Best quotes from Little Women
Best quotes from Little Women
Louisa May Alcott wrote profoundly on life and its ordeals.
Louisa May Alcott wrote profoundly on life and its ordeals.
I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, 'a little woman,' and not be rough and wild; but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.
These words are spoken by Jo March — she struggles throughout the novel between wanting to pursue an adventurous life yet doesn't want to ignore her duty towards her family.
My dear girls, I am ambitious for you, but not to have you make a dash in the world, marry rich men merely because they are rich, or have splendid houses, which are not homes because love is wanting.
Marmee tells her girls that while she, like other mothers is ambitious about her childrens' future, she is ambitious in a different way. She doesn't care about finding them a rich husband but hopes for them to be happy.
"We're an ambitious set, aren't we? Every one of us, but Beth, wants to be rich and famous, and gorgeous in every respect. I do wonder if any of us will ever get our wishes," said Laurie, chewing grass like a meditative calf.
Speaking of ambition again, this rumination over personal desires leads to conflicts between the characters in the book, but it is important to see how there is an assertion of dreams and desires for women — all starkly different from one another.
Don’t laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God’s sight.
Parallel's can be drawn between Alcott and Jo's lives. Alcott herself never married and Jo's character has to suppress her desires and must do her duty towards the family.