Quote 1
"Don't you feel that it is pleasanter to help one another, to have daily duties which make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and forbear, that home may be comfortable and lovely to us all?" (11.74)
The lesson Mrs. March teaches her daughters is an old-fashioned one – that labor is better than idleness, and that people are actually happier when they have something to do than when they just sit around all day. We're a bit skeptical that a group of four people would actually come to this conclusion after only two days, but it's a nice idea.
Quote 2
"That is the secret of our home happiness. He does not let business wean him from the little cares and duties that affect us all, and I try not to let domestic worries destroy my interest in his pursuits. Each do our part alone in many things, but at home we work together, always." (38.29)
Mrs. March suggests that the domestic sphere is a joint effort – husband and wife work together to create a home, instead of every aspect of it being the wife's responsibility.
Quote 3
"We are never too old for this, my dear, because it is a play we are playing all the time in one way or another. Our burdens are here, our road is before us, and the longing for goodness and happiness is the guide that leads us through many troubles and mistakes to the peace which is a true Celestial City. Now, my little pilgrims, suppose you begin again, not in play, but in earnest, and see how far you can get before Father comes home." (1.85)
Mrs. March – and Louisa May Alcott – use the structure of John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress to describe the spiritual journeys of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. For the March family, pilgrimage isn't just an allegory; it's real life that is just a stand-in for their gradual journey toward God.
Quote 4
"Once upon a time, there were four girls, who had enough to eat and drink and wear, a good many comforts and pleasures, kind friends and parents who loved them dearly, and yet they were not contented." (4.60)
Love is an essential part of the family life of the March girls, but it's also not enough – at least, the love of parents and friends alone is not enough!
Quote 5
"I gave my best to the country I love, and kept my tears till he was gone. Why should I complain, when we both have merely done our duty and will surely be the happier for it in the end? If I don't seem to need help, it is because I have a better friend, even than Father, to comfort and sustain me. My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother." (8.88)
As Marmee explains to her daughters, she believes that one's love of God is the most important kind of love to feel, but that it has practical relationships to the love of one's country and one's family. By loving God more strongly than anything else, Marmee is able to sacrifice her love for her husband in order to further their loyalty to their country.
Quote 6
"He was perfectly open and honorable about Meg, for he told us he loved her, but would earn a comfortable home before he asked her to marry him. He only wanted our leave to love her and work for her, and the right to make her love him if he could. He is a truly excellent young man, and we could not refuse to listen to him, but I will not consent to Meg's engaging herself so young." (20.28)
John Brooke actually asks for Mr. and Mrs. March's permission, not just to court their daughter Meg, but even to have feelings about her! It's interesting to think about what he means by a "right" to make Meg love him if he can. Do you think you have a right to try and make someone that you're interested in fall in love with you in return?
Quote 7
"I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good. To be admired, loved, and respected. To have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives, with as little care and sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send. To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience. It is natural to think of it, Meg, right to hope and wait for it, and wise to prepare for it, so that when the happy time comes, you may feel ready for the duties and worthy of the joy." (9.142)
Don't kid yourself: this is a nineteenth-century novel about four sisters, and getting married was considered the most important thing for a woman to do at that time period. Even Mrs. March, who is liberal and even radical for the time in many of her views, still thinks that marriage is the ideal for which women should strive.
Quote 8
"As friends you are very happy, and your frequent quarrels soon blow over, but I fear you would both rebel if you were mated for life. You are too much alike and too fond of freedom, not to mention hot tempers and strong wills, to get on happily together, in a relation which needs infinite patience and forbearance, as well as love." (32.91)
As Marmee's critique suggests, Jo and Laurie make good friends, but they would make a terrible married couple. What do you think – should you look for the same qualities in a spouse that you do in a friend?
Quote 9
"Don't neglect husband for children, don't shut him out of the nursery, but teach him how to help in it. His place is there as well as yours, and the children need him. Let him feel that he has a part to do, and he will do it gladly and faithfully, and it will be better for you all." (38.27)
Mrs. March teaches Meg to view her marriage to John Brooke as a partnership. Even though the children are part of the domestic sphere and therefore primarily Meg's responsibility, John also has a definite role to play in their upbringing. Of course, their roles are stereotypical as well as complementary – Meg gives love and affection, while John is the disciplinarian.
Quote 10
"Not far away from here lies a poor woman with a little newborn baby. Six children are huddled into one bed to keep from freezing, for they have no fire. There is nothing to eat over there, and the oldest boy came to tell me they were suffering hunger and cold. My girls, will you give them your breakfast as a Christmas present?" (2.23)
At first the March family seems poor, but when they're contrasted with the Hummels, who don't even have wood for a fire in the middle of winter, we realize that they're actually pretty well off. The existence of poor families like the Hummels gives the Marches a way to practice charity at home, sacrificing some of their comfort to preserve the lives of the unhappy children who live nearby.
Quote 11
"'Have you sons in the army?' I asked, for the note he brought was not to me.
"Yes, ma'am. I had four, but two were killed, one is a prisoner, and I'm going to the other, who is very sick in a Washington hospital.' he answered quietly.
"'You have done a great deal for your country, sir,' I said, feeling respect now, instead of pity.
"'Not a mite more than I ought, ma'am. I'd go myself, if I was any use. As I ain't, I give my boys, and give 'em free.'" (4.53-56)
There are many ways to sacrifice. Early in the novel, we see the March girls sacrificing possessions, money, and food. But, as Mrs. March's story illustrates, it's also possible to sacrifice your love for someone else, such as a family member. Perhaps the girls will be called on to experience that kind of sacrifice later in the novel!
Quote 12
"My dear, where did you get it? Twenty-five dollars! Jo, I hope you haven't done anything rash?"
"No, it's mine honestly. I didn't beg, borrow, or steal it. I earned it, and I don't think you'll blame me, for I only sold what was my own."
As she spoke, Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short.
"Your hair! Your beautiful hair!" "Oh, Jo, how could you? Your one beauty." "My dear girl, there was no need of this." "She doesn't look like my Jo any more, but I love her dearly for it!" (15.41-44)
When Jo cuts off her hair and sells it to a wig-maker to get money for Marmee's travel expenses, she's not just changing her hairstyle. Young women – especially young women almost old enough to get married – simply did not have short hair in the mid-nineteenth century. It was, as they used to say, not done. But Jo does it – she sacrifices both her sex appeal and her respectability for her family.
Quote 13
"We can't give up our girls for a dozen fortunes. Rich or poor, we will keep together and be happy in one another." (4.26)
Mr. and Mrs. March are described in the novel as "unworldly" – they don't have plans or schemes for getting rich, or even for coming up in the world. They're more interested in their family than in their bank account...if they even have one.
Quote 14
"One discovered that money couldn't keep shame and sorrow out of rich people's houses, another that, though she was poor, she was a great deal happier, with her youth, health, and good spirits, than a certain fretful, feeble old lady who couldn't enjoy her comforts, a third that, disagreeable as it was to help get dinner, it was harder still to go begging for it and the fourth, that even carnelian rings were not so valuable as good behavior." (4.61)
Everywhere we turn, the March girls are learning Deep Moral Lessons about money! You know, that money can't buy happiness, that there are much worse fates than being poor, and all that sort of thing,
Quote 15
"My dear girls, I am ambitious for you, but not to have you make a dash in the world, marry rich men merely because they are rich, or have splendid houses, which are not homes because love is wanting." (9.142)
Marmee tries to be clear with her girls: she has ambitious hopes for them, but her ambitions aren't the same as those of other mamas who are trying to find rich husbands and fancy homes for their daughters. Her ambitions as a mother are moral and emotional, rather than worldly.
Quote 16
I'm not ambitious for a splendid fortune, a fashionable position, or a great name for my girls. If rank and money come with love and virtue, also, I should accept them gratefully, and enjoy your good fortune, but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be had in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures. (20.36)
Mrs. March's emphasis on hard work and domesticity, and her dislike of wealth and status, mark her as having a strongly Protestant worldview.