Laurie and Amy: Attention, Honesty, and Communication in Little Women

So for the past month or two now, I’ve started diving deeper and deeper into the Little Women story and all the different adaptations that exist. The disappointing aspect of every movie/musical adaptation I watched was the same: Laurie and Amy’s roles in the story are miniscule, if they’re even there at all. The movies give short glimpses of their time in Europe and the musical has one song where the two characters have returned and tell Jo they are married. The relationship development between Laurie and Amy was easily my favorite part of the book and it’s about time someone addresses the importance of it.

Amy and Jo are both fiercely passionate, stubborn, and artistic people, but they differ in their views of the future. Amy plans to marry for money and live in high society. Jo intends to make her own money to provide for her family and live on her own. Laurie is the biggest romantic in the story, and when he proposes to Jo, it’s likely the most heartfelt and vulnerable any of the characters have been thus far: “I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you, Jo, couldn’t help it, you’ve been so good to me… I can’t go on so any longer…” (Alcott 369). He confesses to all of his choices being for her as well as not being good enough for her; he even says straight out: “If you loved me, Jo, I should be a perfect saint, for you could make me anything you like,” (Alcott 371-2). This outburst by Laurie, in all honesty, makes me believe that even if Jo had loved Laurie and wanted to accept his proposal, she would have been incredibly skeptical to accept the offer. Jo values self-expression so highly that knowing he’d constantly be changing himself and sacrificing his own wants and needs to satisfy her would unsettle her deeply.

However, there is one specific moment in Europe between Laurie and Amy that settles the fact that the couple is a much better fit. Laurie gives Amy a bracelet at a ball:
“‘Thank you. It isn’t what it should be, but you have improved it,’ he added, as he snapped the silver bracelet on her wrist.
‘Please don’t.’
‘I thought you liked that sort of thing?’
‘Not from you, it doesn’t sound natural, and I like your old bluntness better.’
‘I’m glad of it,’ he answered, with a look of relief…” (Alcott 391).
Laurie knows exactly what Amy would like to hear, so as the romantic he is, he says it in order to attempt to win her over. Yet, Amy is socially inclined in a way Jo isn’t. She spends so much time out in the world socializing that she can read people incredibly well, and especially since she knew Laurie already, she can tell immediately when he is behaving out of character. Even more importantly, Amy calls him out on it.

Though it sounds unlike her, Jo never actually calls Laurie out for changing his decisions according to what she’d prefer. The reason, however, is because she never actually realizes how everything he’s doing is for her. She’ll tell him she dislikes it when he drinks too much or plays billiards but when he stops, she chalks it up to him finally coming to his senses rather than the truth: that he stopped because she asked him to.

In the chapter Lazy Laurence, Amy and Laurie have their first falling out, and it’s all due to them being honest and expressing their concerns about one another. Laurie confronts Amy about her relationship with Fred Vaugn: “‘’Then you are fond of old Fred?’ ‘I could be, if I tried… he is rich, a gentleman, and has delightful manners,’ began Amy, trying to be quite cool and dignified, but feeling a little ashamed of herself, in spite of the sincerity of her intentions.” Then, Amy proceeds to confront Laurie about his lack of ambition: “Well, I despise you.’... ‘Why, if you please?’ ‘Because, with every chance for being good, useful, and happy, you are faulty, lazy, and miserable,’” (Alcott 415). Amy lectures Laurie in a way that was very necessary since he’s spent so much time wallowing in a depressed state after Jo’s rejection.

This exchange, while heated, teaches the couple that they can trust one another to be attentive, honest, and most importantly, communicative. I believe Little Women advocates for these qualities in relationships, and specifically, romantic ones. They are the same qualities that shine through with Jo and the Professor’s relationship, as Professor Bhaer points out that Jo can do better than the sensational stories she is writing only so she may be paid. The very fact that Jo knows Laurie so well and cannot pick up on his choices being manipulated for her pleasure is a major fault to their relationship that proves they couldn’t be together and happy. The fact that Amy knows Laurie half as well as Jo does and yet, picks up immediately on his faux conduct, proves that with better acquaintance they’d be a much better couple. And it does occur-- the tragedy of Beth’s passing ignites their longer courtship as they find comfort in one another a whole ocean away from the March family. Laurie and Amy needed each other right when they were reunited in Europe, and that timing is exactly what allows their friendship to become so much more.


Works Cited:

• Alcott, Louisa M. Little Women. New York: Signet Classic, 2004. Print.