SPOILERS FOR LITTLE WOMEN AND LITTLE MEN
So I was re-reading Little Women because I want to see the Greta Gerwig movie and thought I would refresh my memory on the book. I know most of the controversy on romances tends to be on Jo/Laurie/Amy, with an occasional aside on Friedrich, but has anyone wondered why Meg marries John Brooke?
I know the book is very Jo centric, but at Meg’s interest in John Brooke seems tepid at best. She never thinks of him when she’s being introduced to high society men or when she hears women gossiping about her marriage prospects and she flat out rejects him when Laurie writes the fake letter. Later on, when he comes out and proposes, she seems flattered, but not exactly happy. Then when she accepts him, the narrator tells us it’s because she’s decided to spite Aunt March, not because she’s secretly devoted to him.
Meg is the oldest, and supposedly the prettiest of the March girls with a rich aunt interested in making her a “fine match.” She also likes the finer things in life. So why did she marry a guy who was poor, not that hot, I’m probably not in good health either since he passed away before Meg was 40? You would think that she’d have to be madly in love, but she never shows any signs of it.
by GwyneddDragon