Little Women

Little Women chronicles approximately fifteen years in the life of the March family. It comes largely from the experiences of the family of the author Louisa May Alcott. The Marches live in Concord, Massachusetts, and the book begins at Christmas, 1861, during the Civil War. Part I of the book covers just over one year.

The March family is relatively poor, though they can still afford one servant and they often share whatever they have with others less fortunate. Mr. March is a philosopher and teacher. He serves as a Chaplain in the Union Army until he gets ill. After being nursed to health by his wife, he returns to Concord and becomes a minister. A kind but unworldly man, he lost the family property trying to help a friend, which brought poverty upon the family for some time. He leads the family quietly, urging Christian morality and kindness.

Mrs. March, or "Marmee" is a strong, kind, and moral character. She advocates a healthy balance of work and play and urges her daughters to marry good, kind men. She is patient with the family's poverty, reminding the girls to remember their many blessings. She is the rock of the family. When she leaves to help nurse her husband, she must later return to nurse her daughter Beth, and she comforts the girls through many challenges.

In Part I, the girls decide to improve their characters while their Father is gone, so they can make him proud when he returns. They use the story Pilgrim's Progress to add fun and meaning to their goals.

Meg, sixteen, wants to overcome vanity and complain less about poverty and hard work. She struggles with envying luxurious things, and occasionally tries them for herself, but always feels disingenuous and wrong. She chooses to marry the poor but good John Brooke, who tutored her neighbor Laurie. Meg and John are very happy together and have twins, Daisy and Demi.

Jo, fifteen at the start, is based on the author and is often considered the main character. She is a tomboy and a writer with a fierce temper and a dislike for doing what society thinks is proper. Jo struggles throughout the book to become womanlier. She is completely devoted to her family and tries to earn money writing so she can help them. Jo is best friends with the March family's neighbor Laurie, who eventually proposes to her, but she loves him only as a brother. After nursing her sister Beth through illness and death, Jo becomes tenderer, and marries a German professor named Mr. Bhaer. They open a school for boys.

Beth, thirteen at the start, is a quiet and selfless girl. She loves music and is given a piano by their neighbor Mr. Laurence. Beth struggles to overcome her bashfulness throughout Part I. She also contracts scarlet fever while helping a poor family. She comes very close to dying in Part I, and, forever weakened by the fever, dies in Part II.

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