Rhett Butler Timeline & Summary

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• Rhett is born to an upper-class family in Charleston.
• He is out late one evening with a woman but refuses to marry her, so there is a scandal and his family disowns him.
• He goes to West Point, but is expelled.
• He meets Scarlett at the Wilkes' barbecue, and overhears her declare her love for Ashley.
• The war begins. Rhett becomes a blockade runner, bringing goods into Atlanta; he makes a lot of money.
• He meets Scarlett again in Atlanta, and falls fully in love, though he doesn't tell her.
• He helps Scarlett escape during the siege of Atlanta, and then goes to join the Confederate army for its last stand. Before he leaves he tells Scarlett he loves her.
• After the war, he murders a black man and is put in prison.
• Scarlett comes to the jail to ask him for money to pay the taxes on Tara. She says she'll be his wife or his mistress in exchange, but he can't get to his money in prison, so she goes away in a huff.
• He eventually is released because of his Union connections formed as a blockader.
• He is very wealthy. He hangs around Atlanta to be with Scarlett, though he's pretending he doesn't love her again.
• Scarlett's second husband dies, and Rhett proposes to her (though he's still pretending he doesn't love her).
• Scarlett and Rhett have a daughter, Bonnie, whom Rhett loves.
• To help Bonnie, Rhett works to repair his reputation in town. Before this he'd been hanging out with Yankees, so all the Southerners hated him.
• Scarlett is discovered embracing Ashley; Rhett is jealous and appears to rape her.
• Scarlett seems to fall in love with Rhett, but he leaves with Bonnie for New Orleans immediately.
• Scarlett discovers she is pregnant. Rhett returns and insults her, and she ends up falling down the stairs and miscarrying.
• Bonnie dies in a fall from a horse, and Rhett is crushed.
• Melanie, Ashley's wife, dies, and Scarlett realizes she doesn't love Ashley, but loves Rhett.
• She goes to tell Rhett, but he says he doesn't love her anymore and leaves.