Little Women : Money or Love

According to Nina Baym, the heroine of woman’s fiction “brings into being a new kind of family life, organized around love rather than money. Money subsides into its adjunct function of ensuring domestic comfort” (Baym, 39-40). In Little Women, such is the case with the March sisters who consider money as part of their marriage, but focus on love as the ultimate reasoning for choosing their lifetime partner.

Meg, the oldest of the March sisters, first appears in the novel with the exclamation, “It’s so dreadful to be poor” (Alcott, 1). Meg even claims that “she was fond of luxury and that her chief trouble was poverty… She believed that it was natural to long for pretty things, gay friends, accomplishments, and a happy life” (Alcott, 37). All through growing up, Meg’s biggest “burden” was her pursuit of money and the luxury that came with the life. However, she falls in love with and marries John Brooke, who is poor. She later defends John in front of Aunt March when the aunt criticizes Meg for marrying “a cook” and claims that “Meg will find failure in trying love in a cottage” (Alcott, 230).

For Jo, she makes the decision to turn down Laurie, even though he was rich and regarded “as the most eligible parti by worldly mamas, was much smiled upon by their daughters, and flattered enough by ladies of all ages” (Alcott, 327). She decides to move to New York partly because she had no strong feels for Laurie and was afraid that “Laurie is getting too fond of her” (Alcott, 330). After Laurie’s graduation, Laurie proposes to Jo sincerely, but is turned down without any doubt by Jo (Alcott, 362). Jo, similar to Meg, passes on wealth for love as she ends up marrying Professor Bhaer, who is introduced as “poor as a church mouse” (Alcott 334).   

Although Amy’s struggle for love was not so negatively correlated with money as the other two sisters, Alcott shows that love is the key to marriage. Amy professes in her letter from Europe that “if Fred asks me [to marry], I shall accept him, though I’m not madly in love... He is ever so much richer than the Laurences,” (Alcott 318). However, Alcott creates circumstances that separates Fred from Amy (Alcott 319). Ultimately, Amy falls in love with and marries Laurie, who does not have any much money as Fred. Yet, together they create a “pretty little tableau of human love and happiness to the dissolving views reflected in the lake (Alcott 431).  

Finally, all of these events are influenced by the wise Marmee, who claimed that “poverty seldom daunts a sincere lover. Some of the best and most honored women I know were poor girls, but so love-worthy that they were not allowed to be old maids,” (Alcott, 98). By using Marmee as a proxy, Alcott’s Little Women, exemplifies Baym’s claims that woman’s fiction create new family life organized around love.