Little Women: Difference between revisions

{{tropework}}

* Meg (short for Margaret), the responsible first-born who tries to set a good example for her sisters, [[The Kirk|make Jo behave more like a lady and Amy less like one]], and [[In Withwith the In Crowd|look less poor than she is in front of her rich friends]], especially the Moffat family. [[Team Mom|Good-hearted and motherly]], but also vain and self-absorbed as proved by Laurie and the Moffats.

* Jo (a [[Tomboyish Name]] for Josephine): Alcott's [[Author Avatar]] and, by 19th-century standards, a tomboy. Jo is the only sister that Miss Alcott herself does not flatter and praise every other word, occupying the opposite end of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]. Jo is bold, ambitious, blunt, selfish, terribly unladylike, and the unofficial protagonist. Like Alcott, she is a devoted writer.

Other characters include: their strong-willed mother Margaret, whom they call Marmee (usually pronounced phonetically in filmed versions, ignoring the reality that with a 19th-century [[New England]] accent, "Marmee" would be pronounced "Mommy"); their father, a gentleman reverend ruined financially through helping a friend (an idealisedidealized version of Louisa's father, prominent Transcendentalist Bronson Alcott); their maid and friend, Hannah; Laurie's tutor, John Brooke, who falls in love with Meg; and their nightmare of a meddling relative, Aunt March, for whom Jo and later Amy work as a companion. The book is fraught with [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] and [[Homage|Homages]] to ''[[PilgrimsThe ProgressPilgrim's (Literature)Progress|Pilgrims Progress]]'' and [[Anvilicious]] [[An Aesop|Aesops]] at a time before that was considered cliche.

Thus came ''Part II'', occasionally published separately under the title ''Good Wives'' in the UK (definitely ''not'' Alcott's idea for a title). Meg and John get married and [[Unto Us a Son Andand Daughter Are Born|have their twins]], [[Dead Little Sister|Beth dies]], Amy goes to Paris, and Jo turns down Laurie and goes to New York to pursue her career. Laurie, faced with the dilemma of killing himself or going to Europe, opts for the latter, where he falls in love with and marries Amy. Manfully supporting her parents while grieving for her [[Dead Little Sister]], life improves for Jo near the end when she marries her beta reader and best friend, a wise German professor, Friedrich Bhaer, and Aunt March dies and leaves Jo her estate, Plumfield.

The next sequel, ''Little Men'', takes place at Plumfield, which Jo and Fritz have turned into an orphanage/school for young boys, based not-so-subtly on Bronson Alcott's then-controversial educational theories. We are introduced to Jo's sons, Rob and Teddy, Laurie and Amy's daughter [[Dead Guy, Junior|Bess]], the Brooke twins Daisy and Demijohn (a clever way of avoiding Margaret and John Jr.), their baby sister Josie, [[Tomboy and Girly Girl|Daisy's tomboyish friend Nan]], and Professor Bhaer's orphaned nephews Franz and Emil, along with a mixed assortment of other [[An Aesop|Aesop]]-appropriate youngsters, the most important ones being an ex pickpocket and street violinist named Nat and his best friend Dan.

The book has been made into 4seven films (including one with an [[All-Star Cast]] in December 2019), four anime works (three TV series, including one based on ''Jo's Boys'', and a TV special), seven television versions (four by the [[BBC]], two American versions, and 2one Indian version), three musical theatrical adaptations., and an opera.

Also, despite sharing the same names for the protagonists, this one has absolutely nothing to do with ''[[BakuretsuBurst TenshiAngel]]''.

=== {{tropelist|''Little Women'' and its sequels provide examples of: ===}}

* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]]: In the 1994 film, Professor Bhaer, who is described in the novel as overweight and rather [[Incredibly Lame Pun|grisly]], is played by Gabriel Byrne.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: the old "a week of all play and no work" experiment in ''Little Women''.

* [[Better Asas Friends]]: Jo feels this way about Laurie. She says that the two of them are too much alike ever to pursue a romantic relationship successfully. Laurie disagrees until he marries Amy, after which he tells Jo he's happy to love her as his sister. As the [[Like Brother and Sister]] analogy was used to describe ''both'' his relationships with Jo ''and'' Amy, this has done nothing to convince shippers from the 1860s onwards that they are ''not'' better as friends.

* [[Blondes Are Evil]]: Amy is more self-centered than outright malicious, though: the one who throws tantrums, particularly when she burns the years worth of Jo's unfinished novel out of revenge for not being allowed to accompany Jo and Laurie to the theater, and was so vain she tried to fix the shape of her nose with a clothespin.

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Amy tries to be [[In Withwith the In Crowd]] at school and gets humiliated by her [[Sadist Teacher]]. Meg attempts the same when visiting the Moffats and gets to see the ugly side of wealth when overhearing a bunch of [[Gossipy Hens]] talking trash about their family and the Laurences.

* [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin']]: If one of the kids commits a mistake, they suffer the consequences soon.

* [[Caught in Thethe Rain]]: When Jo shares an umbrella with Mr. Bhaer, a proposal soon follows.

* [[Christmas Cake]]: By the time Part II of ''Little Women'' is near its end, Jo is almost 25 and starting to feel that she'll have to face life as an old maid.

* [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends]]: The last paragraph of ''Jo's Boys''

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]:

** Amy ''burns'' Jo's manuscript of the book she'd labored over for ''years'' in order to make her sister "pay" for the [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|heinous crime]] of not allowing her to accompany the "adults" to the theatretheater.

** The next morning, Jo and Laurie go skating. Amy, after having her apology rejected by Jo, follows them to try and make amends. She skates on a dangerous part of the ice, but she doesn't know this. Jo does, but doesn't warn her. Amy almost drowns as a result. Jo suffers a [[My God, What Have I Done?]]. Many fans miss the fact that the chapter, which was titled ''Jo meets Apollyon'', was about Jo's fear that her tempestuous temper might make her harm her loved ones, rather than about Amy's pre-teenpreteen tantrums.

{{quote| '''Jo:''' If only ''I'' were the swooning type! [''dramatically falling from the carriage'']<br />

* [[Flower Motifs]]: While Laurie and Amy are taking a walk through a rose garden, Laurie gets pricked by a red rose he tried to pick while thinking of Jo, whom he last saw when she turned down his marriage proposal. Amy then gives him a thorn-free white rose. Laurie instantly thinks of the [[ColourColor-Coded for Your Convenience|color symbolism]] - red roses are for romance, white roses are for funerals, and he wonders if this is either a sign about his changing feelings for the two sisters or an omen of death. He chides himself for being so superstitious and laughs it off, but since eventually he and Amy fall in love and Beth dies, it doesn't sound so funny.

* [[Happily Married]]: Parents Margaret and Robert, Amy and Laurie, Meg and John, Jo and Fritz.

{{quote| Mothers are the best lovers in the world, but I don't mind whispering to Marmee that I'd like to try all kinds. It's very curious, but the more I try to satisfy myself with all sorts of natural affections, the more I seem to want.}}

* [[It's for Aa Book]]: Jo actually does research poisons for her horror stories.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: It's Laurie himself who points out the [[Broken Aesop]] of Amy marrying him after she decided against marrying Fred Vaughn for his money. Amy responds she would still love him if he was poor and he believes her.

* [[Love Potion]]: The sisters perform a [[Show Within a Show|play]] with a villain who purchases a love potion from a witch, along with poison to kill his romantic rival (probably to avoid that "power of true love" loophole). The witch, however, double-crosses him, stops the princess from drinking the potion, and slips the villain [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard|his own poison]].

* [[Only Known Byby Their Nickname]]: Three of the four March sisters are routinely identified by shortened forms of their lengthy first names. Although the real names are given in the introductory chapter, they are rarely otherwise used in the novel and readers grow quite used to thinking of them as Meg, Jo, and Beth. (This creates a bit of confusion for some readers when, in one chapter, Jo refers to Meg as "Peggy" - a name by which she had never previously been addressed and one which is never used again.)

* [[Pair the Spares]]: {{spoiler|Bhaer proposes to Jo at Amy and Laurie's wedding.}} This is really prominent in the musical, as it occurs on the third to last page.

* [[Princess for Aa Day]]: In "Vanity Fair", Meg attends a high class party only to be humbled by ladies whispering behind her back about her and her family's poverty. That and those dancing slippers ''really'' hurt.

** Many female characters qualify.

* [[Settle for Sibling]]: Laurie's marriage to Amy.

* [[Shipper Onon Deck]]: Jo is a Meg/Laurie shipper in ''Part I'' and a Beth/Laurie fangirl in ''Part II''.

* [[Team Dad]]: Franz to the younger kids during ''Little Men''.

* [[Title Drop]]: In the first chapter, Mr. March's letter ends with his hopes that the improvements the girls will make to their characters by the time he sees them again will make him "fonder and prouder than ever of my little women."

* [[Underdressed for Thethe Occasion]]: Meg doesn't have a silk ball dress to wear when visiting Sallie Moffat, so she wears an old tarlatan instead. She actually makes a better impression in her simple and worn out clothing than she does when her friends dress her in borrowed splendor.

* [[Unto Us a Son Andand Daughter Are Born]]: Meg's twins.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: In ''Little Men'', Dan tries to get Nat and Tommy to swear. Tommy's swear? "Thunder Turtles." He uses it more than once in the book too.

** ''[[Little Women]]'' itself [[Playing Withwith a Trope|plays with the trope]], as Laurie ultimately marries a girl he's known since childhood (Amy) but ''not'' the one he's harbored romantic feelings for since then (Jo). So Laurie was both [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|unlucky]] ''and'' victorious.

{{quote| {{spoiler|Beth}}: [[It Was His Sled|"I feel so strange."]]}}

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