Age Gap Marriages In Little Women (Historical Origins) Part 3
When I read Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child, it is a very odd book. She writes to Goethe, but it’s never about him. She speaks about their shared future but never asks what his thoughts are
It is very similar to Laurie’s relationship with Jo. When he proposes, he doesn’t ask what Jo wants, he says what he wants and then there is a scene where Laurie is composing an opera, and it’s a moment when you get this feeling that he doesn’t care who he wants to marry.
He imagines himself to be a prince who saves a helpless princess. Neither Jo nor Amy is helpless by any means, so he doesn’t see either Jo or Amy as the individuals they are. Laurie and Bettina are not in love with anyone, they are in love with the idea of love.
But luckily for us readers, and him, Laurie manages to snap out of that.
This is what Bettina’s brother Clemens writes. ”Goethe asked what interested her.
”Nothing interested me, but you”, she said. He invited her to make herself at home. She jumped into his lap, threw her arms around his neck, and went to sleep”.
Clemens reported that for three hours Bettina extolled Goethe, chastised him, and revitalised him. ”Don’t forget, Goethe, how it was I learned to love you”, she wrote to him. It was through his books.
”I have been jealous of those other women, and sometimes I have felt myself to the subject of your poems and why shouldn’t I dream myself into happiness, where the higher reality is there than a dream?”
In the 19th century, this idea of being in love with the idea of love was considered very romantic. Goethe was a lady’s man and was kind to Bettina at first, but as the time passed by she behaved more like a stalker, and Goethe only occasionally answered her letters.
Bettina left her mark on the world’s history. She was a muse to Beethoven, and according to some sources she attracted the attention of Napoleon. Her book Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child, became a bestseller. She married another poet, von Arnim, and had seven children with him, and later on, she became very active in German politics. A very interesting lady. She sounds a bit scary. The whole obsession with Goethe doesn’t sound very healthy, but Louisa’s love for Bettina and Goethe can be seen in Little Women, not only in Jo’s and Friedrich’s relationship but also in Jo’s and Laurie’s relationship.
Louisa did tell Emerson about her girlhood crush when she was an adult. They were very good friends, but he had no idea.
