What is humorous about Uncle Jack saying that Rose Aylmer "was one of the few women he could stand permanently"?

In chapter 9, Uncle Jack visits Maycomb to attend the Finch's Christmas family gathering and gives Jem and Scout air rifles as presents. The first question Jem asks his uncle is "How's Rose Aylmer?" (Lee, 81). Scout goes on to mention that Rose Aylmer is their uncle's yellow female cat and that Uncle Jack said she was "one of the few women he could stand permanently" (Lee, 81). Uncle Jack is a bachelor who named his cat after a woman who died of cholera in the nineteenth century and was the subject of a famous poem written by Walter Savage Landor. In the poem, Rose Aylmer is depicted as possessing every "virtue" and "grace." Uncle Jack's comment regarding his cat as being one of the few women he can stand permanently is humorous because it reveals his bitterness toward and negative view of women. The fact that Uncle Jack has a longer lasting relationship with his cat than any other female is also humorous and emphasizes his poor relations with women.

Rose Aylmer was a young lady who tragically died of cholera in the early nineteenth-century. She was the subject of a famous poem by Walter Savage Landor in which he pays fulsome tribute to her "every virtue, every grace." In To Kill a Mockingbird, Rose Aylmer is also the name of Uncle Jack's beautiful yellow female cat. In fact, she's one of the few females of any description Uncle Jack can stand. This is intended to be a humorous reference to his somewhat jaundiced view of women. Uncle Jack would appear to be something of a misogynist in that the only kind of female company he finds remotely agreeable is that of a female cat. Uncle Jack is a bachelor, and given his low opinion of women, that's not altogether surprising.