History GoneWithTheWind / GoneWithTheWindTropesIToL

* LiteraryNecrophilia: ''Scarlett'', ''Rhett Butler's People'', ''Winds of Tara'', ''Wind Done Gone''. Each sequel has its fans and those who think it is utter garbage with about as much relevance to the main novel as any other fan fic. Everyone tends to agree that the sequels really don't measure up to the original in any significant way.
** ''Literature/{{Scarlett}}'' is from Scarlett's perspective and gives her the chance to grow out of being 16 and become a semi-normal if still manipulative and sociopathic woman, mostly by putting her through the emotional and physical wringer (this takes so much time and effort that the book is incredibly long, and several years have to pass in-story for it to happen). While still giving a faithful reproduction of Scarlett's romanticized world view, extrapolated from where she is at the end of ''Gone With The Wind'', it does provide evidence that this view is grounded in a larger reality that is somewhat harsher and less melodramatic than she believes it is (to her shock and horror). It gives both Rhett and Scarlett's parents' backstories, making sense of both how Rhett came to be who he is and deconstructing the social tragedy of the "belle and beau" idiom. It takes the view that when all is said and done, and both are willing to treat each other with some modicum of respect, Scarlett and Rhett have as much chance of making each other happy as anyone. This was universally panned by critics, who all hated it - criticized as being insanely uneventful, probably because of the amount of time spent examining the different societies of the era through which Scarlett moves and which shape her. Nevertheless, a lot of fans loved it and thought exactly the opposite, so much so that it was a commercial success and is still in print (making it one of the most successful fanfics ever, ''before'' the internet). Yes, this is a polarizing phenomena, and what you think of it is very much up to individual opinion. A mini-series was based on this, but the plot is quite different (time might have been an issue).
** ''Rhett Butler's People'' is an 'authorized sequel by the Margret Mitchell estate'... which still means it has almost nothing to do with the original author but is liked by the people who run her estate who say that ''this'' is the canon successor. It is mostly Rhett Butler's point of view of what was going on during ''Gone With The Wind'' from his end, focusing on Rhett with contributing narrative viewpoints from other characters with their opinions of him, his life, and events surrounding it. It arguably takes as much liberty with its characters as ''Scarlett''. It turns Rhett Butler into an angsty modern-age antihero and has very little to do with the Scarlett love-story which was the basis for the original book, preferring to sideline Scarlett as a mostly irritating sociopath (which ''is'' pretty accurate) and glorify Rhett Butler's life and deeds (while pretending not to). It takes the view that Scarlett was basically the mistake in Rhett's life and gives a new ending to ''Gone With The Wind''. This was produced to replace ''Scarlett'', which the Margret Mitchell estate viewed as a 'thorough embarrassment.'
** ''Winds Of Tara'' is another sequel altogether, ignoring both ''Scarlett'' and ''Rhett Butler's people''. This is completely unauthorized... meaning it has just as much to do with the original author as the other two. However, this book was published on a much smaller scale and is more in keeping with the length and quality of a fanfic (as divisive as opinions are on the other two sequels, they ''are'' proper novels of fairly consistent quality). Unlike the other two sequels which focus on complex character interaction and character development, the plot with this sequel is more streamlined: Scarlett comes home broken-hearted after Rhett leaves her and takes her children, and she finds Tara in jeopardy at the hands of a greedy overseer. Although one might think that this subject area had already been covered rather extensively by the original novel, apparently it still wasn't enough.
** ''Wind Done Gone'' is coined as a technical 'unauthorized parody', but it isn't a comedy. This is ''Gone With The Wind'' re-imagined again, although this book predates ''Rhett Butler's People'' and is much cleverer in its inception. The story is told by Cyanara, a slave girl who says she is the daughter of Mammy and Gerald O'Hara, and is the tale of her movement throughout Atlanta and the South during the War, and into Washington D.C during the Reconstruction. All the characters from ''Gone With The Wind'' are completely reinvented and are identified with monikers such as "Other" for Scarlett, "R" for Rhett, and "Planter" for Scarlett's father. Her ongoing rivalry with "Other" is a common thread through the book, and as she moves through Scarlett's world all the characters we know are landed with complete in-universe AlternativeCharacterInterpretation - e.g. Ashley is "The Dreamy Gentleman" who is horrified by Other's advances because he is a homosexual, and marries "Mealy Mouth" instead, "Mealy Mouth" who is really a manipulative sociopath who had "Miss Priss" (the parallel character to "Prissy" in the main novel) brothers' alternately whipped and starved to death, "Miss Priss" who is really a crafty mastermind who kills off "Mealy Mouth" in revenge. There is a lot of very insightful commentary and critique on the narrative viewpoint of the original novel, and all the horror and destruction that the Confederacy harbors which Scarlett never sees. The author was sued by the Margaret Mitchell estate for "The Wind Done Gone" being a too similar title to "Gone With The Wind."

* KissKissSlap: When Rhett rescues Scarlett out of the burning Atlanta, then abandons her to go fight in the Confederate Army, before leaving, he kisses her; she enjoys it, but then gets mad and slaps him.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the book especially, with Rhett, Scarlett, Ashley, Melanie, and Mammy as main characters, but then with lots of lots of smaller characters, like Gerald, Ellen, Pittypat, Suellen, Will, India, etc., etc.

* WhatAnIdiot: [[spoiler:Bonnie's death]] could have been averted, had Rhett put his foot down and refused to give into [[spoiler:[[DaddysGirl Bonnie]]'s]] wishes in regards to making a [[spoiler:dangerous jump with her pony "Mr. Butler"]]. The situation finishes with [[spoiler:the pony tripping over the bars... and Bonnie falling, breaking her neck, and dying.]]

*** ''Wind Done Gone'' is coined as a technical 'unauthorized parody', but it isn't a comedy. This is ''Gone With The Wind'' re-imagined again, although this book predates ''Rhett Butler's People'' and is much cleverer in its inception. The story is told by Cyanara, a slave girl who says she is the daughter of Mammy and Gerald O'Hara, and is the tale of her movement throughout Atlanta and the South during the War, and into Washington D.C during the Reconstruction. All the characters from ''Gone With The Wind'' are completely reinvented and are identified with monikers such as "Other" for Scarlett, "R" for Rhett, and "Planter" for Scarlett's father. Her ongoing rivalry with "Other" is a common thread through the book, and as she moves through Scarlett's world all the characters we know are landed with complete in-universe AlternativeCharacterInterpretation - e.g. Ashley is "The Dreamy Gentleman" who is horrified by Other's advances because he is a homosexual, and marries "Mealy Mouth" instead, "Mealy Mouth" who is really a manipulative sociopath who had "Miss Priss" (the parallel character to "Prissy" in the main novel) brothers' alternately whipped and starved to death, "Miss Priss" who is really a crafty mastermind who kills off "Mealy Mouth" in revenge. There is a lot of very insightful commentary and critique on the narrative viewpoint of the original novel, and all the horror and destruction that the Confederacy harbors which Scarlett never sees. The author was sued by the Margaret Mitchell estate for "The Wind Done Gone" being a too similar title to "Gone With The Wind."

*** Let's not forget her brutally cruel treatment of Rhett after Bonnie's death--she outright calls him a murderer. {{Justified|Trope}} in that she was also grieving after her daughter died, though perhaps not as much as Rhett.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Despite Scarlett (rightfully) blaming the Slatterys for her mother's death, and both Jonas Wilkerson and Emmie Slattery for her father's, since Emmie married Jonas, she never seeks out retribution on either of them even when she has the means to do so. Jonas, however, does meet his ultimate fate at the hands of Tommy Fontaine for supporting rights for black people. In the case of Emmie, it becomes a WhatHappenedToTheMouse moment since Scarlett is otherwise shown to carrying grudges for ''years'' at a time for much lesser slights than the deaths of her [[MoralityPet beloved parents.]]

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Despite Scarlett (rightfully) blaming the Slatterys for her mother's death, and both Jonas Wilkerson and Emmie Slattery for her father's, since Emmie married Jonas, she never seeks out retribution on either of them even when she has the means to do so. Jonas, however, does meet his ultimate fate at the hands of Tony Fontaine for supporting rights for black people. In the case of Emmie, it becomes a WhatHappenedToTheMouse moment since Scarlett is otherwise shown to carrying grudges for ''years'' at a time for much lesser slights than the deaths of her [[MoralityPet beloved parents.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Despite Scarlett (rightfully) blaming the Slatterys for her mother's death, and both Jonas Wilkerson and Emmy Slattery for her father's, since Emmy married Jonas, she never seeks out retribution on either of them even when she has the means to do so. It becomes almost a WhatHappenedToTheMouse moment since Scarlett is otherwise shown to carrying grudges for ''years'' at a time for much lesser slights than the deaths of her [[MoralityPet beloved parents.]]

* InstantIllness: In the movie, Melanie goes from healthy to lethally ill within minutes of screentime. It's [[VictorianNovelDisease never explained what struck her down]]. (The book explains that it's complications from an ill-advised pregnancy. This is foreshadowed briefly in the film, when Rhett reacts with worry when Melanie tells him she is pregnant, and faints shortly after.)

* InstantIllness: In the movie, Melanie goes from healthy to lethally ill within minutes of screentime. It's [[VictorianNovelDisease never explained what struck her down]]. (The book explains that it's complications from an ill-advised pregnancy.)

* InstantIllness: In the movie, Melanie goes from healthy to lethally ill within minutes of screentime. It's [[VictorianNovelDisease never explained what struck her down]].

* IGaveMyWord: Scarlett promised Ashley to take care of Mellie during her pregnancy. Despite Scarlett's various amoral behavior, she does have a warped moral code that she takes very seriously, mostly the result of her upbringing; making a promise is very SeriousBusiness and she prides herself on keeping her word.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Melanie was supposed to be this originally; due to ValuesDissonance, not today.
* TheIngenue: Melanie is a perpetual ingenue.
** Scarlett at the start of the story subverts this trope.

** Ellen with her cousin Phillippe. Apparently, a sixteen year old whose crush has died will [[SarcasmMode never love again]]. ** Scarlett in regards to Ashley. She even describes her idea in the book as "a pretty set of clothes" that she forced Ashley to wear.

*** Scarlett with Ashley takes on much wider dimensions as well. Although in the beginning she is infatuated with him and loves him (arguably), after a few years and the devastation of the South it becomes clear that what she loves is not Ashley, she yearns for what he represents: her old life in the old South, that era and place that she loved. Because she tries to constantly look forward and doesn't allow herself to properly grieve for the end of that era and accept that it's gone (she thinks it weakens her), she projects all that desire onto Ashley and forces onto him all the expectations and longings she had from that time. She is so wrapped up in this devoted delusion of her teenage years that she doesn't even realise when she falls in love with Rhett or what having an adult relationship means. She stays emotionally stunted as a bitchy immature 17 year-old, as incapable of becoming a mother to her children as she is a lover to the person she cares about the most.

* LovingAShadow: Ellen with her cousin Phillippe. Apparently, a sixteen year old whose crush has died will [[SarcasmMode never love again]]. Scarlett too, in regards to Ashley. She even describes her idea in the book as "a pretty set of clothes" that she forced Ashley to wear. Also, Carreen with Brent Tarleton. She fell in love with him when she was 13 and never loves again after he's killed in the war, preferring to go into a convent. It must run in the family--Gerald is so devastated by Ellen's death that he goes mad to the point where he frequently forgets that she's gone.
** Scarlett with Ashley takes on much wider dimensions as well. Although in the beginning she is infatuated with him and loves him (arguably), after a few years and the devastation of the South it becomes clear that what she loves is not Ashley, she yearns for what he represents: her old life in the old South, that era and place that she loved. Because she tries to constantly look forward and doesn't allow herself to properly grieve for the end of that era and accept that it's gone (she thinks it weakens her), she projects all that desire onto Ashley and forces onto him all the expectations and longings she had from that time. She is so wrapped up in this devoted delusion of her teenage years that she doesn't even realise when she falls in love with Rhett or what having an adult relationship means. She stays emotionally stunted as a bitchy immature 17 year-old, as incapable of becoming a mother to her children as she is a lover to the person she cares about the most.

** Brent Tarleton to Careen O'Hara. Careen eventually joins a convent as a way to cope with her loss.

** ''Literature/{{Scarlett}}'' is from Scarlett's perspective and gives her the chance to grow out of being 16 and become a semi-normal if still manipulative and sociopathic woman, mostly by putting her through the emotional and physical wringer (this takes so much time and effort that the book is incredibly long, and several years have to pass in-story for it to happen). While still giving a faithful reproduction of Scarlett's romanticized world view, extrapolated from where she is at the end of ''Gone With The Wind'', it does provide evidence that this view is grounded in a larger reality that is somewhat harsher and less melodramatic than she believes it is (to her shock and horror). It gives both Rhett and Scarlett's parents' backstories, making sense of both how Rhett came to be who he is and deconstructing the social tragedy of the "belle and beau" idiom. It takes the view that when all is said and done, and both are willing to treat each other with some modicum of respect, Scarlett and Rhett have as much chance of making each other happy as anyone. This was universally panned by critics, who all hated it - criticized as being insanely uneventful, probably because of the amount of time spent examining the different societies of the era through which Scarlett moves and which shape her. Nevertheless, a lot of fans loved it and thought exactly the opposite, so much so that it was a commercial success and is still in print (making it one of the most successful fanfics ever, ''before'' the internet). Yes, this is a LoveItOrHateIt phenomena, and what you think of it is very much up to individual opinion. A mini-series was based on this, but the plot is quite different (time might have been an issue).