Little Women Sunday

[osprey_archer]

littlerhymes and I have been rereading Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and I thought that other people might enjoy chatting about the book too so I'm going to do a weekly post just about wherever we've gotten up to in the book, comparisons to the movies etc., just whatever comes to mind.

Today seemed like a good time to start because we just got through the MOST DRAMATIC chapter in the book, by which of course I mean the chapter where Amy BURNS JO'S BOOK and Jo in retaliation doesn't tell Amy about the weak ice in the river, and Amy falls through it and ALMOST DIES.

Critics give nineteenth century novels a lot of guff for their focus on teaching their heroines to control their tempers, but honestly I think it's much more noteworthy just how much temper these heroines get to display in the first place. How many novelists today would have the guts to have a girl burn her older sister's prized possession in a fit of temper? Or to have said older sister retaliate in a way that might have got her little sister killed? (Or an Anne of Green Gables style "breaking a slate over that obnoxious boy's head," for that matter.)

I think a lot of modern day people are theoretically in favor of "women's anger," but not actually in favor of the real fruits of losing one's temper, or prepared to think particularly deeply about the fact that women (just like men) sometimes get angry for reasons that are neither just nor righteous. (Ask anyone working retail.)

Anyway! I just recently watched the 1934 Katherine Hepburn adaptation, which cuts this scene entirely. (I still haven't seen the 1949 adaptation, but it's on the docket.) In Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, Amy Boyd Rioux complains that the Hepburn adaptation shortchanges Jo's writing career, which I don't agree with - we actually see quite a lot of that, including Jo's entire melodramatic Christmas play that she and her sisters put on for the neighbors. What the movie ends up cutting are scenes like Amy's burning of Jo's book, which focus on the more complicated aspects of relationships between the sisters.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

You might enjoy the 2017 BBC adaptation, which really leans into the interpretation of Amy as a budding little psychopath weeping crocodile tears.

[legionseagle]

I don't recall that one - who plays Jo? Or Amy?

[osprey_archer]

It's this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Women_(2017_TV_series)

Maya Hawke plays Jo and Kathryn Newton plays Amy.

[kore]

It was certainly A Choice in the Gerwig adaptation to cast Florence Pugh (whom I love) as Amy, with her sexy growl of a voice. She is definitely the most calculating sister.

[osprey_archer]

Amy to Yelena Belova might seem like an odd career progression, but from a certain point of view aren't they they same bratty obnoxious manipulative yet beloved younger sister character?

[kore]

YOU = BRILL

Natasha would totally be Jo then! LOL

[osprey_archer]

The parallels are not quite so strong! But maybe in place of LOVE OF ART put SPYCRAFT, and then you have two sisters who share a similar passion for an unconventional career?

[kore]

Oh boy, if Clint is Laurie to Natasha's Jo, does that mean he will wind up with Yelena? AHAHAHAHA

[osprey_archer]

Not sure we need to take the parallel that far!

Anyway, the Clint-Natasha story is almost a reverse of Jo-Laurie. Clint brings Natasha in from the cold... whereas in Little Women, it's JO bringing Laurie in from the cold to the literal warmth of the family circle.

[kore]

the Clint-Natasha story is almost a reverse of Jo-Laurie. Clint brings Natasha in from the cold

Aww, yeah! That was the one thing I liked about his sudden Old McBarton background, that Laura was going to name her kid after Natasha and she's "Auntie Nat."

Jo does that with Bhaer too -- that's the ending of the story before the time jump: that was the crowning moment of both their lives, when, turning from the night and storm and loneliness to the household light and warmth and peace waiting to receive them, with a glad “Welcome home!” Jo led her lover in, and shut the door. (The March family keeps assimilating the outsider men....)