Summary — Chapter 6: Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful
The March girls start spending time at the Laurences’
house. Meg loves to walk in the greenhouse there, and Amy loves
to look at the artwork. Beth loves Mr. Laurence’s piano, but she
is still afraid of him; she will not venture far inside the house.
Mr. Laurence learns of Beth’s fears and comes over to the Marches’
house one night, talking about how no one plays the piano and how
no one is around the house during the day. With that assurance,
Beth decides to venture into the house during the day and play the
piano. Unbeknownst to her, Mr. Laurence sometimes leaves his door
open to hear her play. Beth reminds him of his beloved granddaughter
who passed away. After a while, Beth makes Mr. Laurence a pair of
slippers to show her gratitude. In return, he sends her the little
piano that his granddaughter owned, which thrills Beth. Jo tells
Beth that she should go thank him, thinking that her shy sister
would never be so bold. To everyone’s surprise, Beth marches over
to Mr. Laurence’s house and kisses his cheek. The two have solidified
a friendship.
Summary — Chapter 7:
Amy’s Valley of Humiliation
At Amy’s school, the girls trade pickled limes, a fashionable
treat at that time. Amy is worried because she has been given many
limes but doesn’t have the money to buy limes for her friends in
return. Taking pity on her little sister, Meg gives Amy money to
buy some limes. Amy tells her enemy, a girl named Miss Snow, that
she will not get any limes. In revenge, Miss Snow tells the teacher,
who has forbidden limes in class, of Amy’s hoard. The teacher makes
Amy throw the limes out the window, strikes her on the palm, and
makes her stand at the front of the classroom until recess. At recess,
Amy goes home and tells her family what happened. They are not sorry for
her punishment, for she did wrong, but they are upset that she was
struck on the palm. Marmee decides that Amy may have a vacation
from school and learn at home with Beth.
Summary — Chapter 8: Jo Meets Apollyon
I am angry nearly every day of my life.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Jo and Meg are going to a play with Laurie, and Amy wants
to go too. Jo tells her, a bit harshly, that she cannot go because
she was not invited. Angered, Amy tells Jo that Jo will be sorry.
During the play, Jo feels some remorse for her bad treatment of
her little sister. When the older girls arrive home, Amy gives Jo
the cold shoulder. The next day, Jo finds her manuscript missing,
and discovers that Amy has burned it. Jo says she will never forgive
Amy, because that book was her pride and joy. Amy apologizes, and
Marmee warns Jo not to “let the sun go down upon [her] anger,” but
Jo is not ready to forgive Amy. The next afternoon, Jo and Laurie
go skating, and Amy tries to follow. Laurie warns Jo that the ice
is thin in the middle, but Jo does not pass on the message to Amy.
Amy falls through the ice, and Jo hesitates for a moment, paralyzed
with fear. Finally, Laurie comes to Amy’s rescue. At home, Jo confesses
to Marmee that her anger overwhelms her. Marmee admits that she
too struggles with controlling a quick temper. Jo is amazed and
bolstered by this revelation, for she has always seen Marmee as
a perfectly calm person. Amy and Jo end their quarrel and make up.
Summary — Chapter 9: Meg Goes to Vanity Fair
I’d rather see you poor men’s wives,
if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect
and peace.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Meg has plans to stay with Annie Moffat, a wealthy friend.
She packs all of her nicest clothes, but wishes she had more splendid attire.
The Moffats are very fashionable. While Meg is there, they visit
friends, go to plays, and give parties. At the first party, Meg wears
her simple clothes, and she hears people gossiping that Meg’s mother
must be intending for Meg to marry Laurie for his money. At the
next party, the Moffat girls insist on dressing Meg in borrowed finery.
She is a bit embarrassed about the luxury of her attire, but she enjoys
playing the role of a fashionable girl. Laurie is at the party and
reprimands Meg for being so frivolous. His criticism makes Meg regret
letting her friends dress her. When Meg gets home, she tells Marmee
and Jo how she dressed up and overheard gossip about herself and
Laurie. Marmee tells them that she has no such plans for Meg. She
says that she hopes only that the girls are happy in youth and in
marriage, and that they are good. She adds that she hopes that they
understand that appearances are shallow and that true love is built
on something deeper than money.
Summary — Chapter 10: The P.C. and P.O.
In the spring, the girls take to gardening. They also
hold meetings of the Pickwick Club, a society for arts and letters
modeled on an all-male society in Charles Dickens’s novel The
Pickwick Papers. The sisters produce a newsletter each
week, with advertisements, poems, and stories. At one meeting, Jo
proposes that they invite Laurie to join. At first, Amy and Meg
are horrified; they do not want a boy making fun of them. As soon
as they give in, Laurie bursts out of the closet where he has been
hiding. He presents the club with a postal box to be put between
the houses so that the March sisters and Laurie may pass things
back and forth.
Analysis — Chapters 6–10
In these second five chapters, each girl marks a step
on her journey from childhood to adulthood by struggling and succeeding
in overcoming a fault. First, Beth must overcome her shyness in
order to pursue her musical hobby. She is rewarded for her efforts
with a piano, and she proves that her gratitude trumps her shyness
when she marches across to Mr. Laurence’s house and gives him a
kiss in thanks. Beth’s attachment to Mr. Laurence also symbolizes
that she is the most old-fashioned of the sisters—the most eager
to play traditional female roles for an old patriarch, a male figure
at the head of a household. Though Mr. Laurence is a benevolent
presence, he also symbolizes oppressive male behavior, for he does
not let Laurie follow his dream of becoming a musician, a culturally
feminine pursuit; instead, he wants Laurie to be a real man with
a professional career in business. His earlier rewarding of the
Marches’ selflessness on Christmas with a feast reinforces the gender
stereotype of the perpetually giving, selfless woman who is taken
care of by a man.
