Age Gap Marriages In Little Women (Historical Origins) Part 4
When Louisa May Alcott was in her early 30s, she travelled to Europe for the first time. She worked as a companion to a cranky, invalid woman called Anna Weld. A little bit similar to Jo working for Aunt March, but Anna Weld wasn’t that old.
When they were staying in Switzerland, one of the hotel guests was a Polish composer called Ladislas Wisniewski, and Louisa called him Laddie, which is very close to the name Laurie. According to Louisa’s diary, he had tuberculosis and Louisa was a nurse, so she took care of him, and she liked his company. Ladislas was 21 and Louisa was 32, so he was about 11 years younger.
I read an interview with Louisa’s nephew, and he said that even in old age, his aunt was a prankster. She liked to make jokes about people. In her diary, Louisa writes that Laddie was also a prankster, and then they would make fun of the guests at the hotel and would make practical jokes about them.
In Little Women, Jo and Laurie are known for that they like to make pranks on people. I was never a Jo and Laurie shipper, but I do know many who have read Little Women as children and then read it again as adults and moved on from shipping Jo and Laurie to shipping Jo and Friedrich because Laurie’s character doesn’t always age well.
I like Amy and Laurie together, and I think people are aware that girls mature a lot earlier than boys. For some of the pranks that Laurie does in Little Women, you just have to wonder if they are supposed to be funny, or is it Louisa May Alcott pointing out that he is immature because the narrator presents the jokes as being harmless? Louisa May Alcott described herself as a hero worshipper, and for Jo, Laurie is a hero simply because Laurie is a boy.
There’s a chapter where Laurie sends letters to Meg in his tutor’s name, and Meg believes that it is John who is writing to her, and she sends him these very personal private answers, and when Marmee finds out, she lectures Laurie, and Jo is like ”oh my poor” Laurie, and Meg is crying in her room at the same time.
Jo and Laurie are like 16 when this happens, but when you move on to part two of Little Women, and Jo and Laurie are in their 20s, Jo has grown out from that behaviour. She’s a lot more interested in writing and education, and there are times when she is avoiding Laurie because Laurie is now giving her attention that she does not want. Laurie is still like a teenager, and he’s still pulling out those pranks.
He grows out of that because of Amy, but it takes time.
The time in Vevey was unusual for Louisa. Laddie would take her on romantic walks and bring her flowers, he would compose music for her, and he would talk to her about their shared future.
Louisa didn’t like Anna Weld that much, but then something happened between Laddie and Miss Weld. Laddie is asked to leave the premises, and Louisa has a short story called Anna’s Whim, where a rich heiress called Anna says no when a man called Ladislas proposes to them. When Louisa’s employment ended, she travelled to Paris and spent a day with Ladislas without a chaperone, and at the time this was very scandalous.
Unmarried woman with a young man. According to Louisa’s diary, some kissing happened in the carriage, and I am rephrasing here ”It was time for the old woman to turn her home and solitude”.
I remember reading that and thinking, girl, you are only 32 years old, why do you call yourself an old woman? This is what is interesting about Louisa May Alcott. The men with who she had these deeper and perhaps physical relationships were either much younger or much older, and there are many occasions in Louisa’s diaries where she calls herself an old soul.
There is speculation if they had a physical relationship or not. In Louisa’s diaries, there are pages ripped off and mysterious words ”couldn’t be” written. I believe this is the reason why in Little Women, why Jo says no to Laurie.
