Did Laurie really love Amy?

[sandes]

(Little Women)

In honour of me watching it on E4
This is a debate I've had with people multiple times. I'd like to see the views of MN

Yes I think he did. But properly not like he loved Jo which was an infatuation.

I've always wondered.

No. He’s settled. I hate it.

'He’s settled. I hate it.'

But did Amy know?

She had to.

No, he desperately wanted into the March family so he took the remaining girl. Amy would be easy to persuade into believing it was a true love affair - he could offer her everything she ever wanted.

Look how involved he was in Jo's school in Little Men! Forever popping round, showing an interest in the kids, buying expensive toys, letting Jo's favourite risk ruining an expensive horse.... he wasn't over her.

Yes i think so.

I think so yes. But like others have said, he was infatuated with Jo, and then that turned into a platonic brotherly/ best friend love where his interest in Jo mutated into a love for the things she loved- hence his interest in the school etc. Also he desperately loved the Marches if I remember correctly, so he could move past his infatuation with Jo and move into seeing her platonically over time as she was part of that whole family that he loved so deeply and was welcomed into. If they hadn't been a close knit family, or he had married away from the Marches to some other girl, then I think he would have remained infatuated with Jo on a romantic level.

A type of love.
He was not in love with her.

It made me think less of Amy that she accepted him tbh.

No he definitely loved Jo, poor Amy

No - he appreciated the beauty and aesthetic of Amy. But she was just like another statue in House Beautiful.

Oooh which version is on E4?

Amy is clear in both the old and the new film versions that financial gain in marriage, needing to help her family is her main consideration. As is to be comfortable herself after growing up in poverty

I can’t watch or read little women. It makes me so angry Laurie and Jo didn’t end up together. Makes me crazy.

@Lavendersummer yes, me too.

I think he loved the 'Marches' more than he loved anyone, he wanted to be mothered and a part of the family and would have properly taken any girl to get into it, including Beth if she hadn't died. I don't think he loved Amy the way she deserved.

I think Louisa May Alcott thinks that successful relationships involve the woman being subservient so I think she thought of Laurie and Jo as inherently flawed as a couple but that isn't obviously how it comes across to the modern reader.

No, I don't think so.

He liked Amy flirting with him-it played into his ego. Amy flirted with him because he was rich and to try and "pinch" Jo's man, not knowing that Jo wasn't interested in Laurie.

I'd have preferred Laurie to end up with Beth. I think they'd have made a lovely couple.

Yes, he did. He saw her become vulnerable and sad after Beth died and realised that he loved her. Jo was his first close female friend, he had a crush on her. He could have married any number of rich heiresses but he loved Amy.

Nah!! Ideally he wanted to marry Jo but he wanted to marry a March and so settled for Amy

I think he did love her. One of the nice things (I think) about the whole book is that it isn’t about ‘true love’ or ‘the one.’ It’s about how love is grown, through friendship and respect, and it really emphasised how relationships of all sorts aren’t based on love at first sight, but on constant and consistent work. I think he comes to really respect Amy as she grows from a typically silly/selfish little girl into a sensible young woman who happily gives him a piece of her mind when he’s behaving badly. He loves all the Marches and knows that Amy will be a ‘good’ match for him in marriage, will be able to cope in the society where he mixes and run his household well, and she knows it’s a good match for her as it brings her security.

However, that’s not to say I think he didn’t love Jo. I think she was like a kindred spirit to him and they each appreciated and understood the sort of fierceness of nature they both have. I think they loved each other as they felt ‘seen’ by each other as two kind of outsiders, and could be their uninhibited selves together.

Tell you who I HATED though - John and Meg. When I read it with dd I stopped loads to say ‘this is very of it’s time/in those days people often thought x/isn’t John very rude to Meg etc etc.’ I was fed up of her ‘mumbling submissively’ to him and I seriously hoped he’d meet an accident or illness.

Yes, absolutely. Jo was his first love, not to mention unrequited. I don't like this obsession many have in literature/film that one's first, infatuated love is the one that will always be the 'main' love of someone's life, and in so many films they never get over it and hark back to it forever.

In real life people get over their first loves, move on and fall in love again.

Beth dies???!!!

Every time I read the book I am always disappointed Jo and Laurie don’t end up together!

How can you have read the book and know Jo and Laurie don't end up together but not know Beth dies?