Little Women

Summer brings Meg and Jo relief from their responsibilities as the Kings and Aunt March leave for vacation. With ample time, the girls decide to depart from their daily strenuous routines; Meg desires to “rest and revel” while Jo desires to “improve [her] shining hours reading” (115). Hearing this, their younger sisters also implore their mother to take a break as well. Marmee agrees to their “experiment,” but with the warning that “by Saturday night you will find that all play and no work is as bad as all work and no play” (115).

Although the experiment begins with excitement as the girls indulge in their fantasies, during the course of the week, they discover that only following one’s bliss causes bedlam: It was astonishing what a peculiar and uncomfortable state of things was produced by the ‘resting and reveling’ process” (116).

By Friday night, the girls are quarrelsome and irritable, and their hobbies, such as drawing and reading, become difficult to do. At this point, Marmee decides to “impress the lesson [of the value of hard work] more deeply” (117) by giving Hannah a holiday and feigning to be tired and desiring a vacation herself.

Ultimately, the neglect of duties has its consequences: Beth forgets to feed Pip, the canary, who dies; Jo leads a disastrous cooking experience, which results in an inedible dinner; and, by the end, everyone is exhausted from cleaning up and dealing with the mishaps.