In my opinion this is the best scene in the contemporary movie Little Women. (The second best scene is Laurie’s proposal to Jo, but that’s a whole other blog post in itself). There are a few reasons why this scene is the best: 1). The genuine meaning and truth in the dialogue is poetically beautiful and heartbreaking. 2). Saoirse Ronan’s acting is superb. 3). It perfectly ties the entire movie together in terms of character motivations and storyline. While I wish I could elaborate on all three of these reasons, this post will solely focus on number one. Reasons two and three may be covered in a future post, but for now we’ll just look at reason number one.

“You’re much too lonely here, Jo.”
That is the first thing that her mother says to her. As a mother, she knows her daughter and she can see Jo’s loneliness. When Jo admits that she ruined her friendship with Freidrick because of her anger, there’s another layer to uncover there. Women aren’t supposed to be angry. There’s an unspoken rule back then and even now that women are supposed to be obedient to their husbands and support them. Men are doing the real work out in the world and women stay inside and clean and have dinner on the table when their husbands get home. It hardly seems like a fair way of life.

Another piece of Jo’s monologue that catches my attention is when she says that she might have turned Laurie down too quickly when he proposed to her. She was so sure of what she wanted when he proposed, yet now she second guesses herself. She’s willing to compromise herself and conform to the duties of a woman rather than be lonely. I think this speaks to the isolation that loneliness can bring. Jo even admits this. She says that women have minds and souls, talent as well as beauty. Yet, society says that love is all a woman is good for. Is that true? Are we only good for our love? Does all that other stuff, like talent and ambition, not matter? Regardless, I think society also says that if you don’t have a man, you’re going to be lonely. You can have all the talent and ambition in the world, but if you don’t have someone to love, it doesn’t matter. I don’t agree with this statement because there are many people out there who are content with their careers and friends in life. They don’t need a significant other to be happy. Loneliness is a state that I believe everyone feels at some point in their lives.

So the real question: is it worth it to settle? To be loved and not be physically alone? I don’t know. I wish I knew the answer because I feel like it would help, but regardless, what do you think? Is love all a woman is good for? Knowing what loneliness feels like, the isolation, the hollow ache in your chest, is it worth it to be alone and not settle for anything less than what you want? I wish there was a simple straight answer, but I don’t think there is. Jo’s monologue in Little Women tells an important message about society norms and gender roles. Not everyone is a good housewife, not everyone has a motherly instinct and wants children, not everyone is molded into the stereotypical woman. So, I go back to my original question: knowing the physical and emotional role loneliness can happen in life, is it worth it to settle and be loved? Jo’s mother says that being loved is not the same thing as loving, but love just isn’t in the cards for some people. So in that case, is just settling for being loved worth it? What does it mean to be in love? What does it mean to be loved?