Little Women, Big Men

[mayhap]

I nicked a copy of Little Women from work to reread on the train. It was one of those books that were very important to my childhood -- I read and reread it (starting in second grade, if I remember correctly, but I might very well not), watched each of the film versions and critiqued them, read everything by and about Louisa May Alcott that I could find, including both sequels.

I read it all the way through the first time -- it was one of those editions that combines Little Women and Good Wives, by the bye, which I understand are common but not entirely ubiquitous -- but, probably owing both to a still-youthful disposition and to my own feelings about proper character development, I failed to register certain plot points from the second part as ever having happened. I seem to distinctly remember a reread where I knew all about Meg and John Brooke and Daisy and Demi and Beth dying and the whole bit, but was unpleasantly surprised yet again by Jo and Professor Bhaer and Laurie and Amy. (Nonetheless, I could have written better copy than whoever this is on the back cover who asserts that "Meg, the oldest, is the sensible writer.")

To gratuitously and anachronistically apply the language of fandom, these events refused to become canon to me. I was a Laurie/Jo shipper to the end. (I didn't, in fact, write fanfic, but I almost certainly would have done if I had found anyone else doing it.) I formulated the theory, once I had read a bit more about how the books had been written and published, that Good Wives and everything that was published thereafter was a sort of "fuck you" to Alcott's readership, who kept harassing her for more of this story that she had begun reluctantly enough in the first place. Good Wives was, "Fuck you, Jo doesn't marry Laurie after all, so nyah." Little Men was "Fuck you, I'm writing about pretty much all boys this time, and you're going to like it." Jo's Boys was, "No, I'm not writing any more of this, fuck you very much. Actually, after this, you're not going to want me to. Also, I will make fun of your fangirl ilk."

Beth's death is prefigured in Part I by her illness. Meg and John's relationship is not just prefigured but actually established in Part I. Jo and Amy's relationships with Professor Bhaer and Laurie respectively are manufactured out of whole cloth in Part II, which makes them, certainly to my mind, relatively unsatisfying, although I thought the chemistry between Amy and Laurie turned out surprisingly well, considering. I never really bought into Jo's fighting Laurie off with a stick, though, and as that note is introduced at the beginning of Part II and hammered on like a drum until the great refusal scene, it made the whole reading experience a bit unpleasant for me.

In retrospect, however, regardless of how "meant 2 b omg!!!11!" Jo and Laurie are, their relationship has no place in the Littlewomenverse, where marriage of equals has been forbidden and all girls must mate with imposing father figures.

Exhibit A: Mr. March and Marmee. Although Mr. March is conspicuous by his absence throughout, even when he is supposed to have returned from his service as a chaplain, we surely learn all we need to know about their relationship from Marmee's description of how he helped her to keep her temper and otherwise practice virtue.

Exhibit B: Meg and John Brooke. Second verse, same as the first, although note that that Brooke, like Professor Bhaer, is an instructor, and tutelage forms part of their courtship. After marriage, the chapter "Domestic Experiences" in particular reads like post-Civil War "I Love Lucy."

Exhibit C: Jo and Professor Bhaer. Could he be any older and practically asexual? Could he spend a little more time lecturing Jo about her morals? Kthx, I don't think I can say any more about this.

Exhibit D: Amy and Laurie. Poor Amy. Laurie, while older than her, is not yet ready to step into the role of father figure, because he is perfectly-justifiably immaturely mourning the untimely end of his relationship with Jo. Therefore, she gets to reform him in order that he be in proper shape to take on the role, insofar as he is capable of it, which mostly involves being the indulgent papa who gives her everything she wants. I think their relationship comes off best, though--until the sequels where it degenerates into the most conflict-free fluff imaginable, that is.

Any marriages of equals here? Nope, I didn't think so. Ah well.

Comments

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

That's a really good point you make about the surviving girls marrying paternalistic men. However, it occurs to me that 1) older man/younger woman was pretty much par for the course in those days, even when the age disparity was great and 2) Louisa may have been yearning for a father figure to take care of *her*; if I remember correctly, her father was a dreamy, impractical sort, and Louisa's writing became a significant source of income to her family.

I was just thoroughly pissed that Jo gave up writing in favor of motherhood in the later books. Pshaw, as they said in her day. *g* OTOH, poor Louisa never had the opportunity to do so.

[mayhap]

Oh, but she did write, she just had an endless parade of people popping in and harassing he! She was a Jane Austen figure! *g*

Bronson Alcott was something else, to be sure. It's hard to imagine what her home life must have really been like.

[zana16.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of "Good Wives". But then, it's been a long time since I read "Little Women". I remember being both annoyed at and yet also kind of liked how "Pilgrim's Progress" was woven into the story.

[wisdomeagle]

Really interesting analysis. Haven't read it since I became a fangirl, so didn't think of it in those terms but... yes.

Jo's Boys confused the *hell* out of me with all the allusions to Greek mythology.

And I spent ages looking for Good Wives in a seperate volume, as picked up Little Women used.

*shrug*

[mayhap]

Oooh, icon. Now there's a great kidlit pairing. :D

[wisdomeagle]

*grin* Another one of those OTPs that dates back to before I even knew fandom existed. :D

[sternel.livejournal.com]

hmmmmmm.
interesting take.
personally, I love Friedrich (although the '94 movie has a great deal to do with that, I admit) and I never had a problem with him. I think he could understand Jo in a way that Laurie never could -- he never 'got' her writing, and Fritz did, and was able to converse with her on it, while Laurie would just wibble about literature endlessly and complain about his lessons.
As I reject LM and JB, I will ignore the remainder of your argument. 0=)

When I've gone back and reread LW, I'm more struck by the maturation than by the whole marriage-bit. Jo doesn't want to grow up, and everything that happens to her is affected by that desire. She ends up fleeing, even, because Laurie's proposal means having to grow up and she can't deal. But Beth dying demonstrates the only real way to *not* grow up, and I think that's when she finally takes stock of everything around her. Writing 'Little Women' is like her last farewell to her childhood.

I have to go back now, and check on the sister's wives -- the whole book is autobiographical, after all -- do you happen to remember how closely John and Laurie resemble May's and Whazername's actual husbands? ::curious:: I think you've certainly called it on the mating father figures bit, but on the other hand, I think *everyone* mated father figures in that period. Either that or they ran away to New York to become Women of Ill Repute.

Jo would make a kickass Woman of Ill Repute.

[mayhap]

Now, now. Gabriel Byrne may very well be teh sex, but you are bringing movie canon into a perfectly good book canon discussion, missy. :D

Er, more OTP defense with quotations after Mike drags me back to watch the rest of the Oscars.

[maldiligenta.livejournal.com]

Damn, someone beat me to my imminent comment about Gabriel Byrne.  Oh well... he's still hot.

So, wait, the part where Beth dies is technically in a separate book?  I didn't realize.  That's one of the few things I do remember from when I read it years and years ago... Beth dying, Jo cutting her hair, someone throwing a book into the fire, and about a million references to Pilgrim's Progress that I didn't understand.

[mayhap]

Argh, no one else gets this either. So, first it was published as two books. No, actually, it was published as a serial, which is why each chapter is practically self-contained. But anyway, the first serial run ended when Mr. March comes back from the war and was published as Little Women. Then she continued it (the story picks up three years later at Meg's wedding) and that was published as Good Wives. Then some bright publishers thought, say, why don't we publish these together as one book called Little Women? So they did. Except for when they don't. I dunno.

But yes. Gabriel Byrne. He can lecture me about the moral content of my writing any time. Of course, I'm still going to write about men having hot sex. But it's nice to know that he cares.

[maldiligenta.livejournal.com]

Ah.
I apologize for my relative ignorance on the topic... Thanks for explaining it, though.

You know, I have to say, I don't think I realized Mr March ever came back.  Did he ever actually do anything?  Somehow I thought he died or something.

Anyway.