Ashley Wilkes

Ashley Wilkes
First appearance	Gone with the Wind
Created by	Margaret Mitchell
Portrayed by	Leslie Howard
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Spouse	Melanie Wilkes
Children	Beau Wilkes
Relatives	India Wilkes (sister), John Hamilton (uncle) Charles Hamilton (cousin and brother-in-law), Honey Wilkes (Sister in the book by Margaret Mitchell

Ashley Wilkes is a fictional character in the Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and the later film of the same name. The character also appears in the 1991 book Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind written by Alexandra Ripley.

Ashley is the man with whom Scarlett O'Hara is obsessed. Gentlemanly yet indecisive, he loves Melanie, his cousin and later his wife, but is tormented by an obsession with Scarlett. Unfortunately for him and Scarlett, his failure to deal with his true feelings for Scarlett ruins any chance she has for real happiness with the true love of her life (Rhett Butler). Ashley is a complicated character who is sympathetic to the cause of the North. He claims that he would have freed the slaves that worked on his plantation had the 'war never come'. He pleads, in vain, to his wife Melanie to move to the North after he comes back from fighting in the American Civil War. He ends up working for Scarlett, living off her generosity, because he is a terrible businessman.

In a sense, he is the character best personifying the tragedy of the Southern high class after the Civil War. Coming from privileged background, Ashley is an honorable and educated man. He shows clear contrast to Rhett Butler, who is decisive and full of life, but is vulgar and distasteful as well. Ashley fights in the Civil War, though having been opposed to it, and shows enough leadership to be promoted to the rank of Major, and survives a notorious prisoners' camp to eventually return home able-bodied. Ashley could have lived a peaceful and respectable life had the War never taken place. The War that changed the South forever has turned his world upside down, with everything he had believed in literally 'gone with the wind'. His inability to deal with life after the War could also be attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The book portrays Ashley having two sisters, India and Honey Wilkes, although only one, India, is portrayed in the movie.

Bizarrely, the character and his romantic problems were known to be inspired by a relative by marriage of Mitchell's, the famous gunfighter Doc Holliday.

The character was played by Leslie Howard in the 1939 film. Howard was reluctant to play the part, for it was the type of person he got no joy out of playing, particularly as the character was portrayed in the film.

Wilkes has been mentioned as a description of former United States Army General Wesley Clark by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh since 2002.