@pscentral event 23: arcs

"It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women. Amy was learning this distinction through much tribulation, for mistaking enthusiasm for inspiration, she attempted every branch of art with youthful audacity." -- L.M. Alcott, Little Women

Amy and Laurie + Excerpts from Greta Gerwig’s Little Women script

In the film, [Florence] Pugh’s adult Amy outlines this philosophy in a monologue that illustrates her maturity. “I’m just a woman,” she tells Laurie (played by Timothée Chalamet, another Lady Bird alum) while both are in Europe.

[Greta] Gerwig didn’t have the speech in her script initially. [Meryl] Streep convinced her to include it, pointing out to the writer-director that she had to make clear to the audience why there’s so much pressure on Amy to marry, and to marry well. Amy is the one tasked with keeping the March family afloat, given Meg’s marriage to a poor teacher, Jo’s refusal to be engaged to Laurie—a man she considers more of a brother than a lover—and Beth’s illness.

Amy is the sister with the greatest understanding of how her femininity could work for her. “There’s something about Amy,” Gerwig said. “Jo can’t put her ego aside long enough to get what she needs to get, but Amy can. It’s just, I loved that [Europe] section of the book … I wanted that feeling in it, of Amy’s utter practicality when it comes to how to get ahead.”

Greta Gerwig’s Little Women Gives Amy March Her Due

FLORENCE PUGH and TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as AMY MARCH and THEODORE ‘LAURIE’ LAURENCE in LITTLE WOMEN (2019)

When did you get so wise?  Little Women (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig

                              Don’t marry him. 

                                                                Why? 

                                                                                    You know why.  

“A sister is both your mirror and your opposite.” — Elizabeth Fishel

Jo and Amy in LITTLE WOMEN (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig

Little Women (2019) Dir. Greta Gerwig

LITTLE WOMEN (2019)

LITTLE WOMEN (2019) DIR. GRETA GERWIG

I’m not a poet. I’m just a woman. And as a woman, there’s no way for me to make my own money. Not enough to earn a living, or to support my family. If I had my own money, which I don’t, that money would belong to my husband the moment we got married. If we had children, they would be his, not mine. They would be his property. So, don’t sit there and tell me that marriage isn’t an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you, but it most certainly is for me.          FLORENCE PUGH AS AMY MARCH IN LITTLE WOMEN (2019)