Little Women Research - Unit 8

Story

Little Women is a coming of age novel written by Louisa May Alcott set in the 1800s. It follows the lives of four sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as it details their passage from childhood to womanhood. They live with there mother as there father is away in the civil war. They struggle with supporting themselves and their household as they had recently lost their fortune. During their struggles they befriend their rich neighbour Mr. Lawrence and his grandson Theodore Lawrence.  As they grow older each sister face their own personal demons and moral challenges. Jo, must learn to become more lady like and calm her tomboyish ways while focusing on her ambition on becoming a great author. Meg who is the oldest sister, struggles to follow her heart as she is clouded by her love for wealth and finery. Beth who is cripplingly shy must try and conquer her bashfulness way. While Amy the youngest sister must try to sacrifice her aristocratic pride. Jo has harsh beliefs on men and love which is why when Meg falls in love with Laurie's tutor John Brooke and they end up marrying which causes the families bond to forever change. Laurie reveals his love to Jo only to be shut down when she claims she can't care for him in the same way. Due to this Jo decides to take some time away and focus on her ambition so leaves to go to New York to try her hand as a professional writer. Beth ends up getting scarlet fever looking after a poor family that the sisters mother tells her to look after when she leaves for Washington to check on their father due to him falling ill. While in New York Jo meets professor Bhaer who she takes an interest in. Laurie after being heartbroken goes to Europe where he meets Amy after she went travelling with her Aunt when she couldn't travel with Jo due to her being in New York. As Joe returns home she devotes her time to her dying sister Beth while Laurie and Amy start to fall in love. Amy then receives news about Beth's death which leads to Laurie being there for her and they end up marrying in the end and returning to Massachusetts. This is where they reveal there marriage to Jo who is happy for them. Professor Bhaer then arrives at Massachusetts for business he meets up with Jo and meets the family and on his final day he asks Jo to marry him which she says yes to as she realises she loves him. 

Links to Real Life

Little Women was based on Louisa May Alcott's experience growing up in Concord, Massachusetts with her three sisters. Like Jo she is the second oldest of her sisters but she remained unmarried and actually became a famous author whereas Jo didn't even though it being her ambition. At first she didn't like the idea of this sort of thing due to the only girls she knew being her sisters and the plays they would do and she doubted the experiences they went through would be interesting. She called her book 'simple and true' as she wrote about what she knew and was pleased with the result. She managed to write the book in just 10 weeks and stated that the reason it would succeed is because 'they really lived most of it'. Alcott left many life experiences out of the book as the real story would be much darker than what she ended up with. In the story the March family struggle a financial downfall but even after this happening it was nothing compared to what the Alcott's really went through, the March family were downright wealthy compared to the Alcott family. Louisa would state in her biography that there were points in her life where her family were literally starving and surviving on bread dunked in water. Poverty forever stayed on Louisa May Alcott's mind, so that throughout her career she was motivated by the pursuit of money stating "money is the means and ends of my mercenary existence" so she wrote Little Women believing it would sell well. Alcott's parents imbued their four daughters with their principles. One scene notable in the books is the Christmas morning scene where the March family donate their breakfast, this was based of an actual event where they once carried their breakfast to a starving family and once lent their dinner to a neighbour. 

Meg March

The 'real meg' wanted to be an actor. The eldest daughter of the Alcott family, Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt, fit in with the times' conventional Victorian principles despite being raised in a family with radically liberal principles. According to Louisa May Alcott her sister (Anna) was a model daughter and became a model wife due to her being dutiful, self-sacrificing and proper. But she had a secret dream; Anna wanted to become an actress since she loved acting in Louisa's dramas.Which the sisters then formed the Concord Dramatic Union where Anna met her husband John Bridge Pratt. Unlike her younger sisters, Anna did not continue her secret passion. She married John and had two kids with becoming a stay-at-home mother. But Gerwig's Little Women (the recent adaptation) pays homage to Anna's true ambitions as at the end of the film Meg is seen teaching drama lessons. 

Jo March

When creating Jo March, Louisa May Alcott took experience from herself. This is made obvious since like Jo, Alcott also wanted to become an author from a young age. It is said that Jo resembles Louisa in the most way by their creative imagination. They both burned with genius, spinning tales of murder and treachery then would jump to fairy tales and sentimental poetry; they were both also governesses. Alcott's big ambition was to be rich, famous and happy before she died and this is where her path with Jo diverges, as Alcott did become successful. Unlike Jo, Alcott left her family circle and lived an independent and remained unmarried. In Gerwig's Little Women, Jo was given the ending that Alcott had always wished for. 

Beth March

Like Beth, Lizzie Alcott also met a tragedy end at a young age. Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Sewall Alcott like Beth also contracted scarlet fever after helping a poor family dying in 1835 at the age of 22. Beth's death was written as a 'quiet, dignified death' described as a 'fictional death' since Lizzie Alcott was not so lucky and suffered audibly. Although being a graceful, quiet woman, Lizzie would lash out at her family and would express anger she had never expressed before. 

Amy March

Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, was the youngest of the Alcott sisters just like how Amy is the youngest of the March sisters. In the book Amy gives up her painting pursuit due to her thinking shes not one of the greats. Whereas, Amy gives up her painting dream, Abigail stays grasped in the pursuit. She studied at the School of Fine Arts in Boston and would later travel to Paris. Louisa never took Abigail's career seriously but that's when she got her big break as one of her paintings was accepted to the Paris Salon in 1877. She also marries a Swiss businessman and musician called Ernest Nieriker who was not the inspiration for Laurie. 

Theodore Lawrence

Laurie was inspired by two people. One being a young Polish man by the name of Ladislas Wisniewski, who Louisa had roamed around Paris with in 1865. The other man was a guy called  Alfred 'Alf' Whitman, at the age of 15 he arrived in Concord in 1857 and formed a close friendship with the Alcott girls. He also played a part in forming the Concord  Dramatic Union, just like how Laurie joins the March acting club in the book. Though Whitman was in Concord for only a year, he and Alcott became lifelong friends. 

Civil War

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 - May 26 - 1865). It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the central cause of the war being the dispute of whether slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories leading to more slave states or be prevented from happening. 

What does the American Civil War have to do with Little Women though? Well the first novel opens up in the early 1860's; the midst of the American Civil War. The girl's father is away from home, serving as a chaplain to the Union. Christmas plays a big part in the story of Little Women, but it was never a federal holiday until 1870. Before the war began the holiday wasn't celebrated much in New England (where Little Women takes place), the Puritans and Calvinists who colonised the area stuck to fasting and stricter rituals. When Massachusetts became a state, schools and businesses still didn't observe the holiday whereas, elsewhere in the country Christmas was celebrated according to the customs of the immigrants who settled there. But the Civil War bought a new Christmas, a Christmas that relieved the pain of a separated family and restored the peace of a hearth surrounded by loved ones. By the time the war had ended Christmas had become a symbol of family and good cheer. This links to the sisters as Christmas calls the sisters to reflect on their bonds with each other and their parents and on the kind of lives they want to lead. The Civil War also plays a big part in the families economic aspect. The family is drawn in poor condition by poverty caused by the war. It also made the family struggle with the emotional strain of having a loved one away at war, and also causes effects in the education aspect as Amy leaves school due to the war.