Love Advice

Is love that important in a person’s life? Yes. Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women describes the casual lives of little women in the late 1800s. Little Women consists of two parts- the first was published in 1868 and the second was published in 1869. Little Women illustrates the growth of four women: Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth. The four women bump into many problems and manage to solve their problems. The women also fall into situations related to love, such as confession and denials. However, they manage to get out of it and eventually live a happy life, except Beth who died of scarlet fever, but she died happily without regret as well. Also, confessions of love and denials pass by the characters. Like this, the book has many love-related situations. And, if there are many situations of characters related to love, the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, has something to advise the readers. Who will be the main readers of this novel? The main readers of this novel will be young women. Louisa May Alcott’s target readers also will be women in the age of the four characters, ages ranging from the teens to the twenties. This can be inferred by the ages of the main characters; they start as teenagers in the first part, and grow up into their twenties in the second. The main characters bump into situations that contain life lessons. And, the lessons that Louisa May Alcott wanted to give were lessons she wanted to tell women in real life. Furthermore, the book is based on real people, and this book is made as a realistic fiction book. Therefore, the book Little Women is how Louisa May Alcott wanted to advise other people.
Louisa May Alcott’s first life lesson about love is that love is a very powerful emotion. Love is an emotion that has the power to change a person completely. In Little Women, two main cases are addressed. First, love makes people mad or bad, and changes them in a bad way, such as in the case of Laurie after getting tragically kicked by Jo. Laurie was a kind boy, but did not have many friends. Laurie wanted new friends, but it was not that quick and easy. But then, at a party, Laurie met Jo. Jo was a very good friend for Laurie, because they fit well together, their personalities were similar, and they could have good discussions. Like that, Laurie made friends with Jo. Laurie visited the four little women frequently, and they did many things together, such as making newspapers. By having many times together with Jo, Laurie starts to love Jo. Jo actually notices that, but Jo thinks that Beth loves Laurie. So, she runs away to New York City, and hopes for them to fall in love. Even though Jo spent a lot of time there, neither Beth nor Laurie proposed their love. Instead, Laurie confessed his love to Jo right after Jo returned. Jo denied the proposal, and Laurie was in a great depression. After that, Laurie went for a trip to Europe. But he coincidentally met Amy, who was the youngest of the four women. Laurie then spent time with Amy, and Amy told Laurie to stop being lazy and get motivated for life.
Amy and Laurie have a conversation in which Amy calls Laurie a lazy idiot:
“Laurie, when are you going to go to your grandfather?” she asked, presently, as she settled herself on a rustic seat.
"Very soon."
"You have said that a dozen times within the last three weeks."
"I dare say; short answers save trouble."
"He expects you, and you really ought to go."
"Hospitable creature! I know it."
"Then why don't you do it?"
"Natural depravity, I suppose."
"Natural indolence, you mean. It's really dreadful!" and Amy looked severe.
…"That's a foolish wish, unless you have spoilt your life. You are so changed, I sometimes think—" there Amy stopped, with a half-timid, half-wistful look, more significant than her unfinished speech.
Laurie saw and understood the affectionate anxiety which she hesitated to express, and looking straight into her eyes, said, just as he used to say it to her mother,—
‘"It's all right, ma'am."
That satisfied her and set at rest the doubts that had begun to worry her lately. (Alcott, 638-640)
Amy said this because she completely saw the palpable difference between the original Laurie and the Laurie now. And what caused Laurie to lose motivation for life and be very lazy? His love towards Jo. The tragic denial was a very big event for Laurie. He was completely dominated by the emotion of love. That was why Laurie became lazy and like he didn't want to do anything. In contrast, there are also good changes in people made by love. For example, love makes people more caring to the person they love. People are more particularly interested in the people they love, and want to help them a lot. Love also may make people not afraid of some things. In Little Women, Beth dies early due to bad scarlet fever, which worsened her health a lot in a short time. Unfortunately, Beth could not beat the power of scarlet fever, and died early. However, Beth’s love for her family made her become even more caring and hardworking on everything, even after telling that ‘she might die’ to her family. Why would have it been possible? It was possible because Beth loved her family. Beth’s love towards her family made her want the family to be less sad when she dies. People tend to want to make other people sad and remember them for long when they want to commit suicide because they hate the trash society.
“There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.”(60)
By this quote, we can see the love of Beth. Like this, because Beth loved the other family members, Beth didn’t want other people to be so sad about her dying and helped the other family members until her last moment even when her life was hanging. Why was it possible? Because Beth loved the other family members. Beth did not want other people to suffer. Also, Beth was not afraid of death when her life was not much left. It is because she felt love for her family. Love can make people feel something less. As mentioned, in the context, Beth did not feel fear, instead felt love and feelings for her family. Therefore, Beth’s love towards her family made her feel for others, and more for them.
Louisa May Alcott’s second life lesson about love is that true love is a very important factor in life and society. The key readers of Little Women are women in their youth. In the time when Little Women was published, which was the late 1800s, the ‘life goal’ of the women was living a good life, and importantly, marrying a good man and living happily together. However, to live a good life with a husband, and in the first place, to get a husband, having love is essential. As mentioned before, Louisa May Alcott talked about love being a powerful emotion. She also puts a life lesson which is that love is a very important factor in life. First, Louisa May Alcott is giving a lesson that: life with love is fragile. In the book Little Women, the characters who love someone live a happy life, but each of the characters who love someone has a major conflict related to love. For example, Meg had a conflict with John when they were married, but they got to the bottom of the problem and managed to make out a solution. Also, another example of a major love conflict is about Jo. Jo seems puzzled with her love as she had Laurie’s proposal and similar love-related things. She was sad because she couldn’t see the professor she met in New York. However, she lives happily with the professor after the professor visits the town where Jo’s house was. It is known that love is needed for a happy life and to make a person feel safe. However, Louisa May Alcott’s life lesson is that love makes a person feel safer and better only if love is nicely treated; people truly love each other. Even though the relationship between two people is husband and wife, which means they are married, they do not feel safe when they fight or think negatively between them. What Louisa May Alcott wanted to say here was that true love makes a person feel safe and relieved. As mentioned, a person may not feel comfortable and nice even though they love someone when two lovers bump into a fight just like Meg and John. However, the life lesson is that love is still an important emotion because love makes a person happy and comfortable when it is truly achieved. When Meg and John become one again after they fight, the moment John and Meg realize what they were wrong about and make them up again, both John and Meg feel happy for each other again. So, maintaining true love is important, and Louisa May Alcott advises that point about true love- that love is fragile but essential for feeling more safe and comfortable. Therefore, Louisa May Alcott wanted to mention that true love is an essential factor for a good life. Second, Louisa May Alcott’s another advice about love being essential is that love makes and solves many problems. It is that love can be both a weapon and a solution. Initially, an example of love being a problem is Laurie’s tragic denial by Jo. This caused a big heartache for Laurie. Laurie had depressing days after this heartbreaking moment. Here Louisa May Alcott gives a piece of advice, love can wreck a whole person’s life.
“I can’t love anyone else; and I’ll never forget you, Jo, never, never! With a stamp to emphasize his passionate words.” (576)
In real life, some people kill their lovers just the reason they broke up, and there is an increasing number of ‘crimes with dating’. This is a problem, and even though people may not commit murder, breaking up simply could mess up a person’s life. Additionally, Louisa May Alcott gives another piece of advice which is: that Love can sometimes also be a key solution instead of a deadly weapon. For example, when Beth helps the poor people, she feels altruism for them and truly ‘loves’ them. That is why she could help the poor family so well. Like this, love can be a key solution to a problem. But, why would Louisa May Alcott put this lesson here? It is because a small emotion of love can cause a big problem or solve a big problem, and people do not tend to give much love even though the love they want to give for society to thrive is just a little. Therefore, Louisa May Alcott’s second life lesson that can be found in the book Little Women is that love is essential for a good life and a good society.
Moreover, Louisa May Alcott’s advice can be applied to real life. First, in real life love is powerful. Love is a big source of power in real life. First, love makes people blind. Love is a power that can manipulate a human being. There are many crimes that happen due to love. The crimes are mostly things like dating crime, or sometimes planned murders just with the reason that someone broke up with them. Therefore, Louisa May Alcott's Listen about love being powerful is true, and also her lessons can be used in real life. Furthermore, due to increasing love related crime rates, the author's advice in Little Women is needed for society. Second, the advice that other emotions can arise from love is also true in real life, as well. As mentioned before, love related crime is increasing. But, why do people commit love related crimes? It is because the other emotions arose from love. Even though the love itself didn't trigger committing crime, other emotions that arose upon love could have triggered the person to commit crime. Also, relating with Beth's death,
bravery and fearlessness against death may be triggered from love as well. In the real world there may be not that much kind people like Beth, but there are still people who love their family and who tell kind things and do caring things to their family before they die. Because of this, we can relate again to the first advice in Little Women provided by Louisa May Alcott. From the long pass, death has been seen as a powerful and deadly source, and something that is inescapable, but Louisa May Alcott's Advice in Little Women says that love can win even death that seemed very powerful. Therefore , Louisa May Alcott's advice is true in real life. Plus, how about love being essential to daily life? Love is actually essential for a person to feel more secure, cared, safe and comfortable. It is scientifically proven that love makes a person produce more dopamine in their brains. Love can make a person care more for other people Just like how Beth did to the poor Hummels family. Then we can also relate to the advice that love is essential for society. Because bad help the performance with love, we can conclude that love is important for a thriving society. Louisa May Alcott may be saying that to make a society really thriving. Some more love may be needed. But the people aren't giving that much love to the society. And the people near them, so what Alcott may actually be saying is that we should love the human beings around us as well. Therefore, Louisa May Alcott's advice can be found and more deeply analyzed in real life as well.
To conclude, Louisa May Alcott included some important pieces of advice in Little Women. They were that love is a powerful emotion, that love makes other emotions arise, and that love is needed for society and individuals. How would Louisa May Alcott design the characters who love other people? Could it be how Louisa May Alcott thought about her ideal types of people and bad types of lovers who she thought of? If so, the advice in this book will be the advice that Louisa May Alcott wanted to say to these people, and to the main readers not to be like that and the type and personalities of lovers who she liked more. Most of the authors tend to prefer putting their thoughts in their novels, and therefore, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is how Alcott loved other people and what she wanted to say about love.




Works Cited
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. 1868-69. Puffin Books, 2014.