I’m not even joking, the hole in my heart after Amy and Laurie got together destroyed me. I admit to watching the movie adaptation first but I did go back to read the book. And honestly I don’t even understand the Laurie and Amy ship. Like at times I felt bad for her or I just strongly disliked her. So I think right now I just want some opinons on Amy and her relationship with Laurie.
Wasn’t Laurie in love with Jo? Doesn’t Amy deserve better?
The book lands differently rereading as an adult. I was so put out Jo rejected handsome charming Laurie as a teen - until I realised he was always too immature and flippant and self-involved to be a good match for her. He wouldn’t have made her happy - the quirky intellectual professor who she knew she loved for he himself rather than for his youth or charm or privilege was the really happy ever after.
I always think of the scene from the various movie adaptations where Bhaer wants to marry her, but he has nothing to offer her “his hands are empty” and she just responds by taking his hand in hers and replying “not empty now”. It really speaks on a level that she and Laurie never achieved. They were equals in a way that she and Laurie weren’t, but Laurie and the grown-up Amy were
I read the books for the first time as an adult when the Greta Gerwig film came out because i like to read a book first when i can. I loved them so much i read all 3 back to back! I feel like Jo’s boys really solidifies her happy ending!
Nevermind all that, it’s ultra weird to move on from the woman you’ve been in love with for years by marrying her little sister… Like??? Hello, excuse me, what the actual fuck???
That was my thought!!!
Have you read the book or just seen the films? Laurie isn’t in love with Amy at the beginning; he just hangs around her because she’s a face from home. Months go by and he realizes he wasn’t actually really in love with Jo–it was just “puppy love.” As the months go by he realizes Amy suits him better and falls in love with him. Remember, they are in Europe for a very long time, a year at least. You didn’t take “the Grand Tour” and just come home in a couple of weeks.
Wasn’t Laurie in love with Jo? Doesn’t Amy deserve better?
He was. But she rejected him and he got over it. I believe he loves Amy in the end. And if Amy is happy with that, then I don’t think we need to worry about her deserving better.
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To my mind in the end, Jo who didn’t love Laurie that way isn’t stuck in a marriage she would have been unhappy with.
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Amy is married to someone she loves.
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Laurie is married to someone he loves.
So, I think, that’s all pretty good. I wish Jo could have ended single. But otherwise, relationship-wise I think the Jo/Amy/Laurie situation is a win on all sides.
I’m curious which movie adaptation you watched. The more recent one does Amy way more justice than the others. Given you’re asking about Amy deserving better, I’d guess that’s the one you watched. A lot of folks come out from reading the book or watching one of the movie adaptations with a really strong dislike of Amy.
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I hear you. This is the first book that made me cry, many years ago when I read it as an adolescent . I cried for Jo and my heart hurt for many days after that