S W E E T / T A L K

So, knowing the book is semi-autobiographical, and going off a strong gut instinct I had that the author, Louisa May Alcott (upon whom Jo March’s character is based) never married herself, I did some research.

I found out that Alcott never married in real life, and never had any children, and if she had her way, Jo would never have married Professor Bhaer either. But her book literally would never have gotten published had she not married Jo off to somebody, and Alcott wrote in her journal that she wouldn’t marry Jo off to Laurie to please anyone. So she married Jo to a character who, although beloved, doesn’t hold a candle to Laurie in the reader’s heart, because at least that way she could get her novel out into the world; A novel that, despite the hurried, unsatisfying “and they all lived happily ever after” ending, still carries a strong feminist message of empowerment and deserved ambition that is less ‘written between the lines’ than served up to you with a bow tied around it.

Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the book is really one of the only ones that really acknowledges this about Jo’s decision to marry, or rather Alcott’s decision to have Jo marry. That’s the significance of one of the last scenes where Jo is negotiating the terms of her contract with Mr. Dashwood. It plainly shows you that the decision to have Jo marry in the book was essentially a business decision, and that had that decision not been made we might not be discussing the novel at all, let alone its fourth(?) movie adaptation.

David