What's the opposite of a cougar?

[delphipsmith]

Rereading 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.

Comments

[drinkingcocoa.livejournal.com]

*shudder* I forgot that Gerald was 43! I remembered that Ellen was very young, but it's been a while, and the last time I read GWTW, I was nowhere near my forties. Now, imagining myself looking at a crop of 15-year-olds to choose one for a spouse -- eerrraaggghhh! Shudder. I would probably just... actually, there is a scene from American Beauty that sums it up for me. I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it, but I laughed with delight when I saw it.

[delphipsmith]

Ellen strikes me as having been a very mature fifteen, but what on earth do you suppose middle-aged Frank Kennedy saw in bratty teenage Suellen O'Hara? Or, conversely, why was Suellen attracted by such an "old maid in britches" instead of one of the hot young Tarleton twins? He wasn't even rich, which you'd think would matter to Suellen.

It's a lot easier to grasp what Rhett and Scarlett saw in each other, though given his long-term affection for Belle Watling (whom I picture as much closer to his own age) it still seems a little odd that he'd be all hot for a 16-year-old. Though he does say at one point "I married you to keep your for a pet." Well, at least he didn't marry her until she'd been a widow twice.

[drinkingcocoa.livejournal.com]

It always seemed to me that Suellen and Frank genuinely liked each other and got along. :-) She probably was her best self when with him and getting attention instead of being the middle child and overshadowed by her domineering sister. Scarlett's point of view of Suellen was probably the single worst. :-) I can understand why Rhett liked Scarlett at 16. She wasn't a hypocrite and she expressed anger, and he was heartily sick of hypocrisy.