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delphipsmithRereading Gone With the Wind for about the thirteenth time and loving it, as always. However, for the first time I really noticed some of the ages mentioned, and was a bit taken aback. Gerald O'Hara is 43 when he marries Ellen Robillard, who is only 15. Suellen O'Hara's "beau" Frank Kennedy is 40 and she's 14. And Rhett Butler is mentioned as being 30 or 35 at the beginning of the novel and Scarlett is only 16.
For some reason this never struck me before, but even for the 1860s this seems rather a wide age disparity.
For some reason this never struck me before, but even for the 1860s this seems rather a wide age disparity.
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Date: 2016-01-26 03:07 am (UTC)Vixen?
> For some reason this never struck me before, but even for the 1860s this seems rather a wide age disparity.
Not unusual when women were (more or less) treated as a commodity for the provision of a new generation of property holders.
It meant that the "ideal" age for a man to marry was when they had reached their level of financial security and for women when they at the age to give birth and bring up the youngster.
Aristotle, Politics, Book VII, 1335.a27
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Date: 2016-01-26 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-26 10:20 pm (UTC)Apparently I misread the title and read 'opposite' as reflecting age rather than gender.
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Date: 2016-01-26 10:29 pm (UTC)Yes, I know, hence saying "the male parallel" to that term.
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Date: 2016-01-26 10:46 pm (UTC)http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rhino
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Date: 2016-01-27 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-27 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-27 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-27 01:17 pm (UTC)There is also the puns
Date: 2016-01-27 10:49 pm (UTC)Re: There is also the puns
Date: 2016-01-28 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-27 01:18 am (UTC)Edit: Oh, and thanks for the Aristotle. It's always good to get the classics' point of view ;)