Scarlett is one of the authorized sequels to Gone with the Wind, written by Alexandra Ripley and published in 1991. It's an Immediate Sequel detailing how Scarlett handles the aftermath of the previous book, including Rhett leaving her, and how she finally grows into a proper person.
It was adapted into a 1994 Mini Series on CBS starring Joanne Whalley as Scarlett O'Hara, Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler, and Sean Bean as Lord Richard Fenton.
Tropes for this book include:
- 0% Approval Rating: Count Fenton, at least in Ballyhara. Scarlett admits that she only accepted his marriage proposal because she couldn't have Rhett, and she wanted Fenton's money in revenge.
- Adaptational Distillation: By its final quarter, the Mini Series wildly diverges from the book—Scarlett is brutally raped by Fenton and charged with his murder, and unable to remember if she did it or not.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the novel, Scarlett doesn’t meet Lord Fenton until some time after she gives birth to Cat.
- Adaptational Villainy: Fenton is even worse in the miniseries, being an abuser of a young Irish girl who he's forced to be his Sex Slave, refusing to help her in any way when she gets pregnant, murdering Scarlett's priest cousin when he demands that he take responsibility, and finally, raping Scarlett herself.
- Affectionate Nickname: Scarlett's second child by Rhett that lives past birth, Katie O'Hara, gets the nickname "Cat".
- All Girls Want Bad Boys:
- After Rhett divorces her, Scarlett tries to move on with British soldier Charles Ragland who is a Nice Guy. She can't forget Rhett, however, and the man she finds who is a closest substitute is a Jerkass English Count that wants to marry her purely to own her.
- On the gender flipside, Rhett divorces Scarlett out of spite towards her leaving his mother in a hullabaloo and marries the sweet Anne Hampton, but he keeps visiting Scarlett in Ireland despite professing not to love her. When Anne dies in childbirth, he decides to return to Ireland and win back Scarlett before she marries Fenton
- Amicable Exes:
- Played straight between Scarlett and Ashley, though they never did get together. She only blames herself for what happened between them and Melanie, and sets him up with another woman who is level-headed and needs a husband.
- Subverted in another case. Scarlett tries to do this when Rhett visits her in Ireland after divorcing her, but she can't keep it up. He also is a Jerkass to her after hearing that she's moving on and marrying Count Fenton, shortly after his new wife Anne dies.
- Bittersweet Ending: Scarlett loses her home Balyhara and her tenants brand her as a traitor to their cause. She also has nowhere to go, though she has enough money to last for the rest of her life. But Rhett has come back for her, and they reconcile.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Rhett finds this out belatedly about Scarlett, even after divorcing her and marrying another woman. He never cheats on Anne physically, but the minute she dies he rushes to Ireland to stop Scarlett from marrying Fenton.
- Character Death: Mammy dies from old age.
- Character Development: "Scarlett" is basically an entire book of just this, where Scarlett finally grows out of being a teenager... in her late twenties. It's very much a case of that Determinator part of her being used to get past her belle upbringing and her stunted emotional growth to turn her into a proper adult. Well, a semi-decent person at least. It's why this book is so long. And also one of the reasons why it is... not well liked.
- Death by Childbirth:
- Subverted when Scarlet has Cat, though it's a close call. If not for Grainne's Deus ex Machina arrival, Scarlett and Cat would have died together.
- Played straight when Anne Hampton dies having her second child with Rhett.
- Deconstructed Trope: Rhett and Scarlett's relationship becomes this in the end, and it deconstructs their Masochism Tango. After divorcing her and saying multiple that Scarlett loving him doesn't matter, that her loving him isn't enough, Rhett has the gall to be insulted that Scarlett is preparing to marry Fenton. Scarlett is rightly offended by this when he insults her while drunk, pointing out that he was happy to move on and marry another woman while leaving her to rot. It takes her learning that Anne died to even give him a second chance and hear him out. Rhett in the meantime learns that he accidentally made their third child illegitimate and they had a third child. When he asks why Scarlett didn't tell him sooner, Scarlett points out he made the law work in his favor for the divorce and marriage to Anne. Knowing him, he would sue to win custody of Cat and leave Scarlett with nothing because he has that power and money. Rhett is then forced to concede that while Scarlett hasn't been the best wife, he also didn't give her any reason to trust him with his actions. He promises to Scarlett that if they're reconciling, he's going to work to earn her trust again and she, in turn, promises to be more faithful.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: There are many instances of this:
- Scarlett's horror when Rhett manages to secure a divorce against her when she leaves to Ireland, on the grounds of "desertion," when you can't get a divorce in Georgia.
- Also Scarlett's horror on realizing that extramarital sex is a thing in certain European vacation spots, indicated by sandwiches. She may have done many things, like emotionally cheat on her husbands by pining for Ashley, but she never crossed that line.
- Demoted to Extra: Scarlett leaves Wade and Ella at Tara while she ventures off to Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, and Ireland, never once mentioning them until going back years later having finally discovered her maternal instincts and wanting to bring them back to Ireland with her. But upon realizing that they're now strangers to each other, she leaves them behind again, and they're never referred to again for the remainder of the book.
- Deus ex Machina: In the middle of a thunderstorm with the doctor too far away and the midwife's actions being murderous, a wise-woman arrives saving Scarlett and her baby with an improvised C-section. Then it gets deconstructed, as the villagers believe that baby Cat is a changeling that nearly killed her mother.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Scarlett leaving Rhett's family in Charleston after he has sex with her to save her life, and then traveling to Ireland. This gives ample time for Rhett to divorce her and marry another woman while she's away.
- Also Scarlett agreeing to marry a Jerkass English count in Irish territory. Mrs. Fitz and Colum stay loyal to her, but it ends up turning her tenants in Ballyhara against her.
- So Rhett, you really didn't consider that after divorcing Scarlett and marrying another woman that she would do the same since you have told her multiple times that you don't love her and she can't win you back?
- Entitled to Have You: Fenton treats Scarlett in this way, which she realizes is similar to how Rhett was in the beginning of their courtship.
- Epiphany Therapy: Scarlett kicks her alcoholism, which has been going on for ten years and counting, merely by realizing how disgusting she has become.
- False Widow: Scarlett dresses in mourning after coming to Ireland to avoid any scandal regarding her pregnancy.
- Foreshadowing: Scarlett and Rhett note how similar Anne Hampton is to Melanie, from the sweet nature to the delicate frame. Anne, like Melanie, dies while having her second child with Rhett after he marries her.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Rhett dismisses his and Scarlett's lovemaking as purely this. Even though that was likely a huge component of it regardless, he flat-out denies still being in love with her.
- Gold Digger: One of the reasons why Scarlett agrees to marry Fenton is that, in addition to him being a Replacement Goldfish for Rhett, is that she wanted to give his money to her daughter.
- Hypocrite: Rhett tries to gain his reputation back in Charleston after burning all his bridges there in his youth and humiliating his family, and then constantly pushes Scarlett away when she tries to make similar amends towards him, taking the moral high-ground. At least there is a deliberate counterpoint to this which allows it to make literary sense, and Scarlett herself lampshades this.
- Hot for Preacher: Inverted. It's Scarlett's priest—her cousin—who takes a liking to her.
- Immediate Sequel: Picks up at Melanie's funeral, just a few days after the end of Gone with the Wind
- Jerkass Realization: Rhett at the end when Scarlett tells him that "Cat" isn't the family cat left in the house, but their daughter. He realizes in a matter of minutes that he divorced his wife after impregnating her and married another woman.
- Just in Time: Rhett arrives at the end of the book in the nick of time to stop Scarlett from marrying Fenton, with only a few weeks to spare.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Bonnie is dead, Melanie is dead, and Rhett has left Scarlett.
- Mama Bear: Scarlett keeps checking on Wade and Ella when she visits Tara, and she is furious to hear how the village children have been hurting Cat.
- Misery Builds Character: Wisewoman Grainne tells Scarlett to not punish her tenants for hurting cat because it won't help at all, and the suffering has made Cat Wise Beyond Their Years.
- Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: Scarlett legitimately tries to be a better person than she was in the previous novel due to her grief over Melanie's death and her failure to appreciate her. In particular, she makes an effort to be a good friend to Anne Hampton, who's essentially Melanie's Suspiciously Similar Substitute.
- Not Helping Your Case: Rhett's new wife has died, leaving him free, and he comes immediately to Ireland to return to Scarlett, only to find she's marrying an English count. He still wants Scarlett despite his better judgment, and instead of telling her outright, starts Drowning My Sorrows and insults her for her planned wedding. This doesn't endear Scarlett at all to him until she learns the truth.
- Not What It Looks Like: In the Mini Series, Anne spots Scarlett going up to Ashley's hotel room with him and blabs to Rhett's mother. Scarlett crassly, but truthfully points out that she was only there for ten minutes (looking over some business plans) and that wouldn't even be enough time for her to get undressed, much less have sex. Still, you'd think she'd have learned after what happened in the last movie. . .
- Replacement Goldfish:
- Anne Hampton for Melanie Wilkes, as far as Rhett is concerned. Scarlett lampshades that Rhett would have rather married someone like Melanie who was good-hearted and sweet. This ends up subverted, however; Rhett admits that he hopes she was happy, but he wasn't able to get Scarlett out of his head.
- Subverted with Cat, who is Wise Beyond Their Years in contrast to Bonnie. This may be justified in that Scarlett refuses to repeat the mistakes that Rhett made, and the circumstances of Cat's birth are far different.
- Subverted with Fenton when he proposes to Scarlett. Although Scarlett admits that he is the closest thing to Rhett that she could have, she doesn't love him. Also, the real Rhett travels to Ireland as soon as Anne dies, and says he'll kill Fenton.
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Sequel Gap: Coming 55 years after the original. - Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Scarlett finally discovers her maternal instincts after having Cat and returns to visit Tara with the full intent of pouring out this newfound love on Wade and Ella and bringing them back to Ireland with her. Only to find that thanks to the crucial bonding time lost in the first book along with her essentially abandoning them at Tara for years while she ventured off, they are now complete strangers to her and she to them. She sadly resigns herself to this and accepts complete responsibility for it.
- Wham Line:
- Two in a row, separated by a succession of weeks: DIVORCED ON THE GROUND OF DESERTION, and a news announcement about Rhett marrying Anne Hampton.
- Grainne revealing to Scarlett that the emergency C-section she performed doubled as a hysterectomy, taking away Scarlett's womb.
- Scarlett hearing that Anne Hampton died in childbirth after she sees Rhett being a Jerkass to her in Ireland.
- Wham Shot:
- Scarlett's water breaking, and it's red from the blood.
- Charles Ragland getting shot when Scarlett runs into him in her rush to get home to Ballyhara and reunite with Rhett.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Mrs. Fitzgerald and Column call out Scarlett for agreeing to marry Count Fenton since the man is English, a Jerkass, and no friend to her tenants. Scarlett refuses to listen to them, which ends up being a nearly fatal error.
- At the end of the book, Scarlett and Rhett call each other out for their actions over the books, such as Scarlett leaving in a rush and leaving only a note that Rhett's sister burns, Rhett divorcing Scarlett out of spite, and Scarlett not telling Rhett that she was carrying his child. Scarlett's justification for the last bit was that she was scared that Rhett would take Cat from her.
