Signet Essay Contest Winner 2016: Claire Margaret Murphy

 Much of the first half of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women centers on the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, and their friendship with the dashing, wealthy, but lovable boy next door, Theodore “Laurie” Laurence. Tomboyish, headstrong Jo becomes especially close to Laurie, finding in him a kindred spirit, a partner in crime, and a loyal friend. Sharing her penchant for drama and her love of adventure, Laurie seems to Jo to be the “brother she never had.” But as they grow older it begins to become evident that Laurie cares for Jo as more than a friend, and while she deftly dodges most of his attempts at flirtation, he remains persistent in his affections.

Upon his return home after graduating from college, Laurie finally works up the courage to boldly confess his feelings and propose to Jo. But as much as it pains her to cause him so much heartache, Jo resolutely rejects him. She simply doesn’t love him in the same way that he has fallen for her, and cares too much about their friendship to ruin it with a marriage devoid of true feeling. Jo’s mother, “Marmee,” had raised her girls to marry for love above all else, but had also stressed the importance of spouses’ compatibility. If Jo ever were to marry, she needed to find someone whose personality complemented hers, who would balance out her impulsive nature and patiently put up with her quirks. Marmee knew that the similarity that made Jo and Laurie such close friends would have made their marriage a disaster. “As friends,” she tells Jo, “you are very happy, and your frequent quarrels soon blow over, but I fear you would both rebel if you were mated for life. You are too much alike and too fond of freedom, not to mention hot tempers and strong wills, to get on happily together, in a relation which needs infinite patience and forbearance, as well as love.” (152)

For all her grand imaginings and talk of adventure, Jo was at a point in her life where she was beginning to discover her place in the world as an adult. She found great fulfillment in remaining with her family to be a support to Marmee as Meg and Amy left home and to care for and be a companion to her frail sister Beth; and all the while she was able to develop her passion and skill for writing and to begin using her talent as a means of helping to support her family. Meanwhile, Laurie’s life was on a totally different trajectory, as he left behind the juvenile world of college and began to live as a man of society, learning through trial and error how to manage his wealth and act like a gentleman while using his means to do good for others rather than squandering them in reckless living. Even if Jo had loved him, they would have found that their lives were taking them in two opposite directions—and as neither would have wanted the other to give up their wishes and dreams, they would likely have clashed and argued after all. Though the bond of their friendship was unshakable, it’s doubtful whether they could ever have been successful as a couple.

But not long after Laurie’s heart was broken by Jo, a trip abroad caused his path to fatefully cross with that of her younger sister Amy, who had outgrown the prim, fussy attitude she’d had as a girl and was becoming a graceful, accomplished young woman. At the time that they met, Laurie’s despondency had caused him to begin to spiral into dissipation among his friends in Europe. Amy, who had always seen him as a noble young man capable of great things, firmly but lovingly rebuked him, tempering his wildness with the virtuous good sense by which the March family had endeared themselves to him so long ago. She put him back on track to be a productive, mature, responsible gentleman and to use his intelligence and energy to make his grandfather proud. Meeting him did much good for Amy also, for she had hitherto been determined to marry for money regardless of love. But as she rekindled their old friendship, she began to find that all the riches her other suitors may have been able to offer were not nearly as precious as the understanding, closeness, and tenderness she found anew in Laurie.

Laurie the impetuous boy may have pined after his best friend Jo, but Laurie the young man saw in Amy a woman whom he not only was beginning to love dearly, but who also was a perfect partner for his path in life and the sphere of society to which he belonged. Amy was charming, personable, and beloved by all she met, and had mastered the art of keeping up with high society without falling into the shallow pretentiousness she saw in so many around her. There was no greater joy for her than to please others, and to use whatever means were in her power to secure the comfort and happiness of those whom she was able to help. With Laurie’s wealth, and the good nature of both, they found that “their own feet would walk more uprightly along the flowery path before them, if they smoothed rough ways for other feet, and…their hearts were more closely knit together by a love which could tenderly remember those less blest than they.” (360-1)

Alcott memorably delineated the relationship between Amy and Laurie by means of a picturesque boat trip they took along Lake Geneva:

“She rowed as well as she did many other things, and, though she used both hands, and Laurie but one, the oars kept time, and the boat went smoothly through the water.

‘How well we pull together, don’t we?’ said Amy, who objected to silence just then.

‘So well that I wish we might always pull in the same boat.’” (314)

Their romance and the happy, benevolent beginning to their life together illustrate the author’s view on marriage as based upon attraction and love as well as complementarity and partnership, as a joining of two souls so that they together might help each other to become the best versions of themselves. The differences Amy and Laurie may have had only made them that much more of a perfect match, for their strengths and weaknesses completed each other, yet they were united by the love they shared for pleasing others and using the blessings they’d been given to enrich the lives of those around them.