Indisputably, Jo is the most impressive heroine of the four girls. Her developing into womanhood is a perfect example of making reconciliation between becoming a completely independent woman with ones own career and a passively domestic angel whose only value is assisting ones husband. Jo first appears as a tomboy in the book. She also plays the role as the man of her family while her father is absent. Being good friend of Laurie and liking boys games and sports indicate that Jo is not a traditionally docile girl. Jos interest in writing stories and novels inspires her spirit of independence. And her dream or ambition for life described in earlier chapters is not domestic as Megs and Beths. She even dislikes strongly the thought of getting married. So when Meg and John are in love, she shows unusual incomprehension and depression toward Megs would-be marriage with John. But for a traditional girl, family life and marriage are the whole story of ones future life. In this light, Jos ambition is quite different. She wants to wtite a great book of her own and emulates Shakespeare. All of these thoughts and behavior of Jos at her early developing stage imply the difference between Jo and a traditionally would-be domestic angel. But Jos real life turns out to be quite different from her early ambitions. She marries at last and learns self-control. That is to say, Jo gradually learns to make compromise between her ideal and reality. The process of her changing will be illustrated.
Jos gradual adjustments of her former ideal can be perceived through several incidents. The first one is Amys drowning. Writing and her novels are Jos dearest things. So after Amy has burnt her manuscript, she is too angry to forgive Amy anyhow. When Amy follows Jo and Laurie to skate, Jo just skates as if there is no Amy following behind. Even when Jo knows that Amy falls into the river, she still goes on without helping Amy. Although this dicision of Jos is made not without internal struggle, it causes an almost disastrous result. If Laurie had not sensed the danger and saved Amy, Amy would be drowned that time. This incident teaches Jo a concrete lesson of self-control. It also implies that it is her novel that indirectly contributes to Amys disaster. Beths death is another important incident for Jos learning the necessity of making self-sacrafice. Beth dies of scarlet fever infected by the Hummel baby while she is takeing care of the baby. Because Jo pretends to be not well and does not go to the Hummels when Beth asks her to go that day, she could not feel more remorseful for Beths disease:
My poor dear, how dreadful for you! I ought to have gone, said Jo, taking her sister in her arms as she sat down in her mothers bigchair, with a remorseful face. (Alcott 192)
At Beths dying bed, Jo promises her to take her place to take care of Marmee and Father. Marrying Prossor Bhaer is the last important occasion for Jos developing. After Beths death and Amys marrying to Laurie, it seems that Jo is stricken with her worst fit of lonliness. Mr. Bhaers appearance at this time accomplishes Jos reconciliation between her desire for complete independence and the need to be maternal. With Aunt Marchs bequest, Plumfield, Jo decides to run an experimental school for boys with her husband. Jo, the tomboy, has attained the final stage of true womanhood in a progressive sense.
As the third daughter of the March family, Beth is the least vital of the four. She is also the one who has the most virtues of an angel in the house: self-control and sacrafice, devotion to her duty, kindness toward others and never expressing needs of her own. She is content with the role of housekeeping homebody. Her dream is to stay at home safe with Father and Mother and help take care of the family. (Alcott 159) Her fondness is quite domestic too. Music and caring for her dolls and bird are her favoratites. While Marmee goes to take care of Father, it is Beth who goes to the Hummels and help to take care of the baby without any complaining words. Even after her infection of scarlet fever, she still comforts others. She seldom goes out of their house to integrate with the outside world. When she is dying, she asks Jo to take her place to take care of Mother and Father. All of what Beth has done is for others benefit.
But ironically, such a would-be domestic angel can not survive in this world. Beths death implies the improperty of such a completely passive and domestic angel. Conforming to the traditional virtues of an angel in the house, Beth must learn to overcome her natrual timidity in order to achieve more social integration. She only goes to the Hummels in order to help and the Laurences to satisfy her strong fondess of music. Going to play the piano in Laurences house is under the condition that there is nobody around. But we know it is the old mans kindness to help and ease Beth, for she is too shy and passive. Beths blushing shyness and angelic virtues operate as both positive and negative attributes, for while her angelic virtues encourage masculine protection (the old Laurence sends her the piano and becomes her friend), her incapability to cope with the outside world results in her death ultimately. Although Beth offers the inspirational source of guidance to her sisters, especially Jo, she can not survive in this changing world in which an absolutely trditional angel in the house can not function properly. Beth and Jo form a contrasting pair. Their ambitions are quite opposite from the start. But Jo undergoes painful change and adjustments to her dream to be adapted for the new social environment and culture. Beth still remains a completely passive angel without any change. So, Beth registers the cost of being a little woman; of completely devoting to others; of suppressing ones own desire, needs and anger. In her, we perceive the exhaustion and impossibility to live as such an angel.
Amys history of growing up into womanhood is similar to Jos. Her ambition is not domestic either. She wants to be an artist, and go to Rome, and do fine pictures, and be the best artist in the world. (Alcott 159) And Amy indeed has attempted nearly every branch of art with her youthful audacity. For a long time, she devotes herself to the finest pen-and ink drawing. And she really shows such taste and skill in it that her graceful handiwork is both pleasant and profitable. Then she falls to painting with the same undiminished ardor. Her next interest is charcoal portrait. After all these Amy subsides, till a mania for sketching from nature sets her to haunting river, field and wood for her studies. Although during the period of various artistic attempts, she has burnt the painting board, set the house in a mess and caught a cold in the open air, she makes friends everywhere, takes life gracefully and eases those less fortunate souls. Her experiences are very different from that of Beths. Similar to Jo, Amy has her own interest and goes out into the world to try it.
The later life has also teaches Amy to make adjustments to her early ambition. Amy is offered by her aunt to have a free holiday in Europe because she is obedient and agreeable. At this point, Amy and Jo are quite opposite. Jo loses the chance because of her unladyly manners while Amy wins it. For Amy, her idea of the girls being agreeable is not only reassured, but also rewarded. And her experience in Rome plays an important role in her growing up. In Rome, however, where Amy makes a real bid to realize her ambition, she comes to see that she only has talent which is quite different from genius. So, in the future, she decides that instead of being an artist herself, she would better be a patroness encouraging and supporting others to be artists. Through her experience with Laurie, she also learns her mothers dictum that to be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, far better than being a famous artist. (Fetterly 5) After Amys marriage, though she never completely gives up her art, she places it in the service of home and family. She begins to model her daughter into a little angel. Both Amy and Jo have experienced the change and adjustments of their early ambitions. They grow into women making reconciliation between their independent interests, ideals and traditionally maternal virtues.
Through the analysis of the five March women, we see the limitedly progressive view of womans role in family and society. Although each of the five womens life is different from each other, but they all contribute to this view. Mrs. March is a model little woman who plays both roles of a domestic angel and economic supporter of the home. Meg develops into an angel in the house not without struggles and her Marmees guidance. Beth, a would-be domestic angel from the start, dies of her complete self-control and sacrafice. Amy and Jo experience the similar reconciliation of bcoming an independent career woman and a traditional family woman. The four girls developing into womanhood not only indicates the books progressive but limited view of womans role, but also reflects the reality of womans changing role in that society. Completely traditional angel in the house does not suit the society. And this can be observed in Beths fate. To be an absolutely independent woman is also difficult, or impossible. So such women, like Jo, must make reconciliation.
Bibliography:
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. New York: Airmont Publishing Company, inc, 1966.
Ellis, Kate. Life with Marmee: Three versions. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Vol. 83. Ed. Suzanne Dewbury. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 62-72.
Fetterley, Judith. Little Women: Alcotts Civil War. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Vol. 58. Eds. Denise and Mary L. Onorato. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 369-83.
Gilbert, Susan and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP, 1979.
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