Archetypes In Little Women

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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has long been considered a Classic piece of American literature, even since its publication in 1868. Many critics, including the author of one of the novel’s introductions, remark that this is due to, mainly, the casual reader’s ability to relate to the March sisters, the subtle rebelliousness against Victorian anti-feminist ideals, and the novel’s dismissal of old archetypes for its female characters. Although the relatability of characters does not qualify a novel as being ‘of literary merit,’ it is notable when the novel is more than one hundred and fifty years old, and the characters were created with a completely different ‘set’ of moral and social ideals in place. For example, it is more difficult for a modern teenager to relate to a medieval princess than to, say, a character of a similar age and era (four sisters in Civil War-era Massachusetts is hardly a challenge when faced with Romeo and Juliet for the first time). Even angelic Beth, an example of the old female archetype that shall be mentioned later, is relatable in her shyness or ...

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