FIMINIST CRITICISM: AN ANALYSIS OF THE LITERARY WORK OF LOUISA MAY

ALCOTT’S LITTLE WOMEN

___________________

A Compendium of Literary Criticism

Presented to the Education Program
St. Mary’s College of Tagum, Inc.
Tagum City

____________________

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Secondary Education
Major in English

by

MARY GRACE O. CERO

April 2021
 A PLOT SUMMARY OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S LITTLE WOMEN

According to Gilbert (2018) the March family lives in a small house next door to the

Laurence mansion, where young Theodore Laurence, known as Laurie, and his aged grandfather

have only each other for company. Old Mr. Laurence is wealthy, and he indulges every wish of his

grandson, but often Laurie is lonely. When the lamps are lit and the shades are up in the March

house, he can see the four March sisters, with their mother in the center, seated around a cheerful

fire. He learns to know them by name before he meets them, and, in his imagination, he almost

feels himself a member of the family.

The oldest is plump Meg, who has to earn her living as the governess of a group of unruly

youngsters in the neighborhood. Next is Jo, tall, awkward, and tomboyish, who likes to write and

who spends all her spare time devising plays and entertainments for her sisters. Then there is

gentle Beth, the homebody, content to sit knitting by the fire or to help her mother take care of

the house. The youngest is curly-haired Amy, a schoolgirl who dreams of someday becoming a

famous artist like Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci. The sisters’ father is away, serving as an

army chaplain during the Civil War.

At Christmastime, the girls are confronted with the problem of what to do with the dollar

that Marmee, as they call their mother, has said they might spend. At first, each thinks only of her

own pleasure, but all end by buying a gift for Marmee instead. On Christmas morning, they insist

on sharing their breakfast with the Hummels, a poor family in the neighborhood, and for this

unselfishness they are rewarded when Mr. Laurence sends over a surprise Christmas feast

consisting of ice cream and bonbons along with four bouquets of flowers for the table.

Many happy days follow, with Laurie becoming a part of the March family circle after he

meets Jo at a fashionable New Year’s Eve dance. In November, however, a telegram brings a

message that the girls’ father is critically ill. Mrs. March does not know what to do. She feels that
she should go to her husband at once, but she has barely five dollars in her purse. She is hesitant

about going to her husband’s wealthy, irascible relative Aunt March for help. Jo solves the

problem by selling her long, beautiful chestnut hair, which has been her only vanity, for twenty-

five dollars. She makes the sacrifice willingly, but that night, after the others have gone to bed,

Meg hears Jo weeping softly. Gently, Meg asks if Jo is crying over her father’s illness, and Jo sobs

that it is not her father she is crying for now, but for her hair.

During Marmee’s absence, dark days fall upon the little women. Beth, who has never been

strong, contracts scarlet fever, and for a time it looks as if Jo is going to lose her dearest sister.

They send for Marmee, but by the time she arrives, the crisis has passed and her little daughter is

better. By the next Christmas, Beth is her old contented self again. Mr. March surprises them all

when he returns home from the front well and happy. The little family is together once more.

Then John Brooke, Laurie’s tutor, falls in love with Meg. This fact is disclosed when Mr.

Brooke surreptitiously steals one of Meg’s gloves and keeps it in his pocket as a memento. When

Laurie discovers the glove and informs Jo, he is greatly surprised at her reaction; she is infuriated

at the idea that the family circle might be disturbed. She is quite reconciled three years later,

however, when Meg becomes Mrs. Brooke.

In the meantime, Jo herself has grown up. She begins to take her writing seriously and

even sells a few stories, which helps with the family budget. Her greatest disappointment comes

when Aunt Carrol, a relative of the Marches, decides she needs a companion on a trip to Europe

and asks the more ladylike Amy, rather than Jo, to accompany her. Then Jo, with Marmee’s

permission, decides to go to New York City. She takes a job in New York as governess for a Mrs.

Kirke, who runs a large boardinghouse. There she meets Professor Bhaer, a lovable and eccentric

German tutor, who proves to be a good friend and companion.

 When Jo returns home, Laurie, who has always loved her, asks her to marry him. Jo, who

imagines that she will always remain unmarried, devoting herself exclusively to her writing, tries

to convince Laurie that they are not made for each other. He persists, pointing out that his

grandfather and her family both expect them to marry. When she finally makes him realize that

she will not be persuaded, he stomps off, and shortly afterward he leaves for Europe with his

grandfather. In Europe, Laurie spends a great deal of time with Amy, and the two become close

friends, so that Laurie is able to transfer to Jo’s younger sister a great deal of the feeling he

previously had for Jo.

Jo remains at home caring for Beth, who has never fully recovered from her earlier illness.

In the spring, Beth dies, practically in Jo’s arms, and after the loss of her gentle sister Jo is lonely

indeed. She tries to comfort herself with her writing and with Meg’s two babies, Daisy and Demi,

but not until the return of Amy, now married to Laurie, does she begin to feel like her old self

again. When Professor Bhaer stops to visit on his way to a university appointment in the Midwest,

Jo is delighted. One day, as they share an umbrella during a downpour, he asks her to marry him,

and Jo accepts. Within a year, old Aunt March dies and leaves her home, Plumfield, to Jo. Jo

decides to open a boys’ school there, where she and her professor can devote their lives to

instructing the young.

So the little women have reached maturity, and on their mother’s sixtieth birthday, they

all have a great celebration at Plumfield. Around the table, at which there is but one empty chair,

sit Marmee, her daughters and their husbands, and her grandchildren. When Laurie proposes a

toast to his mother-in-law, she replies by stretching out her arms to them all and saying that she

can wish nothing better for them than this present happiness for the rest of their lives.
 INTRODUCTION

This literary piece of Louisa May Alcott entitled “Little Women” is a classic. Written just

after the Civil War in response to a publisher's demand for a novel that could appeal to young

female readers, it was originally published as two books: Chapters 1-23 were issued in 1868 with

the title Little Women, and, after the book became a sensational success, Chapters 24-47 were

issued in 1869 with the title Good Wives. Today we read both sections together as Little Women,

but it's important to know that the book began in two pieces, because there's more separating

them than time (Vasishta, 2019).

Also, Vasishta (2019) the first half of the book is loosely based on Louisa May Alcott's own

life; in fact, it's semi-autobiographical, and reflects the experiences she had growing up with her

sisters in New England. After it was published, readers wrote to Alcott and her publishers asking

for more, and especially asking about the girls' love lives. Most readers wanted to know who each

sister married especially whether Jo married Laurie. Alcott herself remained unmarried all her

life, so, in order to write the sequel, she had to depart from autobiography and write straight-up

fiction. Without her own life experiences, the second part of the novel may feel less realistic.

Little Women has been popular ever since its first publication; after more than 140 years,

it still appeals to readers young and old, female and male although, admittedly, the majority of

the novel's lifelong lovers are female. The story has been adapted three times as a film, starring

first Katharine Hepburn, then June Allyson, then Winona Ryder as Jo March. It has also been

transformed into a play, an opera, and a musical. Apart from the different version of Little Women

itself, we think we can detect the influence of Little Women on other great North American girls'

books, such as The Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables, as well as some of the

great British girls' books of the time, such as A Little Princess. Part of the fascination with the

novel is its treatment of gender roles, which balances tradition and gender distinction with more

forward-thinking, proto-feminist attitudes (Klaler 2004).

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

According to Homestead (2007) ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY (1832-1888), American fiction

writer best known as the author of the girls’ novel Little Women (1868-1869). Alcott was born in

Germantown, Pennsylvania, to Abigail May Alcott and the progressive educator Bronson Alcott.

The March family of Little Women was an idealized version of her own family, which was far less

stable and more mobile. Alcott’s father’s idealistic education, and reform ventures regularly failed,

necessitating the family’s frequent moves, and she and her mother increasingly provided the

family’s economic support.

Her childhood and adolescence were split primarily between Concord and Boston,

Massachusetts, where she was deeply influenced by members of her father’s transcendentalist

circle, including reform-minded writers and thinkers such as Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody,

Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Alcott’s high rate of productivity and the

extraordinary variety of literary forms in which she wrote, as well as the range of audiences she

addressed, have challenged and intrigued scholars and leisure readers alike. Her first published

story appeared in 1852 in the Olive Branch, a Boston story paper (an inexpensive weekly magazine

published in newspaper format), and she continued to publish anonymous and pseudonymous

tales in story papers intermittently throughout her career (Homestead, 2007).

Additionally, Homestead (2007) these sensational melodramas featuring subversive

heroines—” blood and thunder” tales, as Alcott called them—have kept twentieth-century scholars

busy locating and reprinting them. Her first book, published in 1854 under her own name, was

Flower Fables, a collection of fairy stories. She also published short fiction in elite venues such as

the Atlantic Monthly magazine, plays, autobiographical Civil War sketches based on her wartime

nursing experiences, and an adult novel, Moods (1864), all before Little Women, a novel that has

become a worldwide icon of American girlhood. In Japan, Little Women was a perennial favorite

for teaching good behavior, although occasionally young women admired Jo’s individualism and
rebelliousness. Although Little Women and the stream of juvenile fiction that followed made

Alcott and her family financially secure, she sometimes chafed at her new public fame as a writer

of girls’ books. Some critics read her body of work as unified by a feminist analysis of women’s

place in society; others emphasize the divisions between Alcott’s literary personae. Whatever the

politics of her fiction, she was active throughout her life in reform movements typically supported

by white, middle-class women in the northern states, such as anti-slavery, women’s suffrage, and

temperance. Her public support of women’s rights actually increased after Little Women. When

Concord allowed women to vote in local school elections, Alcott led an initiative to educate women

as voters and was the town’s first woman to register to vote, in 1879.

She also used her writing to offer explicit support to feminist reform. Between 1874 and

1888 she contributed frequently to the Woman’s Journal, a women’s-rights periodical, and her

semiautobiographical adult novel Work: A Story of Experience (1873) traces its heroine’s attempts

to find meaningful work and make a home, ending with the widowed heroine becoming a lecturer

on women’s rights. Mercury poisoning from medicine administered to treat the typhoid

pneumonia that Alcott had contracted during the Civil War was the likely cause of years of pain

and bad health and of her early death (Homestead, 2007).

 APPROACH TO BE USED

This analysis uses feminist approach in education generally has aligned itself with

frameworks, trends, and categories in the larger academy. The principal difference, of course, is a

focus on education. Feminists have focused on public and professional activism, others on

empirical gender studies, and still others on higher and adult education or pre-collegiate

schooling. Writings in feminist theory span the frameworks discussed above, from histories of

women's education to specific philosophical connections (Stone, 2010).

In addition, Tong (2001) in essence, feminist theory is a set of ideas originating with the

belief that women are not subordinate to men or only valuable in relationship to men and that the

disciplines, systems, and structures in place in our world today may be changed for the better if

infused with a feminist point of view. Also, it prefers two centers of concentration in feminist

philosophy of education. Cutting through waves theory, these are women's oppression and

women's agency. Within each she identifies sub organizations to retain “a kind of philosophy, not

a female or feminine activity. But it is more than this. Feminist theory sets an agenda for action,

the aim of which is justice and equality for women everywhere and, of course, also for the men

and children to whom they are inextricably linked.

Therefore, feminist theory has been at the forefront of new directions in political, social,

and cultural theory. These developments are inherently indebted to the internal critique within

feminism made by ‘women of color’ who have been pivotal in raising questions of ‘difference’

around such social axes as class, racism, ethnicity, sexuality, and the problematic of global

inequities. Feminist literary theory asks us to consider the relationships between men and women

and their relative roles in society. Much feminist literary theory reminds us that the relationship

between men and women in society is often unequal and reflects a particular patriarchal ideology.

(Brah, 2001).
 FEMINIST APPROACH

GUIDE QUESTIONS:

A. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?

B. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?

C. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these relationships sources

of conflict? Are these conflicts resolved?

D. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?

E. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have

impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?

F. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these

expectations have?

G. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these

expectations have?

H. If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?

I. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness?
 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. WOMEN’S LIVES PORTRAYED IN THE WORK

In the novel Little Women, we can find the main function of literary works that is to

describe, reflect human life, while human life itself is always experiencing growth, as well as the

equality of women who will be depicted through the novel Little Women. In this era, women have

same authority to do something like a man doing in system economic, social, and political,

feminism urges the full integration of women into society, demanding women’s equal right, equal

work, equal pay, equal status and treatments in public and private relations (Rosenstand, 2006).

Handayani and Novianto (2004) stated that men are more competent, good orientation,

strong, active, competitive and confidence than women. This condition is unfair for women, also

portray that there is gender discrimination in the past. It happens from the generation to the next

until they realize their injustice. It encourages the emergence a belief called feminism. The

feminist movement related to women’s nature particularly and in general it related to women’s

emancipation. Women’s movement is in order to reach the equality of right with men in many

aspects, such as politic, social, economy and culture.

It is a depiction of extrinsic elaboration which is closely related to the intrinsic element of

the novel which is a theme of feminism. Basically, this feminism movement arises because of a

wanting impulse equalize the rights between men and women who had been as if women are not

respected in taking opportunities and decisions within life. There such thinking seems to have

been entrenched so women should be struggling to show his own existence in the eyes of the

world. The aims of the research are to elaborate types of feminism and their reflection on

feminism in novel little women (Gay, 1996).

Little Women was an immediate commercial and critical success with readers demanding

to know more about the characters. The data of this research is the quotations that related to the
problems of types and their reflection on feminism that women and men are inherently of equal

worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movement are necessary to achieve

equality between women and men, with understanding that gender always intersect with other

social hierarchies. It can be concluded that women and men should have equal opportunities and

believe that women and men are inherent of equal worth so, feminism is a movement of women

demanding equal rights between women fully and men (Cuddon, 2021).

B. THE FORM AND CONTENT OF THE WORK INFLUENCED BY THE WRITER’S

GENDER

The children of the March family have worked hard to fulfill their needs and help their

mother, they intend to buy something for their mother as a Christmas present by donating their

hard-earned money.

"Mother didn't say anything about our money, and she won't wish us to give up

everything. Let's each buy what we want, and have a little fun; I'm sure we work hard enough

to earn it," cried Jo, examining the heels of her shoes in a gentlemanly manner (p.3)

From quotation above, this data is classified into liberal feminism as the theory stated that

liberal feminism is gender equality that freeing women from oppressive gender roles. liberal

feminism led to advances in the economic sphere, inequality of opportunity, civil rights, and self

- fulfillment. The quotation describes the figure of women who can fulfill their own needs by

working hard and have the opportunity to use their freedom to fulfill themselves (Desmawati,

2018).

When their father has on duty and cannot be with the family, then one of them must be

there to replace her father's position in the family. It describes the role of the family can change

and can be a breadwinner.

 "I'm the oldest," began Meg, but Jo cut in with a decided, "I'm the man of the family now

Papa is away. (p.6)

In addition, Desmawati (2018) from quotation above, this data is classified into Marxist

feminism that stated woman’s conception or herself is a product of her social existence which is

largely defined by the kind of work she does. because of Josephine a tomboyish thought of herself

as a man who could replace her father while her father went on duty, she worked hard and helped

her mother earn money and being a breadwinner for their family.

One of the first things that we know about Jo March is Boyish, she would rather go out

into the world and boldly make her own way than stay at home.

"Don't, Jo. It's so boyish!" "That's why I do it." "I detest rude, unladylike girls!" "I hate

affected, niminy-piminy chits!" (p.4)

Further, from quotation above, this data is classified into existentialist feminism that

stated woman must become a self, a subject who transcends definitions, labels, and essences. Jo

always do anything in her way and also does not care about the words of others, in the 19th century

the depiction of a woman is by using a long skirt and also her long hairstyle, but not for Jo, she is

styled as she wants and the characteristic of Jo occurs because she has a friend named Laurie, so

her attitude in every day like man (Desmawati, 2018).

When Amy gets problems in the school because of ignorance of her friends then she should

get punishment from a teacher at the school.

"I don't approve of corporal punishment, especially for girls. I dislike Mr. Davis's

manner of teaching and don't think the girls you associate with are doing you any good. (p.74)

Moreover, in the analysis of Desmawati (2018) from quotation above, this data is classified

into radical feminism stated that women’s biology is closely related to their oppression, as well as

all the manifestations of sexual violence. There is a protest about the labeling of women is the
oppressed weak and the female body as the object of violence. Jo, as her sister protests over what

the teacher has done to Amy, she feels uncomfortable with a physical punishment for a woman,

because the female body is the main object of oppression by the power of men and women closely

related to their oppression.

Besides, based on the study of Keenan (2018) written in response to a publisher’s request

for a “girls’ book,” Little Women is an enduring classic of domestic realism, tracing the lives of

four sisters from adolescence through early adulthood. The narrator is omniscient and intrusive,

frequently interrupting the narrative to provide moral commentary. Often didactic and

sentimental, the novel nevertheless realistically portrays family life in the mid-nineteenth century

United States. Like female counterparts of John Bunyan’s Christian from Pilgrim’s Progress, the

four “little women” of the March family journey into womanhood, learning difficult lessons of

poverty, obedience, charity, and hard work along the way.

Keenan (2018) the novel is arranged in two parts; Alcott wrote and published part 1 first,

gauging its reception before continuing with part 2. Part 1 covers approximately one year in the

life of the March family, during which time the father is away, serving his country as a chaplain

during the Civil War. “Marmee” and her daughters learn to live with meager resources; the two

older girls work outside the home to help support the family, and all four girls keep busy with

sewing, housekeeping, and helping the one family servant, Hannah, with the household chores.

Their experience of poverty, hardship, and their father’s absence is counterbalanced by

many occasions of fun and good humor. The sisters put on plays for the neighborhood, have

picnics with their friends, and set up the “Pickwick Club,” where they create a literary newspaper

and soon include their neighbor, Laurie, among the group (Keenan, 2018).

In addition to Keenan (2018) each sister has her particular identity, including an artistic

talent, character flaws, and positive traits. Meg, the oldest, bears the responsibility for her younger

sisters but longs for a rich life full of beautiful things and free from material want and hardship.
Jo is the literary genius, spending much of her free time in the attic, scribbling away at the stories

she writes first for her family’s amusement and later for publication and for money.

C. RELATIONSHIP SOURCES

Little Women, it seemed to neatly fit in the genre of literature for young girls, yet,

surprisingly, the novel transcends many of the gender stereotypes ideals of the nineteenth

century. In Little Women, Alcott challenged society’s definition of stereotypical gender roles and

pushed the boundaries of expectations that were placed on both men and women to conform to

society’s standards. At the time the novel was published, the audience may not have recognized

the boundaries that Alcott was testing. Whether or not Alcott intentionally challenged gender

stereotypes, they remain evident throughout the novel, and it seems likely that Alcott primarily

endeavored to compose a meaningful and lucrative piece of literature. Alcott’s past writings

addressed various sensitive and bold topics, such as abolition and feminism (Arslan, 2019).

In addition, Arslan (2019) Alcott uses Beth’s death to symbolize the death of the ideal

woman. In doing so, Alcott is challenging the idea that such a role is the only acceptable female

lifestyle. Finally, the character of Jo changes the most of all, becoming more feminine and less

tomboyish by the end of the novel. Alcott’s surprising evolution of Jo’s character makes a

statement that women can be not only married and feminine, but also happily independent and

self-sufficient.

Through the characters of Jo and Laurie, Alcott challenges gender stereotypes. Their

relationship is not only funny and genuine, but it is also the vehicle through which Alcott breaks

many gender stereotypes. First, by giving Jo and Laurie names that would usually belong to the

opposite sex, Alcott is breaking gender-stereotypical expectations. In doing this, she is removing

gender expectations based on the characters’ names. Consequently, she bestows Jo with more

masculine attributes and Laurie with more feminine attributes. When Jo and Laurie first meet,

neither one seems concerned or surprised by the other’s name (Arslan, 2019).
 Further, Arslan (2019) again, neither character is surprised by the other’s atypical name.

Of course, names are important, but this lack of gender-stereotyped names not only fits their roles

in the book, but it also shows the reader that people should be careful not to categorize people

into particular groups because of their names. Moreover, Laurie states that he prefers the

nickname Laurie rather than Dora.

Additionally, both characters’ roles and actions transcend normal gender stereotypes.

Laurie embodies the role of a typical nineteenth-century woman, because he is often locked away

in the mansion and is drawn toward female coded activities, such as playing piano. For example,

when speaking about Mr. Laurence and his grandson, Laurie, one of the March guest’s states, “He

keeps his grandson shut up, when he isn’t riding or walking with his tutor, and makes him study

very hard. We invited him to our party, but he didn’t come. Mother says he’s very nice, though he

never speaks to us girls”. Laurie is “shut up” like many women who stayed home, while their

husbands were working or traveling.

Also, Arslan (2019) Elizabeth Keyser states, “Ironically, Mr. Laurence’s efforts to ensure

that his grandson prove his manhood by taking over the family business keep Laurie as sheltered

from the world as any girl”. Likewise, many young women would not be comfortable speaking to

those of the opposite sex, similar to how Laurie was initially uncomfortable interacting with the

girls.

The plot of Little Women is not particularly memorable because it deals with day-to-day

routines in the lives of five women. The character, Jo March, on the other hand, is highly

memorable because of the contradictions between her expressed wishes and ideas and her actual

actions. This essay argues that these contradictions create a tension that stimulates the reader’s

interest. To demonstrate this, two categories will be investigated: gender and worldly interests.

The main contradictions discussed here are Jo’s initial refusal but ultimate acceptance of her

female identity; her initial rejection of but ultimate yearning for love and marriage; the financial
gain versus the artistic value of writing; her love of money and expressed admiration for poverty;

her rejection of favors but ultimate acceptance of these (Chisholm, 2005).

Susan (2010) tension is here defined as “the conflict created by interplay of the constituent

elements of a work of art”. In addition, contradictions are generally regarded as signs of tension.

“Two elements, each of which defines the other and has logical connectives, are connected by the

forces”. In this essay, tension is discussed in terms of contradictions and their consequences.

Previous research on Jo has focused on her character. It argues that she is un-ladylike.

Biographical Critics argue that Jo reflects Alcott’s attitude toward art and family. Besides, New

Critics have focused on how Jo confronts with her social inadequacies. For this essay, it focuses

on the tension, which is produced by contradictions. With the aid of New Criticism, this essay

demonstrates how contradictions between thought and actual action create tension in Little

Women.

The first contradiction to be discussed here is that Jo’s initial refusal but her ultimate

acceptance of her female identity. Female identity in this essay refers to the qualities of a female,

and incorporates five aspects: her attitude to married life, the conventions of women’s behavior

at the time, the ability to carry out household chores, dressmaking and concern with having a

feminine appearance. Because of the inconsistency in Jo’s speech and action produces tension,

readers will keep close watch over her change in the reading process, then find out what kind of

woman Jo will be (Shihada, 2019).

D. AFFIRM TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF WOMEN

In their study of Alcott's critical reputation, Janice Alberghene and Beverly Clark note that

Alcott rarely surfaces in scholarly articles from the early 20th century, and most references to her

writing are pejorative. As the Alcott researchers write, "Most often the status of Alcott with the

cuhural elite, throughout the twentieth century, can be gauged by such neglect; only rarely is it

conveyed more directly (Bassil, 2016).

 Louisa May Alcott's novels about Josephine March and her family have remained popular

among young female readers, partially because the works explore and celebrate family

relationships. The warm images of love between family and friends that Alcott defines within the

March saga endear the novels to many modern readers (Blackford, 2016).

Alcott constructs her novel in such a way that there is a strict division between male and

female worlds, and in the female-centered world, she creates an atmosphere in which the girls can

express their desires freely. During the entire first half of the novel, all the women reside alone in

the March home; Mr. March is in battle far away, and Laurie lives with his grandfather on the

other side of the fence. The home becomes a matriarchal environment in which Marmee

possessively cultivates her children and keeps them away from physical and emotional harm

(Cheever, 2010).

Again, Alcott emphasizes the importance of feminine "influence" by creating "Mother

Bhaer," a wise maternal ideal whose words follow each boy throughout his travails. In many ways,

Plumfield becomes a utopian community in which Jo can exercise her beliefs about coeducation

and child-rearing, uninhibited by social custom. However, the school is restrictive in many ways

that Seem to combat the classification of Plumfield as a utopia. As Keyser notes, gender-divided

chores abound in the novel (Greene, 2000).

Greene (2000) in her, Alcott has created an admirable female character who asserts her

desires within the boundaries of social convention. Bess, like Daisy, also adheres to the models of

feminine virtue and beauty that were revered during Alcott's career. Louisa introduced Bess as a

minor character in Little Men, but she expands her description of Amy's daughter during the final

March novel. Like Amy, Bess is stunning. Alcott describes her as "Diana-like", graceful and fair.

She is also a genius of feminine "influence," for whenever she enters a room, every male is so

enchanted by her serene manners that they begin to behave chivalrously.

 Alcott uses Alice Heath to illustrate a woman's ability to achieve the same honors

traditionally enjoyed only by men. Following her inspiring graduation speech, Alice makes a

difficult decision that challenges the most fundamental beliefs of Victorian society, thereby

making herself a radical heroine. Demi asks her to marry him, and Alice is thrust into a dilemma;

she thinks she must either marry him and relinquish her career goals or become a spinster and

support her needy family with the money she will earn as a career woman. In her mind, she must

choose love or her career; as Alcott describes it, she is tom between passion and duty to her family

and to her own goals (Greene, 2000).

Additionally, Greene (2000) and it is not insignificant that Alcott included hundreds of

allusions to Greek mythology in this novel. By naming the home Parnassus, Alcott not only links

her characters to the gods that revel on that mystical mountain, but she also suggests that the

work is an idealistic vision of life as it should be. Meg, Amy, and Jo are leading pleasant lives, and

each sister continues to practice her art within a supportive community of women. Even Meg

returns to the stage during a dramatic holiday performance, confirming that she has never entirely

relinquished her childhood dreams.

Greene (2000) adds that Alcott's March series culminates with a valiant attempt to

describe a world existing outside the gender finalisms that polarized Victorian society. In

suggesting a utopia in which women are free from the social constraints that limit their dreams

and their free expression, Alcott aligned herself being characterized as an extremely innocent girl

who dies very early, she is not a flat character. As it happens with the other sisters, she will also

demonstrate having characteristics that identify her as a round character, such as her capacity for

self-improve, exemplified by overcoming her fear of socializing with people. After an initial

diffidence, Beth forges a close relationship with Mr. Laurence when he gave her his dead

daughter’s piano and by playing it, she finds a way of communicating. With other feminists who

worked to expand the Victorian woman's social imagination.

 E. PATRIARCHAL SOCIAL FORCES

Little Women follows the lives of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, as they

endure hardships, learn life lessons and build enduring bonds on their passage from childhood to

womanhood. The first part of the book depicts the girls’ childhoods - their struggles with poverty

and their own personalities and faults and how they overcome these obstacles. The second part is

about them entering womanhood, marrying and becoming good wives, mothers and women

(Douglas, 2016).

The genteel poverty the March family endures is based on the real poverty the Alcott family

experienced. The difference is that the poverty of the Alcott family was mostly imposed on them

by Louisa’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, a famous Transcendentalist educational reformer in his

day (Douglas, 2016).

Gheorghiu (2015) in stark contrast to the book, and at a time when social conventions

actively discouraged and frowned upon women undertaking paid employment, Bronson Alcott’s

noble willingness to, as he put it, “starve or freeze before he will sacrifice principle to comfort”

resulted in him not supporting his family financially. This forced his wife and daughters to provide

for the family, and in Louisa’s case to write for money.

In addition, Gheorghiu (2015) Bronson was wholly supported and encouraged by his wife,

Abigail (Marmee in Little Women), to the complete bafflement and increasing frustration of

Louisa. One of Alcott’s biographers suggests that the familiar sentimental tone in Little Women

of poverty being dictated by circumstance, and something we should learn to bear, comes from

her trying to cope with, and somehow justify her father’s outrageous lack of concern for the

family’s financial well-being.

Louisa Alcott was devoted to and dominated by her parents, especially her father. His

worldview was based on the romanticized and spiritual idea of inherent goodness and perfection
of human beings. For many years, Bronson Alcott insisted to his daughter on the need for simple

stories for boys and girls about how to overcome selfishness and anger, faults which he constantly

pointed out in Louisa. Eventually, Bronson’s ideas made their way into Little Women, where the

March sisters strive to achieve their perfect “womanliness” (Gheorghiu, 2015).

Louisa was a problem and a disappointment to her father – she was impatient and

energetic, always “subject of her instinct” and showing, what Bronson called early signs of

“impending evil”. Alcott made the choice to remain unmarried, yet, against her wishes, but mainly

due to the demands of her publisher and her growing fan base, she did make Jo marry in the end

(Blackford, 2016).

Alcott may never have written Little Women at all, had she been more financially

successful in the types of gothic fiction she excelled at and enjoyed writing. But she dreaded debts

“more than the devil”. And her publisher pressured her with continuous requests for a book for

girls - and a promise to publish her father’s book, Tablets, if she wrote one (Greene, 2000).

The death of Jo’s younger sister Beth is a memorable and tragic event in Little Women.

Beth is the shyest of the sisters and lives a very secluded life. Her death is portrayed by Alcott as

a sort of “self-sacrifice” as she gives up her life knowing that it has had only private, domestic

meaning (Arslan, 2019).

Alcott’s sister Elizabeth or “Lizzie”, did in fact die due to complications of scarlet fever.

Beth’s death in the book is written to resemble a typical trope of Victorian literature - the

sentimental, suffering, pathetic yet angelic “ideal” child. But Lizzie died in 1858, aged 22: in pain,

angry and frightened, resenting the invisible, stifling life that was imposed on her largely by her

parents. She may also have suffered from anorexia. Alcott witnessed the death of her sister in

horror (Cuddon, 2021).

 Gilbert (2018) yet many of the themes and morals of this book are sentimentalized and

outdated today. They were inserted for reasons of convention, in order to provide moral

instruction, or to appeal to the requests of a publisher.

Handayani (2004) Alcott wrote Little Women because her father wanted her to, and he

dictated its terms, morals and lessons. It was an instant and enduring success, even though she

did not want to write it, and it forced her to relive some of the most difficult years of her life. For

readers (and viewers) today, understanding these circumstances enables a much more authentic,

multi-layered and complex interpretation.

F. MARITAL EXPECTATIONS

In Little Women, Alcott challenged society’s definition of stereotypical gender roles and

pushed the boundaries of expectations that were placed on both men and women to conform to

society’s standards. At the time the novel was published, the audience may not have recognized

the boundaries that Alcott was testing. Whether or not Alcott intentionally challenged gender

stereotypes, they remain evident throughout the novel, and it seems likely that Alcott primarily

endeavored to compose a meaningful and lucrative piece of literature. Alcott’s past writings

addressed various sensitive and bold topics, such as abolition and feminism (Keenan, 2018).

Tong (2001) Alcott breaks many stereotypes by giving two of her main characters, Jo and

Laurie, names that would usually denote someone of the opposite gender. Also, Alcott uses Beth’s

death to symbolize the death of the ideal woman. In doing so, Alcott is challenging the idea that

such a role is the only acceptable female lifestyle. Finally, the character of Jo changes the most of

all, becoming more feminine and less tomboyish by the end of the novel. Alcott’s surprising

evolution of Jo’s character makes a statement that women can be not only married and feminine,

but also happily independent and self-sufficient.

 Vasishta (2019) through the characters of Jo and Laurie, Alcott challenges gender

stereotypes. Their relationship is not only funny and genuine, but it is also the vehicle through

which Alcott breaks many gender stereotypes. First, by giving Jo and Laurie names that would

usually belong to the opposite sex, Alcott is breaking gender-stereotypical expectations. In doing

this, she is removing gender expectations based on the characters’ names. Consequently, she

bestows Jo with more masculine attributes and Laurie with more feminine attributes. When Jo

and Laurie first meet, neither one seems concerned or surprised by the other’s name. The

characters themselves do not seem bound by society’s gender expectations. At the Gardiners’ New

Year’s Eve party, Jo, escaping from an overly-zealous boy, finds refuge in a curtained alcove.

There, she bumps into Laurie, who is also seeking refuge. After they talk about the Marches’

runaway cat that Laurie rescued, they commiserate over their names. Their exchange is quite

revealing.

Additionally, Jo would have felt the expectations and repression of how one is presented

in society. When Meg and Jo are preparing for the Gardiners’ party, they endure all sorts of

struggles to make themselves presentable. Because they only have one pair of gloves, which are

soiled, they compromise and decide that each shall wear one clean glove and hold the stained one

(Douglas, 2016).

Cheever (2010) the menace of great expectations permeates Little Women’s first scene.

The greatly terrible expectations men have for women, that is. Jo March a sublime Saoirse Ronan

wants to be a writer, yet she is met with derision and suspicion by a New York publisher named

Mr. Dashwood a cantankerous Tracy Letts. He dismisses Jo’s prose out of hand as soft and

preachy and offers her less than what he’d pay a male writer for the same work. Desperate to

establish herself as a published author, and to support her family, Jo sells her short story and asks

if she may inquire about sending in more work. Dashwood condescends with the backhand, “If

the main character is a girl, make sure she’s married by the end. Or dead, either way.”
 After a film focusing on a young woman’s fight against cultural expectations it might have

been expected that Gerwig would apply the same treatment to Little Women. However, the

resulting film is a balancing act. While positioning itself as a loving homage to its predecessors

and reveling in its full traditionalism, it also attempts to bring the March sisters into the modern

era, interlacing traditional symbolism with formal inventiveness and a concomitant self-aware

politics (Brah, 2021).

G. BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATIONS

At the time when Alcott composed the novel, women’s status in society was slowly

increasing. As with any change in social norms, however, progress toward gender equality was

made slowly. Through the four different sisters, Alcott explores four possible ways to deal with

being a woman bound by the constraints of nineteenth-century social expectations: marry young

and create a new family, as Meg does; be subservient and dutiful to one’s parents and immediate

family, as Beth is; focus on one’s art, pleasure, and person, as Amy does at first; or struggle to live

both a dutiful family life and a meaningful professional life, as Jo does (Blackford, 2016).

While Meg and Beth conform to society’s expectations of the role that women should play,

Amy and Jo initially attempt to break free from these constraints and nurture their individuality.

Eventually, however, both Amy and Jo marry and settle into a more customary life. While Alcott

does not suggest that one model of womanhood is more desirable than the other, she does

recognize that one is more realistic than the other (Desmawati, 2018).

Over the course of Little Women, the March sisters try to find happiness through daily

activities, their dreams, and each other; but when they do not engage in any productive work, they

end up guilty and remorseful. When they indulge in selfishness by dressing up in finery, hoarding

limes, neglecting chores, or getting revenge, the girls end up unhappy. The only way they find

meaningful happiness is when they are working, either for a living or for the benefit of their
families. The novel demonstrates the importance of the Puritan work ethic, which dictates that it

is holy to do work (Klarer, 2004).

Homestead (2007) this work ethic, in line with the transcendentalist teachings with which

Alcott grew up, thrived in New England, where many Puritans lived and where the novel takes

place. Alcott ultimately recommends work not as a means to a material end, but rather as a means

to the expression of inner goodness and creativity through productivity.

Little Women takes great pains to teach a lesson about the importance of being genuine.

To make this point, Alcott contrasts the Marches with more well-to-do young women like Amy

Moffat and Sally Gardiner. Transcendentalists emphasized the importance of paying more

attention to the inner spiritual self than to temporary, earthly conditions like wealth and

impressive appearances, and Alcott incorporates this philosophy into Little Women. For instance,

Meg and Amy constantly struggle with vanity, and eventually overcome it. Amy turns down Fred

Vaughn’s offer of marriage, even though he is rich, because she does not love him (Rosenstand,

2006).

Shihada (2019) the March sisters all learn to be happy with their respective lots in life and

not to yearn for meaningless riches. The Marches’ snug New England home is presented as more

desirable than mansions in Paris. This theme is particularly American, especially distinctive of

New England. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, many middle-class Americans at the time did

not mind having come from humble origins and did not crave titles or other superficial trappings

of wealth. These Americans wanted only what they deserved and believed that what they deserved

depended on how hard they worked.

H. FEMALE CHARACTER WERE MALE

According Tong (2021) Little Women questions the validity of gender stereotypes, both

male and female. Jo, at times, does not want to be a conventional female. In her desires and her
actions, she frustrates typical gender expectations. She wants to earn a living, for example—a duty

conventionally reserved for men. Also, she wears a dress with a burn mark to a party, evidence

that she does not possess tremendous social grace, a quality that nineteenth-century American

society cultivated in women. Similarly, there are times when Laurie does not want to be a

conventional man.

Eldredge seemed to blame men for not appreciating female-centric stories and framed it

as some sort of character flaw that society needed to address: “If many men haven’t wanted to

give it a chance because they don’t think it’s meant for them; we still have a way to go in

considering all kinds of narratives about women to be deserving of thoughtful attention” (Douglas,

2016).

Cheever (2010) but Little Women is really just a movie about females, and their dreams

and aspirations and disappointments, and that’s perfectly okay. In fact, it’s sublime. The book and

the movies adapted from it are some of the most touching examples of female bonding in literary

and cinematic history.

But it is a bit ridiculous for women to be complaining that men are not interested in a book

and movie called, for lord’s sake, Little WOMEN. This preoccupation with “gender parity” has

become cult-like (Brah, 2021).

Louisa May Alcott fashioned a trilogy of novels that catapulted her to fame and fortune

and that remain among the most beloved works in all of American literature. Here, in an

authoritative single-volume edition restoring Alcott’s original text as well as her sister May the

original of Amy’s illustrations, is the complete series (Tong, 2001).

Set in a small New England town during the Civil War and Reconstruction, Little Women

introduces Alcott’s remarkable heroines, the March sisters—above all, her alter ego Jo March,

with her literary ambition and independent spirit. The follow-up, Little Men, follows Jo into
adulthood and marriage as she finds herself the caretaker of a houseful of rambunctious children

at Plumfield School. Jo’s Boys returns to Plumfield a decade later; now grown, Jo’s children

recount adventures of their own (Shihada, 2019).

In Little Women, Louisa May Alcott writes a didactic guide to middleclass feminine

ideology in which she explores how women who lack money empower themselves without

violating feminine codes of purity. Power, in the text, may be defined by one's influence or moral

leverage against her male counterpart. Alcott divides her novel into two sections: Part I describes

methods of empowerment for the March children, and Part II questions whether such power is

ever fully achieved (Keenan, 2018).

Tong (2021) The second characteristic of true womanhood illustrated by Welter involves

purity. Welter claims that women assert m oral leverage over men by remaining chaste while men

run wild. Furthermore, "if a woman managed to withstand man's assaults on her virtue, she

demonstrated her superiority and power over him". Welter warns, however, that a woman who

casts off her delicacy loses all influence. She writes, "A fallen woman was a fallen angel".

This scene marks Alcott's first representation of female networks in Little Women. Female

bonding, according to Smith-Rosenberg, comprises an important part of true womanhood in

nineteenth-century America. In her article, "The Power of Women's Networks," Mary Ryan

suggests power exists among women who band together. This female network proves to be a great

source of power for the March girls. The sisterhood provides mutual support for its members

when Father March writes home and tells his daughters to prepare for womanhood. He urges the

girls to "do their duty faithfully, fight their bosom enemies bravely, and conquer themselves so

beautifully" that when he returns, Father March may be proud of his "little women" (Cheever,

2021).

Developing a female network enables the girls to work together in a community, which

represents another tactic for empowerment. Marmee tells her daughters that each girl should do
h er part to make home pleasant for all. "Work is wholesome”, she declares. Marmee teaches the

value of community effort by denying it for one week: she allows the entire family, including

Hannah, to neglect daily chores which had previously marked "the happiest hour” in the

household (Stone, 2010).

I. CHARACTER’S DECISION AND HAPPINESS

While on the surface a simple story about the four March girls’ journeys from childhood

to adulthood, Little Women centers on the conflict between two emphases in a young woman’s

life that which she places on herself, and that which she places on her family. In the novel, an

emphasis on domestic duties and family detracts from various women’s abilities to attend to their

own personal growth. For Jo and, in some cases, Amy, the problem of being both a professional

artist and a dutiful woman creates conflict and pushes the boundaries set by nineteenth-century

American society (Bassil, 2016).

Desmawati (2018) at the time when Alcott composed the novel, women’s status in society

was slowly increasing. As with any change in social norms, however, progress toward gender

equality was made slowly. Through the four different sisters, Alcott explores four possible ways to

deal with being a woman bound by the constraints of nineteenth-century social expectations:

marry young and create a new family, as Meg does; be subservient and dutiful to one’s parents

and immediate family, as Beth is; focus on one’s art, pleasure, and person, as Amy does at first;

or struggle to live both a dutiful family life and a meaningful professional life, as Jo does.

While Meg and Beth conform to society’s expectations of the role that women should play,

Amy and Jo initially attempt to break free from these constraints and nurture their individuality.

Eventually, however, both Amy and Jo marry and settle into a more customary life. While Alcott

does not suggest that one model of womanhood is more desirable than the other, she does

recognize that one is more realistic than the other (Shihada, 2019).
 Homestead (2007) Little Women, the March sisters try to find happiness through daily

activities, their dreams, and each other; but when they do not engage in any productive work, they

end up guilty and remorseful. When they indulge in selfishness by dressing up in finery, hoarding

limes, neglecting chores, or getting revenge, the girls end up unhappy. The only way they find

meaningful happiness is when they are working, either for a living or for the benefit of their

families.

The novel demonstrates the importance of the Puritan work ethic, which dictates that it is

holy to do work. This work ethic, in line with the transcendentalist teachings with which Alcott

grew up, thrived in New England, where many Puritans lived and where the novel takes place.

Alcott ultimately recommends work not as a means to a material end, but rather as a means to the

expression of inner goodness and creativity through productivity (Cuddon, 2021).

Little Women takes great pains to teach a lesson about the importance of being genuine.

To make this point, Alcott contrasts the Marches with more well-to-do young women like Amy

Moffat and Sally Gardiner. Transcendentalists emphasized the importance of paying more

attention to the inner spiritual self than to temporary, earthly conditions like wealth and

impressive appearances, and Alcott incorporates this philosophy into Little Women. For instance,

Meg and Amy constantly struggle with vanity, and eventually overcome it (Keenan, 2018).

Rosenstand (2006) Amy turns down Fred Vaughn’s offer of marriage, even though he is

rich, because she does not love him. The March sisters all learn to be happy with their respective

lots in life and not to yearn for meaningless riches. The Marches’ snug New England home is

presented as more desirable than mansions in Paris. This theme is particularly American,

especially distinctive of New England. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, many middle-class

Americans at the time did not mind having come from humble origins and did not crave titles or

other superficial trappings of wealth. These Americans wanted only what they deserved and

believed that what they deserved depended on how hard they worked.
 SYNTHESIS

Based on the analysis of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, it is seen that Louisa May

Alcott has used her novel to express her thoughts for young adult girls. Louisa May Alcott’s Little

Women can be considered different at the time. The difference lies in the characters she created

as multidimensional, who have problems and flaws, compared with those by Louisa’s

contemporaries. Many lessons are open for people to draw. Those that could be seen clearly in

this novel are to be dutiful, to be selfless, to be hard-working, to be self-examining and to be true

to heart based on the events happening in four little women’s life.

When taking a closer look at American society of the mid-nineteenth century, many forces

through the novel and social origins are clearly reflected. First is transcendentalism. Her evolving

ideas about education and work are reflected in her characters’ transformation from “pilgrims”

into “missionaries”. Alcott affirms Emerson’s theories on self-reliance and the necessity of self-

culture. Second is women’s social status in mid-19th century. This novel shows the danger of

stereotyping a girl and her purpose in life. In a time, women were responsible for creating warm,

happy homes for their husbands and children, and daughters were expected to help with

housework to expedite chores and also to learn skills for their own future households.

This type of novel emphasized feelings and such values as religious faith, moral virtue,

and family closeness. Its stress on traditional values appealed to many people during a period of

rapid social and political change. Sentimentalism is usually seen as the affective and relational

component of domesticity. Within the context of domesticity, larger ideology and set of practices

structured women’s and men’s places and roles in the nineteenth century. The last is religious

origin of morals taught in the novel. The year-long struggle with the absence of father is right their

journey from “destructive city to celestial city”. This guide meanwhile becomes the moral basis of

being dutiful, hardworking, self-examining and selfless.

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