Gone with the wind - Rhett does go back doesn't he?

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Just watched this again and a bit meh at the bits that we would now think of as a bit rapy. BUT Scarlett starts as the spoiled little mistress but becomes so strong and fearless - and much as she hankers after Ashley is so supportive of Melanie. She rescues Melanie, takes hold of Tara, recreating the plantation, she builds Frank's business (albeit she 'stole' him from her sister) and she does initially respond to Rhett. I really think if Rhett had played it differently - treated her as an equal maybe - things would have played out differently. Her lying distraught on a staircase doesn't fit with the strong woman she became. Am I overthinking this?

Like I said I was very young when I read it.

The sequel is so bad! I used to have a DVD of the miniseries and it’s appalling. They did eventually get back together. IIRC, they had another kid but Scarlet hid it from Rhett and he marries someone else, and eventually they find each other again. The only things I remember about the series are a gruesome caesarean on the kitchen table and the cheesy song over the end credits which I couldn’t stop laughing at.

Don’t read the sequel, it’s awful!

I don’t think they got back together - Scarlet didn’t need him, and Rhett realised he could never have her.

She might have thought she loved him at the end, but she just needed his comfort. She would have easily moved on. From him.

No, I think he’s gone... but I do love how open ended the book is left. Completely open to each readers interpretation.

The ‘sequel’ book was truly awful.

Of course he goes back to her! She is the love of his life and she will win him back. The whole plot is him playing the long game with her - I like to think him leaving now is still the long game/get her to really appreciate him etc.

I've always liked to think they got back together but I think Rhett had had enough by that point. He loved Bonnie and she was the glue that kept him and Scarlett together. Once she died, it was too late.

I think he realised the true 'love of his life' was Bonnie and when she died that was it for him. Also wasn't the only reason he returned to Scarlett was because Bonnie missed her so much? I also think his admiration for Melanie that grew and grew the more he got to know her showed him how hard, selfish and lacking Scarlett really was. I don't think he had a happy ending (I imagine he lost himself in drink) and I don't think he went back to Scarlett, there was no love left to go back to.

Sorry folks. I'm reading all the points but ATM especially enjoying chartreuse - you are obviously so engaged and I appreciate your replies. Have to say I don't like (believe in?) Follow ups that aren't from the original author.

He doesn’t go back.
His love ran out and he ended up feeling sorry for her.
Argh! So sad.

I'm sorry that sounded rude - so many interesting points here

Scarlett wants what she can't have then loses interest when she gets it. She's a womanchild. I'm amazed Rhett puts up with her as long as he does. He doesn't go back even though the sequel says otherwise. Why would he?

I don’t think he’d be back. I think Scarlett had pushed him away too effectively for that.

Mitchell leaves it as an open question. The overall presentation is more sympathetic to Rhett (rapey or not) because Scarlett’s strength is also her “flaw”: she is strong, but it makes her invulnerable. She is ambitious, but it makes her selfish. Rhett’s flaws - which are many - are softened in the novel.

No, I always believed he didn't go back. He loved her, but didn't love her enough to deal with her flaws. She loved him but not enough to admit to or change her flaws.

I am shocked by how many people don’t think he does back to her!

She went all fiddle-de-dee on Rhett after their night of passion. In the end her haughtiness prevented her chasing him.

He would have taken her (back) at any stage, had she responded, but she didn't, so frankly, he no longer gave a damn.

Ignoring the sequel, I don't see why he'd go back either. Love sometimes is just not enough.

There is no sequel. Margaret Mitchell wrote only the one book. The others are fake, written for TV movies.
In an interview, Ms. Mitchell said he did not go back, but that Scarlett became a kinder person.

Ok not the sequel, the alexandra ripley book.

There’s another sequel called Rhett Butlers People, if you fancy an alternative sequel! I love GWTW, so have read both sequels multiple times.

However, got to caveat that so many things are obviously wrong with it- mainly obviously slavery and treatment of people who aren’t privileged white people, and yes treatment of women.

So i guess it’s hard to assess Scarlett as a character to today standards, when she was written in such a different time- and set in an even more different (and morally reprehensible on so many levels) time.

I reckon Brett would divorce her & should would marry a rich carpetbagger (who was much older but hankered after getting a bit of Southern Class wife - ie token) & she ripped him off & stole his adult children's inheritance to keep up Tara. Brett in the meantime went back to gambling & had mistresses but died of alcoholism - could cont but anybody else like to do so (who me?read the story too often??)

don't forget the very final scene showing her happily back at Tara

I am quite happy for Scarlett to be an independent woman running Tara without some PITA bloke hanging around.

Did anyone else read Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig? It's GWTW told from Rhett's point of view. It's quite a good read. Scarlett is rubbish.
I'm torn-I'd love to think that they got back together but based on the book I think it's more likely that she put her heart into making Tara great again. On the other hand she's still in her 20s at the end of the story so she might mellow with age.

MM herself said that she didn’t know:

www.ajc.com/news/margaret-mitchell-sort-reveals-scarlett-and-rhett-fate-1948-letter/17iq0ZC2b6nWhRzoNOburM/amp.html

“Scarlett” was just Awful. Absolutely dreadful tripe. “Rhett Butler’s People” was slightly better, but would have been better as its own book rather than an attempt to use someone else’s characters.

Personally I don’t think they got back together, no. I think the scales had fallen from his eyes and, as he said himself, his love had “worn out”. There’s no coming back from that in my romantic experience! But as MM didn’t know, you can believe whatever you like .

It’s a bit (and in no other way!) like the ending of that Jennifer Aniston film, “The Break-Up”. Do they or don’t they?

It was agreed by Margaret Mitchell's estate that Alexandra Ripley should write the sequel. They wanted to have a worthy sequel because in 2011, it would be no longer possible to stop anybody who wished to do so from writing their own sequel. It couldn't have gone much worse. Alexandra Ripley didn't like Scarlett's character so why she wrote it is anyone's guess. I bet the estate wish they had just let things lie! Now it is the official sequel!