Jo's Wife Quotes

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Throughout the novel, Jo is characterized by her feeling that she isn’t comfortable being a “lady”. She does things like swearing, going by “Jo” instead of Josephine, and cuts her hair for money for her father. She not only resists the gender roles of her time, but she actively fights against them:
“I hate to think I’ve got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as 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 out and fight with Papa, and I can only stay at home and knit, like a poky old woman!” (Alcott, 13).
Jo continuously expresses her desire to be a boy, and even assumes a manly position when her father leaves the house to fight in the war. “I’m the man of the family now that Papa is away, and I shall provide the slippers, for he told me to take special care of mother while he was gone.” (Alcott, 14). She is infinitely more comfortable spending her time running …show more content…

She is fond of luxury and high society, mainly due to the fact that she can remember when her family was wealthy. She is also a “hopeless romantic”, as evidenced by her story she tells her sisters for amusement that revolves around love and marriage. "’Poor girls don't stand any chance, Belle says, unless they put themselves forward,’ sighed Meg.” Meg truly just wants to marry rich, and live the rest of her life in high society. She eventually, however, falls in love with John Brookes, a man who is as poor as she is. She marries him, and they have twins together. Meg ties herself to John financially, and stays at home as a busy wife and mother taking care of the house, as most women in that era did. The difference between her and Jo, however, is that Meg knew she would end up a wife and woman who stayed at home, and was eagerly anticipating

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