PBS Little Women: Text and Subtext

Now that I have watched all three installments of Little Women streaming on PBS, I feel more confident in assessing it. It is more faithful to the text than some of the other film adaptations; however, the creators have taken some artistic license when it comes to exposition. Like I wrote in my earlier post, I do not think of this as a negative quality. All of the films must set themselves apart from other retellings, because otherwise there is not much a point in retelling them again and again.

The lighting and the scenery certainly give this version a storybook feel. I have been to Orchard House several times now, and although it is always welcoming, I don't know if it's ever looked quite this beautiful and perfect before, in life or in film:

Aside from the Instagram-esque clarity and color, the PBS Masterpiece Theater mini-series offers viewers a version that reads between the lines of Alcott's words, and provides us glimpses of the characters' lives that she could not.

For example, Father March is away at war during the story's beginning.

The PBS film includes a scene of him, writing letters in his tent, nursing a wounded black soldier. Obviously, this would not have been seen by Marmee or the girls, and so Alcott did not include any details of his time away because the story is meant to be as though the reader is peering through a window of Orchard House.

There is a similar scene that follows John Brooke's time in service:

Although these scenes are not in the book, they are consistent with the story and with those characters. In the 1994 film, one of Meg's friends brings up the story behind Bronson Alcott's school closing, which happened after he admitted a black girl as a student. That event occurred in life, not in Alcott's book, but it does enhance the viewer's understanding of the Alcott/March family and the philosophies they espoused, such as Transcendentalism.

The new adaptation offers more insight into the reality of the women's lives. Previous adaptations mentioned Meg's confinement, or perhaps showed a growing belly, appropriately hidden under a dress. Before the birth scene, Meg is shown fretting over her changing figure, while Marmee and Amy work furiously to let out the seams on her dress.

In the latest film, Meg is shown to be suffering from contractions and screaming, and asking Marmee how women survive it all.

The original text says:"So the year rolled round, and at midsummer there came to Meg a new experience,- the deepest and tenderest of a woman's life."

That's all that is said in the book of Meg giving birth.

Not that I would have expected Louisa May Alcott to provide any insight into a real life birth; we are talking about Victorian sensibilities here, and we know what those were like. Meg asks Marmee "Why didn't you tell me?" between her gasps, which seems to be a question directly aimed at the prudery of the era.

In the same vein, Alcott's Marmee, and the Marmee in most of the films, has a confidence and calmness that many young readers found comforting, and no doubt inspiring. Marmee as played by Emily Watson is still strong and true to the text, but displays a softer side. Usually, in the scene where Beth dies, Marmee is portrayed as being sad, but her emotion is only betrayed by a tear running down her cheek. Emily Watson's Marmee is shown relegating herself to her bedroom, to grieve privately, when she learns of Beth's impending fate. And it is not only her sad feelings that she keeps to herself. Earlier in the film, when she first sees Meg in her wedding gown, with her other three daughters looking so beautiful and grown-up, she also leaves the room, so that she may compose herself.

Even crying for a happy event such as a wedding goes against the Victorian ideal of keeping all things human (bodies, births, deaths and feelings) properly contained.

It's always nice when a movie adaptation is true to the text, but it's a bonus when it offers its own interpretation of the subtext.