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Little Women
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Little Women (or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Written and published in two parts in 1868 and 1869, the novel follows the lives of four sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March — and is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences with her three sisters. The first part of the book was an immediate commercial and critical success and prompted the composition of the book's second part, also a huge success.
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Little Women (or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Written and published in two parts in 1868 and 1869, the novel follows the lives of four sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March — and is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences with her three sisters. The first part of the book was an immediate commercial and critical success and prompted the composition of the book's second part, also a huge success. Both parts were first published as a single volume in 1880. Alcott followed Little Women with two sequels reprising the March sisters, Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Little Women has been adapted to play, musical, opera, film and animated feature.
History, release and sequels
Alcott wrote Little Women during 1867 and early 1868, writing furiously for two and a half months. She drew heavily on her experiences growing up with her three sisters in Boston, Massachusetts and Concord, Massachusetts. The novel was first published on September 30, 1868, and became an overnight success, selling over 2000 copies immediately. The critical reception was also overwhelmingly positive; critics soon began calling the new novel a classic. Readers clamoured for a second volume, and Alcott received many letters asking for a sequel.
In response to this demand, Alcott wrote a second part which was published in 1869. The second part picks up three years after the events in the last chapter of the first part ("Aunt March Settles The Question"). Both parts were called Little Women or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. In 1880, the two parts were combined into one volume, and have been published as such in the United States ever since. In the UK, the second part was published under the title Good Wives, though Alcott had no part in the decision. Alcott followed Little Women at intervals with two novels that reprised the March sisters, Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886) which followed the lives of the girls' children.
Plot introduction
Alcott's original work explores the overcoming of character flaws (many of the chapter titles in this first part are allusions to the allegorical concepts and places in Pilgrim's Progress). When young, the girls played Pilgrim's Progress by taking an imaginary journey through their home. As young women, they agree to continue the figurative journey, using the "guidebooks" — copies of the New Testament, described as 'that beautiful old story of the best life ever lived (chapter 1, see also chapter 19) — they receive on Christmas morning. Each of the March girls must struggle to overcome a major character flaw: Meg, vanity; Jo, a hot temper; Beth, shyness; and Amy, selfishness. The girls must work out these flaws in order to become mothers, wives, sisters and citizens.
In the course of the novel, the girls become friends with their next-door neighbor, the teenage boy Laurie, who becomes a particular friend of Jo. As well as the more serious and sadder themes outlined above, the book describes the activities of the sisters and their friend, such as creating a newspaper and picnicking, and the various scrapes that Jo and Laurie (whose given name was "Theodore") get into. The story represents family relationships and explores family life thoroughly.
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Characters
- Josephine "Jo" March: The star of the novel based on Louisa May Alcott herself. Jo is a tomboy and the second-eldest sister at fifteen. She is very outspoken and has a passion for writing. Her bold nature often gets her into trouble. She is especially close to her younger sister Beth, who tries to help her become a gentler person. At the beginning of the book, she is employed by her Aunt March as a companion, but when Beth becomes ill, Amy is sent in Jo's place. Jo cuts off her long, chestnut brown hair — "her one beauty", as Amy calls it — and sells it to a wig shop to get money for her mother to visit their father, a sick Civil War chaplain. She refuses the proposal of marriage from family friend Laurie (despite many letters sent to Miss Alcott to have them married), and after Jo moves to New York, later meets and marries Professor Fritz Bhaer. They have two sons, Rob, named after his grandfather, and Teddy, named after Laurie. The character of Jo is based on Louisa herself. Alcott later wrote, "Jo should have remained a literary spinster, but so many enthusiastic young ladies wrote to me clamorously demanding that she should marry Laurie, or somebody, that I didn't dare refuse and out of perversity went and made a funny match for her". Jo also has a bad temper and throughout the novel tries to control it with help from both Beth and her mother.
- Margaret "Meg" March: At sixteen, she is the oldest sister. She is very pretty and somewhat vain about her looks, with smooth hair and small, white hands. She is the most responsible and helps run the household in her mother's absence. Meg also guards Amy from Jo when they have fights, just like Jo protects Beth. Due to the family's poverty she must work as a governess for wealthy friends, the King family. After having bad experiences with some rich people (first, the Kings' eldest son is disinherited for bad behavior, and later she visits her friend Annie Moffat and discovers that her family believes Mrs. March is plotting to match her with Laurie only to gain his family's wealth), Meg learns that true worth does not lie with money. She falls in love with Mr. John Brooke, Laurie's tutor. She eventually marries Mr. Brooke and bears twin children, Margaret "Daisy" and John Laurence "Demi" (short for Demi-John). A third child, Josephine (called "Josie"), is mentioned in Little Men.
- Elizabeth "Beth" March: The second-youngest sister, at about thirteen, is a quiet, kind young woman and an exceptional pianist. She enjoys looking after her dolls and cats. Docile and shy to a fault, she prefers to be homeschooled and avoids most public situations. At the start of the book, Alcott describes her as a sweet girl with a round young face and brown hair, making her appear younger than her years. She is especially close to Jo, despite their very different personalities. Beth loves charity work and helps her mother nurture local impoverished families. While her mother is nursing their father in Washington, she contracts scarlet fever from the youngest child of the Hummels, a poor German family. She survives the illness with a weakened heart, and dies near the end of the novel.
- Amy Curtis March: The youngest sister - age twelve when the story begins - and a talented artist, Amy is described as a pretty young girl with golden hair (in curls) and blue eyes (with the general traits of a "snow maiden"). Her nose has become rather flat, apparently after a small accident she had as a three-year-old when she was playing with Jo. Amy obsesses over this minor flaw, and in early chapters seeks to "cure" the flaw by wearing a clothespin on her nose while she sleeps. She cares about her family, but is also "cool, reserved and worldly" which sometimes gets her into trouble. Often "petted" because she was the youngest, she can be vain and spoiled and inclined to throw tantrums when things do not go her way. Her relationship with Jo in particular is often strained due to Jo's teasing ways, particularly when Amy tries to use big words which end up being used incorrectly much to author Jo's merriment. As Aunt March's new companion (who gets along with the old woman better than Jo ever did), she eventually travels abroad with Aunt March. During their travels, she meets up with Laurie in Europe and, shortly after Beth dies, they marry. Later, Amy gives birth to daughter Elizabeth (Bess).
- Margaret "Marmee" March: The girls' mother and head of household while her husband is away. She engages in charitable works and attempts to guide her girls' morals and shape their characters, usually through experiments. She confesses to Jo after her big fight with Amy that she has a temper as bad and volatile as Jo's own, but has learned to control it to avoid hurting herself and her loved ones.
- Robin March: Formerly wealthy, it is implied that he helped unscrupulous friends who did not repay the debt, resulting in the family's poverty. A scholar and a minister, he serves as a chaplain for the Union Army.
- Hannah Mullet: The maid of the March family, an older woman, who (from a letter written in the first person in the text) is described as kind and loyal, if lacking in formal education.
- Aunt Josephine March: Mr. March's aunt, a rich widow. She lives alone in her mansion and Jo is employed to wait on her each day. She disapproves of the family's loss of wealth through their charitable work while hoarding her own (except in a few select instances). Amy is sent in Jo's place to be Aunt March's companion while Beth is ill. They get along very well, and eventually Aunt March takes Amy to study art in Europe.
- Uncle and Aunt Carrol: Sister and brother-in-law of Mr. March. Amy travels to Europe with them.
- Theodore "Laurie" Laurence: A charming, playful, and rich young man who lives next door to the March family. He is often misunderstood by his loving but overprotective grandfather, who worries that Laurie will follow in his father's footsteps. His father was a free-spirited young man who eloped with an Italian pianist and was, consequently, disowned. Both died young, and as an orphan, Laurie was sent to live with Mr. Laurence. After Jo refuses to marry Laurie, she flees to New York and he flees to Europe. While there, he marries Amy, who later gives birth to their daughter Elizabeth (Bess).
- Mr. James Laurence: A wealthy neighbor to the Marches. Lonely in his mansion, and often at odds with his high-spirited grandson Laurie, he finds comfort in becoming a benefactor to the Marches. He protects the March sisters while Marmee is away just as if they were his own. He is an old friend of Mrs March's father, and admires their charitable works. He develops a special friendship with Beth, who reminds him of his dead granddaughter, and gifts the girl with his granddaughter's piano.
- John Brooke: While a tutor to Laurie, he falls in love with Meg. When Laurie leaves for college, he works for Mr. Laurence as an assistant and accompanies Mrs. March to Washington when her husband becomes dangerously ill. Later in the book, Aunt March catches Meg rejecting John's declaration of love. She implies that Brooke was only interested in Meg's future inheritance and threatens Meg with disinheritance. When Meg sticks up for John, he overhears her and realizes she was in love all along, and together they defy Aunt March (whom eventually blessed the marriage) and become engaged. He serves in the Union Army for a year and, after receiving a wound, is sent home. John marries Meg a few years later when the war has ended. He dies at the end of Little Men.
- The Hummels: Very poor German immigrant family. Marmee and the girls, though poor themselves, try to help them. Their baby dies of scarlet fever and Beth contracts it while caring for the child.
- The Kings: Family who employ Meg as a governess.
- The Gardiners: Wealthy friends of Meg's. Before the Marches lost their wealth, the two families were societal equals. The Gardiners are portrayed as goodhearted but vapid, believing in marriage for money and position. Meg's friend Sallie Gardiner eventually marries her friend Ned Moffat, but is unable to have children and becomes unhappy in her shallow marriage.
- Mrs. Kirke: A friend of Marmee's who runs a boarding house in New York. She employs Jo as governess to her two girls, Kitty and Minnie, for a time.
- Professor Friedrich "Fritz" Bhaer: A poor German immigrant who used to be a well-known professor in Berlin but now lives in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house and tutors her children. He and Jo become friends and he critiques Jo's work, encouraging her to become a serious writer instead of writing "sensation" stories for weekly tabloids. The two eventually marry.
- Franz and Emil: Mr. Bhaer's two nephews whom he looks after following the death of his sister.
- Tina: The small daughter of Mrs. Kirke's French washerwoman: she is a favorite of Professor Bhaer's.
- Miss Norton: A worldly tenant living in Mrs. Kirke's boarding house. She occasionally takes Jo under her wing and entertains her.
Notable adaptations
Play
A play in four acts, adapted by Marian De Forest from the story by Louisa May Alcott, opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre, on October 14, 1912. The production was directed by Jessie Bonstelle and Bertram Harrison. The cast included Marie Pavey, Alice Brady, Gladys Hulette and Beverly West. It ran for 184 performances and was later revived on December 18, 1916 at the Park Theatre for 24 performances; another revival opened on December 7, 1931 at the Playhouse Theatre in a production directed by William A. Brady, Jr. with Jessie Royce Landis as Jo, Lee Patrick as Meg, Marie Curtis, and Jane Corcoran running for 17 performances.
A three-act, one set adaptation was written by John David Ravold, and is frequently performed. It was originally copyrighted in 1934.
In 1995, an adaptation entitled "Louisa's Little Women" by Beth Lynch and Scott Lynch-Giddings premiered in a production by the Wisdom Bridge Theatre Company at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago. The play covers the events of Part One of Alcott's novel, interspersed with scenes depicting complementary aspects of her own life, including the influence of her father Bronson Alcott and her acquaintance with Henry David Thoreau, Julia Ward Howe, and Frank Leslie.
An adaptation by Emma Reeves was performed at GSA in Guildford, Surrey, England, and made its American debut at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, north of Seattle, Washington.
Literature
In 2005, Geraldine Brooks published March, a novel exploring the gaps in Little Women, telling the story of Mr. March during the Civil War. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Film
Little Women has seen several cinematic adaptations. One of the first film adaptations was the 1918 Harley Knoles-directed version, starring Dorothy Bernard, Kate Lester and Conrad Nagel. One of the most famous (the 1933 version) starred Katharine Hepburn as Jo and Spring Byington as Marmee. The film was followed by a 1949 version featuring Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, June Allyson as Jo, Janet Leigh as Meg, Margaret O'Brien as Beth, Mary Astor as Marmee, Peter Lawford as Laurie, and C. Aubrey Smith as the elderly Mr. Lawrence. A 1978 version starred Meredith Baxter as Meg, Susan Dey as Jo, Eve Plumb as Beth, William Shatner as Friedrich Bhaer, Greer Garson as Aunt March, and Robert Young as Grandpa James Lawrence. A celebrated 1994 version starred Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Winona Ryder as Jo, Kirsten Dunst as the younger Amy, Samantha Mathis as the older Amy, Christian Bale as Laurie, Claire Danes as Beth and Trini Alvarado as Meg. Other film versions of the novel appeared in 1917, 1918, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1979, and 2001.
Opera and musical
The novel has seen musical adaptation. In 1998 the book was adapted as an opera by composer Mark Adamo, and, on January 23, 2005, a Broadway musical adaptation of the same name opened at the Virginia Theatre in New York City with a book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland, and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. The musical starred Sutton Foster as Jo March and pop singer Maureen McGovern as Marmee. The mixed-reviewed production ran through June 2005, garnering a Tony nomination for Sutton. While it had a disappointingly short life in New York, it had a very successful first national tour; Again starring Maureen McGovern, the tour began August 30 of that year, touring to 30 cities over 49 weeks. A second national tour was planned for the 2007–2008 season. The musical's UK premiere was performed by "Imagine Productions" at the Lowther Pavillion in December 2006.
Anime
In 1987, the Japanese animation studio Nippon Animation did an anime adaptation titled Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari (The Story of Love's Young Grass). The series was part of the studio's World Masterpiece Theatre series of animated adaptations of classic Western literary works. The series was directed by Fumio Kurokawa with character designs by Yoshifumi Kondo. Saban Entertainment produced an English dubbed version (Tales of Little Women) which aired on HBO in the United States in 1988–1989, and the series has also achieved immense popularity in Europe (Una per tutte, tutte per una in Italy, Les quatre filles du Docteur March in France, Mujercitas in Spain and Eine fröhliche Familie in Germany).
This series changed the name of the town in which the series takes place from "Concord" to "Newcord", and also added episodes depicting scenes not from the novel at the beginning as a way of introducing the characters and educating the Japanese audience about the American Civil War. It is otherwise a faithful and highly regarded adaptation. Nippon Animation also produced an anime adaptation of Jo's Boys in 1993 for the World Masterpiece Theatre, titled Wakakusa Monogatari Nan to Jou Sensei (The Story of Young Grass: Nan and Mrs. Jo) and directed by Kozo Kusuba.
Two other anime adaptations of Little Women were made in the early 1980s: a 1980 TV special produced by Toei Animation and directed by Yugo Serikawa, and Wakakusa Monogatari yori: Wakakusa no Yon Shimai (From the Story of Young Grass: Four Sisters of Young Grass), a 1981 Toei Animation/Kokusai Eigasha TV series directed by Kazuya Miyazaki and from the same animation team. The 1981 TV series was also released in the United States on video, courtesy of Sony. Still, Nippon Animation's 1987 version is the most successful and also widely regarded as the best of all anime adaptations of the story. As an interesting aside, seiyuu Keiko Han was cast in both the 1981 (as Beth) and 1987 (as Meg) TV series.
A nod to the characters can be seen in the English release of the Nintendo 64 game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In the Forest Temple, the player must solve four puzzles hosted by ghosts by the names of Amy, Beth, Joelle and Meg in order to progress through the game.
It is also referenced in the anime Graduation M where the main characters (who are male), are forced to play the lead roles in the play "Little Women," for their schools ceremony.
See also
- The Wayside, where Alcott and her sisters lived many of the scenes that later appeared in Little Women
- Orchard House, where Alcott lived whilst writing Little Women
External links
- - PDF eBook.
- for Little Women at Web English Teacher
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