vhe Absent Male in Little Women

"No gentlemen were admitted" writes Louisa May Alcott in Little Women to
describe the all-female private
revue the March sisters perform. And as the novel progresses, one cannot
help but wonder if this same
sentiment does indeed echo throughout the novel, as male characters are
conspicuously absent while all the
pivotal parts are played by the women characters.

This gender imbalance -- in that there are more female characters than male
in Little Women -- is
especially obvious when male authority figures such as Mr March and Mr
Lawrence are markedly absent
for most of the novel. When they do appear, they are in need of love and care
from the women. Mr
Lawrence, who is nursing a broken heart over the death of his daughter, is
healed by Beth's gentle manners,
while Mr March's broken constitution is nursed back to health by his loving
wife and daughters.

The only male character who appears prominently in Little Women is Laurie,
who, although the richest and
most eligible bachelor for miles, is drawn to the motherly smile and warmth of
the little cottage, despite the
luxuries of his mansion next door. John Brooke, Laurie?s tutor and Meg?s
husband, too, is drawn to the
homey atmosphere of the March residence, having recently lost his mother.

In a bold move that differentiates Alcott from her contemporaries, the male
characters in Little Women are
all not capable of providing sustenance to their womenfolk as they are
incapacitated (either by a war injury,
an emotional scar, or an impoverished background). The women are thus
forced to take on varied roles in
order to provide materially and emotionally for the family. They are the ones
who shoulder the burden in
situations not unlike those of the Alcott family.

Is it by chance, or is premeditation, that most of Alcott?s novels feature an

absent father? And when he does
reappear, he is very often silent, ill or injured. It is obvious Alcott has problems
portraying strong male
characters, probably from the fact that she hadn?t seen too many of them.

Furthermore, Alcott is not able to describe a situation where love is emoted

expressively from men. In all
her novels, the male characters disappoint -- in one way or the other. In many
ways, they are very similar to
her own father. Bronson Alcott was a man who preferred dreaming, shirking
his fatherly and husbandly
duties, and was prone to going on extended trips without his family. Bronson
Alcott deserted his family for
months at a time purportedly to earn a living. But he was not very successful
in that area. Once he came
back with a new scarf and a dollar in his pocket to a hungry family waiting for
the money to buy some
much needed bread. He handed over the token that he was paid to Alcott with
the careless remark: ?Well,
Louisa, there?s little money, but I had a great time and was asked to come
again.?
In Little Women, the appearance of these hapless males in search of a mother
figure to comfort them
celebrates the Good Mother, a role played by Marmee and her four daughters.
The Good Mother figure, as
explained by French feminist writer Helene Cixous in her manifesto The
Laugh of the Medusa, is a woman
who is an omnipotent, generous dispenser of love, nourishment and plenitute.
And in a departure from the
patriachal system that she grew up in, Alcott proclaims women as the source
of life, power, energy and
advice. In Good Wives (pages 211 - 213), Marmee says to Meg, beginning
with: "May I speak quite freely,
and will you remember that it's mother who blames as well as mother who
sympathises?" before
concluding with "Don't shut yourself up in a bandbox because you are a
woman, but understand what is
going on, and educate yourself to take your part in the world's work, for it all
affects you and yours." Then
later on in Good Wives (page 318), Jo exclaim about Marmee: "How goo!
d she is to me! What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them
through their troubles?"