IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS - QUOTES AND ANALYSIS

Edition: Macmillan, 1937 Hardcover.

1.) "Before marriage, young girls must be, above all other things, sweet, gentle, beautiful and ornamental, but, after marriage, they were expected to manage households that numbered a hundred people or more, white and black, and they were trained with that in view." - The Narrator. pg.57 Explaining the old southern attitudes toward females, which she says were actually fostered by the men themselves

2.) "Scarlett wanted very much to be like her mother. The only difficulty was that by being just and truthful and tender and unselfish, one missed most of the joys of life and certainly many beaux." - The Narrator. pg. 60 Scarlett's opinion of her mother indicates that she never had a real relationship with her.

3.) "I'm tired of everlastingly being unnatural and never doing anything I want to do. I'm tired of acting like I don't eat more than a bird, and walking when I want to run and saying I feel faint after a waltz when I could dance for two days and never get tired. I'm tired of saying, 'How wonderful you are!' to fool men who haven't got one-half the sense I've got and I'm tired of pretending I don't know anything so men can tell me things and feel important while they're doing it..." Scarlet. pg. 79 Scarlet realizes the artificial behavior girls are supposed to exhibit and scorns it.

4.) "Ladies have seldom held any charms for me. I know what they are thinking, but they never have the courage or lack of breeding to say what they think. And that, in time, becomes a bore. But you, my dear Miss O'Hara, are a girl of rare spirit, very admirable spirit, and I take off my hat to you." Rhett Butler. pg. 120 Rhett Butler, like Scarlett, has little use for the mannerisms of his day.

5.) "The Confederacy may need the lifeblood of its men, but not yet does it demand the heart's blood of its women. Accept, dear madam, this token of my reverence for your courage and do not think that your sacrifice has been in vain, for this ring has been redeemed at ten times its value." - Rhett. pg. 198 Rhett explaining his return of Melanie's wedding ring.

6.) "Other people might call his utterances treachery but, to Scarlett, they always rang with common sense and truth. And she knew that this was utterly wrong, knew she should be shocked and infuriated. Actually she was neither, but she could pretend to be. It made her feel more respectable and ladylike." - Narrator. pg. 240 The Narrator giving some analysis of Scarlett's awareness of the difference between the way she is supposed to feel and the way she actually feels.

7.) "That's why I like you! You are the only frank woman I know, the only woman who looks on the practical side of matters without beclouding the issue with mouthings about sin and morality. Any other woman would have swooned first and then shown me the door." - Rhett, pg. 341 Rhett praising and mocking Scarlett at the same time.

8.) "No, she could not, would not, turn to Gerald's or Ellen's families. The O'Haras did not take charity. The O'Haras looked after their own. Her burdens were her own and burdens were for shoulders strong enough to bear them. She thought without surprise, looking down from her height, that her shoulders were strong enough to bear anything now, having borne the worst that could ever happen to her. She could not desert Tara; she belonged to the red acres far more than they could ever belong to her. Her roots went deep into the blood-colored soil and sucked up life, as did the cotton." - Narrator. pg. 420 The Narrator showing Scarlett's growing realization of the importance to Tara.

9.) "I won't think of it now. I can't stand it now. I'll think of it later." - Scarlett. pg. 426 Scarlett falling back on her favorite method of dealing with problems she can't handle at the time.

10.) "Hunger gnawed at her empty stomach again and she said aloud: ‘As god is my witness, as God is my witness, the Yankees aren't going to lick me. I'm going to live through this, and when it's over, I'm never going to be hungry again. No, nor any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill-as God is my witness, I'm never going to be hungry again." - Scarlett. pg. 428 Scarlett expressing her controlling motivation for the remainder of the story.

11.) "When she looked at Tara she could understand, in part, why wars were fought. Rhett was wrong when he said men fought wars for money. No, they fought for swelling acres, softly furrowed by the plow, for pastures greens with stubby cropped grass, for lazy yellow rivers and white houses that were cool amid magnolias. These were the only things worth fighting for, the red earth which was theirs and would be their sons', the red earth which would bear cotton for their sons and their sons' sons." - Narrator. pg. 434 Narrator showing more of Scarlett's recognition of her connection with her homeland.

12.) "With a thrill she looked up at the frail swaying girl for whom she had never had any feelings but of dislike and contempt. Now, struggling against hatred for Ashley's wife, there surged a feeling of admiration and comradeship. She saw in a flash of clarity untouched by any petty emotion that beneath the gentle voice and the dove-like eyes of Melanie there was a thin flashing blade of unbreakable steel, felt too that there were banners and bugles of courage in Melanie's quiet blood." --Narrator. pg. 440 An observation of Scarlett as she realizes that Melanie is not the weakling she had early thought.

13.) "Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again. And it's very bad for a woman not to be afraid of something." - Grandma Fontaine. pg. 452 Grandma Fontaine trying to explain to Scarlett that she does understand what Scarlett has gone through.

14.) "She had thought Grandma was going to understand and perhaps show her some way to solve her problems. But like all old people she'd gotten to talking about things that happened before anyone was born, things no one was interested in. Scarlett wished she had not confided in her" - Narrator. pg. 453 Scarlett has not yet learned to make a connection between her own sufferings and those of another.

15.) "Scarlett permitted the embrace because she was too tired to struggle, because the words of praise brought balm to her spirit and because, in the dark smoke-filled kitchen, there had been born a greater respect for her sister-in-law, a closer feeling of comradeship." - Narrator. pg. 470 Showing Scarlett's reaction to Melanie after the two girls had extinguished the fire.

16.) "My home is gone and all the money that I so took for granted I never realized I had it. And I am fitted for nothing in this world, for the world I belonged in has gone. I can't help you, Scarlett, except by learning with as good grace as possible to be a clumsy farmer...And every day I see more clearly how helpless I am to cope with what has come on us all. Every day my accursed shrinking from realities makes it harder for me to face the new realities." - Ashley. pg. 527 Ashley trying to explain to Scarlett why he is so helpless in face of all the changes that have come about since the war.

17.) "Scarlett, before the war, life was beautiful. There was a glamor to it, a perfection and a completeness and a symmetry to it like Grecian art....To me living at Twelve Oaks, there was a real beauty to living. I belonged in that life. I was a part of it. And now it is gone and I have no place in this new life, and I am afraid. Now, I know that in the old days it was a shadow show I watched. I avoided everything which was not shadow, people and situations which were too real, too vital. I resented their intrusion. I tried to avoid you too Scarlett. You were too full of living and too real and I was cowardly enough to prefer shadows and dreams" - Ashley. pg. 529 Ashley acknowledging his own weakness and explaining why he never pursued Scarlett with any persistence.