Scarlett Essay, Research Paper

Scarlett

by Alexandra Ripley

"Scarlett" is about a southern woman who had survived the Civil War, had been widowed twice with two children. She got married again to Rhett Butler, and they had a daughter who was killed when she fell off a horse. Since the death of the child, her husband did not want anything to do with Scarlett. Rhett gave Scarlett all the money she needed, but she wanted him. Heartbroken, she went to Ireland where her father came from. She did not tell anyone in America that she was going, except for her lawyer. She met her Irish relatives, and loved them. She bought a town and a Big House in Ireland and had it refurbished.

Scarlett found out that she was pregnant with Rhett’s child, but before she could tell him, he divorced her and married someone else. She vowed to not tell Rhett about the baby until it was grown, even though she loved him. She told her Irish friends that she was a widow and that her two children lived with her sister on a plantation in Georgia, which she owned two-thirds of.

She gave birth to a girl on Halloween and a wise old woman had to deliver her because the doctor couldn’t get there. The Irish called the woman a witch and the baby a changeling because of when she was born for they were very superstitious people. They never liked the little girl and were always scared of her.

One of Scarlett’s cousins in Ireland was a priest, whose name was Colum O’Hara, and they had become good friends. He taught her all about how the Irish relatives and friends were at war with the English who had bought most of the land, and most were not good landlords. The landlords evicted people and burned their houses because they only wanted the land. Scarlett hired alot of these people to work in her Big House and raise crops for her. She also gave them places to live.

Colum took Scarlett to a horse sale in another county one day and she was bidding on a horse that she didn’t even want because she saw Rhett Butler and relized that he wanted that horse. She was the highest bidder and got the horse which resulted in her going to fox hunts with the English and spending alot of time with them. The Irish thought the worst of her because of the way they were treated by their landlords but Scarlett was just trying to forget Rhett. She had many proposals of marriage, but she could not forget the man who she really loved, and who was the father of her baby. He did not know about Katie (Cat), and by this time she was four years old, and Scarlett knew that Rhett loved children. Scarlett was afraid that Rhett would take Cat away from her in someway if he knew. Finally, after hearing that Rhett and his new wife were going to have a baby, she was so heartbroken she agreed to marry Count Fenton, who only wanted an heir. Rhett heard about this from friends in America and came to Ireland to find her again. He had never stopped loving her, and his wife and child had died in childbirth. Rhett came to Scarlett’s rescue in the middle of the Irish burning her Big House because she had been keeping company with the English. Rhett met his daughter (Cat), right in the middle of their escape, and it was a very happy couple who barely missed being killed.

They were finally together…and loved each other….they left Ireland with their daughter and their lives intact.