Little Women / Good Wives - do you think Laurie still loved Jo, or Jo loved Laurie, when they married other people?

[silverbay]

I'm just not convenced by the whole 'Oh, I'll just marry her sister' approach, especially as Amy was so different to Jo.

and I wonder if Jo 'settled' on Professor Bhaer ?

convinced

I think Jo & the Prof were happy but I agree about Laurence. Unconvinced. & all that continuing emphasis on his being 'her boy'. You wonder what Amy made of it all!

Jo and the Prof were meant to be, I also think Amy was a rebound

I'm fairly sure Laurie was a suppressed homosexual.

supressed? do i mean repressed? i don't know. anyway - Laurie and Jo would have been blisfully happy in a platonic kinda way. The Prof never quite did it for me.

I agree that Amy was a 'fallback' option to keep him in the March family.

Remember the scene where he is trying to reach the luxurious red rose and settles for the little, easily reached white ones instead. It is symbolic of his 'settling' for Amy, there is no doubt she is second best.

I think the Prof probably died a good few years before Jo and she ended up having a passionate love affair with Laurie. Amy would have turned to drink and other men by this stage due to her husband's neglect and obvious preference for her sister.

I think Laurie would have had Jo, but Jo would never have been happy with Laurie. They would have had blazing rows and he would have had an affair with Amy eventually. Jo would have been in prison for murder by the time she was 40.

Jo and the Prof were meant to be together, a perfect match in temperament. He brings her down to earth and she wakes him up.

Amy settled for Laurie. If they were home in America I think she would have said no.

I agree that Jo and the Professor were really in love but that Laurie settled for Amy. I think they were probably happy enough, though.

No!!!!
That book really crushed me. Jo and Laurie were meant for each other- they were soulmates from childhood. He was too flighty but she had just the right Puritan streak to calm him down. I never could stand Amy- she was such a spoilt brat.
I always thought the Professor was a bit creepy. I think Jo was scared of her sexual feelings towards Laurie and settled for a father figure that she loved in a more balanced way. Victorian women were not expected to have strong sexual urges- it wasn't considered proper.

Amy grew up overnight when her only daughter was born sickly, if I recall correctly.

And I have to say that I was utterly convinced by the marriages - I think Jo would have been all wrong for Laurie - and he wouldn't have been able to give her the secure foundation that Professor Bhaer gave her - she wouldn't have grown into the woman that she did, if she'd married Laurie. I can't see Laurie wanting to run a school full of rambunctious boys either, not living in it as principal and house parents, in the way that the professor and Jo did, nor would Laurie have been capable of putting the bad boys back on the straight and narrow, as Jo and the professor did.

I'm also pretty sure I remember bits from Jo's Boys where Laurie refers to Amy in the most loving and devoted of terms, and it seems to me that Jo's affection for Laurie is that of an older sister - after all, what woman would want to be married to someone she considers to be 'my boy'?

Beth should have married John Brooke.
Jo should have married Laurie.
Meg should have married the prof.
Amy should have died.

Noooo! Meg and John were perfect for each other.

Wait I missed all that! I only read Little Women. Oops... Off to get Good Wives on my Kindle...

Then there's 'Little Men' and 'Jo's Boys' too, anonacfr. If you lived near me, I'd lend them all to you.

As an aside, they didn't seem to do very much to stop Beth dying, did they? I mean, like, getting her some medical attention?

It was a bit like

All: "hmm, Beth looks like she's dying"

Beth: "yes, I think I am".

All: Let's make her a nice room to die in. And get her some fruit."

SDTG - I remember that bit in Jo's Boys, too. I was rather disappointed - I was convinced that there would be an illicit clinch between Laurie and Jo at some point, but I suppose that would be a different kind of book!

In fact, in my favourite film version of Little Women, the 1949 one with June Alyson (ok, so it's not accurate) every time I see it I hope that they'll fall into each other's arms.

What medical attention do you think they could have got her? I thought she had tb which was a death sentence in those days.

There's no way Laurie would have run Plumfield with Jo in the way that Professor Bhaer did, and he was also on her level intellectually. Laurie studies and goes through the motions but seems a bit of a lightweight!

Amy and Laurie appear to share their love of the finer things in life but not much else apart from being a bit spoilt although Amy does seem to soften in the later books.

It did always seem as though Laurie would have settled for any of the sisters just to become part of the March family but I agree that Jo's feelings towards him were more as a brother than a lover.

The thing about the little women was also the extent to which they were trained to follow their heads. I'd say Jo might well have been in love with Laurie but felt it was not a sensible match (other than financially obv).

Though one of my favourite bits as a sentimental teen was where the Prof said he'd nothing to give her "but these empty hands", and Jo puts hers into them and says "not empty now".

Oh yes MeSugar that has me in bits every time too!

Did anyone see the 70s version on one of the movie channels (I think it was True Movies?)

William Shatner as Professor Bhaer.

I kid you not!

I also prefer the June Allyson one, there is just something about the feel of it that seems right. The Winona Ryder one was awful!

I was too young the first time I read Little Women - I didn't actually realise that Beth had died ..... , it was couched in such gentle language the fact she'd popped her clogs escaped me entirely.
I was sooooo upset the second time I read it and the penny dropped.

Can I just say Christian Bale as Laurie = perfection? In fact that whole film was perfection.

They wouldn't have made each other happy. Jo was right.

Pepprabbit the Beth death scene from the book is scorched on my brain just like the death of ginger in black beauty.

I like the June Allyson version best as well.
All the 3 main versions have the same score. I had not seen the Katherine hepburn version until recently, but it seemed so familiar and realisrd it was because of the music.