Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes, in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel.
Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers were eager for more of the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume (titled Good Wives or Little Women Married in the United Kingdom, though the name originated with the publisher and not Alcott). It was also met with success. The two volumes were issued in 1880 as a single novel titled Little Women. Alcott subsequently wrote two sequels to her popular work, both also featuring the March sisters: Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886).
The novel has been said to address three major themes: "domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine's individual identity." According to Sarah Elbert, Alcott created a new form of literature, one that took elements from romantic children's fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels, resulting in a totally new genre. Elbert argues that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the "All-American girl" and that her various aspects are embodied in the differing March sisters.
The book has been translated into numerous languages and frequently adapted for stage and screen.
Background
In 1868, Alcott's publisher, Thomas Niles, recommended that she write a novel about girls that would have widespread appeal. Alcott resisted, preferring to publish a collection of short stories, instead. Niles pressed her to write the girls' book first, however, and he was aided by her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, who also urged her to do so. Louisa confided to a friend, "I could not write a girls' story knowing little about any but my sisters and always preferring boys".
In May 1868, Alcott wrote in her journal: "Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write a girl's book. I said I'd try." Alcott set her novel in an imaginary Orchard House modeled on her residence of the same name, where she wrote the novel. She, later, recalled that she did not think she could write a successful book for girls and did not enjoy writing it. "I plod away," she wrote in her diary, "although, I don't enjoy this sort of things."
By June, Alcott had sent the first dozen chapters to Niles, and both agreed that they were dull. But Niles's niece, Lillie Almy, read them and said she enjoyed them. The completed manuscript was shown to several girls who agreed it was "splendid". Alcott wrote: "they are the best critics, so, I should definitely be satisfied." She wrote Little Women "in record time for money", but the book's immediate success surprised both her and her publisher.
Little Women was a novel that took part in the realism literary movement of the mid-to-late 1800s. This movement focused on depicting everyday life in a natural way and is seen through Alcott’s portrayal of the real aspects of women’s lives through the ways the characters interact with one another, work, and play. Gregory Eiselein and Anne Phillips write: "Fresh, lively, and distinctly American, the novel offered singular depictions of young women and men playing, talking, squabbling, dreaming, creating, learning, and coming of age in ways that embodied and resisted its era and region and immediately generated passionate responses." Readers are able to see and experience the joys and sorrows of the March family and come to understand what it meant to be a woman in the nineteenth century.
One real aspect that Alcott focused on was marriage. Marriage was exceedingly prevalent in the lives of women in the nineteenth century; during that time 93% of women in America married. However, what was special about the marriages the March women made was their equal partnerships within their relationships. Daniel Shealy writes: "Alcott gave serious thought to the marriages in part two and set out to instruct her readers, especially young women, on the importance of egalitarian relationships between husbands and wives." The equal unions between man and wife can be seen through each relationship the March women have, especially between Mr. and Mrs. March and Meg and John Brooke, as they both share equal footing in the household and in the decisions regarding their children.
Title
According to literary critic Sarah Elbert, Alcott used the phrase "little women" to draw on its Dickensian meaning; it represented the period in a young woman's life where childhood and elder childhood are "overlapping" with young womanhood. Each of the March sister heroines has a harrowing experience that alerts them and the reader that "childhood innocence" is of the past, and that "the inescapable woman problem" is all that remains.
Plot
Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, and their mother, whom they call Marmee, live in a new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is serving as a chaplain for the Union Army in the American Civil War, far from home. The mother and daughters face their first Christmas without him. When Marmee asks them to give their Christmas breakfast away to an impoverished family, the girls and their mother venture to the Hummels' home, laden with baskets, to feed the hungry children, help patch up the holes, and give them firewood. When they return, they discover their wealthy, elderly neighbor, Mr. Laurence, has sent over a decadent surprise dinner, to make up for their breakfast. The two families become acquainted following these acts of kindness.
Meg and Jo must work to support the family: Meg tutors a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in a mansion in Plumfield. Beth, too timid for school, is content to stay at home and help with housework; and Amy is still at school. Meg is beautiful and traditional, Jo is a tomboy who writes, Beth is a peacemaker and a pianist, and Amy is an artist who longs for elegance and fine society. The sisters strive to help their family and improve their characters, as Meg is vain, Jo is hotheaded, Beth is cripplingly shy, and Amy is materialistic. Laurie, Mr. Laurence's orphaned grandson, becomes close friends with the sisters, particularly the tomboyish Jo.
The girls keep busy as the war goes on. Jo writes a novel that gets published but is frustrated to have to edit it down and can't comprehend the conflicting critical response. Meg is invited to spend two weeks with rich friends, where there are parties and cotillions for the girls to dance with boys and improve their social skills. Laurie is invited to one of the dances, and Meg's friends incorrectly think she is in love with him. Meg is more interested in John Brooke, Laurie's young tutor.
Word comes that Mr. March is ill with pneumonia and Marmee leaves to nurse him in Washington, DC. Mr. Laurence offers to accompany her, but she declines, knowing travel would be uncomfortable for the old man. Mr. Laurence, instead, sends John Brooke to do his business in Washington and help the Marches. While in Washington, Brooke confesses his love for Meg to her parents. They are pleased but consider Meg too young to marry, so Brooke agrees to wait.
While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever, after spending time with a poor family, where three children die. As a precaution, Amy is sent to live with Aunt March and replaces Jo as her companion and helper. Jo, who already had scarlet fever, tends to Beth. After many days of illness, the family doctor advises the family send for Marmee. Beth recovers, but never fully regains her health and energy.
While Brooke waits for Meg to come of age to marry, he joins the military and serves in the war. After being wounded, he returns to find work, so he can buy a house for when he and Meg marry. Laurie goes to college. On Christmas Day, a year after the book's opening, the girls' father returns home.
Part two
(Published separately in the United Kingdom as Good Wives)
Three years later, Meg and John wed and work to adjust to married life. When they have twins, Meg is a devoted mother but John begins to feel neglected. Meg seeks advice from Marmee, who helps her find balance by making more time for wifely duties and encouraging John to become more involved with child-rearing.
Laurie graduates from college, doing well in his last year with Jo's prompting. Amy is chosen over Jo to go on a European tour with her aunt. Beth's health is weak due to complications from scarlet fever which lowers her spirits. While trying to understand Beth's sadness, Jo realizes that Laurie has fallen in love. At first she believes it is with Beth, but soon senses it is with herself. Jo confides in Marmee, telling her that she loves Laurie like a brother but does not love him in a romantic way.
Jo wants a little adventure and to put distance between herself and Laurie, hoping he will overcome his feelings. She spends six months in New York City with a friend of her mother who runs a boarding house, serving as governess for her two children. Jo takes German lessons from another boarder, Professor Friedrich Bhaer. He has come from Berlin to care for his sister's orphaned sons. For extra money, Jo anonymously writes salacious romance stories for sensational newspapers. Suspecting her secret, Friedrich comments that such writing is unprincipled and base, which persuades Jo to give up that literary genre. As Jo's time in New York ends, she is unaware that Friedrich is in love with her. When she returns to Massachusetts, Laurie proposes marriage, which she declines.
Laurie travels to Europe with his grandfather to escape his heartbreak. At home, Beth's scarlet fever has left her permanently weakened. Jo becomes devoted to caring for her dying sister. Laurie encounters Amy in Europe and slowly falls in love with her, seeing her in a new light. She is unimpressed by his aimless, idle, and forlorn attitude since being rejected by Jo. She inspires him to find his purpose in life and do something worthwhile. News of Beth's death brings them together and a romance soon grows. Amy's aunt will not allow Amy to return home with Laurie and his grandfather unchaperoned. Amy and Laurie marry before leaving Europe.
Friedrich, in Massachusetts on business, visits the Marches daily for two weeks. On his last day, he proposes to Jo, who realizes she loves him and they become engaged. Because Friedrich is poor, he must first establish a good income and goes west to teach. A year passes without much success. Later, Aunt March dies and leaves her large estate, Plumfield, to Jo. She marries Friedrich and turns the house into a school for boys. They have two sons, and Amy and Laurie have a daughter. At apple-picking time, Marmee celebrates her 60th birthday at Plumfield, with her husband, her three surviving daughters, their husbands, and five grandchildren.
Characters
Margaret "Meg" March
Meg, the oldest sister, is 16 when the story begins. She is described as a beauty, and she manages the household when her mother is absent. She has long brown hair and blue eyes and particularly beautiful hands, and she is seen as the prettiest of the sisters. Meg fulfils expectations for women of the time; from the start, she is already a nearly perfect "little woman", in the eyes of the world. Before her marriage to John Brooke, while still living at home, she often lectures her younger sisters to ensure they grow to embody the title of "little women".
Meg is employed as a governess for the Kings, a wealthy local family. Because of their father's family's social standing, Meg makes her debut into high society, but she is lectured by her friend and neighbor, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, for behaving like a snob. Meg marries John Brooke, Laurie's tutor. They have twins, Margaret "Daisy" Brooke and John Laurence "Demi" Brooke. The sequel, Little Men, mentions a baby daughter, Josephine "Josie" Brooke, who is 14, at the beginning of the final book.
According to Sarah Elbert, "democratic domesticity requires maturity, strength, and above all, a secure identity that Meg lacks". Others believe Alcott does not intend to belittle Meg for her ordinary life and writes her with loving detail, suffused with sentimentality.
Josephine "Jo" March
The principal character, Jo, 15 years old at the beginning of the book, is a strong and willful young woman, struggling to subdue her fiery temper and stubborn personality.
The second-oldest of the four sisters, Jo is masculine, the smartest, most creative one in the family; her father has referred to her as his "son Jo", and her best friend and neighbor, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, sometimes calls her "my dear fellow", while she, alone, calls him Teddy. Jo has a "hot" temper that often leads her into trouble. With the help of her own misguided sense of humor, her sister, Beth, and her mother, she works on controlling it. It has been said that much of Louisa May Alcott shows through in these characteristics of Jo. In her essay, "Recollections of My Childhood," Alcott refers to herself as a tomboy who enjoyed boys' activities, like running foot-races and climbing trees.
Jo loves literature, both reading and writing. She composes plays for her sisters to perform and writes short stories. She initially rejects the idea of marriage and romance, feeling that it would break up her family and separate her from the sisters whom she adores. While pursuing a literary career in New York City, she meets Friedrich Bhaer, a German professor. On her return home, Laurie proposes marriage to Jo, which she rejects, thus confirming her independence. Another reason for the rejection is that the love that Laurie has for Jo is more a brotherly love, rather than romantic love, the difference between which he was unable to understand, because he was "just a boy," as said by Alcott in the book.
After Beth dies, Professor Bhaer woos Jo at her home, when "they decide to share life's burdens, just as they shared the load of bundles on their shopping expedition". She is 25 years old when she accepts his proposal. The marriage is deferred, until her unexpected inheritance of her Aunt March's home, a year later. According to critic Barbara Sicherman, "The crucial first point is that the choice is hers, its quirkiness another sign of her much-prized individuality." They have two sons, Robert "Rob" Bhaer and Theodore "Ted" Bhaer. Jo also writes the first part of Little Women during the second portion of the novel. According to Elbert, "her narration signals a successfully completed adolescence".
Elizabeth "Beth" March
Beth, 13 when the story starts, is described as kind, gentle, sweet, shy, quiet, honest, and musical. She is the shyest March sister and the pianist of the family. Infused with quiet wisdom, she is the peacemaker of the family, and she gently scolds her sisters, when they argue. As her sisters grow up, they begin to leave home, but Beth has no desire to leave her house or family. She is especially close to Jo: when Beth develops scarlet fever, after visiting the Hummels, Jo does most of the nursing and rarely leaves her side. Beth recovers from the acute disease, but her health is permanently weakened.
As she grows, Beth begins to realize that her time with her loved ones is coming to an end. Finally, the family accepts that Beth will not live much longer. They make a special room for her, filled with all the things she loves best: her kittens, her piano, Father's books, Amy's sketches, and her beloved dolls. She is never idle; she knits and sews things for the children who pass by on their way to and from school. However, eventually she puts down her sewing needle, saying it has grown "heavy". Beth's final sickness has a strong effect on her sisters, especially Jo, who resolves to live her life with more consideration and care for everyone. The main loss during Little Women is the death of beloved Beth. Her "self-sacrifice is ultimately the greatest in the novel. She gives up her life, knowing that it has had only private, domestic meaning."
Amy Curtis March
Amy is the youngest sister and the baby of the family; she is 12 when the story begins. Interested in art, she is described as a "regular snow-maiden", with curly golden hair and blue eyes, "pale and slender" and "always carrying herself" like a proper young lady. She is the artist of the family. Often coddled, because she is the youngest, Amy can behave in a vain and self-centered way, though she does still love her family. She has the middle name Curtis, and is the only March sister to use her full name, rather than a diminutive.
Amy's aunt chooses her to accompany her to Europe, rather than her sister, Jo. There, she matures and makes a decision, based on her limited artistic talent, how to direct her adult life. She encounters Theodore "Laurie" Laurence and his grandfather during the extended visit. Amy is the least inclined of the sisters to sacrifice and self-denial. She behaves well in upper-class society and is at ease with herself. Critic Martha Saxton observes that the author was never fully at ease with Amy's moral development, and her success in life seemed relatively accidental. However, Amy's morality does appear to develop throughout her adolescence and early adulthood, and she can confidently and justly put Laurie in his place when she believes he is wasting his life on pleasurable activities. Ultimately, Amy is shown to work hard to gain what she wants and make the most of her success, when she has it. She marries Laurie after Jo rejected him. They have a daughter, Elizabeth "Bess" Laurence, named after her late sister, Beth.
Additional characters
Margaret "Marmee" March – The girls' mother and head of household, while her husband is away. She engages in charitable works and lovingly guides her girls' morals and their characters. She once confesses to Jo that her temper is as volatile as Jo's but has learned to control it. Somewhat modeled after the author's own mother, she is the focus around which the girls' lives unfold, as they grow.
Robert March – Formerly wealthy, the father is portrayed as having helped a friend who could not repay a debt, resulting in his family's genteel poverty. A scholar and a minister, he served as a chaplain in the Union Army, during the Civil War, and was wounded in December 1862. After the war, he becomes minister to a small congregation.
Professor Friedrich Bhaer – A middle-aged, "philosophically inclined," and penniless German immigrant living in New York City. He had been a noted professor in Berlin. Also known as Fritz, he initially lives in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house and works as a language master. He and Jo become friends, and he critiques sensational stories. He encourages her to become a serious writer, instead of writing sensational stories for weekly tabloids. "Bhaer has all the qualities Bronson Alcott lacked: warmth, intimacy, and a tender capacity for expressing his affection—the feminine attributes Alcott admired and hoped men could acquire in a rational, feminist world." They eventually marry and raise his two orphaned nephews, Franz and Emil, and their own sons, Rob and Ted. Bhaer's characterization was inspired by multiple men whom Alcott was attracted to or admired, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Follen and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the latter of whom Alcott considered her "chief idol".
Robert & Theodore Bhaer ("Rob" and "Ted") – Jo's and Fritz's sons, introduced in the final pages of the novel, named after the March girls' father and Laurie.
John Brooke – During his employment as a tutor to Laurie, he falls in love with Meg. He accompanies Mrs. March to Washington D.C., when her husband is ill with pneumonia. When Laurie leaves for college, Brooke continues his employment with Mr. Laurence as a bookkeeper. When Aunt March overhears Meg accepting John's declaration of love, she threatens Meg with disinheritance, because she suspects that Brooke is only interested in Meg's future prospects. Eventually, Meg admits her feelings to Brooke, they defy Aunt March (who ends up accepting the marriage), and they are engaged. Brooke serves in the Union Army for a year, and is sent home as an invalid when he is wounded. Brooke marries Meg a few years later, when the war has ended and she has turned twenty. Brooke was modeled after John Bridge Pratt, Alcott's sister Anna's husband.
Margaret & John Laurence Brooke ("Daisy" and "Demijohn/Demi") – Meg's twin son and daughter. Daisy is named after both Meg and Marmee, while Demi is named after John and the Laurence family.
Josephine Brooke ("Josy" or "Josie") – Meg's youngest child, named after Jo. She develops a passion for acting as she grows up.
Uncle and Aunt Carrol – Sister and brother-in-law of Mr. March. They take Amy to Europe with them, where Uncle Carrol frequently tries to be like an English gentleman.
Florence "Flo" Carrol – Amy's cousin, daughter of Aunt and Uncle Carrol, and companion in Europe.
May and Mrs. Chester – A well-to-do family with whom the Marches are acquainted. May Chester is a girl about Amy's age, who is rich and jealous of Amy's popularity and talent.
Miss Crocker – An old and poor spinster who likes to gossip and who has few friends.
Mr. Dashwood – Publisher and editor of the Weekly Volcano.
Mr. Davis – The schoolteacher at Amy's school. He punishes Amy for bringing pickled limes to school by striking her palm and making her stand on a platform in front of the class. She is withdrawn from the school by her mother.
Estelle "Esther" Valnor – A French woman employed as a servant for Aunt March who befriends Amy.
The Gardiners – Wealthy friends of Meg's. Daughter Sallie Gardiner later marries Ned Moffat.
The Hummels – A poor German family consisting of a widowed mother and six children. Marmee and the girls help them by bringing food, firewood, blankets, and other comforts. They help with minor repairs to their small dwelling. Three of the children die of scarlet fever and Beth contracts the disease while caring for them. The eldest daughter, Lottchen "Lotty" Hummel, later works as a matron at Jo's school at Plumfield
The Kings – A wealthy family with four children for whom Meg works as a governess.