Little Women Inspirations: Friedrich Schiller (With Hejar Sinem) Part 4
Niina: What you said about Schiller made me wonder if Schiller was the one who Friedrich was named after in Little Women, or maybe it was Friedrich De La Motte Foque? I have a feeling it might have been Schiller.
Sinem: Yeah, me too. Yes, that’s of course my own theory, but like I said, I also think that besides Goethe, I think Schiller also may have had an impact on Louisa, because in The Robbers, I think it’s called, in Schiller’s first novel, there’s a female character called Amalia, I don’t know how to pronounce her name in English, but she is very sweet, very generous. She is like Beth, she is very kind and giving and generous, and she only wants the best for everyone. So I found some parallels between Schiller’s work and Louisa’s work.
Niina: That’s really interesting. What was the name of that book?
Sinem: It was called The Robbers. It’s his first novel, he wrote that one when he was 17.Suppose he was not allowed to write at that time, I forgot why he wasn’t allowed, and I think it’s funny that he made a story that is close to Louisa May Alcott’s Blood and Thunder stories, and the main character Karl is very much an archetype of the movement that was around in Germany at that time.
Niina: I was just saying that in Rose In Bloom, Mac reads Goethe, but I realized he doesn’t read Goethe, he actually reads Henry David Thoreau. In Little Women, there’s a moment in part one where John translates a poem from Schiller to Meg.
Sinem: Yes, that is very cute, and it’s also very funny, because John also knows German, and it’s also funny if you think about it, it’s like the whole March family is very interested in German culture. I think Meg was also very eager to hear the translation a bit, and John was also like, Yeah, I’ll help you translate it, or I can teach you with German, I think he said that, I’m not sure, but I think he said that, and it was also very sweet.
Niina: Yes, I have forgotten about that, I love it. It kind of goes along with my theory that Louisa May Alcott planned Jo’s marriage years before she wrote Little Women, because it does feel like a natural thing to do, to introduce a German character to this family that is really obsessed about everything that comes from Germany.
Sinem: I have to say, the first thing that comes to my mind when I see people saying Louisa was forced to marry Jo off is, well, but what if she was forced? Why in the world would Louisa May Alcott write so many things about Jo’s and the March family’s love for Germany?
Niina: I think we can all agree that this really comes from that the quote that she wrote in her journal was about reuniting with her loved one in the afterlife, so Little Women is a wish fulfillment.
Sinem: Yes, that’s true, when people read it, I think it’s also kind of racist of them to state that he was shoveled into the novel, because, I mean, they know Friedrich is German, and it almost always feels like they dislike him, especially because he is German, even people today are like, meh, she should have stayed single or with Laurie, which, to be honest, I can’t stand either. I could never stand the thought that Jo might have ended with Laurie or alone, especially after reading the chapters All Alone and Surprises, because in these two chapters, you can see how lonely Jo is, and then there are people who say she only married Friedrich because Friedrich was invented, because Louisa May Alcott was forced to marry him.
Niina: I think you are correct about the racism, because I have read so many Louisa May Alcott studies that are like, Jo should have married Laurie or Jo should have been alone. There usually is a racist undertone when they start to speak about Friedrich’s character, and then they do not include these parts in Little Women, where Jo clearly loves everything that comes from Germany, or Louisa May Alcott’s adoration to Germany. In Rose in Bloom there is a Chinese character, and he marries an American girl.
Sinem: She made him marry an American because it shows how inclusive she is and while I know that many people are like, well, yes, but Louisa May Alcott had something against the Irish, while I can read a bit of it in their novels, we don’t know what happened to her.
Niina: I think it was a common at the time to mock the Irish people, unfortunately. I spoke with someone who was working in the Orchard House, and they said that it was really more about the effect of the time period. I don’t know. Yeah, Irish people don’t really get a good reputation in Little Women, because when Amy’s limes are thrown into the snow, they are the Irish girls who are picking on her.
Sinem: We don’t know. But it’s also kind of funny, because Hannah herself is Irish, and Hannah is portrayed in a good light, though. I agree with you. I think it is more like the effect of the time, because, I mean, if Louisa May Alcott included Chinese and Asian characters in one of her novels, had this person marry an American, and it was portrayed as a good thing, then why should she be completely against the Irish? Since Hannah was portrayed in such a good light.
Niina: I think it’s the same with the Italians, because on one hand, we have Louisa May Alcott, who shows what she considered good qualities of Italians, and maybe the less good qualities, but there was lots of hate against Italians at the time period. So it’s quite remarkable that Laurie is half Italian in the book, and Germans were also really disliked during this time period in America, in certain circles.
Sinem: I also think it’s very important, the way Mr. Lawrence is actually portrayed. He’s a very kind and giving and lovable person, but he has a flaw, in part one, we learn that his son married an Italian and he was against it. Mrs. March states that he never could like the lady, even though she was very kind and loving, and overall a very nice person, and Mr. Lawrence couldn’t like her, even though she was very kind to him and all that stuff, simply because he represented, the culture or the society around that time.
Niina: If Mr. Lawrence was raised in an environment where there is lots of pre-consumption against Italians, then he would be part of that kind of generation that sort of automatically sees them as lower than he. It sucks, but that’s the way a lot of people are, even still today.
Sinem: Yes, sadly, but I also have tosay, I really love how Louisa May Alcott made the interracial marriages in Little Women work so well. Whenever I read those passages between the couples, except for Meg and John, they are both American, they are still a lovely couple, though, but whenever I read them, I love the way Louisa May Alcott writes these couples, Amy and Laurie, and Jo and Friedrich, because it really gets lost in all of the adaptations. I think the only couple which gets marriage time, is the one between John and Meg, only because Meg is the first one to marry, I assume, but then, the movie-makers all like everything is about Jo and Laurie, and it doesn’t feel right,
Niina: Because that’s not the way things happen in the novels, and because Laurie is partially based on Laddie Wisniewski, and the more I have read about Louisa May Alcott’s relationship with Laddie Wisniewski, it more and more feels like a mother and son relationship.
Sinem: Little Women would not have been the masterpiece, as I call it, if Jo had ended up with Laurie, because first of all, Louisa May Alcott based all the characters around someone she loved, who she cared about, and it would not have been right for her to marry Jo and Laurie, because Laddie is one of the inspirations for Laurie, and she did not end up with Laddie and I don’t think it will work, because I know it’s only semi-autobiographical, but it would not have felt right, because in the proposal scene, which I rather call the harassing scene, in that one you see in the novel, of course, only, because why would the movie-makers do such a wonderful thing, they very much don’t show that in the movies, Jo really, talks to Laurie, as if he was her child. She’s like, you will meet an accomplished woman, you sensible good boy, and all that stuff.
That is really there, and the movie-makers just don’t use it. Okay, the movie-makers, for me, are more likely to be after the money, because Little Women is such a beloved tale, but that’s another thing.
Niina: I agree, and we will get into this chapter soon. Throughout this chapter, Jo refers to Laurie and Amy as children.
Sinem: Yes, that is also very cute and funny, and it also shows that Joehas always been much more mature than Laurie. I can’t say whether she was more mature than Amy, after Amy grew up, but I think it shows that, while Jo is a free spirit and independent and, I will not say egoistic, but sometimes, she says, I only want to do things for myself. She cares very much about herself, and she also respects herself very much, and I love that she calls them children, because, first of all, it’s cute, second of all, it shows that she is very much mature.
Niina: I think in part one of Little Women, Jo is more egoistic, but so is Amy, and so are Meg and Laurie, because they are teens, and when you are a teenager, your life pretty much centers around yourself.
Sinem: Yes, that’s true. I also have to say, I really love how Jo evolves in the end, because many people are like, she was such a feminist in the first book, and then in Good Wives, or part two, as I call it, they are like she is so anti-feminist, and she’s very man-loving, that’s not the Jo we love blah blah blah, and then I’m like, I think the toxic masculinity of Jo shows even in chapter three, when she goes to Laurie, when he’s sick, and she’s like, why don’t you invite somebody so you have company, he says, well, I don’t know, the boys are too loud, etc., and then she’s like, well, then why don’t you call a girl, because girls are quiet and they like to play nurse.
Niina: I see what you mean.
Sinem: I get why people would fall for the idea that Jo is a feminist in the first part, but that is not the case, she loves men very much, she idealizes them, and she thinks it’s a shame to be a woman, and that is the complete opposite of what feminism is about. I think it’s very important that we study it, and later parts, when, for example, Laurie, her sister, and all of Beth’s deatH and twins birth, Jo grows to be a feminist, because she accepts that having feminine empathy, feminine kind of interests, isn’t a bad thing, it’s more a bad thing to be everything female is bad, and everything male is wonderful.
