Story summary
Little Women summary
Four sisters in a snowbound Massachusetts house make do without presents, hold their family together through a war, and grow up in very different directions.
Little Women is set in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War. Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March live with their mother, Marmee, while their father serves as an army chaplain. Money is short, but the house is full of music, books, plays and teasing. Across the way lives a rich, lonely boy named Laurie, who soon becomes the sisters' friend.
It is a warm, episodic family story about growing up: first dances, writing, art, illness, love and loss. It is about kindness and temper, ambition and home. Readers who love a close family, a spirited heroine, and a story that can make you laugh and cry in the same chapter will find a lot to like.
Main characters
The plot
Spoilers from here on, including the ending.
A Christmas without presents
On Christmas Eve the sisters grumble about being poor, then decide to spend their little money on gifts for Marmee. Her letter from Father at the front makes each girl promise to try to be a little woman. On Christmas morning, they give their breakfast to the starving Hummel family, and old Mr. Laurence, next door, hears of it and sends over a feast.
Laurie and the neighbors
At a New Year's party, Jo hides behind a curtain and meets Laurie, and the two become friends. Mr. Laurence welcomes Jo into his library and invites Beth to play his piano, later giving her one of her own. Meg spends two weeks with the wealthy Moffats and comes home sorry she was vain. After Jo refuses to take Amy to the theater, Amy burns Jo's manuscript, and Jo's anger almost costs Amy her life when she falls through the ice.
Father's illness and Beth's fever
A telegram says Father is gravely ill in Washington. Jo sells her hair so Marmee can go. While she is away, Beth catches scarlet fever from the Hummel baby. Laurie telegraphs Marmee when the fever peaks. At dawn it breaks, and Marmee arrives. On Christmas Day, Mr. Brooke brings home Father, recovered.
Weddings, jobs and journeys
John Brooke confesses his love to Meg, and when Aunt March objects, Meg defends him. Three years later they marry and move to the Dovecote, where Meg has twins. Jo writes sensational stories for money. Aunt March takes Amy to Europe instead of Jo, and Jo goes to New York, where she meets the kind Professor Bhaer, who tells her to write something truer.
Laurie's proposal and Beth's passing
Laurie graduates from Harvard and tells Jo he loves her. She turns him down, and he goes abroad with his grandfather. In Nice, Amy tells him he is wasting his life. Back in Concord, Beth's health fades, and Jo nurses her until she dies peacefully in the spring. Jo's writing about Beth is published and touches readers everywhere.
Home at Plumfield
In Switzerland Laurie comforts Amy, and the two realize they love each other. They come home married. Jo, lonely, is visited by Professor Bhaer, who is about to leave for Ohio. She runs after him in the rain with an umbrella, and they promise to build a life together. Aunt March leaves her Plumfield, and Jo and Friedrich turn it into a school for boys. Years later, the whole family gathers there for an apple harvest, and Marmee, on her sixtieth birthday, says she could wish her daughters no greater happiness.
Themes
- Family and sisterhood
- The sisters quarrel, forgive and rely on one another through sickness, poverty and distance. Even when their lives take them apart, the March home remains the place they come back to.
- Becoming a little woman
- Each sister has a flaw to work on: Meg's vanity, Jo's temper, Beth's shyness, Amy's pride. The story shows them learning from mistakes with the help of Marmee, who admits she struggles with her own temper too.
- Ambition and independence
- Jo wants to write, Amy wants to paint, and Meg wants a happy home. The story takes all three seriously, and shows that finding the right path can mean changing course, as when Amy decides she has talent but not genius.
- Generosity and loss
- The Marches give away their breakfast, and the neighbors give back. Beth's gentleness and her death show how much one kind person can mean, and Jo's writing carries her memory to others.
Questions about Little Women
- How does Little Women end?
- Meg is married with children, Amy marries Laurie, and Jo marries Professor Bhaer and runs the Plumfield school with him. Beth has died, but the family gathers at Plumfield in happiness, and Marmee thanks her daughters for their love.
- Does Jo end up with Laurie?
- No. Jo refuses his proposal because she believes they would make each other unhappy. Laurie later marries Amy, and he and Jo stay close friends.
- When and where is Little Women set?
- It takes place in Concord, Massachusetts, during the American Civil War, with scenes in New York City and, for Amy and Laurie, in Europe.
- What happens to Beth in Little Women?
- She catches scarlet fever after visiting the sick Hummel baby. She recovers but stays frail, and she dies peacefully in the spring.
- Why does Amy burn Jo's manuscript?
- Jo will not take her to the theater with Laurie, and Amy burns Jo's book of fairy tales to make her sorry. Jo cannot forgive her until she nearly loses her sister on the ice.