27 Facts About Scarlett O'Hara

Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler is a fictional character and the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the 1939 film of the same name, where she is portrayed by Vivien Leigh.

Scarlett O'Hara is the main character in the 1970 musical Scarlett and the 1991 book Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind that was written by Alexandra Ripley and adapted for a television mini-series in 1994.

Scarlett O'Hara is the oldest living child of Gerald O'Hara and Ellen O'Hara.

Scarlett O'Hara was born in 1845 on her family's plantation Tara in Georgia.

Scarlett O'Hara was named Katie Scarlett, after her father's mother, but is always called Scarlett, except by her father, who refers to her as "Katie Scarlett".

Scarlett O'Hara is from a Catholic family of Irish ancestry on her paternal side and French ancestry on her maternal side, descending from her mother's old-money Robillard family in Savannah.

Scarlett O'Hara begins the novel unmarried, but with many beaus in the county; however, as a result of Ashley Wilkes' rejection, she marries Charles Hamilton, who dies before the birth of their son, Wade Hampton Hamilton.

Later, in the midst of Tara's threat, Scarlett O'Hara marries Frank Kennedy, Suellen's beau, for financial security for Tara and providing for the family.

Kennedy dies in a raid by the Union army on Shanty Town, where Scarlett O'Hara was attacked, who attempted to stop the raid.

Scarlett O'Hara is vain, self-centered, and very spoiled by her wealthy parents.

Scarlett O'Hara can be insecure, but is very intelligent, despite the Old South's pretense of ignorance and helplessness.

Scarlett O'Hara is somewhat unusual among Southern women, whom society preferred to act as dainty creatures who needed protection from their men.

Outwardly, Scarlett O'Hara is the picture of southern charm and womanly virtues, and a popular belle among the country males.

Rhett Butler, a wealthy older bachelor and a societal pariah, overhears Scarlett O'Hara express her love to Ashley during a barbecue at Twelve Oaks, the Wilkes' estate.

Scarlett O'Hara pursues Scarlett, but is aware of her impetuousness, childish spite, and her fixation on Ashley.

The Civil War sweeps away the lifestyle in which Scarlett O'Hara was raised, and Southern society falls into ruin.

Scarlett O'Hara's character begins to harden as her relatives, the family slaves and the Wilkes family look to her for protection from homelessness and starvation.

Scarlett O'Hara becomes money-conscious and more materialistic in her motivation to ensure her family survives and Tara stays in her possession, while other Georgian farmers lose their homes.

Scarlett O'Hara is too fixated on Ashley Wilkes to realize her pursuit of him is misdirected until the climax of the novel.

Scarlett O'Hara pursues Rhett from the Wilkes home to their home, only to discover he has given up hope of ever receiving her love, and is about to leave her.

Scarlett O'Hara's character portrayed in both the novel and 1939 film is, at face-value, unscrupulous and selfish, but her character development ultimately portrays multiple stigmas throughout that support Mitchell's theme.

Scarlett O'Hara was told "no" to almost every action she did to survive, by both societal standards and her female and male peers around her, such as marrying Frank Kennedy for money or even running a successful business, and in return, she told them "watch me" in the process.

Scarlett O'Hara struggled with her status as a woman because of standards of the "Southern Lady" invoked and shown at the beginning of the novel, and displayed throughout Scarlett O'Hara's peers, embodied in Melanie Wilkes.

Scarlett O'Hara's agent happened to be the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency, headed by David Selznick's brother, Myron.

The search for Scarlett O'Hara began shortly after the announcement of the film adaption, and lasted for over two years.

Ultimately, unlike Scarlett O'Hara who pulls herself together to overcome her troubles, Blanche descends into madness and gets committed to a mental institution.

In John Kennedy Toole's posthumously published 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, an amateur dancer "Harlett Scarlett O'Hara" puts on a "southern belle" performance at Lana Lee's Night of Joy bar.