Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
captures the complex environment that women dealt with in the mid-nineteenth
century, from the expectations that they faced from the rest of society to the difficulty
of growing up without a male presence in the household, to even having to deal
with the struggles of wealth inequality. Alcott reflects these aspects of life
through the March sisters and illustrates how these factors can influence life
decisions and paths. Oftentimes, people envision lives for themselves that
differ from what they experience, and this is shown beautifully in Little Women.
The girls all begin with preconceived
notions of how they want their lives to end, most notably Meg. Among the
sisters, she is by far the most aware and upset about the financial burdens
that her family faces. As Alcott explains, “She was ‘fond of luxury,’
and her chief trouble was poverty… It was very natural that the young girl
should long for pretty things, gay friends, accomplishments, and a happy life”
(Alcott 37). For much of the beginning of the book, Meg pines for a better
life, and hopes to marry a rich man so that she may be able to live in luxury,
with no concern for money. However, as she matures, she learns that happiness
and wealth are not directly correlated. After returning from her stay with the
Moffat family, Meg realizes that she is much happier embracing her own life
than pretending to be rich and snobby, and her discussion with Jo and her
mother begins to open her eyes to the fact that there is more to life than
money. Finally, when Mr. Brooke proposes to Meg, Aunt March heavily opposes it
because he is poor. Meg responds, “I’m not afraid of
being poor, for I’ve been happy so far, and I know I shall be with him, because
he loves me” (Alcott 231). Alcott shows that as time goes on, people’s views
and values can change, and that just because things do not always turn out as
planned, does not mean that the worst has happened. By the end of Little Women,
Meg and Mr. Brooke are happily married with two children, and although they
are not rich, they are happy, and Meg has found fulfillment in her life. She
has moved past just wanting to be rich.
The March sisters all undergo major
changes from the beginning of Little Women to the end, and their values,
desires and outlooks on life all mature as they grow as people. Through their
changes, Alcott depicts how young people think they know what they want out of
life, when in reality, their opinions and perspectives will develop over time. To be truly
happy, one must embrace what they are passionate about and what is meaningful
to them, not what they think society wants them to be.
This is an interpretation of Little Women that I admit I did not have, and while it makes sense, I think pointing out the sexist implications of the girls’ “transformation” is also important. It is one thing to write a story in which young characters grow up to be something different than they envisioned, but it is quite another to write a story in which young female characters all grow up to be homemakers, mothers, and wives, when this was not what they had envisioned. Both Jo and Amy giving up their dream to make a living off of creative pursuits (writing and art) to become housewives and mothers is not the same, to me, as just their values being changed; every daughter grew up to be the exact same thing, which seems incredibly improbably if one is going to make the argument that these changes were not necessarily for the worse. It is significant that they are all the same type of woman, now, when they were so different at the beginning; this hints at an erasure of character, not a growth of it. If even one of them had not chosen to become a housewife, I’d agree completely with your analysis; as it is, I feel that it does not tell the whole story. Framing the narrative as that of three independent women growing a learning and making their own choices falters when one realizes that they all made the same choice; at that point, I think it is wise to consider author’s intent and societal context as well. The book does not exist in a vacuum.
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