Headscratchers / Gone with the Wind

• At the end of the book, Scarlett leaves Wade and Ella at a hotel far away with Prissy, and boards a train to visit Melanie who is on her deathbed. Does that mean that Scarlett abandoned her two children, considering that she never cared for them to begin with?
  • She left them for a relatively short period of time in the care of someone who was in her employment so I wouldn't consider this abandonment. Scarlett's mother Ellen sent her to Savannah without her, didn't she? In Scarlett's case, it was an emergency, so she probably didn't want to subject the children to the emotional devastation brought by Melly's situation (and potential death). Or more likely, she didn't have the emotional energy or patience to deal with them when her best friend was dying.
• Did anyone else think it was just rude of Melanie to justify Scarlett marrying Frank Kennedy in Suellen's face, when Suellen herself was clearly devastated and hurt by Scarlett's actions? I mean I know Scarlett did it to save Tara from foreclosure, but couldn't Melanie have been way more sensitive to Suellen than she was?
  • Remember that Melanie always deeply loved Scarlett, was probably more truly empathetic to her than anyone else in the book/film (even Rhett), and was always ready to defend her - often with great fierceness - against the people who criticized her, so I see no mystery that she would defend Scarlett against Suellen's attacks. Keep in mind the particular circumstances, too; Melanie was well aware of the desperate financial straits Tara was in, and (as we learn at the end of the book) always knew that Rhett was the man who truly loved Scarlett and was perceptive enough to know that Scarlett, way deep down inside, loved Rhett, so she knew just how much of a sacrifice Scarlett was making in marrying a man she didn't love in order to save their home.
• For that matter, couldn't Scarlett just ask Suellen to ask Frank for the money to save Tara?
  • The book mentions that Suellen had no interest in using Frank’s money to pay the taxes on Tara, longing to use it to pamper herself with luxuries.
• Couldn't Melanie have adopted Wade and Ella, and raised them as her own children? Not only would it have spared her life from choosing an unwanted pregnancy, but it would have also ensured that both Wade and Ella would be both loved and nurtured by a person who really loved and cared for them, as opposed to that horrible bitch Scarlett- who cares nothing for them at all!
  • To be fair, it’s evident that Scarlett does love all her children (look no further than how she said nothing when the Yankees took Ellen’s things but drew the line at them taking Wade’s sword). She appears to have post-partum depression when Wade is a baby, explaining a lot of her behaviour at that point, and she has a lot of problems in general showing her affection and even understanding her own emotions. But much of her driving force in the second half of the novel is about providing a better life for her children, even if she does focus far too much on providing financial stability rather than social dito or emotional support. To Scarlett money equals power, security, respect, and everything else needed to put food on the table, a roof above the head, and security in life. Unsurprising, seeing as how it was the loss of their family fortune that took away nearly all the things she has taken for granted growing up.
  • The children were fed, clothed and taken care in a way that was normal for time period when wealthy women weren't expected to take care of their progeny
• If Melanie understands Scarlett so deeply as claimed above...why was she so happy with Scarlett marrying her brother under false pretences? I mean after Charlie's death she probably found some solace that the marriage to Scarlett brought happiness to the last weeks of her brother's life...but at the wedding?
  • Who says Melanie was happy? Perhaps that was just her being a Proper Lady and putting on a grand gesture of politeness at welcoming Scarlett to her family? Or maybe she only grew to understand Scarlett as the years went by, and bought into her act at first? Or she knew that Scarlett loved Ashley and would be broken-hearted that he was marrying her, so she was happy that Scarlett found a husband at all rather than become an Old Maid.