Little Women, book 1
Feb. 21st, 2022 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWe've finished book one of Little Women! Beth nearly died of scarlet fever, Amy spent AGES at Aunt March's house putting up with a cranky old lady and her even crankier parrot, Laurie played a weird Cyrano de Bergerac prank on Meg where he wrote her a love letter purporting to come from John Brooke -
Last entrykore and I discussed the possibility of Laurie/Meg, as that appears to be the only Laurie/March sister pairing that doesn't exist on AO3 (there's even some Laurie/Beth!). Certainly you could work up an argument that Laurie has a crush, in between the fake love letters and also the pantomime lover's pleading with which he teases Meg. It's a very pigtail-pulling dynamic.
On a more prosaic note, WHAT was he going to do if Meg answered "John's" love letter with a sincere love letter of her own? Laurie, my boy, you did not think this THROUGH.
I also love Jo's reaction to Meg's impending engagement (or doom, as Jo might put it): she's just SO mad about it. She glares at Mr. Brooke every time he's in the room, she begs Marmee to help her spoil the match, she wails, "I wish I could marry Meg myself, and keep her safe in the family!"
The narrative continues, "This odd arrangement made Mrs. March smile..." which more or less sums up the response to Jo's ongoing temper tantrum about Meg's love affair. Everyone else thinks the engagement is a fine thing! and so romantic! but when Jo goes off they're just like "Oh Jo," and although Marmee does, gently, try to convince Jo of the advantages to Meg, no one tries to stop her from glowering at Mr. Brooke over the dining room table or otherwise force her to behave in a courteous manner. She feels how she feels and they just roll with it.
Jo also gripes, "I'm disappointed about Meg, for I'd planned to have her marry Teddy by-and-by and sit in the lap of luxury all her days." Although if it came to it, I expect she'd be just as mad about that match! In the end the effect is the same: Meg will go away and live somewhere else, and no longer be around every day. "You can't know how hard it is for me to give up Meg," Jo tells Laurie (with "a little quiver in her voice" - from Jo who always tries so hard not to cry!).
Laurie consoles her that she isn't giving up Meg - "You only go halves" - but Jo refuses the consolation: "It can never be the same again. I've lost my dearest friend." She's being a little bit melodramatic, as sixteen-year-olds will, but she's also hit on a certain truth: her relationship with Meg will inevitably change when they're no longer living in the same house; they'll lose all the little daily things that made up their life together. And Jo has very little faith that she'll find a loving bond with someone else to take the place of her bond with Meg.
For all that, the ending of this book (the first half of Little Women was originally published as a standalone book, and I believe in some countries still is) is one of the most perfectly happy moments in literature. We have another tableau, like the one at the beginning of the book where the girls gather round Marmee to hear Mr. March's letter. This time they are coupled off, in pairs of friends or lovers: Mr. and Mrs. March, Meg and John Brooke, Jo and Laurie, Beth and Mr. Laurence, and Amy with her sketchbook.
Last entry
kore and I discussed the possibility of Laurie/Meg, as that appears to be the only Laurie/March sister pairing that doesn't exist on AO3 (there's even some Laurie/Beth!). Certainly you could work up an argument that Laurie has a crush, in between the fake love letters and also the pantomime lover's pleading with which he teases Meg. It's a very pigtail-pulling dynamic. On a more prosaic note, WHAT was he going to do if Meg answered "John's" love letter with a sincere love letter of her own? Laurie, my boy, you did not think this THROUGH.
I also love Jo's reaction to Meg's impending engagement (or doom, as Jo might put it): she's just SO mad about it. She glares at Mr. Brooke every time he's in the room, she begs Marmee to help her spoil the match, she wails, "I wish I could marry Meg myself, and keep her safe in the family!"
The narrative continues, "This odd arrangement made Mrs. March smile..." which more or less sums up the response to Jo's ongoing temper tantrum about Meg's love affair. Everyone else thinks the engagement is a fine thing! and so romantic! but when Jo goes off they're just like "Oh Jo," and although Marmee does, gently, try to convince Jo of the advantages to Meg, no one tries to stop her from glowering at Mr. Brooke over the dining room table or otherwise force her to behave in a courteous manner. She feels how she feels and they just roll with it.
Jo also gripes, "I'm disappointed about Meg, for I'd planned to have her marry Teddy by-and-by and sit in the lap of luxury all her days." Although if it came to it, I expect she'd be just as mad about that match! In the end the effect is the same: Meg will go away and live somewhere else, and no longer be around every day. "You can't know how hard it is for me to give up Meg," Jo tells Laurie (with "a little quiver in her voice" - from Jo who always tries so hard not to cry!).
Laurie consoles her that she isn't giving up Meg - "You only go halves" - but Jo refuses the consolation: "It can never be the same again. I've lost my dearest friend." She's being a little bit melodramatic, as sixteen-year-olds will, but she's also hit on a certain truth: her relationship with Meg will inevitably change when they're no longer living in the same house; they'll lose all the little daily things that made up their life together. And Jo has very little faith that she'll find a loving bond with someone else to take the place of her bond with Meg.
For all that, the ending of this book (the first half of Little Women was originally published as a standalone book, and I believe in some countries still is) is one of the most perfectly happy moments in literature. We have another tableau, like the one at the beginning of the book where the girls gather round Marmee to hear Mr. March's letter. This time they are coupled off, in pairs of friends or lovers: Mr. and Mrs. March, Meg and John Brooke, Jo and Laurie, Beth and Mr. Laurence, and Amy with her sketchbook.
