Katie Scarlett O'Hara 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 is aware that she is only acting empty-headed, and resents the "necessity" of it, unlike most of her Southern belle peers, including Melanie Hamilton and India Wilkes.

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

He assists Scarlett in defiance of proper Victorian mourning customs when her husband, Charles Hamilton, dies in a training camp.

Scarlett 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.

They have a little girl named Bonnie, but she dies from a horseback riding accident that leaves Rhett and Scarlett's relationship unstable.

After telling him she loves him, he refuses to stay with her, which leads to the famous line in the movie, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Wracked with grief but determined to win him back, Scarlett returns to Tara to regain her strength and create a plan to reunite with Rhett.

In a rare interview, Mitchell admitted the theme of the novel was “survival,” specifically shown is exploring human behavior in the face of the catastrophe of the Civil War.

[7] Decades later, literary critics and authors agree that Scarlett's revolution from a spoiled, wealthy girl—typical of her socioeconomic status—to becoming an independent woman in an unforgiving society and unstable economy is a testament to the development of Mitchell's character.

[8] Scarlett stands out in the novel because she alone, among her female peers, is the only one who survives and thrives despite Sherman's March through Atlanta, despite being widowed twice, despite being a woman in a patriarchal society.

Scarlett does not uphold the same code of standard as she did in the beginning of the novel because her motivations changed from societal and class standings to economic status and physical survival.

Scarlett's upbringing resembled that of Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens (1844–1934), who was raised predominantly Irish Catholic on a plantation near Jonesboro in Fayette, not unlike the O’Hara family.

Leigh asked Myron to put her name into consideration as Scarlett on the eve of the American release of her picture Fire Over England in February 1938.

David Selznick watched both Fire Over England and her most recent picture, A Yank at Oxford, that month, and thought she was excellent but in no way a possible Scarlett, for she was "too British".

In a letter to his wife two days later, David Selznick admitted that Leigh was "the Scarlett dark horse", and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939.

"[17] Patterson wrote that Ally is similar because she is also a child from a ruling class family, "pines hopelessly after an unavailable dreamboat", and has a "sassy black roommate" in place of a "mammy" to "comfort her".

[17] Other characters often compared to Scarlett include many female protagonists from other romantic epics, most notably Lara Antipova from the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago and Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic (1997) as well as strong-willed women in history, such as Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette and Eva Peron.

Vivien Leigh's subsequent Oscar-winning portrayal of southern belle Blanche DuBois on stage and in the 1951 film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire has drawn comparison to her performance as Scarlett.

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

[19] In John Kennedy Toole's posthumously published 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, an amateur dancer "Harlett O'Hara" (whose real name is Darlene) puts on a "southern belle" performance at Lana Lee's Night of Joy bar.