Dzolan
In Louisa May Olcott's novel Little Women, Joe, who came to New York, went to the newspaper to submit an article, and when pressed by Mr. Dashwood, she lied that she was not the author of the manuscript and refused to sign it. When Mr. Dashwood crossed out the moral part of the manuscript, there was a conversation between the two of them—
"But, sir, I think there should be some moral element in every story, so I managed to make some of the guilty people in my story repent."
"People want to have fun, they don't want to hear about teaching, you know, morality doesn't sell now." By the way, this is not quite true.
Louisa May Olcott
This conversation may refer to the writing experience of Louisa May Olcott. Born in 1832, Louisa May Olcott began publishing poetry and novels at the age of twenty-one, and wrote many thrilling novels under the pseudonym A.M Barnet. It wasn't until 1863 that publishers suggested she write a "book about girls," which led to Little Women, an autobiographical novel based on Louisa May Alcott's life experiences, and a classic that celebrated emotion and family morality for nearly two centuries. Greta Gerweger directed the new version of the film "Little Women", which brings together many stars cast, once again tells the story of the March family.
Little Women movie poster
The novel is set during the Civil War, when her father enters the war, and the four sisters of the March family, Meg, Joe, Amy, and Beth, live a tight and self-sufficient life under the control of their mother. The opening dialogue about Christmas has highlighted The writing skills and skills of Louisa May Olcott, and in a few few sentences, the different personalities and images of the four sisters stand on the paper: the eldest sister Meg is a tutor, loves vanity, and aspires to a rich life; the second sister Joe has a rough personality, some boys, and loves to read and write; the third sister Amy is selfish, "too exquisite, too serious", good at drawing; the youngest Beth is the relatively more empathetic and selfless of the four sisters, she likes to play the piano, Treat the family together as your own satisfaction.
Mrs. March, played by Laura Dunn
Mrs. March, who runs the family, is a perfect mother, she runs the house in an orderly manner, teaches her children well, and often helps the poor families around her. Even the father, who was far away from the battlefield and absent from the family, also showed a deep fatherly love and a desire to go home and reunite with his wife and daughter through letters, and after hearing his father's letter, the four sisters reflected one after another to change their shortcomings and become the "little women" in their father's letters.
It can be said that the family formed by the perfect mother and the father who is not present but has a touching aura is a shelter for the lives of the four sisters, witnessing and accommodating their shortcomings, and more importantly, acting as a moral guide in their growth.
Stills from the Little Women movie, the March family
When the four sisters were still young, Mrs. March tested whether they would like to give Christmas breakfast to those who needed it more. After Meg got married, Mrs. March told her to be patient and considerate of her husband in marriage: "You're just making the mistake that most young wives do—forgetting their responsibilities to their husbands because they love their children." This mistake is very natural and forgivable. As an adult, Joe, who is still impatient, is often taught by Mrs. March how to groom, or bury his own changeable emotions.
From the adolescence of the four sisters to adulthood, this family-style moral guidance has always run through their growth trajectory, and the influence it brings is also lasting, correcting the shortcomings and possible consequences of the shortcomings at critical moments. Meg's marriage continues, and Joe is able to escape from the changes that make me feel more lonely, such as Meg's marriage and Beth's death.
However, perfect, excessive morality is also a burden on the characters, depriving them of the flesh-and-blood side of their human beings, making Mrs. March and her non-existent father who returned home from the battlefield hollow. This morality also inevitably causes imbalance in the novel, and the family's poor situation seems to be only to highlight the Happy Nature of the March family, and the existence of poor families and upper class to highlight their charitable and innocent and simple side.
In addition, Louisa May Olcott is full of praise throughout the book - the first chapter of the novel is called "Pilgrimage", which quotes the British prose writer John Bunyan's "Journey of the Heavenly Road" - "We are burdened with burdens, the road is at hand, and the desire to pursue beauty and happiness leads us through countless difficulties and obstacles, and finally enters the land of Saint Ninh, the true 'kingdom of heaven'." Come, little travelers to heaven, do it again. Not to make a play, but to do it sincerely and sincerely, and see how far you have come when Dad comes back."
Eleza Scanlon plays Beth
The purpose of life is pushed to the sublime, and under the aura of the desire for truth, goodness, and beauty, all suffering and pain have been beautified and sublimated. When Beth is about to die, it shows how the family reunites and connects with each other with love, and Beth, who is "like a family sage enshrined in an alcove", still maintains a sweet, selfless character, with a religious glorious suffering and detachment. In the end, "the people who loved her deeply smiled through tears, and they thanked God that Beth was finally saved."
For the character of Beth, such a beautification is too cruel.
Jane Austen
Some critics have compared Louisa May Alcott's Little Women to Jane Austen's work, which also belongs to the 19th century. Jane Austen uses "small (two-inch wide) ivory miniature carvings" to depict 19th-century social customs, marriage institutions based on the exchange of benefits and female love, and Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" needs to see women's confusion and choices between ideals and reality through their overly dazzling moral cloak.
For example, Meg, who aspires to a rich life, marries John, a poor governess, because of her love, amy gives up her artistic dreams after traveling around Europe, because "Rome has removed all my vanity, seen the miracles there, and I feel that I am too insignificant, and I have given up all my foolish wishes in despair." In a difficult state of mind, she chose to marry Laurie. Fate deviates from its original intentions to achieve very different results, with a playful irony, but it is not enough to rise to the criticism of women trapped in marriage, at least in the novel, Meg's love is real.
As the protagonist of the protagonists, Joe may be more able to illustrate this confusion and choice. Loving independence and not wanting to be tied down, she will also be lonely when she rejects Laurie and watches her sisters belong, realizing that she "cares more about being loved." Sally Rooney, an Irish writer who writes contemporary growth stories, said of her characters, "People are always connected to each other, her life is always dependent on others, and the independent self is an illusion." Whether male or female, in the 19th century or the 21st century, the pure independent self may not be established, even if the reality is boring and wants to escape, but the self must always be rooted in this - not the most ideal self, but also the self that can be self-consistent after knowing how to tolerate and accept.
The new version of the movie "Little Women" really grasps the bones of the original work, strips away the morality and praise, and completely presents the confusion and choices faced by women in the original work. Joe's unique love for Beth, the hidden rivalry between Amy and Joe, and the generally loving and slightly different relationship between the four sisters are also clearer in the movie.
Just seems to be dissatisfied with the original work Riccio married Mr. Barr, the March family in the plum garden reunion ending, Greta Gerweger hopes that the film can give the story, give Joe more space, in the movie to change the ending of the original work to Joe's novel.
Silsa Ronan plays Joe
When Joe returns to the newspaper and sits in front of Mr. Dashwood, she puts on the table the novel "Little Women", which has a fictitious marriage ending for herself— she endorses Dashwood's assertion that female characters must marry, and also wins the copyright to the novel for herself, signing her real name "March Joe". This kind of abandonment and struggle is probably to realize the self-consistent self after tolerance and acceptance.
In this open-ended ending, what Will Joe's fate will be, and how far her ego can go, are left to the viewer's imagination.
Editor-in-Charge: Fang Xiaoyan
Proofreader: Luan Meng