Picspam - Meg/John
Louisa May Alcott was aware that, in her time, marriage was one of the few "desirable" options for young ladies. Many were surprised that in this work she had not considered the conventional courtship, engagement, and marriage; and she included them, but with her special twist.
Meg, despite her desires for wealth and vanity, had always had in mind to follow the footsteps of her mother and to be a wife; but, unlike her sisters, her battle was not to find a worthy man, but to learn to live with him. John Brooke could have all the virtues of the world, but he also had the only fault that she wanted to avoid: he was poor.
Meg, just seventeen years old, was about to receive a request from John: He was about to ask her hand in marriage. She has every reason to reject such request: she is young, has not experienced everything that she wanted, besides he has no home, no money, he don't offer stability. Meg makes every effort to refuse, she is not going to sell herself cheap:
"I'm too young," faltered Meg, wondering why she was so fluttered, yet rather enjoying it.
"I'll wait, and in the meantime, you could be learning to like me. Would it be a very hard lesson, dear?"
"Not if I chose to learn it, but..."
"Please choose to learn, Meg. "
The unexpected arrival of Aunt March interrupts the conversation of lovers. Of course, John Brooke does not have her approval! And her arguments against the marriage that she scorns are more or less worded as follows:
" Tell me, do you mean to marry this Cook? If you do, not one penny of my money ever goes to you. Remember that, and be a sensible girl," said the old lady impressively.
"I shall marry whom I please, Aunt March, and you can leave your money to anyone you like," she said, nodding her head with a resolute air.
"Highty-tighty! Is that the way you take my advice, Miss? You'll be sorry for it by-and-by, when you've tried love in a cottage and found it a failure."
True daughter of her parents, Meg makes a heated defense of Mr. Brooke when she discovers that she was not going to sell herself at all, not even to Aunt March, and that is better to marry a poor man who loves her than to despise such love for any amount of money. Such a defense, of course, made a very happy John Brooke:
Meg is the only one of the young March women who married "on screen", and producers really capitalize the event, as they can afford to ignore Meg hesitation or the presence of Aunt March, but I've never seen that they deprive themselves of showing the couple getting married, surrounded by family and friends.
Other pictures of domestic bliss are not always displayed in the adaptations, as the fight after the unsuccessful attempt to make currant jelly:
Or the economic problems when Meg decides to buy silk for a dress with the money that John kept to buy an overcoat:
Or the birth of Demi and Daisy:
Despite the conventional character of this couple, Alcott dares to teach her readers, -because if I remember well the target audience for the novels were girls- that love can lead to a wedding and that being married don't mean that you can live Happily Ever After. Marriage is only the beginning, as a real couple who love each other build their happiness day by day.