MovieChat Forums > The Buccaneers (1995) Discussion > Any thoughts why Nan didn't consider wai...

Any thoughts why Nan didn't consider waiting for Guy at first?

posted 10 years ago by KayDrama
3 replies | jump to latest

I've browsed all the threads here but no one has mentioned why no one in the film considered Nan might wait the two years for Guy to return. They went on and on about Nan being so very young that at first i thought perhaps she was 14-15, but then it was said she was 18.

The governess told Julius to wait two years but other than saying Nan is young and may change - she gave no other reason. Of course someone infatuated, as Julius was, is not going to wait (or believe) just because someone advises she may change. With no other reason given by the governess, I wondered if she knew something about Julius that she felt was unworthy of Nan; or was she avoiding her own loss of employment.

So anyone have answers?:

1) Why didn't Nan consider waiting for Julius return and why didn't Julius ask her to wait?

2) What was the governess' motivation in warning Julius to wait to offer for Nan?

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TheDuchessofM 10 years ago

If you read the book, it explains that Annabel was very young for her age, and that her tastes, personality, and opinions were unformed. Miss Testvalley urged the duke to wait because she didn't want Nan's growing up to be spoiled by other influences (and possibly by sex). The duke was infatuated with Nan because of her innocence and artlessness, and he hoped to mold Nan into the perfect duchess and companion--unlike Miss Testvalley, he didn't want Nan to grow up and become her own woman.

As for why Nan didn't wait for Guy, and why Guy didn't tell her to wait? Money. Remember, the St. George's were only a speculation away from poverty, and Guy's father had spent up all of the family money. Nan was in England to marry and marry well, and Guy had nothing to offer to Annabel. He also had ambitions for himself, and wasn't thinking about marriage--especially to someone he considered to be an enchanting child.

[–] Virginiana 10 years ago

1) I think you meant to ask, "why didn't Nan consider waiting for GUY", not Julius, yes? Well, I think she didn't wait for him because he didn't ask her to. Guy's manner toward her was discouraging; he told her he was going away and didn't say anything about hoping to reconnect with her on his return. He sounded rather final. She was eager to get married, partly because she wanted to stay in England (remember, her parents were eager for her to do a New York Season) and partly because she felt it was time ("I'm eighteen. Mother was married at eighteen.")

Why didn't Guy ask Nan to wait for him? I think he was attracted to her but wasn't sure about the depth of his feelings, and his attention was not on romance but on making a fortune to save Honourslove. I don't know if it occured to him that he might lose Nan if he didn't say something, or how deeply it would hurt him if she married someone else.

In the book, interestingly, Guy goes to South America to build railways and during his two-year absence he falls in love with a woman named Paquita, marries her and then she dies, leaving Guy her fortune. So he comes back to England enriched from this inheritance more than his earnings. He's also wiser in the ways of love; Wharton conveys that his whirlwind of emotions for the Latina didn't long survive the wedding ceremony, and that by the time she died he had realized this and wanted to come home to England and Honourslove.

2) I think Miss Testvalley sensed that Julius would not make Nan happy, and wanted to discourage his attentions on that score. In the book she had worked as a governess to some of his sisters and she had a sense of his personality and suspected that the two would be incompatible. Nan needed a husband who could show her love and warmth; Julius (Ushant in the book) was not the man for that.