“You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can’t explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women.”
This profound quote is not attributed to Jo March but to her bratty, lime-trading, book-burning sister Amy. Indeed, Amy imparts many pearls of wisdom all with the face and golden curls of a snow maiden, albeit without the aristocratic nose. Readers often develop an affinity for the coltish Jo, leading them to harbor disdain for the youngest March sister. However, upon closer examination, one realizes that aside from the unfortunate incident of burning Jo’s manuscript, Amy is guilty of little more than salvaging the discarded remnants of Jo’s lunch after she carelessly tosses it aside with both hands. Indeed, it is not far-fetched to suggest that Amy is the true protagonist of Little Women.
At the novel’s beginning, Amy is the petted, petulant, and blue-eyed baby of the family, indulged especially by her sister Meg. Her greatest crisis revolves around her dated clothing, artistic temperament, and a woeful lack of citrus fruit–a cherished commodity among sailors and her schoolmates. She wants nothing more than to join her sisters in their burgeoning roles as young ladies–donning elegant dresses and mingling in Concord, Massachusetts’s social circles. In pursuit of this goal, Amy adopts verbose language and overly refined manners, causing her to sometimes veer into the realm of the absurd. Jo, in particular, loathes these affectations and takes every opportunity to chastise her with sisterly disdain.
One evening, Amy feels that Jo pushes her too far, excluding her from a theatrical she wished to attend with her two eldest sisters. While Jo’s justifications for this action make sense in the minds of mature readers, in Amy’s adolescent brain, she feels rejected and thwarted. In a moment of impetuousness and even childish cruelty, she lashes out and destroys her sister’s manuscript. This action provides Amy’s critics with the ammunition necessary to justify their antagonism when ultimately she accepts the trip to Europe and Laurie’s hand in marriage.
Yet, even Jo finds it in her heart to forgive her as Amy’s character ages into a loveliness that exceeds that of her appearance. However, she still enjoys tweaking her nose, as evidenced in the chapter “Calls,” where Jo goes out of her way to tease Amy in front of their neighbors. This playful act may seem harmless, but it ultimately undermines Jo’s reputation and thwarts her chances of embarking on a trip to Europe, long promised by the tedious aunt she serves.
Amy’s transformation is evident in the chapter titled “Consequences.” She volunteers at a local bazaar, and takes pride in operating the best booth at the fair. Diligently working on her stand, she strives to beautify it and showcase its objects to their best advantage.
Yet, Mrs. Chester, a society matron, prefers the art booth for her entitled daughter May, due to its propensity to attract male attention, and she uses her authority to relegate Amy to a retired booth at the fringes of the event—a teen girl’s worst nightmare made manifest. However, instead of succumbing to despair removing all items from the booth, and running home to cry into her pillow, Amy accepts the less desirable flower stand and transforms it into one of the loveliest at the fair.
Jo, the protective older sister, utilizes her influence with Laurie to convince him to tell all his friends to admire and purchase items from the youngest March girl. The flower booth is a smashing success, due to her artistic ability and the support of her friends and family. However, Amy, noticing the lack of purchases made at her rival’s table, requests that Laurie also direct some attention in that direction.
The community hears about the tactics of the Chester women and public sympathy attaches to Amy. Among those in the gossip grapevine, are Aunt Carol, and eventually Aunt March, who are mutually impressed by the delicate way that Amy navigated the situation. Amy clearly understands how to manage the expectations required to exist and thrive in elegant circles.
More importantly, she earns the respect of her aunts, who, embarrassed by Jo’s theatrics during her social calls, come to admire their youngest niece. Consequently, the coveted grand tour goes to the snow maiden.
Thus, Amy sealed her destiny as the book’s main antagonist by daring to surpass her sisters in grace, unselfishness, sophistication, and maturity. While Jo rejects opportunities for happiness with the alacrity of schoolboys leaving for summer break, readers curse Amy for seizing the discarded opportunities and recognizing their potential to save her from poverty and loneliness—fates that Jo condemned herself to as a consequence of her desire to try to force everything to remain as it was during her childhood.
In Europe, Amy continues to flourish, demonstrating wisdom by acknowledging the boundaries of her talent and refraining from adopting the superficial trappings of an artist without the skill to support it. This marks her triumph over vanity and her eventual abandonment of the pursuit of wealth and status at any cost, along with her desire for universal approval. Consequently, she rejects the wealthy Fred Vaughn’s convenient, but loveless marriage proposal and confronts Laurie in a park about his new-found reputation for self-indulgent behavior and laziness in the months since Jo’s rejection of him.
Though her rebuke threatens to estrange her from a source of wealth, she understands the importance of honesty, regardless of whether he wants to hear it or not. Her words are blistering, solely because of their accuracy. She tells him in the way that only a devoted friend can, “Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don’t let it spoil you, for it’s wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can’t have the one you want.” Within this demonstration, the reader learns the full extent of her hard-earned wisdom when she states, “You men tell us we are angels, and say we can make you what we will, but the instant we honestly try to do you good, you laugh at us and won’t listen, which proves how much your flattery is worth.” Summarizing an emerging zeitgeist amongst women of the 19th century.
Despite, the simplicity of some Jo-fans claiming, “Amy stole Laurie.” The lead male protagonist’s feelings for Amy in “Little Women” are complex and influenced by various factors including a mutual love for fashionable society, shared past experiences, and the recognition that they are both failed artists with a desire to assist those with greater talent. While Jo is fiercely strong-willed and independent, Amy embodies elegance and femininity. When at a party, Amy sparkles and always keeps her gloves tidy. Jo retires to a remote corner, and her gloves are often stained by the end of the evening. When Jo eventually declines Laurie’s marriage proposal, she perfectly articulates the inconsistencies in their personalities which would have wrought misery in the other. She states,
“You’ll get over this after a while, and find some lovely accomplished girl, who will adore you, and make a fine mistress for your fine house. I shouldn’t. I’m homely and awkward and odd and old, and you’d be ashamed of me, and we should quarrel—we can’t help it even now, you see—and I shouldn’t like elegant society and you would, and you’d hate my scribbling, and I couldn’t get on without it, and we should be unhappy, and wish we hadn’t done it, and everything would be horrid!”
Jo March
Although Jo, eventually comes to regret her decision as his absence makes her heart grow fonder. When examining the entire novel, one comes to appreciate the truth in Jo’s words and how they pave the way for Amy to eventually assume her role as Laurie’s romantic interest.
In conclusion, Amy initially exhibits traits of selfishness and vanity during her elementary school years, yet she undergoes significant growth and development as she transitions into her teen years, fulfilling her potential far more successfully and rapidly than her siblings. Thus, I posit that Amy not only surpasses her sisters in the journey of self-discovery but also emerges as the true protagonist of “Little Women.”
