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Chapter 49
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gone with the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Looking Forward vs. Looking Back
Classism and Racism
Practicality, Tenacity, and Selfishness
Women and Power
Summary
Analysis
Scarlett always feels like that Rhett is watching her expectantly, wanting something that she isn’t giving him. He’s pleasant to live with even though he forces everyone to be truthful. He gives her everything she wants and takes her seriously in her business efforts. However, she can’t understand why he married her. He didn’t marry her for children or money, and certainly not for love. She supposes he married her because he wants her like he wanted Belle Watling. This insults her, but she doesn’t care because she’s happy anyway.
Scarlett can’t imagine that Rhett loves her, even though he watches her expectantly, suggesting that he’s hoping she’ll fall in love with him. She also can’t find a single material reason why Rhett married her. She can’t comprehend his behavior towards her because she associates love with her relationship to Ashley, a relationship that has so far only been a fantasy.
Themes
Then, Scarlett finds out she is pregnant. She storms into her bedroom where Rhett is smoking a cigar and screams that she doesn’t want more children. Rhett had looked expectant when she told him, but his face hardens at her anger. Scarlett says there are things women can do if they don’t want babies. Rhett grabs her wrist and makes her swear she hasn’t done anything yet to end her pregnancy. He says he doesn’t care how many children she has, but he doesn’t want her to die. He takes her into his lap and says he saw a girl die that way once. She gazes at him, surprised to see him so moved. She asks if he really cares about her. Seeing that she’s only being playful, Rhett jokes that he’s invested too much money in her to lose her.
Scarlett implies to Rhett that she wants to get an abortion. Ending her pregnancy would free her from the responsibilities she’ll take on if she has another baby—responsibilities that cut into her ability to be independent and ruthless. Rhett asking Scarlett to not seek an abortion seems in line with his character, given how much he loves children. However, it also suggests he’s changing and becoming less supportive of Scarlett’s independence and business dealings, the very things that initially drew him to her.
Themes
Months later, Melanie comes out of Scarlett’s room and tells an anxious Rhett he can go in. He goes in, and Melanie glimpses him bending over the bassinet. Melanie thinks it is sweet how nervous Rhett is. She sinks into a chair, her back aching as it always does now. She wishes Scarlett’s baby girl was hers. Then she realizes she should’ve told Rhett the disappointing news that his baby is a girl. But Mammy comes out of the bedroom and says Rhett took the news well. In fact, he seems proud his baby is female. Mammy’s dislike of Rhett vanishes.
While Scarlett is totally averse to parenthood, Rhett is surprisingly taken with it. Melanie implies that it’s not considered normal for men to be happy about having daughters (sons give men an heir). But his love for his daughter makes Rhett a more sympathetic figure to Mammy, as she sees that Rhett is actually kind—and doesn’t look down on women, as so many other men do.
Themes
Wade is very scared the day Scarlett gives birth. That morning, Mammy rushed him to Pitty’s house saying his mother was sick and Wade shouldn’t bother her. Throughout the day, he became more and more afraid Scarlett would die. At noon, he snuck away from Peter and ran back home. Everyone ran up and down the stairs and once, he heard Scarlett groan. Mammy found him and scolded him. She told him to go away, but he retreated down the hall. Melanie found him and told him he had a baby sister. When he asked if his mother would die, she said no and sent him to play. Wade went into the dining room. He doesn’t want a girl baby.
Scarlett has ignored Wade and how terrified he often is throughout the novel. The narration suddenly shifts to Wade’s perspective here and reveals how deep his anxiety is. He fears losing his mother, Scarlett, suggesting that he loves her deeply—but the relationship is one-sided. This revelation into Wade’s psyche shows that Wade’s high anxiety is another casualty of Scarlett’s selfishness and forward-thinking mindset.
Themes
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Rhett comes into the dining room. Afraid of being yelled at, Wade shrinks away, but Rhett smiles joyfully and says Wade has a sister. Wade runs to him and Rhett reassures him that Scarlett is fine. Wade asks if people like girls better than boys. Understanding what he feels, Rhett says no. He says that he’s only so happy he has a little girl because he already has a little boy, and that’s Wade. Crying with happiness at being wanted, Wade asks if Rhett has any other little boys. Rhett doesn’t answer but offers Wade a drink. Excited to be included in a grown-up ceremony, Wade takes the diluted drink Rhett makes him.
Rhett is particularly kind to Wade and can sympathize with his feelings—something that Scarlett never did. Rhett always said that he and Scarlett were very alike, but differences are starting to appear between them: Rhett loves children whereas Scarlett does not. Also, Rhett doesn’t answer Wade when he asks if Rhett has other boys, suggesting that Rhett is still concealing the truth about the little boy in New Orleans that he cares for.
Themes
Mammy enters the room, smiling widely. Wade is delighted to see Mammy being nice to his stepfather. Rhett makes Mammy a drink and they both gush over the beautiful baby. Rhett asks why Mammy’s dress rustles, and she pulls her skirt up to reveal the red petticoat Rhett gave her. When he first gave it to her, Mammy refused to wear it. Rhett’s eyes dance, and he asks if there’s no more “mule” in the harness. Rhett passes around more drinks.
When Rhett first gave Mammy the red petticoat, she saw it as a superficial symbol of Rhett’s wealth and greatness. Once she sees his fatherly instincts, she wears the petticoat; she wears it once she believes that Rhett isn’t only a glamorous exterior hiding a cruel and ruthless person inside.
Themes
Strangely, Rhett adores the baby. Most men are indifferent to their children, but Rhett thinks his daughter is marvelous. He fires nurses every week for mistreating his baby. He sends for Prissy and Lou, Uncle Peter’s great niece, tactfully telling Mammy that they’ll be her helpers (Mammy is getting old). Scarlett is ashamed of Rhett’s pride, feeling that it is unmanly. Rhett says his daughter is the first person who belongs entirely to him. Scarlett says she belongs to him, but Rhett asks if she really does. They name the baby Eugene Victoria, but when Melanie says the girl’s eyes are blue as the Bonnie Blue flag, her name becomes Bonnie Blue Butler.
Rhett says that Bonnie is the first person who belongs wholly to him, whereas Scarlett doesn’t—this is because emotionally, Scarlett “belongs” to Ashley, whom she loves. For this reason, Rhett is able to freely express his love for his baby daughter in a way that he can’t for Scarlett. This makes him more sympathetic to people like Mammy, but Scarlett starts to speak of him like she spoke of Charles and Frank: in feminine-coded, unflattering terms. Naming Bonnie after the “Bonnie Blue flag” is also a nod to the past, as they’re referring to a flag associated with the Confederacy.
Themes
