Little Women Podcast: Amy And Laurie Romance

Hello little woman fans,

Todays comment shoutout goes to Azul who left this comment to my article Why Cho and Laurie don't end up together.

As a person who has only seen the 2019 movie and the 2017 series,

I am very grateful for this article.

I really liked the story in Little Woman but I always wondered why Cho wasn't in love with Laurie especially since they seemed to get along pretty well.

Now I see that everything makes sense thanks to your enlightenment regarding the missing details found in the original source.

I am very surprised that why they left many of Laurie's traits out of the films.

Thank you for this piece,

Very deep,

Informative and well written.

Thank you Azul.

Laurie is one of the most complicated characters in Little Woman and it is sad that so many of the things that are part of his personality have been erased by the filmmakers because not only does these characteristics of him explain why Cho rejects him and why she falls in love with Friddich but also why he falls in love with Amy and she to him.

When people study Louisa May Alcott's life,

Were they then hobbyists or schoolers,

People choose an area that they are interested in and one of the areas that I study is the literature that Louisa May Alcott liked to read and how these certain storylines from these books can be found from Little Woman and when I started that research I quite soon came to the conclusion that Louisa May Alcott planned both Cho's and Friddich's marriage and Amy's and Laurie's marriage years before she wrote Little Woman.

They all can be found from the books that she read as a young person.

For example,

Cho and Friddich's type of relationship can be found from Susan Warner's book White White World and that book appeared when Louisa was about 18 years old and if we believe her journals around that time she fell in love to her friend Henry David Tarrow and in Susan Warner's book there is a spirited young woman who falls in love to her older male friend who also happens to be a philosopher.

When people complain that Little Woman is sentimental I'd recommend to read White White World,

It is 100 times more sentimental than Little Woman and it was one of the things that I struggled when I was reading it.

Another John Friddich story would be the story of Eliza and Charles Follin and that was a book that Louisa read at the age of 12,

The real life story of an American female writer who falls in love to a German immigrant.

The connection there is so obvious,

No one can argue with that,

But then there are also the Laurie and Amy stories.

Laurie's story can be traced to Louisa's favourite book,

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

Wilhelm is a very similar character to Laurie.

He wants to run away and become an actor,

But his father wants him to take on the family business.

And then in Little Woman,

Laurie wants to run away and become a musician,

Like his mother,

But his grandfather wants him to take on the family business.

Wilhelm starts out having a fair with Mariana and then moves on to Natalia and there's a scene in Wilhelm Meister where Natalia and Wilhelm are in the garden and he convinces his love to her and the teenage Louisa Mayalkut has spent there were beautiful.

So when people say that,

Oh,

Alcott didn't want to marry Joe to Laurie,

So she just married him to Amy and Friddich the Joe in the last minute.

I digress.

I think the only way that Joe would have ended up with Laurie is if Louisa Mayalkut would have married Larry Wysniewski and that never happened.

She considered it,

But rightfully turned him down.

And Friddich is based on her first love.

Henry,

Partially.

One of the themes in Wilhelm Meister is the idea that the male character grows as an individual when he moves on from Mariana to Natalia because the next relationship is the one that brings peace to him.

As you hear me reading this following chapter where Laurie proposes Amy,

You can see how he is very indecisive and his mood changes from one to hundred very fast.

Joe in the book also has mood changes when she was younger and when Laurie starts to harass Joe and they are in their early 20s at that point,

Mami says to Joe that she doesn't think that Joe and Laurie are a good match because they are so similar and that's when Joe travels to New York because Laurie was harassing her and she doesn't want to be around him and for some unexplainable reason,

Little Woman films between 1933 and 2019,

Joe goes to New York after Laurie has proposed her,

But in the book proposal happens when Joe has returned and she has started to fall for Friddich and even defends him when Laurie proposes and he's badmouthing Friddich.

And that's not in any Little Woman movies and what I've heard from Joe and Laurie shippers who only watch the films,

They are like,

They expect Joe to come back and say yes to Laurie,

But that was not the reason she went to New York.

She went to New York because Laurie made her feel uncomfortable and he's very demanding in the book when he proposes,

Very aggressive,

So it's very different to 1994 and 2019 films.

My personal favourite is the 1933 film where Laurie is very demanding when he proposes and that is a lot closer to the novel and Laurie is not a bad person in the novel,

It just goes to show that he had a very different relationship with Joe than with Amy.

He and Joe made pranks,

They were more like brothers,

But Joe also had very maternal relationship to him and few listeners have told me that they had experiences of dating somebody and being in this group of boys where women wanted to be like the guy so they will be,

So they are accepted by them and because there was a misogyny among those boys and even the girls in these groups,

These women,

They tried to hide their feminine side and made fun of other girls and how they would relate to Joe that she wanted to leave that environment and actually explore her femininity a bit more and this reminds me of something that one of my friends said,

She had been on the town and she saw her ex with his new girlfriend and the way he was looking at her,

My friend said that she had never seen him so happy and he never was that happy with her.

I think that pretty much sums up how Joe and Laurie can't give each other what they need.

Joe wants an intellectual connection and somebody who she is very attracted to and who helps her to become a better writer and wants a big family and that fits.

Laurie at first wants Joe so he can stay the same but what he really needs is somebody who admires him but also tells him when he is not being the best version of himself.

A lot of people could actually benefit from seeing Laurie's growth process,

Although he does manage to change and a lot of that is thanks to Amy,

How many have been in bad relationships and then found another relationship where not only they feel good about the other person but themselves as well.

This is really the missed message in Little Woman.

Greta Gerwig even said that she wanted to portray Little Woman as a way to dismiss romantic love and marriage.

First of all Gerwig herself is married and second,

That doesn't at all align with Louis and May Alcott's views on marriage when she writes that marriage should be taken very seriously and that quote 10% minds should go together in harmony.

It is such a terrible misreading of the novel that the 2019 film didn't show Laurie doing any work for Amy and it just seemed that he moved on Joe to Amy without any reason and there wasn't any personal quote and then showing Joe and Friedrich arguing when in the novel Joe and Friedrich don't argue,

The narrator mentions that Friedrich had the ability to calm Joe,

Unlike Laurie who makes Joe feel very agitated.

There is also a scene where Joe says to Laurie,

And I'm paraphrasing here,

Amy so good for you,

We always argue,

You two never seem to argue.

Then there is my favourite quote from Gerwig,

Being very sarcastic now,

Laurie wants Joe to step into the world of adulthood.

Those of you who have not read Little Woman,

Listen to this chapter that I'm going to read to you next.

How on earth can anyone come to the conclusion that Laurie is an adult here and Joe is immature?

How is that even possible?

Gerwig must have read some imaginary version of Little Woman.

It's exactly what Azul said.

I really liked the story in Little Woman but I always wondered why Joe wasn't in love with Laurie,

Especially since they seemed to get along pretty well.

I'm surprised that they left many of Laurie's traits out of the films.

My pal,

Gemena,

She read Little Woman for the first time after seeing the 2019 film,

And she went reading the book expecting to find those romantic moments between Joe and Laurie that Gerwig had talked about,

But there are no romantic scenes between Joe and Laurie in the novel,

So it just makes you wonder what is the point of romanticizing Joe and Laurie.

An even bigger question,

Why the filmmakers sabotaged these other two great relationships in the novel.

It just boggles my mind.

But hey,

That's why I started this podcast so we can study and read and love this book and appreciate Amy and Laurie and Joe and Fredrik.

This is what Gemena said about the 2019 film.

Quote,

I think one of the ways you can see how this movie doesn't respect character arcs is in the way the actors talked about their roles.

Timothee Chalamet had absolutely no idea of Laurie's arc.

None.

He gets asked a couple of times to imagine who would Laurie be in 2019 and he really didn't know what to answer.

He didn't know what brought him and Amy together.

All he kept saying was how much Laurie loved Joe.

That's it.

He didn't even know what he was doing in the last scene.

Even when the 2017 series erased Laurie's flaws,

The cast still understood that Fritz was the right partner for Joe.

They saw it as meeting of the minds.

I think that speaks a lot about how Gerwig wrote and directed this movie.

She clearly didn't care about Laurie bettering himself and becoming a useful member of society and we don't see any of that quote in the movie.

The first draft of the script had some of it but then it disappeared.

He becomes no more than a love interest to Joe and Amy.

He has no meaningful scenes alone where we can see who he is as a person.

There's only that little bit before Amy comes hurting and then when they are having breakfast together.

That's like two minutes.

The rest of his scenes relate to his relationship with either Joe or Amy.

He was sold as the OG Ally just because he is friends with the girls and as someone who wanted Joe to step into adulthood with him,

There was not much growth to ask of him.

He was pretty much set.

From the beginning,

His only problem was which marches to love.

Another book with Amy and Laurie's storyline is Mary Young's The Hair of Redcliffe and this book appeared when Louisa May Alcott was 21.

It tells about a rich young man called Sir Guy Morville and he falls in love with his cousin whose name is Amy Edmonstone.

Yes the girl's name is Amy.

The connections between Laurie and Guy are very obvious.

They are both orphans who live with their grandfather.

Maybe someday I will make an episode where I compare Guy and Amy to Laurie and Amy.

In Little Woman,

You know Joe and Friedrich have the two when they speak to each other so they can feel closer to each other and Amy and Laurie have the My Lady and My Lord.

Guess what?

In The Hair of Redcliffe,

Sir Guy calls Amy as My Lady and she calls him as Her Lord.

I think there is a lot of evidence that show that Louisa May Alcott very likely planned his marriages already when she was writing part 1,

Perhaps even earlier since she had read some of these stories since childhood.

There is a reference to the White White World in part 1 of Little Woman.

It is mentioned in one of the early chapters that Joe was reading and crying over the White White World in the apple tree.

So we have 15 year old Joe March reading a story that has very clear Joe and Friedrich storyline in it.

Then in the chapter Lawrence Boy,

Joe has been reading The Hair of Redcliffe which has the Amy and Laurie type of couple.

I rest my case.

And if you don't believe me,

Just read Little Woman,

It's all there.

Just to let you all know,

I have started a new Instagram account.

It's called Podcasting Little Woman.

If you like this podcast,

Do come and chat with me there as well.

And I dedicate this to all of you who would like to see Laurie's growth process in the adaptations as well.

This is small umbrella in the rain.

Little Woman podcast,

Laurie's proposal to Amy deep analysis.

Learning to forget.

Amy's lecture did Laurie good.

Though of course he did not own it,

Till long afterward men seldom do.

For when women are the advisors,

The laws of creation don't take the advice,

Till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do.

Then they act upon it and if it succeeds,

They give the weaker vessel half the credit of it.

If it fails,

They generously gives her the whole.

Laurie went back to his grandfather and was so dutifully devoted for several weeks that gentlemen declared the climate of Nice had improved him wonderfully and he had better tried again.

There was nothing the young gentleman would have liked better,

But elephants could not have dragged him back after the scolding he had received,

Bribed,

Forbid,

And whenever the longing grew very strong,

He fortified his resolution by repeating the words that had made the deepest impression.

I despise you.

Go on.

Go and do something splendid that will make her love you.

Laurie turned the matter over in his mind so often that he soon brought himself to confess that he had been selfish and lazy,

But sorts of vagaries.

Till he has lived it down,

He felt that his blighted affections were quite dead now,

That being done he felt that he was ready to hide his stricken heart and still where he had musical friends and failed to work with the firm determination to distinguish himself.

But whether the sorrow was too vast to be embodied in music or music too ethereal to uplift a mortal bowl,

He soon discovered that the requiem was beyond him,

Just at present.

It was evident that his mind was not in working order yet,

And his ideas needed clarifying,

More often in the middle of plaintive strain he would find himself humming a dancing tune that vividly recalled the Christmas ball at Nice,

Especially the stout Frenchman,

And put an effectual stop to tragic composition for the time being.

So here we have Laurie thinking his time in Nice and humming the tune of the Christmas ball.

We can already see that his thoughts have swift towards Amy.

Then he tried an opera,

For nothing seemed impossible in the beginning,

But here again unforeseen difficulties beset him.

He wanted Joe for his hearing,

And called upon his memory to supply him with tender recollections and romantic visions of Islam.

But memory turned traitor,

And as if possessed by the perceived spirit of the girl,

Would only recall Joe's oddities,

Faults and freaks,

Would only show her in the most unsentimental aspects,

Breathing mats with her head tied up in a bandana,

Paragating herself with the sofa pillow,

Or throwing cold water over his passion a la Comiche.

And an irresistible laugh spoiled the pensive picture he was endeavouring to paint.

Joe wouldn't be put into the opera at any price,

And he had to give her up with a bless that girl,

What a torment she is,

And a clutch at his hair as became a distracted composer.

I don't think Laurie was ever in love with Joe.

He was in love with the idea of love,

Not the actual person.

And he admits to himself that Joe would not be put into an opera at any price.

Well,

Maybe Fridge would compose an opera for Joe.

When he looked about him for another and less intractable,

Damsels immortalized in melody.

Memory produced one with the most obliging readiness.

This phantom wore many faces,

But it always had golden hair,

Was enveloped the final clout,

And floated airily before his mind's eye in a pleasing chaos of roses,

Peacocks,

White ponies and blue ribbons.

He did not give the complacent red a name,

But he took her for his hearing.

And grew quite fond of her,

As well as he might for he gifted her with every gift and grace under the sun,

And escorted her unscratched through trials which would have annihilated an immortal woman.

Here we have Laurie creating this fantasy woman of his dream.

It does resemble Amy a little bit,

But it doesn't have any kind of personality.

But I think Laurie is like,

I think he's 26 at this point.

He's a grown man and then he comes up with this kind of daydreams.

This shows how idealized ideas he had about love.

At this point he doesn't see Joe and Amy as individuals.

For him love means that he himself sees himself as a romantic hero or a romantic prince and his mind conjures this kind of romantic princess for him.

But at this point he's not a good husband candidate for either Amy or Joe and this part has never been adopted.

Thanks to this inspiration he got on swimmingly for a time,

But gradually the work lost its charm and he forgot to compose while he sat musing,

Penning hand or roamed about the gay city to get new ideas and refresh his mind,

Which seemed to be in a somewhat unsettled state that winter.

He did not do much,

But he thought a great deal and was conscious of a change of some sort going on in spite of himself.

Its genius shimmering perhaps.

I'll let it simmer and see what comes of it,

He said,

With a secret suspicion.

All the while that it wasn't genius,

But something far more common.

Whatever it was,

It simmered to some purpose,

For he grew more discontent with his desultory life,

Began to long for some real and earnest work to go at soul and body,

And finally came to the wise conclusion that everyone who loved music was not a composer returning from one of Mossad's grand operas,

Splendidly performed at the Royal Theatre.

He looked over his own,

Played a few of the best parts,

Sat staring up at the bust of Mendelssohn,

Beethoven and Bach,

Who stared penningly back again.

Then suddenly he tore up his music sheets,

One by one,

And as the last fluttered out of his hands he said soberly to himself,

She is right,

Talent is ingenious and you can't make it so.

That music has taken the vanity out of me,

As Rome took it out of her,

And I won't be a houndbug any longer.

Now what shall I do?

This is my personal favorite Laurie moment,

Because this is the time when Laurie starts to turn from a boy into a man,

This process was completely started by Amy when she lectured him.

I said it so many times in this podcast,

Part of Laurie being a master procrastinator,

It's never in any Little Women films,

And just like Amy says,

Jo hates lazy people and Amy herself doesn't like that Laurie is being unproductive.

But here you can see how Amy has a great influence on Laurie,

It's like what Emily said in the 150 year Laurie episode,

There are people who just should get a job and not have these illusions of what artist life actually is.

And Laurie is very privileged because he comes from a wealthy background,

And he also comes to the conclusion that not everyone who likes music is a master composer.

And that to him is another wake up call,

And I am very proud of him when I read this.

That seemed a hard question to answer,

And Laurie began to wish he had to work for his daily bread.

Now,

If ever,

Occurred an eligible opportunity for going to the devil,

As he once forcibly expressed it,

For he had plenty of money and nothing to do,

And Satan is proverbially fond of providing employment for fool and idle ideas.

The poor fellow had temptations enough from without and from within,

But he withstood them pretty well,

For much as he valued liberty he valued good faith and confidence more,

So his promise to his grandfather and his desire to be able to look honestly into the eyes of the woman who loved him,

And say,

All is well,

Get him safe and steady.

Very likely some Mrs.

Gruntry will observe,

I don't believe it,

Boys will be boys,

Young men,

So their white alts and women must not accept miracles.

I dare say you don't,

Mrs.

Gruntry,

But it's true,

Nevertheless,

Women work a good many miracles,

And I have persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings.

Let the boys be boys,

The longer the better,

And let the young men,

So their white alts if they must,

But mothers,

Sisters,

And friends,

May help to make the crop a small one,

And keep many tears from spoiling the harvest by believing and showing that they believe in the possibility of loyalty to the virtues which make men manliest in good woman's eyes.

If it is a feminine delusion,

Leave us to enjoy it while we may,

For without it half the beauty and romance of life is lost,

And sorrowful forebodings would embitter all our hopes of the brave,

Tender-hearted little lads who still love their mothers better than themselves,

And are not ashamed to own it.

This is very interesting.

We have been talking in this podcast how Joan occasionally have this boys will be boys attitude.

In the first part of Little Woman she has difficulties to question some of Laurie's actions.

As the novel progresses,

Jo starts to see flaws in her own way of thinking,

And I think this is a very good example of it,

When the narrator says that men and women can have positive influence on one another,

And I think this is a really good reference how Laurie behaves very differently with Amy than he does with Jo.

Once again we have this idea,

Once again we have this reference of mothers wanting their boys to be the best that they can,

And Jo always had more of a maternal relationship with Laurie,

And Louisa May could have a very maternal relationship with the young boys who were models for Laurie.

This is a very feminist idea for the 19th century.

In Little Man there is a scene very similar to this where I think it was Dan who Jo says she and Fried hope that in the future there is a world where men and women respect one another and learn from one another and grow to be better people.

Laurie thought that the task of forgetting his love for Jo would absorb all his powers for years,

But to his great surprise he discovered it grew easier every day.

He refused to believe it at first,

Got angry with himself and couldn't understand it,

But these hearts of ours are curious and contrary things,

And time and nature work their will in spite of us.

Louisa wouldn't ache and then she'll stop there.

The wound persisted in healing with rat DPT that astonished him.

So when people ask me why you don't think that Laurie was ever in love with Jo,

It's right here in the novel people,

It did not take him very long time to get over Jo,

And instead of trying to forget he found himself trying to remember.

He had not foreseen this turn of affairs and was not prepared for it.

He was disgusted with himself,

Surprised at his own fickleness,

And full of career,

Mixed of disappointment and relief that he could recover from such tremendous blows so soon.

He carefully stirred up the embers of his lost love,

But they refused to burst into a blaze.

There was only a comfortable glow that warmed and did him good without putting him into a fever,

And he was reluctantly obliged to confess that the boy's passion was slowly subsiding into a more tranquil sentiment,

Very tender,

A little sad,

Resentful still,

But that was sure to pass away in time,

Leaving a brotherly affection which would last unbroken to the end.

I will add million explanation marks to the air now.

Laurie was never in love with Jo,

He was just horny.

I think it also shows that he didn't really know what love really was,

But he grows to learn as the word brotherly passed through his mind in one of these reveries.

He smiled and glanced up at the picture of Musort that was before him.

Well,

He was a great man,

And when he couldn't have one sister he took the other and was happy.

Laurie did not utter the words,

But he thought of them,

And the next instant kissed a little old ring,

Saying to himself,

No,

I won't.

I haven't forgotten.

I never can.

I'll try again,

And if it fails,

Why then?

Leaving his sentence unfinished,

He sized pen and paper and wrote to Jo,

Telling her that he could not settle to anything while there was the least hope of her changing her mind.

Couldn't she?

Wouldn't she?

And let him come home and be happy.

While waiting for an answer he did nothing,

But he did it energetically,

For he was in a fever of impatience.

It came at last and settled his mind,

Effectually on one point,

For Jo decidedly couldn't and wouldn't.

She was wrapped up in bed and never wished to hear the word love again.

Then she begged him to be happy with somebody else,

But always to keep in a little corner of his heart for his loving sister Jo.

In a postscript she desired him not to tell Amy that bed was worse.

She was coming home in the spring,

And there was no need of saddening the remainder of her stay.

That would be time enough.

Please guard,

But Laurie must write to her often and not let her feel lonely,

Homesick or anxious.

So I will at once.

Poor little girl,

It will be sad going home for her,

I'm afraid.

And Laurie opened his desk,

As if writing to Amy had been the proper conclusion of the sentence left unfinished some weeks before.

This is why I have a very much love-hate relationship with Laurie.

Next moment it's Jo,

The next moment it's Amy,

Then Jo again,

Then Amy.

All He doesn't really care who he is going to marry.

He just wants to marry somebody so he can be this romantic prince like in this opera that he's composing.

If I were Joe,

I would be much more strict with him.

I always found it very disrespectful that he wrote that Joe asked her to marry her again when Beth was so ill.

Honestly,

That letter,

It sounds very similar to his proposal,

Which was very demanding and very selfish.

It is a very slow process for Laurie to let go of these idealized dreams that he has about himself.

They are not about love,

They are about himself.

But this is why it's also called as a little woman adulthood ritual or coming of age ritual where a reader starts out as a German lorrieshipper,

Then they grow older,

They read Little Woman and then they come into these parts where Laurie is incredibly immature and then they become Joe and Fredick fans.

But he did not write the letter that day,

For as he rummaged out his best paper,

He came across something which changed his purpose.

Tumbling about one part of the desk among bills,

Passports and business documents of various kinds were several of Joe's letters and in another compartment were three notes from Amy,

Carefully tied up with one of her blue ribbons and sweetly suggestive of the little that Rose has put away inside.

With a half repentant,

Half amused expression,

Laurie gathered up all Joe's letters,

Smoothed,

Folded and put them neatly into a small drawer of the desk stood a minute turning the ring thoughtfully in his finger,

Then slowly drew it off,

Ate it with the letters,

Locked the drawer and went out to hear high mass at St.

Stephen's,

Feeling as if there had been a funeral and,

Though not overwhelmed with affliction,

This seemed a more proper way to spend the rest of the day than in writing letters to charming young ladies.

The letter went very soon,

However,

And was promptly answered,

For Amy was homesick and confessed it in the most delightful,

Confiding manner.

The correspondence flourished famously and letters flew to and fro with unfailing regularity all through the early spring.

Laurie saw his bust meet the limits of his opera and went back to Paris,

Hoping somebody would arrive before long.

He wanted desperately to go to Nice,

But would not till he was asked,

And Amy would not ask him,

For just then she was having little experiences of her own which made her rather wish to avoid the quizzical eyes of our boy.

So now Laurie is slowly learning to listen to himself.

Growing out of that romantic prince illusion,

Fred Bourne had returned and put the question to which she had once decided to answer yes,

Thank you,

But now she said no,

Thank you.

Currently but steadily,

For when the time came,

Her courage failed her and she found that something more than money and possession was needed to satisfy the new longing that filled her heart so full of tender hopes and fears.

The words,

Fred is a good fellow,

But not at all the man I fancied you would ever like,

And Laurie's face when he uttered them kept returning to her as pertinaciously as her own did when she said in look,

If not in words,

I shall marry from money.

It troubled her to remember that now.

She wished she could take it back.

It sounded so unwomanly.

She did not want Laurie to think her a heartless,

Worldly creature.

She didn't care to be a queen of society now half so much as she did to be a lovable woman.

She was so glad he didn't hate her for the dreadful things she said,

But took them so beautifully and was kinder than ever.

His letters were such a comfort for the home letters were very irregular and were not half so satisfactory as his when they did come.

It was not only a pleasure,

But a duty to answer them,

For the poor fellow was forlorn and needing betting.

Since Joe persisted in being stony-hearted,

She ought to have made an effort and tried to love him.

It couldn't be very hard.

Many people would be proud and glad to have such a dear boy care for them,

But Joe never would act like the other girls,

So there was nothing to do but to be very kind and treat him like a brother.

When people say that Amy stole Laurie from Joe,

That never happened.

Amy very clearly thinks that Joe could have married Laurie if she had wanted,

But since Amy and Laurie have rekindled their friendship,

She's thinking him more now and he has had a good effect on her.

Amy would have married Fred only for money,

Not money for herself,

But to secure her family and Amy has grown as a person here thanks to Laurie and his positive influence on her because she said no to Fred.

Fred had much more money than Laurie had.

The positive impacts go both ways here.

Laurie has a good impact on Amy and Amy has on Laurie.

If we go back to the part of Laurie writing this letter to Joe,

I've heard some people saying that,

Oh,

If Laurie would have waited a little bit and then proposed Joe again,

She could have said yes,

But in the book,

Laurie actually did wait some time,

Didn't grow up at all and then proposed Joe again with the letter.

It didn't really work out.

I do definitely believe that Louisa May Alcott meant it as criticism to this type of harassing behavior and a lot of people sit there thinking it's something romantic because of the adaptations and they left these things out or they don't portray Laurie's actions the same way as the book does.

And I made an earlier episode about this,

The similarities between Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther and Laurie.

Werther's obsession with Lottie,

It's something that it doesn't have really anything to do with Lottie.

It's all about Werther and here it's the same with Laurie.

His obsession of marrying Joe doesn't have anything to do with Joe.

He sees Joe almost as a safety net,

So he doesn't need to grow and Amy's actions here,

She gives him this push to stop daydreaming and grow,

So Laurie's mind is sort of resisting that idea and he comes from a very comfortable setting.

He hasn't worked a day in his life like Amy says and doesn't really know how to be an adult then there is this fight inside him.

Joe means not needing to grow up,

Being in this relationship where she would mutter him and tell him what to do versus relationship with Amy where he has to make his own decisions.

And of course the relationship with Amy is a lot healthier because the relationship with Joe would have meant that he would have remained in that immature state the rest of his life.

And Joe would have been miserable because she wanted someone completely different.

She wanted to have that intellectual bond and she and Laurie never shared that.

Plus Joe was already in love with Fredrick when Laurie was proposing.

If all brothers were treated as well as Laurie was at this period,

They would be a much happier race of beings than they are.

Amy never lectured now,

She asked his opinion on all subjects,

She was interested in everything he did,

Made charming little presents for him and sent him two letters a week full of lively gossip,

Sisterly confidences and captivating sketches of the lovely scenes about her.

As few brothers are complimented by having their letters carried about in their sisters' pockets read and reread diligently,

Cried over when short,

Kissed when long and treasured carefully,

We will not hint that Amy did any of these fun and foolish things.

But she certainly did grow a little pale and pensive that spring,

Lost much of her relish for society and went out sketching alone a good deal.

She never had much to show when she came home while she sat for hours with her hands studying nature,

Boarded on the terrace at Valrosa or absently sketched any fancy that occurred to her.

A stalwart knight carved on a tomb,

A young man asleep in the grass with his head over his eyes,

Or a curly-haired girl in a gorgeous array,

Promenading down a ballroom on the arm of a tall gentleman,

Both faces being left a blur accordingly to the last fashion in art which was safe but not altogether satisfactory.

So here we have Laurie dreaming of this princess that kinda looks like Amy,

And there we have Amy making sketches of a curly-haired young man,

But his face is blurred.

Her aunt thought that she regretted her answer to Fred and finding denials useless,

Taking care that Laurie should know that Fred had gone to Egypt.

That was all,

But he understood it and looked relieved as he said to himself,

With a venerable air,

I was sure she would think better of it.

Poor old fellow,

I've been through it all,

And I can sympathize with that he heaved a great sigh,

And then,

As if he had discharged his duty to the past,

Put his feet up on the sofa and enjoyed Amy's letter back seriously.

While these changes were going abroad,

Trouble had come at home,

But the letter telling that Beth was failing never reached Amy,

And when the next found her,

The grass was green above her sister.

The sad news met her at Beve,

For the heat had driven them from Nifs in May,

And they had traveled slowly to Switzerland by way of Genoa and the Italian lakes.

She bore it very well,

And quietly submitted to the family decree that she should not shorten her visit,

For since it was too late to say good-bye to Beth,

She had better stay,

And let absence soften her sorrow.

But her heart was very heavy,

She longed to be at home,

And every day looked wistfully across the lake,

Waiting for Laurie to come and comfort her.

I feel very bad for Amy,

Because I am very close to my sister.

Of course she wanted to be at home.

This really troublesome,

Because the adaptations in 1933 and then 2019,

They don't include this growth process that Laurie goes through when he realizes that he doesn't really love Jo.

Like in that opera composing scene,

He only thinks Jo's unpleasantries,

And then he wants to marry her because she is the safety net.

She is the little mother.

The 1933 and 2019 film Amy and Laurie bonding through Beth's debt,

You just kinda get the feeling that he moves on from Jo to Amy without thinking it.

Here in the book,

He has a full transition,

And he becomes to understand that his relationship with Jo is more of a codependent,

And it's not romantic love.

She did come very soon,

For the same male brought letters to Tembot,

But he was in Germany,

And it took some days to reach him.

The moment he read it,

He packed his knapsack,

Paid adieu to his fellow pedestrians,

And was off to keep his promise,

With a heart full of joy and sorrow,

Hope and suspense.

He knew Veve well,

And as soon as the boat touched the little quay,

He hurried along the shore to La Terre,

Where the carols were living in and Penseon.

Parzon was in despair that the whole family had come to take a promenade on the lake,

But no,

The blood Mademoiselle might be in the shadow garden.

If Mercier would give himself to the pain of sitting down,

A flash of time should present her.

But Mercier could not wait even a flash of time,

And in the middle of the speech departed to find Mademoiselle himself,

A pleasant old garden on the borders of the lovely lake,

With chestnuts rustling overhead,

Ivy climbing everywhere,

And a black shadow of the tower falling far across the sunny water.

At one corner of the white,

Low wall was the seat,

And here Amy often came to read or work or console herself with the beauty all about her.

She was sitting here that day,

Leaning her head on her wound with a homesick heart and heavy eyes,

Thinking of bed,

And wondering why Laurie did not come.

She did not hear him cross the courtyard beyond,

Nor seeing pause in the archway that led from the subterranean path into the garden.

He stood a minute,

Looking at her with new eyes,

Seeing what no one had ever seen before – the tender side of Amy's character.

Everything about her mutely suggested love and sorrow,

The blotted letters in her lap,

The black ribbon that tied up her hair,

The womanly pain and patience in her face,

Even the little ebony cross at her throat seemed pathetic to Laurie,

For he had given it to her,

And she wore it as her only ornament.

If he had any doubts about the reception she would give him,

They were set at rest the minute she looked up and saw him,

For,

Dropping everything,

She ran to him,

Exclaiming,

In a tone of unmistakable love and longing,

"'O' Laurie,

I knew you'd come to me!

" If I once again refer to this opera that Laurie was writing,

I mean,

This is a beautiful picture,

Amy and Laurie in the garden,

And Amy grieving.

Laurie does like to be this swashbuckling romantic hero for Amy.

I think everything was said and settled then,

For as they stood together,

Quite silent,

For a moment,

With the dark head bent down protectingly over the light one,

Amy felt that no one could comfort and sustain her well as Laurie,

And Laurie decided that Amy was the only woman in the world who could fill Joe's place and make him happy.

He did not tell her so,

For she was disappointed,

For both felt the truth,

Were satisfied and gladly left the rest to silence.

Amy went back to her place,

And while she tried her tears,

Laurie gathered up the scattered papers,

Finding in the sight of a sundry well worn letters and suggestive sketches,

Could be omen for the future.

I'm just smiling here by myself.

As he sat down beside her,

Amy felt shy again,

And turned rosy red at the recollection of her impulsive greetings.

I couldn't help it.

I felt so lonely and sad,

And was so very glad to see you.

It was such a surprise to look up and find you,

Just as I was beginning to fear you wouldn't come,

She said,

Trying in vain to speak quite naturally.

I came to the minute I heard,

I wish I could say something to comfort you for the loss of a dear little bet,

But I can only feel and.

.

.

He could not get any further,

For he too turned bashful all of a sudden,

And did not quite know what to say.

He longed to lay Amy's head down on his shoulder and tell her to have a good cry,

But he did not dare,

So took her hand instead and gave a sympathetic squeeze that was better than words.

They do remind me a bit of Jo and Fredrick at this point,

Being a bit shy with one another.

I have said this before in this podcast,

When part 2 of Little Woman was published,

With Mel,

She got into a bit of a trouble,

Because there are sexual undertones in the novel,

In these relationships.

Jo experiencing her sexual awakening with Fredrick and obviously Amy and Laurie,

Having romantic moments as well.

You don't need to say anything.

This comforts me,

" she said softly.

Betty is well and happy,

And I mustn't wish her back,

But I dread the going home,

Much as I long to see them all.

We won't talk about it now,

For it makes me cry,

And I want to enjoy you while you stay.

You needn't go right back,

Need you?

Now if you want me,

Dear.

I do so much,

And,

And Flo are very kind,

But you seem like one of the family,

And it would be so comfortable to have you for a little while.

Amy spoke and looked so like a homesick child,

Whose heart was full,

That Laurie forgot his bashfulness all at once and gave her just what she wanted,

The bedding she was used to,

And the cheerful conversation she needed.

Poor little soul,

You'd creep yourself half sick.

I'm going to take care of you,

So don't cry anymore,

But come and walk about with me.

The wind is too chilly for you to sit still,

He said,

In the half-carousel,

Half-commanding way that Amy liked,

As he tied on her hat through her arm through his,

And began to pace up and down the sunny walk under the new-lived chestnuts.

He felt more at ease upon his legs,

And Amy found it very pleasant to have a strong arm to lean upon,

A familiar face to smile at her,

And a kind voice to be light for you,

For her long,

Quaint old garden had shelled many pairs of flowers,

And seemed expressly made for them,

So sunny and secluded was it with nothing but the tower to overlook them,

And the white lake to carry away the echo of their words as it rippled by below.

For an hour this new pair walked and talked,

Or rested on the wall,

Enjoying the sweet influences which gave such a charmed time and place,

And when the unromantic dinner-bell warned them away,

Amy felt as if she left burden of loneliness and sorrow behind her.

Let's just go back to this phantom lady for a while.

He did not give the complacent wretch any name,

But he took her for his hearing,

And grew quite fond of her,

As well as he might,

For he gifted her with every gift and grace under the sun,

And escorted her,

Unscattered,

Through trials which would have annihilated an immortal woman.

We can see how a lorries,

A dream woman comes in the flesh with Amy.

The moment Miss Carol saw the girl's altered face,

She was illuminated with the new idea,

Exclaimed and exclaimed to herself,

Now I understand it all.

The child has been pining for young Laurens.

Bless my heart,

I never thought of such a thing.

With praise for this discretion the good lady said nothing,

And portrayed no sign of enlightenment,

But cordially urged Laure to stay,

And begged Amy to enjoy his society,

For it would do her more good than so much solitude.

Amy was a mother of docility,

And as her aunt was good deal occupied with flow,

She was left to entertain her friend and did it more than her usual success.

At Nice Laure had longed,

And Amy had scolded,

And vivay Laure was never idle,

But always walking,

Riding,

Boating,

Or studying in the most energetic manner,

While Amy admired everything he did,

And followed his example as far as fast as she could.

He said the change was owing to the climate,

And she did not contradict him,

Being glad of a like excuse for her own recovered health and spirits.

The invigorating air did them both good,

And much exercise broke wholesome changes in minds as well as bodies.

They seemed to get clearer views of life and beauty up there among the everlasting hills.

The fresh winds blew away desponding doubts,

Delusive fantasies,

And moody mists.

The warm spring sunshine brought out all sorts of aspiring ideas,

Tender hopes,

And happy thoughts.

The lake seemed to wash away the troubles of the past,

And the grand old mountains took willingly down upon them,

Saying,

Little children love one another In spite of the new sorrow it was very happy time,

So happy that Laure could not bear to disturb it by word.

It took him a little while to recover from his surprise at the rapid cure of his first,

And,

As he had firmly believed,

His last and only love.

He consoled himself for the seemingly disloyalty by the thought that Jo's sister was almost the same as Jo's self,

And the conviction that it would have been impossible to love any other woman but Amy so soon and so well.

I think this still shows how Laure didn't really know what Laure really was.

He is surprised that he got over Jo so fast,

And still thinks that he was in love with her.

Now in the end of Little Woman,

When Amy and Laure return back to Concord,

There is a scene where Laure apologizes to Jo,

And that's when he has realized what Laure really is,

And that he was never in love with Jo.

But at this point he still doesn't really understand love,

And like I said earlier,

He saw Jo more as a safety net,

That he can fall back on,

So that he doesn't need to change and face himself,

Or prepare himself for an independent life.

His first win had been tempestatious order,

And he looked back upon it as if through a long list of years,

The feeling of compassion blended with regret.

So here we can see he has begun to regret his actions.

He was not ashamed of it,

But put it away as one of the bittersweet experiences of his life for which he could be grateful when the pain was over.

His second win he resolved should be as calm and simple as possible.

There was no need of having seen hardly any need of telling Amy that he loved her.

She knew it without words,

And had given him his answer long ago.

It all came about so naturally that no one could complain,

And he knew that everybody would be pleased,

Even Jo.

But when our first little passion has been crushed,

We are apt to be wary,

And slow in making a second trial.

So Laure let the days pass,

Enjoying every hour,

And leaving the chance,

The utterance of the world,

That would put an end to the first and sweetest part of his new romance.

He had rather imagined that the moment would take place in the shadow garden by moonlight,

And in the most grateful and the choruses manner,

But it turned out exactly the reverse.

For the matter was settled on the lake at noonday.

In a few blunt words they had been floating about all the morning,

From Gloomys and Ginggolf,

The sunny Montshire,

With the Alps of Savoy on one side,

The mountain St.

Bernard,

And the dead Tumidi on the other,

Put it away in the valley.

Aloson,

Upon the hill beyond,

And cloudless blue sky overhead,

And the blue lake below,

Dotted with the picturesque boats that do look like white-winged gulls.

They had been talking of Boneward as they glided past Shilon and of Rosso as they looked up Clarence,

Where he wrote his alloys.

Neither had read it,

But they knew it was a love story,

And each privately wondered if it was as half as interesting as their own.

Amy had been dabbling,

Her hand in the water during the little pause that fell between them,

And when she looked up,

Lorry was leaning on his oars with an expression in his eyes that made her say,

Hastily,

Merely,

For the sake of saying something,

You must be tired.

Rest a little,

And let me row.

It will do me good,

For since you came I have been altogether lazy and luxurious.

I'm not tired,

But you may take an oar if you like.

There's room enough,

Though,

I have to sit nearly in the middle,

Else the boat won't trim,

Returned Lorry,

As if he rather liked the arrangement,

Feeling that she had not meant it matters much.

Amy took the offered third of a seat,

Shook her hair over her face,

And accepted an oar.

She wrote as well as she did many other things,

And though she used both hands and Lorry but one,

The oar kept the time,

And the boat went smoothly through the river.

How well we pull together,

Don't we?

Said Amy,

Who objected the silence just then.

So well that I wish we might always pull the same boat.

Will you,

Amy,

Very tenderly?

Yes,

Lorry,

Very low.

Then they both stopped rowing,

And unconsciously added a pretty little tableau of human love and happiness,

Good to dissolving views reflected in the lake.

That was very romantic,

Lorry's and Amy's silhouettes reflecting to the water.

Guess how many little woman adaptations there are,

Which include Lorry's proposal to Amy?

The answer is round zero.

How many adaptations there are,

Which show Lorry realizing that he wasn't in love with Joe?

Zero.

How many adaptations there are,

With Lorry in Vienna composing this opera?

Zero.

And him starting to dream about this girl that looks like Amy?

Zero.

Lorry proposing Joe again when the bed is ill?

Zero.

I understand people who watch them films and ship Joe and Lorry because they don't give the reason why Lorry was in love with Amy.

They don't.

And it's really dismissive.

For the author,

This is why I do this podcast.

Lorry's proposal to Amy is very romantic,

Very sweet.

This chapter does remind me the way Hannah says that Lorry is a better cock,

That his mood changes all the time.

It is a very slow process that he grows and changes and people say it's romantic because he's so passionate he wants to marry Joe because he's so passionate.

In the 19th century,

This idea of being person being in this romantic misery,

People considered that very romantic.

That's why Goethe's books were very popular and that's also why people find it romantic in Little Woman when Lorry is in this romantic misery.

But then every time when he thinks of Joe and marriage,

He doesn't really think about Joe.

It's always about him living this sort of fairy tale fantasy.

And it's very different,

For example,

To Friedrich,

Who thinks about Joe and future that he could share with her,

But with Lorry it was always a very idealized idea what love was.

I really love that scene in Vienna because it shows how he doesn't really seem to understand what marriage is about when he is composing these operas.

First he tries to put Joe into that opera and then he laughs when he realizes that no,

Joe is not that kind of a person.

I need to conjure another type of character to be my leading lady and then he's like,

No,

I must marry Joe.

And it happens when he thinks about being her brother.

But it also shows how dependable Lorry was on Joe's care for him or that Joe would be this eternal mother figure for him.

And she did kind of say it that way.

I do like that Lorry comes to the realization that this opera thing is actually pretty silly and this fairy tale woman is even sillier.

And when Friedrich thinks of future with Joe,

Lorry begins to think that there might be a future with Amy and it's very different to these idealized ideas what he had about Joe,

Because in the book there never are mentions that he dreams about a future with Joe or that he thinks about what Joe likes or what Joe wants or what Joe needs.

But then with Amy it's completely different.

He sees her,

He sees her full reality.

These were my thoughts about Amy and Lorry.

My favorite Amy and Lorry are still in the 1978 series.

To me that's the only one where you can clearly see how she has a very good influence on him and he to her.

And I think in that version,

Lorry had a lot more fun time with Amy than he had with Joe.

That's why I like them in that version especially.

Thank you for listening.

I hope you enjoyed this.

Take care and make good choices.

Bye.

All right.

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