Little Women

[pen_grunt]

It took me a very long time to get around to reading Little Women, and now I believe I'm far too skeptical to fully appreciate it.

(SPOILERS AHEAD: I'm not going to put it under a cut, but just be warned.)
(You've been warned.)

So Beth March (the next-to-youngest, sweetest, most selfless--which is saying a lot since all the March girls are saints) dies.

She contracts scarlet fever (Drama! Scare! Woe!) and then gets better (Miracle! Beth! Goodness!). And then some YEARS later... she dies.

But she doesn't really die of anything. She's just "weakened" by that scarlet fever forever. And the look in her eyes is sad and lifeless. For years. And then she's all, "Well, I never thought I would live very long anyway...I always knew I would die young." And then she's put in a room to die for MONTHS and months.

But she's not dying of anything. She's just... sad? I mean, they even mistake her dying for being in love with someone she can't have and she's all, "Nope. That's not my secret sorrow. It's that I'm dying..."

What the hell, Beth? She pretty much just wills herself dead.
Am I missing something here?

Comments

[luyistew.livejournal.com]

Plain and simple! I like your work!

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

Severe infections can lead to a surprising amount of lymph node scarring (as can chronic infections like HIV) that can inhibit your ability to fight off later diseases. Or maybe she had leukemia. Or lupus! Do they have a better description of her later symptoms? Does she run a fever or have a headache or whatever before she dies?

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

She doesn't have a fever or headache. She still keeps on working like a champ... she's just a bit more tired than usual and seems uncommonly wistful.

Is there a disease that had uncommon wistfulness as a symptom?

I've read theories (because this is driving me nuts) that she had rheumatic fever and her heart progressively weakened. Of course, this is a fictional character so who knows.

Alcott has her deciding to die for several years after her recovery from scarlet fever.

[silverpoet01.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting perspective, and honestly, I don't disagree. She's sick, and never fully recovers. I always have given it the benefit of the doubt that she remained feeling unwell or was afflicted with something that they couldn't properly diagnose in that time period. Possibly something immune hindering related, I'd gathered, because most of that time period if they couldn't figure out what was entirely wrong with you, you were just considered fragile.

However, she watches her sisters live these fulfilling, interesting lives, good, bad or other. She's coddled and told she's never well enough to do anything. Maybe she felt physically bad, maybe not. Maybe it was all in her head because people kept reminding her off how fragile she is/was. She feels like a burden. If anything, I think it was somewhat on purpose that this message by Alcott is in there, it's entirely possible that all those factors did end up just sucking out her spirit.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It was definitely a "she's fragile" thing--but she's still working like a champ in the book... she just looks "sad".

I mean, for cripe's sake, they mistake a withering, years-long disease for being lovesick!

[grenacia.livejournal.com]

I thought the decline and death of Beth was based on the decline and death of the author's real-life sister (which I presumed to be equally mysterious), but I could be wrong, not having read up on the appropriate biographical info.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It is, but it was also kind of mysterious--she had scarlet fever and then died of "complications from scarlet fever".

I don't think they really knew what she died of back then. I mean, they may have thought they knew, but they certainly weren't given access to antibiotics.

Today if you get scarlet fever it's a "take this antibiotic and you can go back to school in 24 hours" thing. Then it was a "weeks of being in bed and almost dying and waiting for the fever to break on its own and maybe making it through" kind of thing. So I guess it could have been leftover complications from YEARS after scarlet fever... but the way it's describe is just so...strange.