Little Women Inspirations: Friedrich Schiller (With Hejar Sinem) Part 3
Sinem: It is such a great example on how caring and sweet he is, he is very important in the novel as well, and I just love him even more for that, that he’s so caring, and so sweet, and it’s kind of funny, I also wrote to you, these kind of characters, like the ones who are very caring, who are very open about their feelings, who work for their loved ones, often are women in these kind of fictions, and I also think it’s very important that Friedrich is a male, because he kind of unifies men and women in his character.
Niina: Yes, he has a very empathic nature, that is often considered to be more feminine.
Sinem: Yes, that’s true, but I think, for me… I’m not in the age right now, but if there was somebody I’d like to marry, or somebody I would fall in love with, that would probably be somebody who’s empathetic, who loves me, who respects me, it’s of such importance for a person to be empathetic.
Niina: That was such a big deal for Louisa May Alcott, that she found it very important that people did feel empathy others, especially those in bad situations, because she came from such a poor background herself.
Sinem: Definitely, and I think it’s very important that, unlike many fans who actually wanted Jo and Laurie to be together, I think it is perfect that she made Jo and Friedrich an official couple, because, in part 1, there are the Hummels, they are German, and besides Beth, I think Jo is the one who cares for them the most. They are German, they are poor, and that is the same as Friedrich is. He’s German, he’s poor, and I think it is also very important that she showed that interracial relationships are important, and that there are marriages between couples that aren’t the same nationality.
Niina: I think still today you can get some backlash if you are dating someone who is not from the same culture than you are, but in those times it was even more scandalous, and then we have Amy and Laurie, and Laurie is half Italian, and Italians were not treated with respect in the 19th century America.
Sinem: I think his Italian side only shows when he does one of his rounds, like when he’s angry, or when he’s happy, or something like that, only then do we see that he is Italian, but I think it’s that people who are from southern Europe, they are temperamental.
Niina: There are some scenes in Little Women where Laurie mentions how he wants to connect more with his Italian roots, and I think that’s why he’s also very artistic. He’s interested in music and art and things like that, and to him Italy represents those things. I think it has a parallel to Jo, because for Jo, Germany and Goethe, and German Romanticism, it really represents high literature, high poetry, theater pieces, and all these great things that come from Germany, so not only is Louisa May Alcott a Germanophile, but Jo is also a Germanophile.
Sinem: Yes, that is very much true and I also want to specify, I love it, that both Jo and Luisa May Alcott are very interested in German culture and German language. I know it came much later, but when you think of World War II, especially, to me, it is also very important that a novel at that time portrayed the German culture, German language, etc as a very good and new thing, because mostly, when I now look at movies or something like that, it is mostly propagandic that all Germans are bad, and I think that is a very sad thing, because, I mean, everybody has a good and a bad side inside of themselves, and I think it should be balanced and I really love that, unlike most people of her time, Louisa May Alcott didn’t treat German people with disrespect, but with very much respect, especially because she was a transcendentalist, and transcendentalism was very much inspired by a German philosophy that was also stated by Friedrich in their 1994 adaptation and I also think it is very important to acknowledge the fact that, unlike most people of her time, Louisa May Alcott did love Germany and German people, because diversity is very important and respect is very important.
Niina: Yes, I think you are actually the person who might be able to tell about this. Louisa May Alcott loved Goethe, and Goethe is really a big part of German culture in general. How do you see Goethe in Germany? What is his presence?
Sinem: We have read a few poems of Goethe. My father, he has Faust, I think, both in Turkish and German In the German class, we discussed a poem of Goethe, where he looked at Schiller’s skull, because the two were very close. When he looked at Schiller’s skull, that’s when he wrote the poem. I think Goethe is very important, because he portrays such a positive aspect of German culture. I think it’s sad that the teenagers of this time, which I used to be, but I’m not longer. Many people in my classes, they dislike poems in general, so they also kind of dislike Goethe’s poems and then I am there, I adore his poems, because first of all, his language is very wonderful. I have a knack, a flavor for interesting people, so I guess I’ll someday read all of Goethe’s novels or when I find a good biography, I’ll also plan on reading one, because I also think that it’s very important to know about people who shaped our culture.
