Gone With the Wind Chapter 54 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Back after the party, Scarlett is upset. She goes downstairs for a drink, and finds Rhett, already drunk.
  • He's still quite upset himself.
  • He tells her Melly had been told about her embracing Ashley, but that she had not believed it was true.
  • Rhett says he knows she wasn't physically unfaithful, but that she is in love with Ashley not him; he also says she's an idiot because she wouldn't even want Ashley if she had him.
  • At least he admits he's jealous, though. Finally.
  • Then he sweeps her off her feet and has sex with her in a scene that flirts with the suggestion that he rapes her and she enjoys it.
  • Scarlett wants to see him the next morning and seems to maybe be falling in love, but he doesn't come back all day, and when he finally returns he says he's been at Belle's.
  • Scarlett's afraid to tell him she loves him; he's afraid to tell her he loves her.
  • He tells her he's leaving and going to New Orleans with Bonnie, and that he'd like a divorce.
  • But she won't give him one.