Little Woman

Reasons for choosing this book:

When I first knew this book, I learned that is was intended to be “a story for girls”. I’m interested in the name and curious why it was called “little woman”. Another reason is that it matches the work of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which is one of my favorite books. So I pick it up and begin to read.

 

Key words: family, marriage, independence and self-respect

Little Woman

Abstract

“Little woman” written by Louisa May Alcott, is a very popular juvenile book which shows young adults how to improve their characters when they grow up. Based on the author’s memories of her childhood home, the story concerns the daily lives of the four girls in our story, boyish Jo, who wants to be writer, beautiful Meg, whose dream is to be a playwright, gentle Beth, who wants to learn music, and vain Amy, whose hobby is painting. As they progress towards womanhood in Civil War in New England, the four very different characters strive to achieve their personal ambitions in love, work and family life.

 

Brief Introduction of Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 inGermantown, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Concord, Massachusetts, a small town that was hometown to many great writers of that time. She was educated at home by her father Bronson Alcott. She loved to read and write. She was one of these greatest 19^th century female writers who supported her family by writing many things—potboilers, fairy stories, journals about her work as a nurse in the Civil War, serious adult novels, and many books for children. Under the name of A.M. Barnard, Louisa May Alcott wrote dozens of “lurid” or “blood-and-thunders” stories about murders and strange crimes and executions. She also wrote journalistic pieces called Hospital Sketches and published in 1863, though not overwhelming. Later in 1868, she wrote Little Woman on the base of her family and it turned out to be a great success. She became a popular and respected writer, writing such favorites as Old Fashioned Girl (1870), Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886). She died in 1888.

 

An Introduction to the Novel

The story begins with Mr. March joining the Northern forces in the war, leaving his wife and four daughters home. They have to manage without him. Mrs. March becomes the family’s main provider and gives her daughters a great deal of love. She is their moral guide and influences them on their pathway through life. Each of the March girls displays a major character flaw: Meg, vanity; Jo, a hot temper; Beth, shyness; and Amy, selfishness. The problems they encountered in their transitional period of development between youth and maturity are easy for us to understand. But their struggles for finding the true selves and becoming self-independent are touching and thought-provoking. The four different characters have their own interests, values and dreams of life. Though they have quarrels and angers, they try best to think in others’ places and love their family. The March sisters try to find happiness through daily activities, their dreams, and each other; they engage in productive work, they find meaningful happiness, either for a living or for the benefits of their family. The March girls and their mother support the family and bear the duty of the whole family. They found their true meanings of life, family and marriage at the end of the story.

Character Analysis

Meg March is the eldest of the four girls. She is drawn to domestic affairs and feels rewarded when she is able to please those around her. She struggles with her own vanity as she longs for many of the luxuries she can no longer enjoy. She adores wearing fine dresses and having nice things, but such items remain out of reach. When Mr. March loses his property in trying to help an unfortunate friend, she and Jo are brave enough to beg to be allowed to do something toward their own support. She works as a governess for the Kings, whose kids are not that easy to teach and in fact a little annoying for her. At the Kings’ she sees all she wants everyday. She tries not to be envious or discontented, but it is very natural that the young girl should long for pretty things, accomplishments and a happy life. With the hope of supporting the family, she struggles to go to teach in the “Vanity Fair” she longs for. Meg battles with her girlish weakness for luxury and money, and fearlessly expresses her love to Mr. Brooke in the face of Aunt March’s question and eventually ends up marrying the poor man she loves. Although Meg represents the conventional and good, she is by nature brave enough to pursue her desired happiness on her own.

 

Beth March is the second youngest of the March girls. She is sweet, selfless, quiet and warm, shy and withdrawn. She never asks for anything for herself and seeks only to make those around her happy. She has a talent for music but she is too shy to receive normal education. She likes to hide herself in the room and meets those who are very familiar to her. It is unimaginable for her to communicate with strangers. But owing to the love of music, she talks to Mr. Laurence about the music and goes to play piano in his study. When the letter from father comes, all the other girls weep and express their deep feelings. Beth said nothing, she just faces the reality and wipes away her tears with the blue army sock and begins to knit with all her might, losing no time in doing the duty. She is shy and withdrawn, but when she is helping others she is brave. After Maumee’s departure, when other sisters neglect the poor family, she would look after the baby all by herself. Unfortunately, she contracts scarlet fever and becomes extremely ill. She dies as a young beloved, household spirit. She does not want to go away, but she keeps persuading herself to be willing to accept the truth: “I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.”

 

As the youngest March sister, Amy is spoiled and bad-tempered, and her family strives to correct her behavior before she gets older. Amy loves luxuries and is sensitive to her appearance. As she grows older, she manages to behavior in proper manners. She clearly knows her strengths and has an outstanding talent of painting. She is clearly aware of what she really wants and is brave to pursue what she needs. When Beth becomes ill, and Amy is sent to stay with Aunt March, she behaves as a lamb in order to earn that lovely turquoise ring. She is also brave to discuss her motives for future marriage. At first, she wants to marry someone rich, because she hates poverty. After her deep consideration, she finds that something more important than money and position is needed to satisfy the new longing that filled her heart so full of tender hopes and fears. It is brave for a girl to refuse the proposal of a rich gentleman with a delightful manner. Amy is clear about what kind of future she longs for and she is brave enough to pursue her ideal of happiness.

 

Jo is the second eldest of the four March sisters. She is independent, ill-tempered, energetic, clever and self-confident. Jo struggles throughout the story to learn to control her temper. She is an outspoken tomboy who is more interested in reading and playing games than in primping or gossiping with girls of her age. Her character is based substantially on Louisa May Alcott herself. Jo loves to write plays and short stories. The March girls enjoy performing Jo’s plays, in which she always plays the men’s roles. While other girls kiss goodbye, she shakes hands in a gentlemanly manner. After having two of her stories accepted for publication, Jo takes her writing more seriously. Writing brings her success and allows her to earn money doing something she loves. She is not ashamed of being not rich and she respects herself for being independent. “I don’t like favors; they oppress and make me feel like a slave. I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.” She has no desire to get married, preferring the happy and satisfying life as a single girl she enjoys with her family. She rejects Laurie’s proposal because she loves him in a brotherly way not as a lover. Finally, she marries Professor Bhaer, an older man who is poor, educated, and supportive of her career. This arrangement is so different from a conventional romantic love story. Jo displays both good and bad qualities. But her bad characteristics—anger, rebelliousness, and outspoken ways—do not make her unappealing; rather, they suggest her understandable and accessible humanity.

Beautiful Sentences:

Money is a needful and precious thing—and, when well used, a noble thing—but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.

My castle was the most nearly realized of all. I asked for splendid things, to be sure, but in my heart I knew I should be satisfied, if I had a little home, and John, and some dear children like these. I’ve got them all, thank God, and am the happiest woman in the world.

To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience.

I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.

Brooke is commander in chief, I am commissary girl, the other fellows are staff officers, and you, ladies, are company.

I don’t like favors; they oppress and make me feel like a slave. I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.

Personal impressions

In Little Woman, on the one hand, the March sisters are depicted as self-contained women with self-confidence and self-respect. They support themselves and their family; they hold their own dreams and struggle bravely to fulfill them. In the search for their own identities, with courage and self-confidence, the March ladies also take some responsibilities that are supposed to be men’s.

On the other hand, as the other half of human species, the March ladies have their own limitations. Marriage, which is just one of many options of acquiring happiness, is taken by them as the best and the only way of obtaining happiness. Once in trouble, they lose their abilities to save themselves. No matter how hard they try to solve their problems on their own, they still cannot defeat their “bosom enemy”. Only with the help or education by men, can they finally triumph over their fault.

Most of the action in Little Woman takes place in the March home. “Family” a word usually associated with ease and relaxation that people long for, is often compared to a harbor where one can relax one’s body and spirit freely and comfortably. But in patriarchal culture, it stands for something that restrains women’s freedom and individuality. In Little Woman, some of the March girls surrender unconditionally to the patriarchal request; some of them surrender after hard struggle. Whether struggle or not, by different routes they reach the same destination that the patriarchal desires and imposes.

Meg and Amy have some superficial qualities in common, such as vanity and a love of finery. They also have a similar attitude of compromise to the patriarchy. They have the ability to support themselves, to be independent from men. They show their desire to seek their identity and independence. But they both quickly get engaged and then get married acquiring a new and attractive identity in marriage and motherhood. Women’s duty and virtue lie in domestic affairs. Like most other young matrons, Meg began her married life with a determination to be a model housekeeper.

Amy has apparently the simplest lessons to learn, those closest to the conventional moral disciplines of the time: the need to subdue vanity, to work in harmony with others and to control selfish impulses. Though different from Meg, she has her own talent and has the chance to follow her career as an individual; at last she gives it up willingly for family. She knows the life that she is living is different from what she had planed, but she compromises. She even does not have the will to change her undesired life. Because Laurie says modeling the figure of a baby is the best thing she has ever done. She persuades herself to accept it and tries to regard this kind of life as a significant life for everyone. In this course she forgets only one person—herself. Through Meg’s and Amy’s process of growth, the author is trying to show us that a woman can live comfortably in the contemporary patriarchal society—-with a certain talent, relative requirement for independence, and knowing when to compromise.

Jo always wants to remain a child with no gender: neither male nor female. She likes boys’ games, works and manners. She is disappointed in being a girl and she even does not want to be called Miss March. She hates to think that she has to grow up. She repeats the wishes that she does not want to grow up. She always clings to conceive the idea that she is still too young to be a woman. She wants to be what is in her. But as a girl she cannot be the one she wants to be according to the traditional requirement of a lady. Her preference for boys’ work and manners comes from the unconscious awareness of the limitations of being a woman. She tries to cover her female nature deliberately by behaving like a man. But she always shows her womanliness unconsciously. She can put things into place and give quite a different air to the room during a very short conversation. Jo is brave enough to pursue her independence and identity. She has the ability to support herself and her family. The confusion about her own gendered identity is proved in the hair-cutting episode, when she sells her long hair as a contribution to making her father more comfortable. Jo confronts her identity dilemma: her only feminine beauty or brand-new image. This new image stands for her independence from traditional requirement. She is proud to fulfill her “gentleman’s” duty for the family. She does look like a boy now. But when weeping in bed at night for the loss of her hair, she cannot understand the reason for her tears. She is confused about her mental identity. She becomes the one she wants to be, at last apparently. Once she achieves her goal of being a “gentleman” in appearance, behavior and habit, she retreats. To some extent Jo denies her new image. She in domesticated by the patriarchal culture and concept. She is used to the traditional requirements for a woman unconsciously. When the dilemma appears, she withdraws from the hazardous, formidable and unpleasant circumstance naturally.

On her death Beth implored Jo to take her place as companion and comfort to their parents, assuring her elder sister that love is the only thing that people can carry with them where they go. Loving others or being loved by others is happier than writing splendid books or seeing the entire word. Meg tells Jo that love and marriage is not that difficult and what Jo needs to do is to bring out the tender womanly half of her nature. When the March sisters are wondering about their future, Maumee stands out to tell them: “to be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman.” When she thinks of spending all her life in that quiet house, devoting to humdrum cares, she feels despairing and craves for affection. She starts to think of marriage as an excellent thing and wonder if she would be as happy as her sisters in marriage. No matter with long hair or short hair, wearing gowns or trousers, a woman needs to have her own image. Marriage is just one of the ways to happiness, not the only, or the best way. A woman should have more options: she can live happily as a housewife, she can live comfortably as a confident professional woman or she can be both. When she is a girl of tender age, Jo makes her name boyish and plays brother or father to other girls. Her wish to prolong her childhood and be a man to marry Meg comes from a desire to retain the intimacy she enjoys with her mother and sisters. This kind of intimacy tends to happen among women. Jo starts to be educated by the traditional concept ever since she was born. Finally, she compromises to patriarchal norms. Father is the master of the whole family, both in economy and spiritual convention. In order to please her father Jo will do her best to become a “little woman”. To some extent women are victims of patriarchal society, even the educated women. Consciously or unconsciously, they are oppressed and controlled by their husbands and fathers. Their minds are imbued with patriarchal moral principles, which may have acquired from the society in which they live.