Flirtatious,fiery,indomitable heroine of Gone With the Wind (1936), a novel about the Civil War by Margaret Mitchell.
A Georgia belle, rejected by her true love, Ashley Wilkes, she spitefully or opportunistically is twice married and twice widowed. She then marries the dashing Rhett Butler, who is more than a match for her. After their child is killed in a horseback riding incident, Rhett realized that Scarlett's heart always yearned for Ashley. Disgusted , he abandons her. The novel ends with the suggestion that Scarlett will endure and will somehow reconstruct her ruined but beloved Southern mansion, Tara.
Scarlett O'Hara has become a legendary figure who stands for a fiery-spirited, enduring woman.
Scarlett O'Hara was also known for putting things off for tomorrow...so a procrastinator would be described as having a Scarlett O'Hara syndrome.
