This page is for tropes that have appeared in Gone with the Wind.
For the rest:
- Eiffel Tower Effect: We see Big Ben outside the window, establishing the scene with Rhett and his daughter take place in London.
- Elephant in the Living Room:
- Slavery and race relations. Despite the entire novel being set in the Civil War and Reconstruction, the closest it gets to discussing the morality of slavery is Ashley complaining when Scarlett uses prison labor in her lumber business. Ashley claims that at least his slaves weren't miserable.
- Rhett and Scarlett following her miscarriage. Just before it happened they had had yet another argument, with him nastily and cruelly insinuating that the child wasn't his and/or that Scarlett would be happy to lose it. After her recovery, Scarlett seems to sense that he wants to talk about it and make a final attempt to resolve things but can't bring himself to do so. She apparently feels the same way, but both are so reluctant to approach the other that they resign themselves to never addressing the issue and going through the motions of their marriage.
- Empathic Environment: In the book, the escalating war and Heat Wave coincide with Melanie's worsening condition, peaking on the day she finally goes into labor. In the movie, it's raining after Scarlett's miscarriage and gloomy during/after Melanie's death and the end of Rhett and Scarlett's marriage.
- End of an Age: The fall of the Confederacy, which affects every character in one way or another.
- Enormous Engagement Ring: Scarlet asks for a large ring and Rhett gives her one with a diamond that even she describes as "obscenely huge".
- Epic Movie: A celebrated example, one of the Trope Makers, almost synonymous with the concept itself.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- The book opens with Scarlett flirting with not one, but two beaux at the same time. Naturally, both men are spellbound by her.
- Rhett openly expressing skepticism that the South will win the war.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Both Scarlett and Rhett, despite all their other moral failings, are very fond of their mothers. Scarlett's is her Morality Chain. Rhett financially supports his mother after the war, even being respectful enough to maintain her reputations by making it appear publicly that the money is from another source. Scarlett is also clearly very fond of Mammy (who, like most women in her position, was a secondary mother) to the point where she's genuinely hurt by Mammy's The Reason You Suck speech regarding her plans to marry Rhett—this is after practically laughing at everyone else's.
- Fake Faint: Possibly Aunt Pittypat, who swoons and weeps and wails over everything, but keeps it together when her beloved niece is dying —the one time such behavior would have been justified— thus indicating that her previous hysterics have been an act.
- Fashion Hurts: Referenced several times throughout the novel, such as Scarlett's fashion sense, which, in a more metaphorical manner, is pretty painful to watch/read.
- Fashions Never Change: Averted. Circle crinolines gradually give way to bustles, while Scarlett notes that fashions in her grandmother's day were far more revealing than her society would allow.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Scarlett and her inability to understand the emotional motivations of anyone, including herself. There's even a strong case to be made for the proposition that Scarlett is a sociopath (see the commentary in the WMG section).
- Rhett Cannot Spit It Out and instead, bullies and insults Scarlett, then wonders why she still lusts after Ashley.
- Female Misogynist: Scarlett, One of the Boys as a child and The Vamp as a young adult, hates pretty much every other woman who isn't Mammy or her mother, even her younger sisters, seeing them all as competition.
- Femme Fatale: Scarlett is either this or The Vamp,
depending on your interpretation. In either case, she's a rare example of a protagonist with said role. - Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Rhett inevitably gives in to Bonnie's tantrums about raising her jumping bar higher, he adjusts the bar, laughing as he declares "If you fall off, don't cry and blame me!" We get a literal example of this trope when she does indeed fall off her pony within seconds of him saying this. But she doesn't cry or blame him, because she's killed instantly.
- Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Scarlett's red dress.
- Forced Miscarriage: Subverted. It may seem at first Rhett Butler pushes his pregnant wife Scarlett down a flight of stairs, killing her unborn baby, because he knows the baby was the result of him raping her and after he tells her she'd be happy to miscarry. What actually happened was Scarlett tried to punch him, missed, and fell down the stairs.
- Foreshadowing: The first time we meet Gerald O'Hara, he's jumping fences on his horse, something his wife and daughters all disapprove of because of the danger, yet secretly indulge because of their love for him. Is it any wonder that this is how he's killed years later?
- Scarlett takes the memory itself as an omen with regards to Bonnie. She guesses correctly.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Scarlett's first two marriages. Justified because such marriages were not uncommon at the time the story is set, but it goes to extremes—Charles falls in love with and proposes to Scarlett within one day and they're married in two weeks, while Frank and Scarlett have an equally short courtship. Rhett and Scarlett have a similar situation, with him proposing the day of Frank's funeral and them apparently not even waiting a respectable mourning period.
- Friendship as Courtship: A version with Rhett and Scarlett. While they're hardly friends, given that they're at each other's throats most of the time, he proposes to her on the day of Frank's funeral citing that they've known each other long and well enough to not bother with a typical courtship.
- Friend to All Children: Rhett adores children. Even Scarlett notes how easily he bonds with Wade and Ella, and this kicks into high gear once his own child is born.
- Freak Out: Rhett has one of these in front of Melanie out of extreme guilt following Scarlett's miscarriage, due to both his recognition (if not in so many words) of the rape it resulted from and his cruelty to her.
- Funetik Aksent: Mammy and Prissy do this, especially in the book.
- All the "darkies" actually. As well as anyone who isn't from a finer family. Will Benteen and Belle Watling come to mind, and Gerald and Rene Picard exhibit stereotypical accents as well (see Funny Foreigner below).
- Funny Foreigner: Gerald O'Hara is a stereotypical Irishman to the nth degree, while Creole Rene Picard brings it just as hard
- Fun with Acronyms: Rhett's comment about the South only having "Cotton, Slaves and Arrogance," paralleling the initials of the Confederate States of America.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Melanie in has to strip naked so her nightgown can be used to mop up the blood of the dead soldier. While her nudity is covered by angles and objects, Section VI of the Hays Code
still forbade any nudity whatsoever - Gold Digger: Scarlett is one of these in regards to Frank Kennedy (whom she marries to pay the lucrative taxes on Tara) and Rhett (whom she marries partially because he's freakin' loaded, partially because she's attracted to him and unable to realize or understand it). note
- Gorgeous Period Dress
- Gory Discretion Shot: Bonnie's death. As she prepares to jump her pony over a fence "...there was a fearful sound of splintering wood, a hoarse cry from Rhett, a melee of blue velvet and flying hooves on the ground." Not until the line "Then Mr. Butler scrambled to his feet and trotted off with an empty saddle" do you realize what's happened.
- Gossipy Hens: The Atlantan housewives, especially as concerns Scarlett.
- Greed: Scarlett becomes obsessed with acquiring more and more material wealth to make sure that both she and her family will "never go hungry again." Somewhat more sympathetic than most cases as she has obviously been deeply traumatized (even years later, she routinely has nightmares about hunger and poverty) and is trying to protect herself in the only way she knows, but it still drives her to do things that are incredibly morally dubious.
- Grande Dame: Ellen can be considered a rare, genuine example, but Mrs. Merriwhether, Aunt Pittypat and the other matrons of Atlanta would like to be considered this.
- Grief-Induced Split: Although Rhett and Scarlett's marriage has just been going through the motions for almost a year, it's the death of their daughter Bonnie that puts the final nail in the coffin (and most literary analysts feel that since she's their child, she actually represents their marriage and as such, her death indeed represents its end). Rhett outright tells her, "When she died, she took everything".
- Have a Gay Old Time: In the book, when Rhett arranges for some prostitutes to falsely claim that some men were with them instead of on a Ku Klux Klan raid to avoid punishment by the Union military: "Between the word of honor of a scalawag and a dozen 'fancy ladies' we may have a chance of getting the men off." Made worse by the next sentence: "There was a sardonic grin on his face at the last words."
- Head-Turning Beauty: While Scarlett is actively described as "not a beautiful woman", she has an effect on more or less every man she meets.
- Heel Realization:
- Scarlett, many times throughout the book:
- After Frank is killed and she realizes what a rotten wife she was to him, as well as being genuinely ashamed and sorry that she isn't the kind of person her mother wanted her to be. Though Rhett points out that she would have done those things over again and is only sorry that she got caught, like a "thief" who regrets going to jail.
- After she and Ashley are caught hugging and she realizes that there's absolutely no one to vouch for her and who will believe her claims of innocence (although Melanie ultimately does anyway). She's also genuinely sorry that the resulting hoopla has caused India and Ashley to be estranged and fully acknowledge that India has been absolutely right in every suspicion that she's had about her.
- When Rhett points out that Wade and Ella are downright terrified of her and that she's a terrible mother.
- After Bonnie dies, she again has no one to turn to as she's alienated all her old friends, and she can't even grieve together with Rhett since their relationship has long since come apart.
- And especially at the end, when she realizes what a horrible friend she was to Melanie — the one person who always stood by Scarlett no matter what — and that she was an equally horrible wife to Rhett. Unfortunately, it's always too late for her to make amends to anyone — Frank's dead, Melanie's dead, Wade and Ella are old enough to decide on their own that they want nothing to do with her, and Rhett has long given up on trying to win her affections.
- Rhett also, after Scarlett's miscarriage — citing how he forced himself on her, deserted her for three months, then greeted the news of her pregnancy by asking who the father was. He too resigns himself to it being too late to resolve things.
- Even earlier, when he notices that Wade isn't being invited to birthday parties and that he and Scarlett are being excluded from social events as well and realizes that the same fate is in store for Bonnie unless they rebuild their reputations. This time, he's able to regain respectability in the community.
- Scarlett, many times throughout the book:
- Heroic BSoD:
- Scarlett undergoes a version of this following her miscarriage. So does Rhett.
- Rhett's a complete mess after the death of Bonnie. He won't even allow her to be buried until Melanie talks some sense into him.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Southern society in general. When we first meet Gerald O'Hara, he's just returned from buying his valet's wife and daughter so that they can be reunited, something that was the complete opposite of what frequently happened during the slave era. There's also absolutely no mention of any of these people abusing or mistreating their slaves, and actually act genuinely repulsed by those who do, believing such behavior to be "white trash". Even Scarlett, just before she slaps Prissy, is explicitly stated to have never hit a slave before and that it's the incredible stress of the situation driving her to it.
- The Ku Klux Klan is depicted as a an organization that's created out of necessity to protect the local women from attacks by black men because the occupying military refuses to do anything. India outright tells Scarlett that she should have been proud of Frank for being a member when the latter learns that the group has gone out to avenge her assault. There's conveniently no mention of how the group really acted—terrorizing and murdering freed slaves and their supporters for little to no reason.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Though he does not physically appear, when General Sherman attacks Atlanta, the event is generally made to look analogous to barbarians trashing Rome.
- 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.
- Hollywood Costuming: Scarlett's makeup, for one thing.
- Hollywood Kiss: Rhett and Scarlett.
- Honor Before Reason:
- Averted by Scarlett, unlike her neighbors, who hold onto honor rather than get along with the Yankees.
- Rhett actually succumbs to this when he joins the Confederate cause after it's lost (though for him, it was always clear that the Confederacy will not win the war).
- Any of the men who joined the Klan. Even though Scarlett made Frank promise not to join since the Yankees would kill them and ruin her business, not to mention that the Klan is a group of Dirty Cowards that attack for Revenge at night, he has joined and avenges her assault in the shantytown. India has the gall to blame Scarlett for getting attacked and "forcing" Frank to defend her honor.
- After the Klan incident, Dr. Meade states that if it weren't for the fact that he would get everyone else in trouble, he would confess, rather than humiliate his wife by claiming to have been at a brothel. His wife inverts it by claiming that she would rather have been there than been in any kind of danger, as they lost both of their sons in the war and she can't bear the thought of losing him too.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Belle Watling, who is definitely a better human being than Scarlett, who is more the inversion, a 'lady' who can be very demure and charming but is in fact much closer to a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
- Hope Spot: During Rhett and Scarlett's final breakup, he reminisces about the pre-war days. Scarlett proceeds to quote something that Ashley had once said about them:Scarlett: "A perfection, a symmetry like Grecian art."Rhett(sharply): "Why did you say that? That's what I meant."Scarlett: "It was something that—that Ashley said once, about the old days."(He shrugged and the light went out of his eyes)Rhett: "Always Ashley".
- The "sharp" and "light" comments heavily imply that for a moment he saw a chance to salvage their relationship, which Scarlett ruined by bringing up Ashley yet again.
- On the other hand, Scarlett is genuinely happy when Rhett and Bonnie return, which he ruins by acting like a jerk as usual. Scarlett goes from being thrilled about her pregnancy to upset in the blink of an eye.
- Hypocrite:
- Both Scarlett and Rhett. At least there is a Hypocrisy Nod to what both are doing throughout the main novel. In the 'sequels' however, the hypocrisy gets worse the further on you go. For example Scarlett handles it very clunkily.note
- Many characters have these tendencies where the race issues are concerned, which really isn't surprising as this is a society that is deeply racist but just as deeply unaware/in denial of it. Notably, Melanie, while always being "Nice to the Negro" (so to speak), is horrified by the idea that her son may share a classroom with black children.
- In one scene, a group of Yankee women Scarlett is chatting with are outraged and horrified when she recommends a black girl as a nanny—"I want a good Irish girl!"—and proceed to ridicule Uncle Peter, thus revealing that for all their efforts at freeing the slaves, etc., that they're as racist as their Southern counterparts.
- All of Atlanta is horrified by Scarlett leasing convicts to work in her lumber mills, even though they were all slave owners. Archie—a former convict himself—goes on a rant about how the men are ill-treated—"Buyin' men like they was mules. Treatin' them worse than mules ever was treated. Beatin' them, starvin' them, killin' them." In other words, exactly how slaves were treated throughout history. Apparently, such conduct is perfectly acceptable for blacks, but not for whites. Scarlett points out their blatant hypocrisy about this, to which people respond, "Slaves were neither miserable or unfortunate", etc., completely in line with the obliviousness cited above.
- Scarlett points out to Ashley when she leases the convicts that both she and he owned slaves. Ashley says that was different and that he would have freed them after his father died. Apparently, he's conveniently forgotten that what gave him his nice, pampered, sheltered bubble of a life where he could just read books and discuss philosophy was all those slaves. If he had freed them, his life would have been over just as much as happened because of the war, so he never would have considered it if life had gone on as it always had.
