338. femfeb: amy march meta.
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scytale asked for Little Women's Amy March.The Amy March I'm familiar with is the Amy March from Little Women (2019). (I've bought the book, but in true me fashion, I haven't read it yet.)
Let's get this out of the way: yes, I love Amy March because Florence Pugh portrays her.
But that's not the main reason why I love Amy.
Amy easily slots into that female character box I love so much. She's outspoken, she's nasty, she's manipulative, she's uncertain about herself, she's vulnerable, she makes mistakes, she's jealous. She's human. I love that Amy is a flawed character, and that she's presented with her flaws.
I understand that she's twelve or so years old at the March household, but that's not the Amy I wish to talk about. The Amy whom I love is the Amy we meet in England. She's away from home, she's out of her depth, and her Aunt March chose her over Jo.
I think the film makes it clear that Amy has existed in the shadows of her sisters, specifically Jo. Jo seems well-put-together; she knows who she is, she knows what she wants, and she refuses to let anyone tell her otherwise. Amy's the kind of character I feel would admire in her sister. I feel her and Jo are similar; they're steadfast, headstrong, and they know what they want. Amy doesn't look up to Meg and wish to be a caretaker and mother like her. She looks to Jo, who's determined. She looks to Jo, who refuses to allow society to put her in a box. She looks to Jo, who the boy she has a crush on looks at like she's hung the moon and the stars.
Amy gets that with Fred, in a way. We don't spend enough time with Fred to get a good idea of who he is and what he's like with Amy, but I'd like to think from the glimpses that he's a good, patient man who would worship Amy's altar. (I still think he'd stifle her because he grew up with society's expectations pressed upon him.)
But let's go back to Amy. She says in the movie, "Why be ashamed of what you want?"
Why should she feel shame for knowing what she wants? Why should she feel shame for wanting what she wants? (Because society says women cannot want. But Amy grew up in a small home with a sister who showed her that she can have what she wants. She's allowed to want. Jo proved this to her. She's allowed to want, and she's allowed to demand it. Amy's jealousy of Jo is merely an immature display of emotion of Amy's understanding of Jo.) Amy has experienced shame through several stages of her life. Shame for burning Jo's manuscript, for one. Perhaps shame for liking a boy who likes her sister. Shame for being chosen over Jo to go to England. Amy experiences several moments of shame in England because she's been removed from her picture-perfect little box at the March family home and thrust into the real world of society.
I feel the romance between Laurie and Amy was rushed (I wish we got to see more since I love their chemistry so much), but I think we got a good inkling from their shared scenes that Laurie has a lot of growing up to do to be worthy of Amy. Amy knows what she wants; she wants to marry rich, and she wants to live an adult life, unlike her childhood where she got to go on impossible adventures thanks to Jo's plays. She wants to feel secure; she wants to feel like she has options. She's not like Meg, who married for love. She's like Jo; ambitious, determined, headstrong. But unlike Jo, Amy understands her place in society. She understands women need to marry to find opportunities, and even those opportunities are few and far between because she's a woman.
Jo throws her middle finger up at society. Amy manoeuvres it much like a shark.
Amy has a fantastic speech that I'm sure many in the fandom think is overrated, but when she realises her art is nothing special, Amy doesn't self-destruct. She accepts it. She's mediocre. She's talented, but she's not the best. And even if she were the best? She's not allowed to be the best, because she's a woman. Laurie does not understand this; Jo does not understand this. Amy, immature, mean, vindictive Amy who burned her sister's novel when she was twelve years old out of a fit of jealous rage, gets it.
I think Amy's desire to be great stems from Jo. Her sister is great. Amy got to witness her sister's greatness. All she wants is to be like Jo, who she thinks is great. The March household made the impossible feel possible, and I think Amy struggles greatly with this in England.
But what Amy fails to understand is that Jo does not understand her place in society. (This isn't a bad thing! I think Jo, like Amy, challenges it. Jo does not wish to wed—this is something I liked about her character. But I feel Jo failed to understand that society will not adapt to her.) She's a writer, but she's a writer who is a woman, and women must write romance. She's a writer, but she cannot produce the story she wants because her editor wants romance from her. Jo is a failure as much as Amy is a failure. But Amy places Jo on a pedestal, because Jo is the person Amy aspires to be.
This is also one of my favourite scenes. I rewatch it over and over and over.
Not only is their chemistry just chef's kiss, I love that Amy is realistic. Laurie is still childlike; he thinks everything is at his fingertips. He's a romantic, but he's not based in reality. Amy is. She's not cruel to him; she's realistic. Laurie has spent his entire life being coddled, because he's a rich boy who society deems can be coddled because he has countless opportunities available to him. Amy does not. Amy sees Laurie's potential, and she hates that he's squandering it away.
Laurie feels he's entitled to Amy in a way. He's here, she's here. He knows her, she knows him. He wants her. He's spent his entire life being given what he wants. I feel this is the second time in Laurie's life that he's been told he can't have what he wants. He learned with Jo that he could change himself for her, but that still didn't mean he got the girl in the end. I think Laurie learns from Jo's rejection and takes a subtler, slower approach to Amy. He's truer to himself with her, but she still sees him squandering his potential. Jo didn't seem to notice Laurie try to mould himself to fit with her; she doesn't seem to notice that Laurie doesn't try to find what interests him. He doesn't challenge himself; he doesn't push himself. Amy notices this about him; she clocks Laurie doesn't even try. (Let me also state it's not Jo's job to manage Laurie's choices. She was a young woman trying to find herself. Laurie's choices are his own.)
I also really love this scene because Amy understands her worth. She's a woman who understands her place in society; she understands her place with him. Laurie has a similar power over Amy that Jo possesses. Amy wishes to be like Jo; Amy wishes to have someone like Laurie want her. I think Amy is someone who grounds Laurie in reality, while Jo is someone who enables Laurie to be a dreamer. (There's nothing wrong with either of these, but I feel that Jo and Laurie remain in arrested development together, because neither is willing to push the other. They enable each other's dreams, but they never encourage each other to look at reality. They don't challenge each other; they're comfortable. This isn't any shade to Laurie/Jo or their shippers, since I know a few people on my flist like them! It's simply how I view their relationship, which I feel is complex because I believe Laurie places Jo on a pedestal. It's great food to think about and play with in fandom circles imo.)
I think Amy chooses Laurie over Fred because of Beth's death. Life is short, and Amy wants what Amy wants. She embraces the dreamer who acted in her sister's plays. She embraces the little girl who likes to play pretend with her sisters. Amy stops being a part of society and returns to her childhood home when she chooses Laurie. But that's not to say she regresses; Amy now gets to navigate what it means to be herself, to make her own choices, and to not fail at her expectations. (She'll still fail at society's, but what matters is what she thinks.)
I love Amy because she's a brute force, and I find her the loneliest March. She's adaptable; she understands how she can help her family and herself, and I think she's willing to sacrifice her happiness to live comfortably and securely. But she's someone who lost her way for a little while, who stopped believing in herself. Laurie lingering in England and choosing to be present for her is the first time Amy gets chosen over anyone else (particularly Jo—but this isn't a competition, and I don't wish to make it come across like it is. It's simply that Amy gets to finally be on the same level as Jo. They will always be equals to me.).
Amy comes into herself when she's away from her childhood home. I feel like she's allowed to blossom without being compared to her sisters or being unintentionally suffocated by them.
I think she's super fascinating, and
svgurl called it the moment I started watching this movie that I would love Amy.*
(You can bet your butt I'm doing a Zoya meta. The Ianthe one will have to wait as I'm stuck in the book and haven't met her yet!)
This was a lot of stream of consciousness. I hope someone enjoyed reading me waxing questionable poetry about Amy!
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