But what she did have was ambition in the first place, though it may have been seen by others as misguided. And she followed it through to see a masterpiece of literature flow from her pen, capturing the beauty and sadness of her life and family.
Initially, Jo’s ambition wasn’t even clear to herself. All she knew was that she wanted to write. And though she veered her path in the direction of “wild theatrics” and writing overblown romances with unrealistic language, she soon comes to realize what it was she was meant to write and how she was meant to write it – an achievement experienced by a lucky few.
Her author, Louisa, led an existence much like Jo’s. As Erin Blakemore wrote in The Heroine’s Bookshelf, Louisa watched as the women in her life – her mother and sisters – were forced to hire themselves out in poorly paid jobs in order to survive in their struggling family. “Unlike her sisters, Louisa could not check her impulsive temper, her tomboyish nature, or her inner critic.”
And unlike Jo, Louisa actually was able to fight in the Civil War – as a nurse. She too lost a sister to Scarlet Fever and watched with regret as another sister married. Though she also suppresses her character with some of the difficulties of her own life, she gives Jo freedom, too.
Blakemore writes: “…it’s easy to find Jo’s rebellion. In a move that’s outraged readers since 1869, she refuses to marry Laurie, a young man with the advantages of being dashing, rich, hotheaded, and adoring. But Jo isn’t ready to lay down her arms and take up her needle (or put on the wedding ring) just yet. By refusing to indulge her best friend, she is a better friend to herself, a self in need of air and freedom, the liberty she’d never possess in the expensive trappings of a Mrs. Laurence.”
And even when self-doubt and frustration stand in Jo’s way, she finds the strength to manage them. “Like her creator, Jo must act when mired in the slough of despond; like Louisa, she writes her way out of every hold. Discontented with her feeble options and frustrated with her own ennui, she goes up to the attic, readjusts her ridiculous writing cap, and gets to work…In the 1860s, her power was an alternative to the buttoned-down boring girl who followed all rules and mastered self-sacrifice. That girl has long since faded from fashion, but Jo remains a tantalizing option, the opposite of fear and insecurity, inaction and perfection.”
Blakemore equates Jo to the alternative of “mundane, muted reality” and says that her success is an example of ambition that holds an appropriate place in a person’s life. She doesn’t so much write to live, as live to write.
Jo currently stands in third place in our Ultimate Classical Heroine Contest on Facebook. To vote for her and see which other women are still in the running, click here!
To read more about Jo and her author, take a look at The Heroine’s Bookshelf.
