![]() ![]() Each of the grooms spends significant time meeting and being accepted by the family before the marriage. Alcott and her characters devote great attention to finding good husbands. Marmee's discussions with the girls about their duties to each other and their parents evolve into discussions about their duties to their husbands and children. Marmee teachers her daughters that having a loving husband and family is the greatest joy a woman can have, as emphasized by the concluding line of the book. The theme of family encompasses the girls marrying and starting families of their own. ![]() The girls miss their Father or Mother not because it makes their work harder, but because they are the moral head and heart of the family. The main dramas play out within the family as well, such as Jo and Amy’s fight over the burnt manuscript. ![]() Without money or an urge to be very active in society, much of the March family’s experiences and emotions take place within the family unit, inventing plays and clubs. When Aunt March offers to adopt a child, Father and Mother reject, insisting that they stay together. Throughout the novel, Alcott emphasizes the importance of family as not only a practical or economic unit but also a deeply meaningful one. The characters are defined by their familial relations and behaviors toward each other, and all are deeply invested in cultivating and supporting one another. The dominant theme of Little Women, as for girls in the nineteenth century, is family. ![]()
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