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Original poster

Did Laurie really love Amy?

124 replies

sandes · 10/09/2022 21:23

(Little Women)

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

OP posts:
CPL593H · 11/09/2022 00:47

I've loved these books (Little Women and Good Wives) for 50 years. Jo did love Laurie and he her, but ultimately in a sibling way. Amy was always going to be a better choice and happier herself with Laurie (I wonder if she kept the clothes peg up? Probably not)

Jo and Professor Bhaer were ideally suited (but only if played by Gabriel Byrne, a coup de theatre and the jealousy is strong Grin)

CharlesIsQueensHorcrux · 11/09/2022 00:55

I do think Laurie truly loved Amy, yes. I think the story is about how your first love - or infatuation - isn’t always the right person for you, Jo realises this sooner than Laurie but he gets there and picks someone who is a better match ie Amy.

Also I wonder if the sort of fixing on a family and marrying any girl in it was a thing in that time and place - I think in the What Katy Did books Clarence originally proposes to Clover who declines, then he marries Elsie and the sisters plus their husbands all end up living together?

Antarcticant · 11/09/2022 00:56

Friedrich is a much better match for Jo. An intellectual who wasn't bothered about appearances and 'society'. I love the account of their romance, where Friedrich turns up just as Jo is at her lowest, and they get together in the pouring rain.

It's a shame that, in 'Little Men' and 'Jo's Boys' their life descended into a tedious and unrealistic school-keeping scenario. Friedrich and Jo should have stayed childfree and written books together!

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Howardsbend · 11/09/2022 00:57

I think so because it's totally possible to fall in love with the right person as a mature adult having been desperately in love before. But it's not drawn very well in the (otherwise wonderful) book.

5zeds · 11/09/2022 01:00

Total agree about John he was utterly unlovable.

QueenoftheAngles · 11/09/2022 01:10

lavenderlou · 11/09/2022 00:01

I agree that Jo was an infatuation for Laurie. I don't think they were ever particularly well-suited - Jo was much more intellectual than Laurie. I think Amy provided the more "traditional" version of a wife that he probably would have been more comfortable with. Laurie could have a bit of a temper and Amy was better at handling tempestuous people (like Aunt March) than Jo.

I imagine he and Amy to have had a loving and companionable relationship, although without the obsessiveness of his early feelings for Jo, but I agree that almost certainly there were elements of financial security for her and a desire to belong to the March family for him.

I am one of the few people I know that actually liked Amy though - maybe because I first read the book as a rather petulant and self-centred 11 or 12 year old myself!

I always liked Amy as well, remember empathising with her wish for a different nose!

StClare101 · 11/09/2022 01:51

Jo was far too intelligent for Laurie. I’m glad they didn’t end up together.

RedHelenB · 11/09/2022 08:42

5zeds · 11/09/2022 01:00

Total agree about John he was utterly unlovable.

Mumsnet should love him, he went without material things so his wife and children were set up after his death.

Kanaloa · 11/09/2022 08:59

5zeds · 11/09/2022 01:00

Total agree about John he was utterly unlovable.

Unloveable 😂 yes this was my big issue with him. What did Meg see in him? He really had nothing going for him. I could understand marrying someone boring and patronising if they represented the financial security you didn’t have, or marrying somebody poor if they represented that love you grew up with and want to continue in a family. But she’s somehow hit the worst of both - he’s boring, patronising, a dick, and broke as well!

SimonaRazowska · 11/09/2022 09:14

No but he desperately wanted to belong to the March family one way or another

Then tried to make it work

There are interesting articles about this. Louisa never wanted to write Little Women (she called it "moral pap for the young") and was kind of forced to write the sequence. She took revenge on her publishers and readers by making Laurie end up with Amy

It was meant to be a punishment, and that is why it feels wrong (it's meant to feel wrong)

Antarcticant · 11/09/2022 09:19

SimonaRazowska · 11/09/2022 09:14

No but he desperately wanted to belong to the March family one way or another

Then tried to make it work

There are interesting articles about this. Louisa never wanted to write Little Women (she called it "moral pap for the young") and was kind of forced to write the sequence. She took revenge on her publishers and readers by making Laurie end up with Amy

It was meant to be a punishment, and that is why it feels wrong (it's meant to feel wrong)

I don't think it does feel wrong. Laurie was very much in society, leading an elegant life - Jo didn't give a toss about all that rubbish, hated 'visiting' and the social rituals of the day. And she was too much his intellectual superior. Friedrich was a match for Jo intellectually and they shared a similar outlook on life. Amy was young enough to 'look up' to Laurie and they both liked the finer things in life.

KosherDill · 11/09/2022 09:21

Kanaloa · 10/09/2022 23:07

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.

Very well said.

It was Jo's choice not to become a society matron; she wanted a more productive, hands-on life. There's no tragedy in her and Laurie not becoming a couple.

KosherDill · 11/09/2022 09:26

RedHelenB · 10/09/2022 23:59

But you have to see it in the context of the time. And he didn't get new things, he needed a coat but Meg spent the money on a silk dress. And he didn't have a massive go at her, just cancelled his coat order. And Meg said he could bring anyone home to dinner any time so he did.

Exactly. I don't get the John hate. For the 1860s he was quite decent.

Dillidilly · 11/09/2022 09:27

Slightly off topic, but as a child I was enraged when Amy burnt Jo's manuscript and wasn't properly punished!

DuchessofAnkh77 · 11/09/2022 09:33

DinosaurOfFire · 10/09/2022 23:34

Little Men! That's the 4th one. I am not actually sure if I've read that one.

Show quote history

I think that gets quietly forgotten as some racist references...I read it recently and you have to remember it was written in a different age.

Kanaloa · 11/09/2022 09:36

Dillidilly · 11/09/2022 09:27

Slightly off topic, but as a child I was enraged when Amy burnt Jo's manuscript and wasn't properly punished!

Same! If I was Jo I’d have pummelled her. But then I also wouldn’t have been aglow with happiness to wake up on Christmas morning and rush to give away all of my Christmas food, before coming home to revel in my wonderful gift of a bible. I don’t think I’m cut out to be one of Marmee’s little women really.

CPL593H · 11/09/2022 09:39

I've never thought much about John one way or the other and I wonder if this is because most of us read LW/GW for the first time when really young. Next to Laurie he is immediately in the "boring grown up" category.

Antarcticant · 11/09/2022 09:42

'Little Men' is actually the third book, mainly about the school Jo and Friedrich set up for disadvantaged boys. 'Jo's Boys' is the fourth book, by which time the school has become a college built with Mr Laurence Senior's legacy; the college admits girls as well as boys. This book follows the progress of some of the boys from the third book, as well as adolescent/adult children of the March sisters.

MissTrip82 · 11/09/2022 09:52

Not initially, but we’re told they grew closer due the worries over their baby.

I was ok with Jo turning down Laurie, but I expected her to do that because she would never marry and would write books instead. I didn’t really like it when she married someone else. Laurie or nobody! In my mind anyway.

Keroppi · 11/09/2022 18:20

To be honest I like to imagine Jo as a lesbian! I think she was too smart for Laurie anyway. I do think he came to love Amy but perhaps not in the way he felt for Jo.

tortiecat · 11/09/2022 18:50

I think that Laurie was truthful when he told Amy that she and Jo had switched places in his heart - she was much better suited to him ss a partner with her artistic temperament and ladylike ways, even though he and Jo were excellent best friends. That said, Teenage Me adored him and could not believe that Jo would turn him down (clearly I have no literary genius or wish to school tens of boys..!)

tortiecat · 11/09/2022 18:50

*as

upinaballoon · 11/09/2022 18:52

Antarcticant · 11/09/2022 09:42

'Little Men' is actually the third book, mainly about the school Jo and Friedrich set up for disadvantaged boys. 'Jo's Boys' is the fourth book, by which time the school has become a college built with Mr Laurence Senior's legacy; the college admits girls as well as boys. This book follows the progress of some of the boys from the third book, as well as adolescent/adult children of the March sisters.

Yes, Nat and Dan, and Demi and someone else cycling home with their bicycles winking (or something like that) in the sunshine.
Prof Bhaer's nephews, Franz and Emil, are almost always left out but they were with him when Jo first met him.
Did Laurie really love Amy? Yes, if you read about them in Europe you see that the first love for Jo has moved on. It works out right.

Antarcticant · 11/09/2022 18:55

upinaballoon · 11/09/2022 18:52

Yes, Nat and Dan, and Demi and someone else cycling home with their bicycles winking (or something like that) in the sunshine.
Prof Bhaer's nephews, Franz and Emil, are almost always left out but they were with him when Jo first met him.
Did Laurie really love Amy? Yes, if you read about them in Europe you see that the first love for Jo has moved on. It works out right.

Show quote history

I love the story of Emil's shipwreck, one of my favourite bits of 'Jo's Boys'. Also, Nat overspending in Germany. I preferred Alcott when she was writing about adults or young adults. Little Men is the weakest book in my opinion.

certainshepherdpups · 11/09/2022 19:51

No, I don't think so. Laurie is attracted to Amy and heartbroken by Jo's rejection so he rushes into marriage. Alcott was a New Englander to her very core and believed in the virtue of self-denial and all that puritanical nonsense. Jo and Laurie obviously should have ended up together, but Alcott couldn't allow them that ease and happiness. Amy always receives what Jo should have: the trip to Europe, marriage to Laurie. And Jo must make the best of it and learn a moral lesson. 🙄 Her marriage to Fritz never seemed authentic to me. She should have remained unmarried if Alcott couldn't bring herself to allow Jo a happy marriage to Laurie.