How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"You are old enough to leave off boyish tricks, and to behave better, Josephine. It didn't matter so much when you were a little girl; but now you are so tall, and turn up your hair, you should remember that you are a young lady."
"I'm not! And if turning up my hair makes me one, I'll wear it in two tails till I'm twenty," cried Jo, pulling off her net, and shaking down a chestnut mane. "I hate to think I've got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster! It's bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boys' games and work and manners! I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy; and it's worse than ever now, for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa, and I can only stay at home and knit, like a poky old woman!" (1.26-27)
One of the first things we know about Jo March is that she's a tomboy – she'd rather go out into the world and boldly make her own way than stay at home and be a housewife or a spinster. Unfortunately, she's about a hundred years too early for most other options!
Quote #2
"I'll try and be what he loves to call me, 'a little woman,' and not be rough and wild, but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else," said Jo, thinking that keeping her temper at home was a much harder task than facing a rebel or two down South. (1.77)
We're not sure how much of a joke this little narrative aside really is. Obviously, going to war is much more physically dangerous, but at least battle, while difficult and requiring great heroism, is straightforward. Jo has to battle herself and her own inclinations.
Quote #3
Mr. Brooke looked up and said quickly, "Young ladies in America love independence as much as their ancestors did, and are admired and respected for supporting themselves."
"Oh, yes, of course it's very nice and proper in them to do so. We have many most respectable and worthy young women who do the same and are employed by the nobility, because, being the daughters of gentlemen, they are both well bred and accomplished, you know," said Miss Kate in a patronizing tone that hurt Meg's pride, and made her work seem not only more distasteful, but degrading. (12.125-126)
Alcott likes to remind us that her novel and her characters are particularly American. While Laurie's aristocratic British friends may sneer at Meg because she has to work for a living, John Brooke insists that work and femininity are not incompatible. In fact, he suggests, there's something especially American about a working woman.
Quote #4
Annie Moffat's foolish lessons in coquetry came into her mind, and the love of power, which sleeps in the bosoms of the best of little women, woke up all of a sudden and took possession of her. (23.34)
Sometimes Alcott's novel reinforces negative stereotypes and chauvinistic attitudes – such as that women are especially jealous, or that they say "no" when they mean "yes." These passages can be frustrating for contemporary readers, especially since we still combat these stereotypes in our culture today.
Quote #5
On her left were two matrons, with massive foreheads and bonnets to match, discussing Women's Rights and making tatting. (27.5)
In this passage, Alcott develops a contrast between the progressive discussion about women's rights and the more traditional female activity of needlework ("tatting" is a kind of lace). This contrast is emblematic of the novel as a whole, which includes both liberal and conservative approaches to woman's place in the world and in the home.
Quote #6
"You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can't explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women." (30.62)
Amy associates moral goodness with aristocracy – being a "lady" or a "true gentlewoman." Her sisters, by contrast, tend to associate goodness with hard work – rolling up your sleeves and diving in.
Quote #7
Very likely some Mrs. Grundy will observe, "I don't believe it, boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles." I dare say you don't, Mrs. Grundy, but it's true nevertheless. Women work a good many miracles, and I have a persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings. Let the boys be boys, the longer the better, and let the young men sow their wild oats if they must. But mothers, sisters, and friends may help to make the crop a small one, and keep many tares from spoiling the harvest, by believing, and showing that they believe, in the possibility of loyalty to the virtues which make men manliest in good women's eyes. If it is a feminine delusion, leave us to enjoy it while we may, for without it half the beauty and the romance of life is lost, and sorrowful forebodings would embitter all our hopes of the brave, tenderhearted little lads, who still love their mothers better than themselves and are not ashamed to own it. (41.9)
In this long digression, Alcott is responding to a nineteenth-century belief that men can't fully control their sexual desires – they have to "sow their wild oats," seducing women when they're young and randy. In other words, they get to be exceptions from regular moral rules, although women have to remain proper. Alcott finds this idea frustrating and counters by supporting another common nineteenth-century perspective – that women can influence the men in their families to behave more ethically.
Quote #8
Gentlemen, which means boys, be courteous to the old maids, no matter how poor and plain and prim, for the only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble, and serve womankind, regardless of rank, age, or color. Just recollect the good aunts who have not only lectured and fussed, but nursed and petted, too often without thanks, the scrapes they have helped you out of, the tips they have given you from their small store, the stitches the patient old fingers have set for you, the steps the willing old feet have taken, and gratefully pay the dear old ladies the little attentions that women love to receive as long as they live. The bright-eyed girls are quick to see such traits, and will like you all the better for them, and if death, almost the only power that can part mother and son, should rob you of yours, you will be sure to find a tender welcome and maternal cherishing from some Aunt Priscilla, who has kept the warmest corner of her lonely old heart for 'the best nevvy in the world'. (43.4)
Alcott, who was an old maid herself, writes with particular feeling when defending the rights of spinster to a respected and respectable place in society.
Quote #9
Mr. Bhaer could read several languages, but he had not learned to read women yet. He flattered himself that he knew Jo pretty well, and was, therefore, much amazed by the contradictions of voice, face, and manner, which she showed him in rapid succession that day, for she was in half a dozen different moods in the course of half an hour. (46.38)
Although Jo is an unusual woman in many ways, Alcott also depicts her behaving like a stereotypical moody, fickle girl.
Quote #10
"I may be strong-minded, but no one can say I'm out of my sphere now, for woman's special mission is supposed to be drying tears and bearing burdens." (46.99)
The novel concludes by reconciling Jo's unusual character with the nineteenth century's idea of woman's proper sphere. Jo isn't turned into a typical housewife, but she also doesn't get to go out into the world and become a celebrated author or playwright. Instead of entering the public world, she remains in the domestic one, even though she changes it significantly.