One of the things that I found interesting in our most recent reading is Amy’s decision to accept Fred Vaughn in Rome should he propose to her. I think this is in keeping with her tendency to take herself very seriously, but I’m curious about the fact that this seems to contradict some of Marmee’s “ambitions” for her daughters.
Marmee tells Jo and Meg after Meg’s disastrous time at the Moffats’ that she wants a great many things for her daughters, including for them to be “loved, and respected … to be well and wisely married … Money is a needful and precious thing … but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for” (97-98). This is, of course, a very ‘good’ speech — by this I mean, Marmee impresses upon her daughters that money is not the only thing to consider when considering a marriage. She wants her daughters to strive for more than money and says, “I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were gappy, beloved, contented” (98).
Amy’s decision, however, seems to take a more practical approach to marriage. Marmee’s ideals, I think, are good ones; however, Amy seems more concerned with the stability of the family over her own love or lack thereof for Fred. While she writes that she likes Fred well enough and they “get on comfortably together”, she goes on for nearly half a page about how much wealth Fred will inherit (318). Indeed, in her list of Fred’s positive attributes, Amy lists that he is “very rich, — ever so much richer than the Laurences” (318).
Upon my first reading I thought this was simply a desire to marry rich; after all, Amy writes that she “may be mercenary, but [she hates] poverty, and [doesn’t] mean to bear it a minute longer than [she] can help” (318). However, her next statement sounds rather pragmatic: “One of us must marry well; Meg didn’t, Jo won’t, Beth can’t … so I shall, and make everything cosy all around” (318).
To me, this is a sensible, if not particularly romantic, way to look at this scenario. Amy knows her family is not well off and marrying well was a tried and tested way to change a family’s financial situation. What’s sobering to me is that Amy is willing to forego finding a love-match in order to help her family. She does mention that she “wouldn’t marry a man [she] hated or despised”, but she says that she would grow “fond enough” of Fred (318). Amy does not mention “growing to love him” or anything like, merely “fond enough”, and this makes me wonder if self-sacrifice at this time was needed to ensure familial stability. This novel ensures that the daughters will find their perfect match — excluding Beth, but even that is debatable — but this moment was striking because it felt like a real consideration for families in the time Little Women is set.
I think it was refreshing for Amy to think of marrying Fred. While it makes sense for the girls to become more like their parents in a sense, it was becoming incredibly dull that they were all turning into copies of Marmee with all of their values. No one has exactly the same values as their parents after all. Along with this, if Amy decided to suddenly marry some poor man it would destroy her character build up to this point. It would be as if all of Part 1 did not happen, and we are starting from scratch. Regarding marrying for love, I don’t think that was ever on Amy’s radar per say. She understood the importance of love in a family, but it has never seemed to be a priority of her, so I do not think it was necessarily a sacrifice. However, the fact that family was what seemed to matter most does give us reassurance that she is not cold and just chasing the money. It is interesting that you would point out that she is considerate of her family in taking the money in place of love because it does raise the question on her true insight of the future. If she is doing this simply for the betterment of her parents and sisters then she is ignoring the fact that, especially in this time, that marriage ultimately results to a new family of your own with children. She doesn’t seem to care about this.
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