In Defense of Amy March

[Music] Amy March probably one of the most hated literary characters of all time right up there with George Wickham and Dolores Umbridge I've always hated him yeah everyone said that everyone's hated her and yet with Greta Gerwig snoo adaptation of Little Women there seems to be this outpouring of love and adoration for Amy and a large part of that has to do with the amazing script the Greta penned of course the incredible performance by Florence pew now for someone like me who read Little Women for the first time when I was 20 years old it was not poured over these pages religiously my entire life or watched every single adaptation back-to-back I couldn't help but be a little bit surprised with the absolute vitriol towards this twelve-year-old girl so today I wanted to take some time to figure out whether Amy March is really deserving of this kind of hatred that she gets and before we proceed I want to warn you that they're going to be spoilers major major spoilers for both the novel and the 2019 film in this video now when it comes to Amy March I mainly see three reasons cited most often for people's hatred towards her well burn the yeah but in the book it ends up with the guy that no one feels like she should the first is her burning of Jo's manuscripts then her essentially stealing away the Europe trip from Jo and then finally of course the fact that she takes Laurie from Jo as you can see all of these reasons very much hinged on Amy's interactions and relationship with Jo and this brings me to my main point in this video which is that I think a lot of people's dislike for Amy their annoyance with Amy their inability to comprehend perspective and why she does the things that she does because they love Jo and identify with Jo so much and Jo herself spends the majority of the novel and this new film and in fact every single adaptation fighting with Amy having an inability to understand Amy and because we as the reader are mainly in Jos head we judge Amy in the same way jo just like the reader believes that Amy is handed everything on a platter and let's be honest they're not entirely wrong the one thing that people hate her for is that she's ambitious and she knows that she will marry Amy starts off the novel and she says she's going to marry rich and that's exactly what she does I've always known I would marry rich why should I be ashamed of that and because we see Amy fulfill her dreams so easily it becomes that much more frustrating when we see Jo struggle day in and day out to achieve hers a main difference in their ability to achieve their dreams is the times that they limit Jo doesn't want to marry she wants to live independently she wants to make money and support her family based off of her writing these are not achievable dreams and so she struggles to get them and we're there with her and we feel for her while she struggles and then you have Amy who works within the conventions of her time to get what she wants she's not like Jo she's not a rebel she's not turning away from patriarchal standards refusing to adhere to them Amy works within the gender hierarchy within the structures and the parameters that are placed upon her so keep everything that I just said in mind I'm going to expand upon it as I go and depth into each of the three reasons that people dislike Amy and try to offer a different perspective first let's start off with the earliest point of contention in the novel the burning of Jo's manuscript when Jo refuses to allow Amy to come to the theater she's hitting a me where it hurts Amy the most I believe that Amy looks up to Jo very much Jo is ambitious in the same way that amy is they're both incredibly stubborn and hot-headed they're similar in so many ways I feel like they're more similar than they are foils to one another and it's the similarity in their tempers and their personalities and their desires that I think causes them to butt heads a lot and speaking from experience as a younger sister who wants nothing more than her older sister's approval and to do everything that her older sister does I can understand why Amy is so hurt in that moment where Jo not only tells her she can't come it is abundantly clear that she does not want Amy in her presence and Amy wants nothing more than to be a part of society going to the theater that is one of the major events of that time and the fact that Jo is denying her that entrance into society that she so desperately wants that's handing her where it hurts in Greta Gerwig script Amy explains her reasoning for burning Jo's manuscript pretty aptly she tells her I know he wouldn't care if I burn shoes or your addresses because that doesn't matter to you what matters to Jo is her art and so an Amy's fit of rage and I admit it in a bout of immaturity she burns Jo story so yes it was an awful thing to do she should not have done it but at the same time it's understandable and not at all unforgivable in my mind next let's talk about Jo's trip to Europe she spends so much time trying to please Aunt March in order to be taken on this trip with her and then we find out that Jo in fact will not be going on the trip and instead Amy will be going now a lot of people talked about Amy taking away this opportunity from Jo let me just say it was not Amy's fault okay that was Aunt March's decision and maybe you could say oh but she shouldn't have gone she knew how much Jo wanted to go but let's be honest if Jo had gone on that trip she would have absolutely hated it because what was that trip really it wasn't an opportunity for Amy to work on her art like she actually wanted to do it was just a parade of balls and gatherings so art March could show off Amy and get her married to the richest guy available I mean can you imagine Jo being on that trip she would have gone home within a week people say that Amy is just handed things but what did she actually get in this instance there's a scene where she's in the carriage with Aunt March and aunt March so clearly does not care about Amy's paintings and her desires she only talks about Fred Vaughan and when Amy mentions her paintings aunt March is so dismissive so Amy is on this trip where everything that she wants is essentially unimportant and I see Amy's trip to Paris as sort of the defining moment of the death of her artistry and her creativity and her passion and imagination she wants to be an artist she goes in studies painting and I think there's this wonderful moment in her life where she realizes that she's not amazing she's good and so she has to lay down her craft to essentially do what she knows she's always had to do and let's take a minute now to talk about Fred Vaughan and art March and the absolutely overwhelming pressure that Amy is under so who are your families hope no there's a quote from the book from Amy where she says that she knows that she's the one who has to marry well to provide for the family and Amy is a very intelligent and very observant person she notices the way that her sister our the way that they act the choices that they've made and takes on the responsibility to be the girl who has to provide for them and how can she provide for them as a woman there's no way for me to make my own money not enough to earn a living or to support my family and so Amy sees that her only option is to marry a rich man everyone in Amy's family is a romantic her parents married each other and they're penniless Magda tossed away her chance at being a part of high society and traded it in for a loving marriage with a man who has no money Joe is absolutely 100% dedicated to her arch and nothing else Beth is not a viable option for marriage because she is in and out of good health and so what is Amy left to do she has to take on the role of the realist she has to be pragmatic she has to be responsible and she has to take the only path that she sees available to her and marry rich and in roediger wits film we really get to see the consequence of this pressure that has put on her the script is structured in this constant back-and-forth jumping between childhood and adulthood when Amy's a child she's loud she's precocious she's always the center of attention in any room that she's in tell the servants I want this painting purchased for me immediately she wants to be the most amazing artist I want to be an artist in Rome and be the best painter in the world she has the most outrageous crush on Laurie isn't large assume so romantic he's half Italian and then you cut from that lively young child to this withered young woman who knows what the world expects of her knows what her family situation has required of her and is stuck in a situation where she has to give up her romantic notions of being an amazing artist marrying for love all the things that her sisters hold on to she has to give all of that up just so she could uphold her family in the most realistic way possible so now let's finally talk about what has been every single readers beef with Amy since Little Women was first published which is that in the end she gets Laurie she gets her man let me just start off by saying then I cannot fathom why people dislike Amy for this I don't understand why people are mad that Jo didn't love Laurie in a romantic way she said as much and then Laurie got over that found a woman who did love him he grew to love her as well they got married like I just I I don't get it it's probably because so many people identify so intensely with Jo and so when they see Laurie who is seemingly perfect they by proxy want Jo to be with Laurie because they love Laurie I just think it's always been made painfully clear by Joe and Laurie will not work as a marriage in fact Jo says it herself I think one of the most important lines in that scene is when Laurie says I'll be a perfect Saint for you Laurie is so willing to completely change himself just so that joel might love him back Laurie is so desperate to change for Jo and in fact that's the last thing that jo wants she wants them to remain as if they're children around each other to always hold on to their not eNOS and precociousness she wants that for the rest of her life and Laurie doesn't Laurie wants their relationship to mature and Jo doesn't what we see in that scene of the rejected proposal whether it's in the novel or on screen one person who was ready for the next phase of their life and one person who was holding on so desperately to the past Jo spends the entire film wanting to grasp on two straws of her childhood a time where she was happy and had her sisters surrounding her and was not worried about death or money she wants to retreat back to a time where she had her best friend around where she was always playing with her sisters where her house was alive with laughter and music and art Jo is stuck in childhood while everyone else including Laurie has moved on to adulthood and that's why they can't work when Laurie proposes to Jo he's proposing a future to her that she is not ready for and doesn't want Jo just wants to recapture her past and Amy Amy is ready for the future she's been planning her future since she was little I think Greta Gerwig did such an amazing job spending so much time with Amy and Laurie in Paris and really showing us why they fell in love Amy encourages Laurie to be a better person she sees him what in his life wasting the opportunities that he has just handed and she gets upset with him for it as she should here's Amy about to marry a man and give up all of her autonomy just so she can be secure for her life and so that her parents and family can also be provided for and then there sits Laurie getting drunk lounging on a couch doing whatever he wants which is basically nothing and I think that's the key difference between Joe and Laurie and Amy and Laurie that Laurie was so desperate to change he wanted to do anything he could just so Joe would love him but Amy already loves Laurie she doesn't need any convincing when it comes to that what Amy needs and wants from Laurie is some kind of stable future for him to be the very best version of himself that he can be and when she sees him in Paris she knows that he's not living up to his potential when she sees him wasting his life away it upsets her so much because she loves him I absolutely adored the scene that Gerwig added between Amy and Laurie in the garden where she tells him no I'm not going to be second-best to Joe and we get to see the depth of Amy's feelings for him she loved him her entire life it's not just some girl hood crushed she cares about him it was really Amy that motivated him to start a business with his father to go off and become the kind of man that Amy would be proud of and then he comes back and says Here I am this is the life I can provide for you I want to share it with you and Amy is really the perfect partner for him he needs someone who's going to keep him in check there's this absolutely hilarious line from the book that I think really encompasses their relationship and why Laurie likes her so much Laurie is absolutely perfectly happy being under Amy's thumb and having her take the more dominant role in their relationship he enjoys it he needs and wants a strong partner in life and that is exactly who he is and obviously later on in their life she becomes like an educator to him she keeps him in shape and she keeps him I suppose focused and that's what he needed and above all else Amy wants him she loves him she accepts him Amy gives something to him which is she desires him like she she loves him on a different level and that's what they bring out and one on the left I just think that Gurewitz film and even the novel itself does a really good job showing us why Amy and Laurie are so well matched for one another the futures that they both want for themselves independently are pretty much the same so why shouldn't they share that future together so there you have it my full case in defense of Amy March if I didn't convince you to enjoy understand or even empathize with their character and you still hate her guts okay you're wrong but okay whether or not you're a fan of Amy or even a fan of Little Women I highly highly recommend that you go and see Greta Gerwig adaptation it is just a phenomenally well made and well acted movie I hope you guys enjoyed this video I would love to know all of your thoughts and opinions so please leave a comment down below and Little Women purists please please don't yell at me in the comments if I got anything wrong about the book all of my social media links are in the description below so check those out if you would like I'll see you guys next time bye [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: FullofLit

Views: 540,611

Keywords: little women, amy march, little women amy, little women 2019, amy and laurie, florence pugh, laurie and amy, timothee chalamet, in defense of amy march, amy march 2019, amy march little women, little women trailer 2019, defending amy march, amy and jo, jo march, book review, movie review, film analysis, book discussion, character analysis, in defense of, booktube, little women review

Id: mQs6pa7xY6o

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 05 2020