive Romance and her pining after someone else eventually take their toll and he eventually decides he's had enough.
• Love Martyr: He basically becomes this to Scarlett. Before their marriage he showers her with gifts and favors and comes to her aid whenever she needs it, hoping she'll eventually reciprocate his feelings. After they're married, he again lets her keep the lumber mill, showers her in expensive gifts and honeymoons, and hopes she'll eventually forget Ashley for him. When this fails, he slowly turns to alcoholism and bitterness toward her.
• Manipulative Bastard: Scarlett and Rhett both revel in this. Naturally, it makes their relationship somewhat difficult.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Clark Gable reportedly refused to give Rhett a southern accent. Timothy Dalton, who plays Rhett in the Scarlett miniseries averts this troupe.
• Only Sane Man: Particularly with his opinions that the South cannot win the war. Not that anybody listens. Also counts after the war in regards to Southerner's reaction to Northern policies in the reconstruction with the KKK and plans to resume the war which Rhett describes as "damned foolishness".
• Papa Wolf: He's a good stepfather to Wade and Ella and pulls out all the stops to redeem himself and be accepted in society so that Bonnie will be too.
• Playboy Has a Daughter: He owns and resides in a brothel before marrying Scarlett, but after Bonnie is born, he becomes an utterly devoted father to her.
• Professional Gambler: Rhett was one of these early in his life after being cast out by his father.
• Really Gets Around: Rhett owns a brothel.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tells the Southern gentlemen to their faces why they don't stand a chance against the Yankees if it comes to war:
  Charles: Are you hinting, Mr. Butler, that the Yankees can lick us?
  Butler: No, I'm not hinting. I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we are. They've got [cannon] factories, shipyards, coal mines, and a fleet to bottle up our harbors and starve us to death. All we've got is cotton and slaves and... arrogance.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Perhaps one of the most iconic in film, Rhett leaves Scarlett for good at the end of the story, uttering the line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
• The Social Expert: During the war, everyone despises him for being a smuggler. After the war is over and Bonnie is born, Rhett wants her to be eventually accepted in the high society, so he ingratiates himself with them with little effort.
• Stepford Snarker: Not until the very end of the book does Scarlett realize how much he loves her because his sole way of communicating with her is through wisecracks and snide comments.
• Too Much Alike: Eventually comes to realize this is why he and Scarlett have a Destructive Romance: He's initially drawn to her because they're both selfish, ruthlessly pragmatic, and have a cruel streak, but after years of marriage he eventually realizes they don't work because they bring out the worst in each other.

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