MovieChat Forums > The Awakening (2011) Discussion > ***SPOILERS*** Who was the older sibling...

***SPOILERS*** Who was the older sibling?


As anyone who has seen the film knows that Florence and Thomas Hill are half-siblings. Does anyone know if they are exactly the same age or common sense would tell me that Tom most likely would have been born first. Several times during the film Florence refers to him as "Little Tom" so might she have been his older sister? On the other hand if Tom was named after his father that would explain Florence calling him "little Tom" after the big reveal.

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She should be, but not much older. Maud was her nurse as a baby, which suggests that she met their father then when she went to work for them - nothing in the movie suggests that the father and Maud knew each other prior to Florence's birth. I wouldn't be surprised if she and Tom were meant to be only a year apart in age.

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Most of it makes sense, only thing that doesn't add up is where Maud is quoted "because I raised you. I wet-nursed you." Obviously a woman has to give birth before being able to produce milk so the siblings probably would have been born within the same time frame, but it would only make sense for Florence to have been born first unless Maud had been a maid in the Cathcart household long before Florence's father married.

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You do not need to have given birth to produce milk. I see their ages as not really being relevant.

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Um lactating without having been pregnant is extremely rare. So it's very unliking that Maude spontaneously lactated and then was like "welp better get a job wetnursing!"
More likely she had a baby beforehand that had died very young or been stillborn (common for the time)
Or as others had said worked for the family before hand and was pregnant with Tom in and around the same time the Lady of the house was pregnant with Florence.

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Lactation can occur in women who've not given birth and in men via "induced lactation" bit is rare. I think it's believable that when Tom was being nursed Florence became jealous and would also want to be nursed by Maud (as she had such a close bond with the nanny). Hence Maud nursed her also.

It definitely seems as if Florence was the older sibling, I.e. She was much taller.

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Where you are correct with this. But it is rare. Super. It mostly happens when a person finds a baby and where is nothing to fed them and that person starts to produce milk for the child. Actually super amazing really.

I did learn about wet nurses and they would hire women who had a child already and was producing milk. So guest that she had him earlier or near the same time. Not a crazy thing.

Plus children heights are wild. I was always taller than normal for my age and was thought older.

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