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I couldn't agree more !! I feel that Jo and Laurie were the perfect match. In fact I've read all 3 books over and over again since the time I was 14 and I feel that Laurie was in love with Jo till the end and Jo loved him too. I think Jo refused him 'cos she thought that she was not good enough for him, in spite of loving him. I really really wish it could have ended otherwise.
I was so depressed when I read those books again, and couldn't find anyone who understands my frustration. Every time I read the books, I become sad when I read that Jo refused to Laurie.
Since the begining of the books we can see that Laurie is in love with her/she is in love with him.
He said he likes her the most, she makes him happy, he likes the way she hugs him (it wasn't accepted for a lady to hug a man on this days, maybe) and he "would really like to see [and to be?] the man who will ask her to leave her family and get married with him".
We had some clues for her love to him, too. For example, when Amy came to sorry for the diary story, whe went to Jo while she was with Laurie, because "when she's with Laurie she is soft and warmhearted". it's quite sure that there is any kind of stress between Jo and Amy about Laurie. How disappointing that Amy "won" him.
Sorry for the quotations, I translate the translation as best as I could :)
God, i agree too. I feel Amy should have married 'little Parker' and Jo marry Laurie. Jo just had to maary that old German professor though I must confess he is nice.
i'll tell you WHY and HOW I started liking Jo/Laurie.
The reason my craze for JoLaurie began was because the first time i read little women, i bought a shortened version, and the translator was clearly a fan of jo/laurie, because she added a couple of hints that jo loved laurie as well. I mean, we all know laurie loved jo from the very start, but we’re not so sure she loved him back. Well, this woman added a couple of shippy moments between them. For example, it said she blushed and that she felt attracted to him when she met him. A couple of times it said she looked at laurie attentively, and of course I took that as important considering it’s JO, after all xD. When laurie kissed her (on her head), it said “she felt comforted”, or something along those lines, while in alcott’s version, the kiss seemed to make her uncomfortable. Plus, in alcott’s version, when he tells her to hug him again, she says “don’t dream”, or something like that, and in this one, she said “I’ll do it” O_O quite a big change, indeed! The scene where jo says she wants laurie to marry meg, was cut. Plus, there was quite a lot of jo/laurie artwork, which confirms my suspicions Xd. I scanned them and put them on a jo/laurie site, called Heartache. Here’s the link. http://www.freewebs.com/jolaurie/bookart.htm
The 3 last pics are the ones from my shortened version ^_^ There was one more scene, (yeah, surely a Jo/Laurie fan! 4 jo/laurie pics ^_^!) but I couldn’t scan it TT It’s beautiful though. Perhaps I’ll try again to scan it :P
Anyway, I have to admit I really liked the slight alterations. With them, Jo and Laurie had a spark they lack in the original version. It was subtle, but it was definitely there. That’s why I started liking Jo/Laurie so much. Plus, the best friends-turn-lovers is one of my favourite plot devices ^_^ LMM uses it all the time, btw. XD
To tell the truth,, I felt kinda disappointed when I read Alcott’s original, since there are practically no signs that she likes him back. That’s why I choose to stick to my shortened version and fanfiction world ^_^
I think that, when Laurie proposed to Jo, she just did not feel ready to settle down, yet. She was young and yearning to take on the world, not settle down immediately. I believe, that if Laurie had waited for Jo, they might have ended up together in the end, but he did take her refusal a little too personally and decided that her refusal at that moment meant she would never give him her hand. Before Jo consented to be with Professor Bhaer, Laurie got himself married to her sister. It could have been a way of him rebounding or just a way to stay close to her no matter what, since he seemed convinced that she would never come around. In the end, she does come home, after having her fill of the city, and seems ready to settle down, but then it is too late; Laurie has married Amy. Maybe, Jo only chose to be with the Professor because Laurie was no longer available or, maybe, it was because that she realized that she had found a more kindred spirit to herself. I do believe that, had Laurie waited for Jo, they might just have ended up together. I find, though, that Laurie wanted Jo to be something that she was not; a simple wife. In the end, it was Professor Bhaer who set her heart free by loving her for who she was and supporting her in every way. If it had not been for Bhaer, Little Women would never have come to live. True love can create inspiration and I think that Laurie's version of love was not what Jo needed. It is quite possible that Jo realized, in the end, that the professor was her intellectual match and there is nothing stronger than that.
I think it was inevitable for Jo to be able to live her own life, as a woman writer.
What was Jo's justification for not marrying Laurie, anyway? The fact that their personalities were too similar?
Well yes, and I must agree with her. Also, Laurie wanted Jo to be an average wife (in that day, when a woman married, she was expected to do nothing but sew and do housework), and she didn't want that for herself. Frederich both allowed and encouraged her to be who she really was: a free spirit. Jo loved Laurie, but in the way a sister would love a brother. There is a difference between loving a person and being in love with them.Quote:
Originally Posted by itskatemate
Hi, I'm new here, but this discussion is exactly why I joined. Below is an exerpt from an article I wrote at another time, but have always wanted a response from a literary crowd. You can't imagine my delight at having lighted upon this site, this forum, and this particular discussion. :) Please read, respond, and tell me what you think. Thanks. :)
Little Women actually ends before any of the marriages and romances begin, which is something that I think we all tend to forget from time to time, largely because of the prevalence of so many plays and movies which depict them as one. Alcott wasn't keen on writing Little Women, and only wrote Good Wives in response to the wide fanbase who wanted more. So really, Little Women should have ended before anyone married.
Furthermore, Alcott said that she intended for Jo to end a "literary spinster," like Alcott herself, and I think most of us would have loved this more than the Professor pairing. Alcott also seemed to dislike the pairing, but more or less said that she took a perverse delight in thwarting the Jo/Laurie relationship, simply because so many people wanted it, and so gave them a "silly match." At the time society was all about women getting married, and I kind of think this was Alcott throwing one up in the face of conventionality.
Really, I think many of the events of Good Wives happened simply because publishers caught Alcott at the wrong time, when she happened to be in a particularly peevish mood. Judging by her own comments on Jo's fate, I think she may have at least partly regretted choice, and I console myself by thinking that really, much of what was in Good Wives never should have happened, which allows me to ponder what she might have written if she hadn't felt pressured to come up with a match for her famous character.
I'd like to think that Alcott, on some quiet night, before hearing the outcry of her fans for Jo to marry, had a nice life for Jo planned, where Teddy's interest only increased with her obstinance against marrying. I think we may have seen the first of what would later become a long line of romances, where the man becomes attracted to a rebellious, unconventional, blue stocking, suffragette type and the attraction only increases with the level of nonconformity.
I content myself with this theory, and though I like Alcott's writing, I'll stick to Little Women, and continue to marvel at the many mysteries we still have about the woman who created one of the finest pieces of American literature. :)
What are your thoughts Alcott fans? Do you agree with my theory? Do you like it? Do you have more to add to it? :) Thanks for having me here. :)
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Originally Posted by debbie
I completely agree! Jo even uses that exact line when she refuses him, and tells him he's too good for her (he too thinks she's too good for him, but also that despite that he can't help himself, he must ask her). For years I stopped reading Little Women at Laurie's proposal, so disheartened I was with how things would work out ... Finally I wrote a novel about this, for all of us who wonder how things might have worked out differently (it's called the Courtship of Jo March, listed on GoodReads.com).