ways dignified, always gracious, matriarch. This is, of course, why Scarlett can bear the crumbling of the pre-Civil War South more than most of the women around her, she thinks for herself. However, Melanie is cut from the same mold as Ellen O’Hara. While her words are said in jealous anger, Scarlett’s depiction of Melanie to Ashley, despite all of Melanie’s worthy qualities, is typical of women of the era, “You’d rather live with that stupid little fool who can’t open her mouth except to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and raise a passel of mealy-mouthed brats just like her!” (Mitchell 103). Of course, Scarlett will come to appreciate Melanie’s reserves of strength, however, superficially she is typifying most women of the era who were lacking in education, trained to keep their opinions to themselves (particularly with men), and saw their chief role as mother and homemaker, “Her sphere is home. And whatever yearning her spirit may have felt for a higher existence…all is buried beneath the weight of undivided cares” (Unger 189).
Even though Scarlett is preoccupied with thoughts of clothes, appearance, and men before the war and even though Melanie exhibits only the softer nature of her character, they both undergo transformations during the war that see their roles develop after the conflict ends. Melanie loses Twelve Oaks and all the genteel comforts it offered. Scarlett loses her mother, Tara is occupied and left barren by Yankee forces, and her father has gone insane. Only Mammy and Pork have remained behind and Scarlett must become more than matriarch of the once lordly plantation, she must also become its sole bread-winner. When her feminine charms alone cannot provide her the funds she needs, she marries Frank Kennedy and goes into the lumber business with Ashley Wilkes. Her ability to adopt “Yankee” ways and accept t
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