Little Women Masterclass: Laurie's Literal Origins

One of Louisa May Alcott’s favourite books growing up was Goethe’s “Sorrows of Young Werther”. Werther’s tragic romance with Lottie is quite similar to Jo’s and Laurie’s relationship in Little Women. Alcott’s favourite writer Goethe, was also one of the models for Friedrich Bhaer’s character. In this class, we shall dissect this story and these two male characters and trace their origins to 18th-century German literature, which was well known for its “sentimental air”.

I will also be discussing Laurie’s character arc and his growth process and how his background is close to Werther and his creator Goethe and how the “Wertherian” characters can still be found today in pop culture.

Alcott, according to her own words “grew up hearing stories of Goethe on her father´s knee”. Bronson Alcott´s library included a contemporary translation of Goethe´s biography and we can assume that it was one of the first books that she read. One of Alcott’s most famous literal characters, Laurie from Little Women, is partially based on Goethe and Goethe´s literal heroes

Goethe was one of the most prominent figures of the German Sturm und Drang movement. Sturm und Drang refers to deep emotional stress. The name of the movement originates from a play called Sturm und Drang written by Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger. The two most prominent figures of the movement were Goethe and Friedrich Schiller and the movement affected the German art world, music, literature and theatre.

Alcott describes herself as “a creature of moods” so finding an author who managed to capture Alcott´s own emotional stress into words must have been both exciting and comforting. In Little Women Laurie, Jo and Friedrich can be described as Goethean characters, Laurie notably the most. We can trace Laurie´s character arc in Little Women to two of Goethe´s novels: “Sorrows of Young Werther” and “Wilhelm Meister´s apprenticeship” and to Goethe himself.