("Sister Jo" [Josephine Ormsby, presumably related to Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, who had resigned in 1832] figures prominently in the letters Johnston received, as both friend and potential mate for several officers.) Anthony
Rotundo suggests that the more intimate of these male relationships, like those with sisters, "offered a rehearsal for marriage," and were therefore considered only temporary.
Anthony
Rotundo, who initially identified the type, argued that it was enmeshed with competing ideals of manhood, especially concepts of masculine achievement.(1) In White's hands, the Christian Gentleman too often seems to stand alone as the sum total of Victorian attitudes and even behavior.