Where Is The Brown Skin Laurie (Little Women Closer Look)
Wohoo! New video essay.
100 years of Little Women movies, Laurie has not been played by a brown skin actor.
In the book Laurie has brown skin, curly black hair, a long nose, nice teeth, and little hands and feet. He is the same size as Jo making him equal to her. When he asks Jo to dance he makes a little French bow.
For the 1880 edition of Little Women Louisa´s publisher demanded she makes changes to the books. Little Women was a huge hit and publishers want to make money. Now all of Laurie´s foreign features were removed because they were not suitable for a romantic suitor. He became more handsome, with no mention of the colour of his skin and he is taller than Jo, making him superior to her.
The original description of Laurie, was later on restored to the novel, but for some reason this “romanticsed (white) version of him still appears in the films.
19th Century Racism
This is not in my video essay, but these are thougths I have for future episodes. The racism against Italians was very strong during the time Little Women was written. I have been reading some famous 19th century children/young adult books lately with some pretty awful stereotyping.
Little Lord Fauntleroy
This book was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, writer of Little Princess and Secret Garden. Strory tells about a young American boy, who becames a sole heir of an English Lord. This book was suuuuper popular in the 19th century.
There is a conwoman in the story, who tries to proof that Fauntleroy is not to real lord but her son is. The reason they give for woman’s lunacy, her quick temper and tendency to lie, is that she is Italian.
Kilmeny Of The Orchard
A book written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, writer of Anne of Green Gables. This was a book I thought was very romantic when I was a teen. Now I don’t really like it, to be honest. It tells about a mute girl called Kilmeny and she likes to play her violin in an orchard owned by her relatives. Then one day Eric Marshall enters the garden and falls in love with Kilmeny This is how he is described “one of those men regarding whom less-favoured mortals are tempted to wonder why all the gifts of fortune should be showered on one individual”. The villain of the story is a gardener called Neil and he is in love with Kilmeny and eventually tries to kill Eric in jealous rage.
In the end of the book Neil gets arrested, and and they say that he is a murderer and a dangerous man because he is Italian.
Neil is not Neil’s birth name. We don’t know what it is. He was an orphan, an outsider, he was raised by Kilmeny’s relatives but no one took care of him. I actually feel really bad for Neal when I read the book, yes he is violent and almost becomes a killer, but honestly, Kilmeny’s family has always neglected him and abused him.
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Obviously, I have not read every 19th century children’s book under the sun, but these are few examples where I have come across racism against Italians.
Little Women definitely turns this around, because Laurie’s Italian side, is shown very much a positive thing. It is something poetic, romantic and exciting, for Laurie himself and the March sisters.
I hope you guys enjoy the video essay ❤
