#i remember before reading the book everyone spoke of amy's marriage to laurie as a betrayal to jo

[the-other-art-blog]

Jo’s Boys: Chapter 2 Parnassus (Part 2) May and Amy

As I said on Part 1 of these chapter post, the following quote says so much about Amy, but also relates to May.

...for she was one of those who prove that women can be faithful wives and mothers without sacrificing the special gift bestowed upon them for their own development and the good of others.

May married before Louisa started writing this book. It looks like Louisa was very interested in how May balanced family and work. At the time women had two options, either they focused on their careers or they get married. Trying to combine them seemed crazy.

There were a few literary works addressing this issue at the time. In 1877 Elizabeth Stuart published The Story of Avis which depicted a woman who gave up her art after getting married. Louisa read this book and warned May about it, but her sister was determined to prove those thoughts wrong. She writes,

‘I mean to combine painting and family, and show that it is a possibility if left alone.’

This blessed lot is mine, and from my purpose I shall never be diverted... I am free to follow my profession, I have a strong arm to protect, a tender love to cherish me and I have no fears for the future.

And indeed she succeeded those two years of marriage. In fact, 1879 proved to be one of May’s most prolific and successful years of her career. It’s such a shame May died just weeks after giving birth when her career was going so well.

To quote that same letter, “May decided wisely”, and Amy too.

There’s the idea that Amy stopped pursuing an artistic career because Louisa was jealous of how easy things came for May. She wasn’t wrong. May was incredibly lucky and there was always someone willing to help her. And as the baby of the family, she was often shielded from the hardships of life. So if Louisa was bitter, I wouldn’t blame her (although she pampered May too). And if this were true, I think her vision of May changed by the time she wrote this book.

I think Louisa gave Amy this development as part of her curiosity and admiration towards her own sister.   🥰 🥰 🥰

Come to think if it, Amy never really stopped drawing. After rejecting Fred, Louisa tells us that Amy has a quieter trip and that she spends her time sketching ( faceless knights in shinny armor or couples dancing, but that’s another story 😉 ). And in the last chapter, Amy is making a bust of baby Bess. Of course Amy would never drop her art, even if she tried. It’s such a fundamental part of who she is that it’s impossible for her to stay away from it. It defines her and differentiates her from everyone else around her.

Now, long has been discussed about May’s approval or dislike towards the character of Amy. The only direct quote I have found from May about Amy is a letter to Alf Whitman where she refers to her book counterpart as “horrid stupid”. She might be referring to Amy’s selfishness and vanity, as she recognizes she was the same once but now she is changing (like Amy did). However, this was before Part 2 was published.

Regardless, I am convinced that May would have loved how Amy’s life turned out. May was an incredibly generous person who dreamed of offering art to everyone, no matter the social class nor the color of their skin. She was always willing to help a fellow artist. She gifted Daniel Chester French his first sculpting tools, yeah THE Daniel Chester who sculpted the Lincoln Memorial! (In fact, he wrote the preface for May’s Memorial by Caroline Ticknor in 1928. He was always grateful for all the support and encouragement May gave him.)

Another thing that Amy and May have in common is the criticism towards their marriages. Many people don’t consider May feminist enough because she didn’t participated in the suffragette movement, she got married and she expressed how much she loved her domestic life. Who cares if she openly criticized the art system and spoke openly about the unequal opportunities that women have in artistic education. Even less, if she rejected multiple suitors until she found the right one, someone who would love her and respect her career.

In one of her letter, she said,

‘the lonely artistic life that once satisfied me seems the most dreary in the world’

Many people judges her and claims that she succumbed to the patriarchy. Really, what May was calling “dreary” was the lonely life she had. She was in Europe away from the rest of her family, she couldn’t even say goodbye to Marmee when she died. She was depressed for a while and felt guilty for not coming back home. The only person who was able to cheer her up was Ernest (like Laurie did with Amy 😊 ). She could go wherever she wanted because she had nothing attaching her to a certain place. But May always dreamed of marriage and a family. In a previous letter she says,

If mine can’t be a happy domestic life, as such as I have longed for and prayed for, perhaps the good God meant me for great things in other ways.

Just months before meeting Ernest, she still dreamed of romance! So sue her if she was happy with her husband and her domestic life. That was her dream.

I haven’t finished reading The Story of Avis, but by the synopsis, it seems that part of the problem was Avis’ husband and his lack of support towards her artistic career. This is an issue that neither May nor Amy had.

Ernest was one in a million. He never represented an obstacle to her career, on the contrary, he was an enthusiast. In the end, May got her Laurie   🥰 🥰 🥰

Now that I think of, Louisa followed the destiny of the real-life people in her characters. Beth, John and Marmee died in the novels because Lizzy, John and Marmee died in real life. However, she kept Amy alive.

Nobody expected May’s death. She had had such luck in life that it felt impossible for it to stop.

In various letters, May had asked Louisa to visit her in Meudon (where she lived with Ernest). Unfortunately, Louisa couldn’t go. There were responsibilities at home and her health was a big issue and she didn’t want to be a burden.

May’s death was devastating for Louisa. In one of her diary entries she remembers the last time she saw her, waving goodbye from the ship to London. Then she writes,

A lonely time with all away. My grief meets me when I come home, and the house is full of ghosts.

To me that phrase is incredibly personal. My grandparents and two of my aunts lived together. In the last years they’ve all been passing away and now the house that once was full of life is abandoned.

Louisa apologized in the preface of this book for writing little about Amy,

Since the original has died, it has been impossible for me to write of her,...

Indeed, I would have love to read more about Amy, but these first two pages about her are so important and tell us so much about her, her marriage and her career.

Maybe Louisa had already written this chapter before May’s death. Who knows. Maybe Louisa couldn’t bear another loss in her fictional family too. If May was gone, at least Amy would live and have a happy long life.

[lovelylaurie]

I’d like to formally request a fic that’s wedding day/night with Laurie with the reader as a March sister (if possible could you make her age be in between Beth and Jo) thank you so much!

Everything Forever

Laurie x (March) Reader Words: 2042 Request:

I’d like to formally request a fic that’s wedding day/night with Laurie with the reader as a March sister (if possible could you make her age be in between Beth and Jo) thank you so much!

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    You sat alone in your childhood bedroom, the one shared between you and your sisters for so many years. It was cramped but homely, less like sardines or pearl onions, packed into their pickling jars, and more like a basket of kittens, all piled together to maintain warmth and closeness. 

     It was an incredibly grown-up thing, getting married, but you yourself didn’t feel grown-up. You still felt small in comparison to the world and there was an innate desire tugging at your mind to crawl back into your little box, your little home. Your entire family was bustling about downstairs to get everything ready on time: Marmee, your sisters, your father, Hannah, Mr. Laurence, Brooke, and Demi and Daisy (ring bearer and flower girl respectively, of course). Aunt March, too, was there, but you could more easily see her perched on a couch, judging the minutest of details with a trained and scrupulous eye, than deigning to get involved in the mess. You could hear them, faintly, but up here the air was silent. Memories lingered around you like the smell of sweetness, of a cake baking, heartwarming and delicious but undeniably out of reach. There’s a certain lucidity to remembrance that just isn’t possible in the present moment. It allows you to savor what would otherwise be neglected details while also knowing that the time to truly appreciate them has come and gone. And so we sit from afar and long for times past, miss the present, and resent the future for eternally failing to match our expectations. As you emerged out of childhood and into teenhood and then very quickly into adulthood, the future had begun to scare you. While it had previously been always more of the same, it now morphed into something unpredictable. It was, truly, the forever unknown. It took you a while to notice, but being with Laurie melted all that away. Anxious thoughts of future responsibilities dissolved into thin air. Like steam from a boiling pot, they came from a place of torrid churning, but the rising vapor just seemed to disappear after a few seconds. It wasn’t that he returned you to that safe and carefree home. It’s that he was that home for you. You had spent so long worrying about marriage and making mistakes. While Jo rejected the idea and Meg yearned for it, you dreaded not the act itself, but choosing poorly. You feared being falsely swept off your feet and lured into an unhappy marriage just as much as passing by acceptable options for too long and being forced into a lonely life. It wasn’t that the future seemed clear with Laurie, it’s just that it made more sense. The future could go do whatever it wanted because you were enjoying the now. The image of his face and his grin filled your head and you found yourself smiling. Laurie…       There was a sound at the door and Jo peeked her head in. “Ah!” She smiled. “I’ve found you.” You suspected she might try to speak with you privately, so her arrival was no surprise.  “Are you going to try and talk me out of this? Meg warned me.” Your voice was quieter than you expected, its soft tone humming through the golden-hued room.  “No, no, I…” She fumbled with her fingertips nervously. “I’m happy for you.”  “Oh, Jo!” You held out your hand for her and she crossed the room in a heartbeat to sit beside you, wrapping her arms around your shoulders. You loved her, your caring and brave-hearted big sister. “I know you were excited at first, but I was worried that if you really thought about it, you wouldn’t be…”  She spoke to you softly, “Meg may be content with her stale bore of a husband, but you’ve somehow managed to make Laurie my brother, and for that, I will be forever grateful.” You grinned and your laugh was breathy and weepy. Jo just held you, but you could tell tears were brimming in the corners of her eyes, too.

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    You were sitting quietly at the dining room table eating a late-morning breakfast with a book propped open before you, quietly accompanied by Beth. Then a stampede of footfalls thundered down the stairs and Jo burst into the room, almost running into the table in her haste. “(y/n), Laurie has a surprise for you!!!” Laurie ran in after her and clamped a hand over her mouth, “I’m never telling you anything ever again.” You were understandably confused. Glancing between them and Beth for some explanation, you noticed a glow of realization dawn on her face. She beamed and turned to Jo. “I think I know what it is…” Jo nodded vigorously and Beth squealed. Betrayal… “Does everyone know except me?” Beth was still grinning “That’s what makes it a surprise.” “Well not Meg,” Jo pointed out. “Actually…” Laurie looked down bashfully. “I went over yesterday to see Daisy and Demi and told her.” You glared at him and he expertly avoided your gaze. “But not Amy, she still doesn’t know.” Jo rolled her eyes, “Well of course not, she can’t keep a secret to save her life.” “Neither can you!” Laurie looked petulant. “You do realize you have to tell me now, right?” Laurie was giving you an odd look, one of tender anticipation but also of unbridled love. “Not yet, but you will, and it’ll be splendid!” Jo gushed. “Wha-” You tried to get some sort of explanation, but she flew back up the stairs from whence she came. Laurie walked over to you and placed a sweet kiss on your lips. The way he looked at you now was so precious, so special. You felt so lucky to be in love with such a beautiful and kind young man. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you, too.” He kissed you one more time before leaving. Smirking as he went, you could see his usual air of mischief brimming behind his eyes. “What was that?” you questioned, but Beth simply smiled.

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    As you stood across from Laurie now, you could barely remember the past few hours. Putting on your dress, doing your hair, it was all a complete daze. But honestly, right now, at the altar, they didn’t matter one bit, one tiny, measly, insignificant iota. The only thing in your mind was Laurie. The way he looked at you like you were the most important thing in the world, the way he ran his thumb over the backs of your hands as he held them. Your heart was beating erratically and you could tell his was, too. Every fiber of your being felt jittery and electric, and you wondered, for a moment, if this was the exact physical feeling of love. You were so focused on Laurie that you could barely hear your father as he spoke about how love can brew quietly for a long time, and how that love is always the softest and the easiest kind of love. It dawned on you, then, how perfectly lucky you were that you would get to spend the rest of your life in such splendid and wonderful bliss with Laurie. Your Laurie… “I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.” In the blink of an eye, Laurie was kissing you, with a hand held tenderly on your cheek. There was so much passion and emotion in that kiss, it was as if he had been waiting the entire day for that exact moment. To be fair, so were you, and so was everyone else. It was a wedding, after all.

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    After breakfast, you joined Jo and Laurie upstairs in the attic to listen to her read aloud from a book she had just finished. Beth followed soon after, curling up next to Jo like a sleeping cat. You and Laurie sat entwined, half sitting and half laying down. Then Jo switched to the book Aunt March was having her read, for comparison, and she put on the most dry, drawling tone that somehow had you laughing in spite of it.     Jo and Beth left eventually, but you and Laurie stayed. You couldn’t pass up an opportunity to lay in each other’s arms in the playful warmth of the attic. You’d think an attic to be dark, but not this one. The windows were positioned perfectly, in such a way that light shone in and filled the room with a golden glow. You played with Laurie’s hair idly, petting the dark curls and twirling them in your fingers. It was the easiest thing in the world to love him. He mumbled something that you couldn’t quite hear. “Hm?” you asked lazily, “Did you say something?” He gazed at you with mossy eyes, and you noticed in that moment how odd and pretty it was that they were simultaneously green and blue. You were lost, and scarcely caught his whispered response. “I want to marry you.” It took a few moments before you realized what he said. “Laurie…” you sat up, almost frozen in shock. “(y/n),” he reached down and held one of your hands in both of his. “I can’t imagine a world, a life without you in it. I can’t love anyone else, it’s only you.” He started to look worried as you just sat there, mind curiously blank. You loved him, you loved him so much. This was a dream you didn’t realize you had. You’d been so focused on being with him and loving him now that you hadn’t found the time to imagine it lasting forever. All of a sudden the realization hit you that this was everything you could ever want and then immediately after it was yours. It was one moment, one instant containing an entire tidal wave of emotion, of yearning and dreaming and loving and requiting that astounded you, dumbfounded you, and left you utterly speechless. Laurie waited, as patiently as he could, but something in him was falling apart. “You want to marry me?” He nodded anxiously. “Of course, Laurie.” He let out a breath of relief and rushed to kiss you. It was wonderful, passionate, and half-desperate and you kissed back like your life depended on it. “Was that the surprise?” you whispered a moment later. “Yes,” he laughed, “and the ring, too.” Your brain kinda broke again for a moment there, but it was alright. Everything was alright, more than alright. Everything was perfect.     Later, as you came downstairs with a smile on your face and a ring on your finger, Beth, who was sitting at the piano, began to play Here Comes the Bride. You blushed, “Beth, stop that!” Without a moment’s hesitation, she began to play Pachabel’s Canon. You decided to ignore her and sat down on the couch, Laurie beside you. “Is Amy back yet?” you asked. She had left early to spend part of the day with some posh friends that were having a garden brunch. “The carriage arrived a few moments ago, Jo went to greet her.” “Oh no…” you realized what that meant as the front door burst open and Amy ran into the room, a flutter of pale blue fabric and ribbons. “YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?!” Now Amy had changed a lot in the past few years, shedding her childhood boisterousness and replacing it with the serene calm of a sophisticated society lady. But this, of course, was Amy as you had always known her. “Yes?” you managed before she noticed Laurie sitting next to you. “And you! How could you??” Laurie was obviously confused “What?” “Did you not think to tell me?? Did you think I wouldn’t want to be here?” “Oh, you’re excited,” you realized. It wasn’t always obvious with her. “Of course I’m excited!”  

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    The sky darkened and filled with stars as the long and joyous day began to die down. Music was still playing, but with tired feet and tired minds, there was now less dancing and more quiet celebrations in talking and enjoying each other’s company. You stood in front of Laurie, with your head resting on his chest and his arms wrapped around you, watching your friends and family all together. You couldn’t imagine being happier.

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