Angelle,**** Really Important******
--Please leave the Typo's in this piece. Amy does not have good grammar and it is part of the
humor.
Note: Please edit this scene if needed. If you need help, please ask your instructor.
LITTLE WOMEN
By Louisa Mae Alcott
Adapted by Lorraine Cohen
MEG, JO, AMY, BETH
The story of the March family, written in the nineteenth century, is still a
favorite among young readers. The trials and tribulations of the lady-like
Meg, the tomboyish Jo, the vain Amy, and the gently Beth, growing up poor
but happy under the watchful eye of their mother while their father is in the
army, have elicited chuckles and countless tears from readers over the
years.
The following scene is adapted from the beginning of the book. The four
girls are knitting.
JO: (Lying on rug) Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.
MEG: (Looking at her old dress) It’s so dreadful to be poor!
AMY: I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have lots of pretty things, and
other girls nothing at all.
BETH: We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other.
JO: We haven’t got father and shall not have him for a long
time. (Silence.)
MEG: You know the reason Mother proposed not having any presents this
Christmas was because it’s going to be a hard winter for everyone; and she
thinks we ought not to spend the money for pleasure, when our men are
suffering so in the army. We can’t do much, but we can make our little
sacrifices and out to do it gladly. But I’m afraid I don’t.
JO: But I don’t think the little we should spend would do any good. We’ve
each got a dollar and the army wouldn’t be much helped by out giving
that. I agree not to expect anything from mother or you, but I do want to
buy a new book.
BETH: I planned to spend mine in new music.
AMY: I shall get a nice box of Faber’s drawing pencils; I really need them.
JO: Mother didn’t say anything about our money, and she won’t wish us to
give up everything. Let’s each buy what we want, and have a little fun; I ‘m
sure we grub hard enough to earn it.
AMY: You do use such slang words, it’s really very in-dignified. (Jo begins
to whistle.) Don’t Jo, it’s so boyish.
JO: That’s why I do it.
AMY: I detest rude, unladylike girls.
JO: I hate affected, niminy piminy chits.
BETH: Oh girls, don’t argue.
MEG: Beth is right. You are old enough to leave off boyish tricks, and
behave better, Josephine. It didn’t matter so much when you were a little
girl, but now you are so tall, and turn up your hair, you should remember
that you are a young lady.
JO: I ain’t! and if turning up my hair makes me one, I’ll wear it in two tails
till I’m twenty. I hate to think I’ve got to grow up and be Miss March, and
wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster. It’s bad enough to be
a girl, anyway, when I like boys’ game and work, and manners. I can’t get
over my disappointment in not being a boy, and it’s worse than ever now,
for I’m dying to go and fight with papa, and I can only stay at home and knit
like a poky old woman! (There her ball of wool across the room)
BETH: Oh, poor Jo!
MEG: As for you, Amy, you are altogether too particular and prim. Your
airs are funny now, but you’ll grow up an affected little goose if you don’t
take care. I like your nice manners and refined ways of speaking, when you
don’t try to be elegant, but your absurd words are as bad as Jo’s slang.
AMY: I’m just trying to exprove my vocabulary. (JO snorts loudly) I’m just
going to ignore such coarseness.
JO: Oh, how furious you make me!
BETH: Oh, a letter is here. Maybe its from father. (Goes off)
MEG: I hope it’s from father. (Girls all chime in) (BETH returns with a
letter.)
BETH: It is from Father. Shall we open it or wait till Mother comes home?
JO: Oh, I could never wait.
AMY: Meg, you are supposed to be Mother’s helper when she’s not
here. You read it. You have the authoritary. (JO snorts and laughs
again. AMY sticks out her tongue.)
MEG: Oh stop it girls. All right, let me read it. Wouldn’t it be perfectly
wonderful if he was coming home for Christmas?
BETH: Oh, do you think that’s what it could be? Read it Meg, read it.
MEG: (Opening the letter, reading aloud)
“My dear family,
This will be a very short letter before we move camp again but I do
want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I would have like more than
anything to spend this holiday with you but it looks like it will be at least a
year before I see you all again. My dear daughters, help and obey your
mother, do your duty faithfully so that when I come home to you, I may be
prouder than ever of my little women.”
(Silence, Sniffing)
AMY: I am a selfish pig! But I’ll truly try to be better so he mayn’t be
disappointed in me.
MEG: We all will! I think too much of my looks, and hate to work, but won’t
any more, if I can help it.
JO: I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, “a little woman” and not be
rough and wild.
BETH: Remember all the lovely times we had with Father last
summer? Remember when we went out there where our flowers and
arbors are and there were so many pretty things, we all stood and sung for
joy up there in the sunshine. (Silence again as all the girls remember
things. AMY is crying.)
JO: Let’s cheer up before Mommy comes home I know, let’s rehearse our
play that we are going to do for her.
MEG: You know what I made for the play? A bit of jewelry of gold-paper
for me to wear. Won’t that be perfect Jo?
JO: Perfectly Jolly! Let’s rehearse. Come here, Amy, and do the fainting
scene. You are stiff as a poker in that.
AMY: I can’t help it. I never saw anyone faint, and I don’t choose to make
myself all black and blue, tumbling flat as you do. If I can go down easily,
I’ll drop: if I can’t, I shall fall into a chair and be graceful. I don’t care if
Hugo does come at me with a pistol.
JO: Do it this way. Clasp your hands so, and stagger across the room,
crying frantically, “Roderigo! Save me! Save me!” (JOdoes this with a
melodramatic scream.) (AMY tries it but her hands are poked out stiffly
and her scream at the end is funny. JO groans.)
JO: It’s no use! Do the best you can when the time comes, and if the
audience shouts, don’t blame me. Come on meg, let’s try your part.
MEG: (very dramatically) Ah me! I shall never marry you Hugo though
you keep me prisoner till I am old and gray. Mine heart belongeth to
Roderigo. Is that right, Jo?
JO: It’s the best we’ve had yet.
BETH: I don’t see how you can write such splendid things, Jo. You’re a
regular Shakespeare!
JO: Not quite. I’d like to try to do Macbeth though, if we only had a trapdoor for Banquo. I always wanted to do the killing part. “Is that a dagger
that I see before me?”
(Rolling her eyes and clutching the air)
MEG: No, it’s Beth’s knitting needle with a ball of yarn stuck on
it! (Laughter)
(The doorbell rings)
AMY: I’ll get it. (Goes off)
MEG: We should practice the gong too. Start us Beth. (The girls sing
after BETH.)
AMY: (Coming back with flowers, a basket of goodies) Look at this! (The
girls crowd around, exclaiming.)
BETH: I never saw such a beautiful bouquet.
MEG: Who sent it?
JO: And just look at those pastries! (Stuffing one in her mouth)
MEG: Jo! (JO sheepishly puts it back.)
AMY: It was a present from our new neighbor, the Lawrence boy. I do like
his manners but he seemed very shy.
JO: Oh, I’ve met him already. When our cat ran away, he brought her back
and we talked over the fence, all about cricket but now Meg is so prim she
won’t let me speak to him when we pass.
AMY: And you know what else? He invited us all over to a party at his
house tomorrow evening? Isn’t that elegantish?
MEG: Won’t it be marvelous to go to a party? But what shall we wear?
JO: What’s the use of asking that, when you know we shall wear our
poplins, because we haven’t got anything else.
AMY: If only I had a silk! I think I would die for a silk dress!
JO: I’m sure our pops look like silk, and they are nice enough for
us. Yours is as good as new, but I forgot the burn and the tear in
mine. Whatever shall I do? The burn shows horridly and I can’t take it out.
BETH: I’ll try to fix it for you, Jo.
AMY: That’s what you get from standing so near the fire. You are so
clumsy.
MEG: You must sit all you can, and keep your back out of sight. The front
is all right.
AMY: I shall put this ribbon in my hair and maybe Mother will lend me her
little pearl pin, and my new slippers are lovely, and my gloves will do,
though they aren’t as nice as I’d like.
JO: Mine are spoiled with lemonade, and I can’t get any new ones, so I
shall just have to go without them.
MEG: You must have gloves, or I won’t go. Gloves are more important
than anything else. You can’t dance without them, and if you don’t I should
be so mortified.
JO: Then I’ll stay still.
AMY: You can’t ask Mother for new ones, they are so expensive, and you
are so careless. Can’t you fix them in some way?
JO: I can hold them crunched up in my hand, so no one will know how
stained they are, that’s all I can do. No! I’ll tell you how we can manage—
each wear one good one and carry a bad one. Isn’t that a nifty idea?
MEG: Your hands are bigger than mine, and you will stretch my glove
dreadfully.
JO: Then I’ll go without them. I don’t care what people say.
MEG: You can wear my glove! Only don’t stain it!
AMY: And don’t put your hands behind you, or say “Christopher
Columbus,” will you?
JO: Don’t worry.
AMY: Oh, I don’t like this collar! Do you think I could borrow yours, Meg?
MEG: Come on. Let’s see what I have. (MEG and AMY exit.)
BETH: I’ll clean your glove too. I’m sure I can.
JO: Beth, what would we do without you? You know, you look like the
essence of a flower. A rose, no, a violet I think. Sing for me Beth dear,
please. (BETH begins singing as the lights dim and go out.)