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- Die for Our Ship: Poor Amy. To this day there are still people invested in demonizing her for preventing Jo/Laurie. Professor Bhaer gets the short end of the stick, too.
- Fair for Its Day: The series was actually comparatively feminist by the standards of its day, but the most feminist thing about the novel isn't anything in the book itself — but the fact that Louisa May Alcott defied every feminine standard of the day by fully supporting herself and her family financially with her pen after most publishers told her to "stick to your teaching."
- The fact that Jo supports a woman's right to work and support herself if she wants to while viewing marriage as something that can be optional is VERY damn feminist. Annie aka Nan is portrayed as a capable and independent woman who, despite caring for Tommy, views him bringing up their Childhood Marriage Promise as a total "what the HELL" moment, and in the end is single and happy because of that, while Daisy's own choice to marry her Victorious Childhood Friend Nathaniel aka Nat is also seen as valid and worthy of respect.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Jo and Laurie — and no, this is not a case of Values Dissonance. The original 19th century fandom also shipped them. Which actually angered Alcott, who felt that the fangirls didn't appreciate Jo's Character Development enough, and led her to pull Ship Sinking: Jo rejects Laurie TWICE and falls for Professor Bhaer instead, while Laurie falls for her sister Amy.
- First Installment Wins
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: And the Japanese love Little Women, or Wakakusa Monogatari ("The Tale of Young Grass") as it's known there. There have been several anime adapted from the source material, namely three TV series (two of which were part of the World Masterpiece Theater), a TV special, and an episode of Manga Sekai Mukashibanashi (aka Tales of Magic in English). And that's not even counting the Shout-Outs in series like Burst Angel.
- Heartwarming Moment: The very end of the 1994 film:
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Bhaer: But I have nothing to give you! My hands are empty! |
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- "I know I shall be homesick for you, even in Heaven."
- Hollywood Homely: Most, if not all, of the movie adaptations cast very beautiful actresses to interpret the self-described "plain" Jo March, leading to the unintentionally hilarious moment when Jo has her hair cut off and Amy cries: "Jo, your one beauty!". The Winona Ryder version even has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward". At least Katharine Hepburn in the most famous earlier adaptation isn't a classic beauty, and manages to make young Jo coltish and a bit clumsy.
- Narm Charm: Little Women plots a course through Mary Sues, wildly extravagant and sentimental prose, Aesops (some of them rather questionable) in nearly every chapter... and comes out as a gripping romantic drama with a deserved place in the highest pantheon of American literature.
- Shipping: Called "lovering," in those days.
- Shipping Goggles: Jo puts on her Beth/Laurie shipping goggles in the chapter "Tender Troubles."
- Tear Jerker: Beth trying to "wean herself" from life when dying from the effects of scarlet fever.
- Louisa May Alcott is very good at these. Just read "My Beth" and "In the Garret".
- The Woobie: Beth, and Jo up until the last four chapters of Little Women Part II
- Billy, Dick, and Nat from Little Men.