Is This A Thing With Female Writers In Modern Movies? Little Women and Crimson Peak
The summary as a whole is correct except for one thing, “Jo gives up her writing” but this is quite wrong? Maybe she put a halt, but only temporary, because Jo’s Boys has an entire chapter dedicated to talking about how Jo is suddenly famous and rich, finally followed her dream to become a famous, rich, and beloved author and we have readers sending in fanmail.
Though we also have to remember there are people that legitimately are not aware Little Women has two more sequels. I do wonder why this is the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzuK9xH54KQ&ab_channel=LittleWomenChannel
littlewomenchannel answered:
It´s a strange quote. Since in the novel Jo wants romance and wants to fall in love, she never loses her independence in her relationship with Friedrich. In “Under the umbrella” they discuss wanting to be equal partners to one another. If anything else she would have lost her independence with Laurie, which you can see in his proposal when he asks her to give up things (like writing). LMA herself wanted to be in a romantic relationship and greatly suffered from her loneliness. Anyone saying that Jo sacrifices her independence when marrying a man she loves shows a great misreading of the novel.
You are right, Jo never gives up writing. There are mentions in “Little Men” how she likes to write and even after she quits writing sensationalism in New York, she began to try other genres and then decides to have a creative break. Then Beth gets ill and that takes her all attention.
After Beth´s death, we know that Jo has written many poems. The poem about Beth gets good feedback from the critics and the poem that she wrote about her own loneliness brought Friedrich back to her life.
In “Jo´s boys” Jo´s version of Little Women is a best seller. Just like her creator, success took some time, but unlike Louisa May Alcott Jo gets to have both a career, love and family and LMA only her career, which didn´t make her very happy.
I like this analysis from Krissie West:
The poem that Friedrich reads from a magazine, is about Jo´s loneliness. The poem “In the Garrett” was first published in The Flag of Our Union (18 March 1865) but with a number of differences. It discussed the chests of Nan, Lu, Bess, and May, rather than Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.
The poem appears again in Little Women. In the version from 1869 text it says:
A woman in a lonely home,
Hearing like a sad refrain,
“Be worthy, love, and love will come,”
In the falling summer rain.
The earlier version reads:
A woman musing here alone,
Hearing ever her life’s refrain
“Labor and love, but make no moan”
In the drip of the summer rain.
At least during the time of writing the poem and when writing Little Women, this idea of being a literal spinster with a pen as a spouse was not very tempting. Alcott troubles the divide between author and narrator to claim herself, if problematically, as a character, as the “Lu” to whom she has given a version of her own name in this earlier rendering of the poem. And this woman’s fate differs from that of Jo: no love waits for her except the love that she must give, second only to labour; neither of which, it seems, can make her happy (West).
I know that Little Men and Jo´s Boys were also best sellers in the 19th century. Strange that not so many people like to pay attention to them now.
Reminds me of the movie Crimson Peak, the character Edith is a novelist and marries Dark Mysterious Gentleman Thomas Sharpe, and somehow TV Tropes and other sites describe “she gave up her writing” when she married him… Despite a scene in the movie showing him reading the novel she was currently writing and congratulating her? 😂
Is this a thing with women writers in period dramas whether is novel or movies? The internet sees marriage and thinks “well, her hands are tied now, she can’t put pen to paper anymore 😔”.
@ambitious-witch I have seen Crimson Peak and wow..people really think that?
There is a literal scene in “Jo’s Boys” where Friedrich kisses Jo and leaves her to write and Jo says to him how lucky she is to have a husband who always supports her writing.
…where is the part of Friedrich not supporting Jo?…..
He always does.
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