A View of Women in the Writings of Louisa May Alcott

Born in 1832 to Bronson and Abba Alcott, Louisa May Alcott constantly struggled with the anger and individualistic, unladylike spirit that came naturally to her. Since Louisa, like her mother, was born dark-haired and "willful," her father viewed her as a challenge, sometimes going so far as to call her the "Possessed One" "pathetic," and "bound in chains . . . which she could not break"(Stern, Biography, p. 78). He thought that teaching Louisa to suppress her natural inclinations for self-expression and difference in favor of what he perceived as feminine habits was part of his job in life, and Louisa seemed to see her life as one of struggle between her own will and submission to her father's. Bronson's belief in Louisa's demonic nature, and the doubts and pain that belief caused Louisa, can be found in her writings. By writing about female characters that were expected to live up to the same expectations placed on her by Bronson, Alcott expressed her hatred of the female "ideal." …