Little Women as Philosophy: Death or Marriage and the Meaning of Life

Abstract

In 2019, Greta Gerwig adapted Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, Little Women, for the silver screen. It’s “the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women, each determined to live life on their own terms.” In Meaning in Life and Why It Matters (2010), Susan Wolf argues that life is meaningful if feelings of fulfillment and joy (subjective meaning) are married with finding one’s passions (objective meaning). Or meaning in life arises when “subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness, and one is able to do something about it or with it” (p. 26). As the March girls struggle to become their own women, the duty to secure financial security through marriage forces each sister to compromise or give up her youthful dreams and artistic ambitions. Thus they do not experience the feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction that come from indulging in one’s passions. In fact, like March sisters, most women throughout history are ill-fitted to Wolf’s fitting fulfillment theory of meaning. Through the story it tells, Little Women supports the view that feelings of fulfillment may be indicative of, but not necessary for, meaning in life. Instead, we should lean into the objective side of Wolf’s theory and evaluate meaning in terms of whether the life in question can be “appropriately appreciated, admired, or valued by others, at least in principle” (ibid., p. 32, emphasis added). A purely objective theory could accommodate many, if not all, women of worth who were not afforded the luxury of finding fulfillment or happiness in their lives.