History YMMV / LittleWomen

** [[MayDecemberRomance Fredrich]] [[BigBrotherMentor "Fritz"]] [[BunnyEarsLawyer Bhaer]] will get this occasionally by fans as well [[SarcasmMode due to his horrible crime of]] [[DisproportionateRetribution not being Laurie]], though not nearly to the same extent as Amy.

* NeverLiveItDown: Amy for burning Jo's manuscript. The reasons behind it are incredibly petty, but she immediately realises she wet too far and after LaserGuidedKarma gets a hold of her - she tries to help Jo rewrite it.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: It's been noted that Amy has been portrayed much better in the modern adaptations, because many of her traits were progressive for the time but made her seem offputting to conservative 1930s and 40s audiences (she's portrayed as a one-dimensional SpoiledBrat in the 1949 film). The 1994 film is seen as the start of more layered and sensitive portrayals of Amy; Kirsten Dunst, who plays her as a child, is seen as one of the most likable and entertaining Amy's in the pre character development stage. Creator/FlorencePugh even got nominated for an Oscar for the 2019 version.

** Amy, like all the characters who suffer from DieForOurShip, gets more hate than she deserves. Many fans like to ignore all her CharacterDevelopment in her later years, and claim she is still a shallow brat who only ends up with Laurie because she is a GoldDigger.
** Some people go overboard with bashing the Hummels for getting Beth sick - as if it was part of some evil plot.
* TheScrappy: Amy is widely disliked among fans, and not just for DieForOurShip. As a child, she's a bratty little thing, and burns Jo's manuscript just because she doesn't get taken to the theatre for a play she was going to see the next week anyway. And when she grows up, she becomes so annoyingly perfect that it feels like CharacterShilling.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Jo, when Amy [[DisproportionateRetribution burns her manuscript]] because Jo doesn't take her on an outing to the theatre. As per the moral imperative, the intended focus of the chapter (actually called "Jo Meets Apollyon") is clearly Jo's recognition of and resolve to control her violent temper. The modern reader is much more likely to home in on the fact that it was the ''only'' copy of the manuscript that Jo had spent years pouring her heart into; and she's expected to forgive Amy almost right off the bat after something so utterly precious to her has been cruelly destroyed. Adding to which Amy -- who doesn't appear to have been punished for her act, other than being mildly scolded by her mother -- however genuinely remorseful she might be at first, quickly starts to get petulant when she isn't forgiven right away. And when Jo goes out skating with Laurie, leading Amy to whine about missing another outing, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Meg]] doesn't help matters at all by blithely suggesting that the little girl tag along where she clearly isn't wanted.

** There's also some anti-Irish prejudice, despite the fact that in most adaptations, Hannah, the family maid, is Irish. One notable example when Amy is punished for bringing pickled limes to school and is forced to throw them out the window, the limes were eaten by Irish kids, whom the "respectable" school children considered their enemies.

** Interestingly enough, Amy's characterization was grossly misunderstood by the adaptations before the 90s. Essentially she's a girl who knows what she wants and will happily get it however she can (she's in fact much more confident and doesn't struggle with personality like Jo). The culture of the 20th century expected women to be nurturing, so Amy having a selfish and petty side to her had her pegged as 'bad' - even though she has plenty of other redeeming qualities (her worst moment - burning Jo's manuscript - is one that she's immediately sorry for and does her best to make amends).

** The relationship between Jo and Bhaer seems [[NoSparks weirdly unromantic]] by modern standards, especially compared to what one might expect for [[SpiritedYoungLady young, spirited, independent Jo]]. The 1994 film goes out of its way to give them a more romantic love story.

* {{Fanon}}: Some people believe Amy's name is short for "Amelia," due to her sisters being referred to by nicknames, but her name is just Amy. In real life, of course, the name "Amy" can either be a nickname for "Amelia" ''or'' a stand-alone name.

* FanNickame: "The Jo Show," given to the various film and stage adaptations that focus more exclusively on Jo than the book does and shortchange the other sisters' character arcs.

** Great Aunt March is a bitter old lady, and the girls have very little love for her. But after she dies, Marmee implies that she was really just very lonely - "her blessings became a burden because she had none to share them with" - and the girls acting as her companions could be because the old lady wants ''some'' company and attention since she had no living children.

** The chapter in Part 2 that focuses on Demi and Daisy (Meg and John's children) tries very hard to make them seem cute and lovable, but it can come off as ''too'' cute in many ways.

** And of course fans felt that Laurie and Jo were much more evenly matched than Jo is with Fritz, even with Louisa May Alcott trying to stress that they were LikeBrotherAndSister; the courtship between Jo and Fritz is rather asexual (which makes sense if you know that the publishers insisted Jo marry, while her original intent was for her to live unmarried). The 1994 film fixes this by giving them much more chemistry in the romance.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: It's been noted that Amy has been portrayed much better in the modern adaptations, because many of her traits were progressive for the time but made her seem offputting to conservative 1930s and 40s audiences (she's portrayed as a one-dimensional SpoiledBrat in the 1949 film). The 1994 film is seen as the start of more layered and sensitive portrayals of Amy; Kirsten Dunst, who plays her as a child, is seen as one of the most likable and entertaining Amy's in the pre character development stage.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Jo, when Amy [[DisproportionateRetribution burns her manuscript]] because Jo doesn't take her on an outing to the theatre. As per the moral imperative, the intended focus of the chapter (actually called "Jo Meets Apollyon") is clearly Jo's recognition of and resolve to control her violent temper. The modern reader is much more likely to home in on the fact that it was the only copy of the manuscript that Jo had spent years pouring her heart into, and she's expected to forgive Amy almost right off the bat after something so close to her heart has been cruelly destroyed. Adding to which Amy -- who doesn't appear to have been punished for her act, other than being mildly scolded by her mother -- however genuinely remorseful she might be at first, quickly starts to get petulant when she isn't forgiven right away. And when Jo goes out skating with Laurie, leading Amy to whine about missing another outing, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Meg]] doesn't help matters at all by blithely suggesting that the little girl tag along where she clearly isn't wanted.

* BrokenBase: Are Jo and Fritz an excellent match, with the unconventional, "unromantic" nature of both characters and their courtship making them all the more suited to each other? Or, as thousands of readers have insisted, [[FanPreferredCouple should Jo have married Laurie]]? Or should Jo have remained single in the end, as [[WordOfGod Alcott originally intended]] and as she herself did? Which of the possible endings would have been the happiest for Jo, the most natural conclusion to her arc, and/or the most feminist has been debated for many years.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Jo, when Amy [[DisproportionateRetribution burns her manuscript]] because Jo doesn't take her on an outing to the theatre. As per the moral imperative, the intended focus of the chapter (actually called "Jo Meets Apollyon") is clearly Jo's recognition of and resolve to control her violent temper. The modern reader is much more likely to home in on the fact that it was the only copy of the manuscript that Jo had spent years pouring her heart into. Adding to which Amy, however genuinely remorseful at first, quickly starts to get petulant when she isn't forgiven right away. And when Jo goes out skating with Laurie, leading Amy to whine about missing another outing, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Meg]] doesn't help matters at all by blithely suggesting that the little girl tag along where she clearly isn't wanted.

** Beth: TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth, or an overly meek NaiveEverygirl who "needs" to die because the anti-feminist "angel in the house" archetype she embodies needs to die? (Helen Burns in ''Literature/JaneEyre'' is a similarly BaseBreakingCharacter.)
*** It is worth noting that she was actually based on Louisa May Alcott' s real-life sister Elizabeth, who died tragically young at the age of 22.

* NarmCharm: ''Literature/LittleWomen'' plots a course through [[PurpleProse wildly extravagant and sentimental prose]], {{A|nAesop}}esops (some of them [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop rather questionable]]) in [[OncePerEpisode nearly every chapter]]... and comes out as a gripping romantic drama with a deserved place in the highest pantheon of American literature.

* TheScrappy: Amy is widely disliked among fans, and not just for DieForOurShip. As a child, she's a bratty little thing, and burns Jo's manuscript just because she doesn't get taken to the theatre for a play she was going to see the next week anyway. And when she grows up, she becomes so annoyingly perfect that it feels like CharacterShilling

* HollywoodHomely: All the movie adaptations have cast very beautiful actresses to interpret the self-described "plain" Jo March, leading to the unintentionally hilarious moment when Jo has her hair cut off and a very shocked Amy cries: "Jo, your one beauty!". The Winona Ryder version even has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward". At least Creator/KatharineHepburn in the most famous earlier adaptation isn't a classic beauty, and manages to make young Jo coltish and a bit clumsy.

** Beth: TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth, or dull weakling who "needs" to die because the anti-feminist "angel in the house" archetype she embodies needs to die? (Helen Burns in ''Literature/JaneEyre'' is a similarly BaseBreakingCharacter.)
*** Beth was actually based on Louisa May Alcott's younger sister Elizabeth, who died tragically young at the age of 22. Also, Beth may have been TheIngenue, though she certainly wasn't a "dull-weakling." Even when she became sick, she continued to be very loving and supportive of Jo, with whom she was the closest with, and she was loved by everybody in town (including Mr. Lawrence, the baker, the Hummels, etc. All of whom really missed her when she was sick with Scarlet Fever) for being very kind-hearted and compassionate.

*** Beth was actually based on Louisa May Alcott's younger sister Elizabeth, who died tragically young at the age of 22. Also, Beth may have been TheIngenue, though she certainly wasn't a "dull-weakling." Even wen she became sick, she continued to be very loving and supportive of Jo, with whom she was the closest with, and she was loved by everybody in town (including Mr. Lawrence, the baker, the Hummels, etc. All of whom really missed her when she was sick with Scarlet Fever) for being very kind-hearted and compassionate.

*** Beth was actually based on Louisa May Alcott's younger sister Elizabeth, who died tragically young at the age of 22. Also, Beth may have been TheIngenue, though she certainly wasn't a "dull-weakling," as she was very loving and supportive of Jo, with whom she was the closest with, and she was loved by everybody in town (including Mr. Lawrence, the baker, the Hummels, etc) for being very kind-hearted and compassionate.

*** Beth was actually based on Louisa May Alcott's younger sister Elizabeth, who died tragically young at the age of 22. Also, Beth may have been an Ingenue, though she certainly wasn't a "dull-weakling," as she was very loving and supportive of Jo, with whom she was the closest with, and she was loved by everybody in town (including Mr. Lawrence, the baker, the Hummels, etc) for being very kind-hearted and compassionate.

* RonTheDeathEater: Some people go overboard with bashing the Hummels for getting Beth sick - as if it was part of some evil plot.

--->[[https://web.archive.org/web/20000709115753/http://womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/thesis5.htm When we view]] [[Film/LittleWomen1933 the 1933 version]], we are reminded of a nation during the Depression that needed to see the March girls' benign poverty and nostalgic family togetherness. The 1949 version, with its two shopping trips, reinforces how important it is for a woman to be a consumer, and the 1994 version supports strong, unconventional, feminist women.]]