Little Women Essay | Critical Essay #3

Little Women Critical Essay #3

In the following essay excerpt, Elbert discusses the major themes in Little Women: "domesticity, the achievement of individual identity through work, and true love."

I may be strong minded, but no one can say I'm out
of my sphere now, for woman's special mission is>
supposed to be drying tears and bearing burdens. I'm
to carry my share, Friedrich, and help to earn the
home. Make up your mind to that, or I'll never go.

"Jo March," Little Women, Chapter 46

The title of Louisa May Alcott's most famous book is taken from a commonplace nineteenth-century term. In the opening chapter, Marmee reads a Christmas letter from her absent husband to his daughters, which tenderly admonishes them to "conquer themselves so beautifully that when I come back to them I may be fonder and prouder of my little women." This sentimental diminutive is puzzling in a feminist who...
(read more)