“I’m Not Afraid of Storms, for I’m Learning How to Sail My Ship.” Facets of Womanhood in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868)

Abstract

Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868) is a timeless piece of writing about four sisters living in the late 19th-century Concord in America. Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy who, albeit raised within the boundaries of the same social setting, represent different facets of womanhood. Whereas Meg displays a traditional model of femininity from that time, Jo may be viewed as a rebellious tomboy combining both male and female features within her. Amy stands for artistically gifted women, while Beth exhibits the transcendent ideal of womanhood, which cannot be achieved. Since the types of femininity they represent differ, they are analysed separately to then be juxtaposed to highlight the differences between them. This paper proposes the analysis of the four sisters with respect to different facets of femininity they display. It uses intertextual practice to show the resemblance between the fates of the March girls and Alcott’s life. The comparative analysis proves that there is no universal answer to the question of what it means to be a woman as there are countless feminine types, which may partly overlap. By creating four March sisters, the representatives of distinct types of femininities, Alcott proves that every female is allowed to offer her own definition of femininity, depending on the ideals she represents.