Chapter XI. Experiments

Take Two

By Mark Gallagher

Louisa May Alcott was deeply affected by the Fruitlands experiment. While she eventually wrote a satirical history of it, her first published commentary on her father’s failed utopia appears in Chapter 11 of Little Women, “Experiments,” where the March sisters indulge in the “all play, and no work” lifestyle that led to Fruitlands’ failure and the near ruin of Alcott’s family.

The chapter begins on June 1st, the same day Fruitlands was founded in 1843. Meg is relieved of her governess duties for the summer, while Jo is reprieved by a vacationing Aunt March. Deciding that lounging is the preferred course of inaction, all four sisters abandon their domestic duties for a week of personal freedom. Mrs. March consents, “You may try your experiment for a week, and see how you like it. I think by Saturday night you will find that all play, and no work, is as bad as all work, and no play.”

Neglecting their domestic work, the girls are not unlike the carefree, aspiring-vegetable-eating idealists who lived with the Alcotts at their new Eden in Harvard, Massachusetts. As Alcott noted in “Transcendental Wild Oats” (1873),

Slowly things got into order, and rapidly rumors of the new experiment went abroad, causing many strange spirits to flock thither, for in those days communities were the fashion and transcendentalism raged wildly. Some came to look on and laugh, some to be supported in poetic idleness, a few to believe sincerely and work heartily. Each member was allowed to mount his favorite hobby and ride it to his heart’s content.

Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane’s utopia failed in spectacularly foolish ways, particularly because the men failed to assume an equitable share in domestic responsibilities—or any responsibilities at all, for that matter. In her journal for Friday, November 2nd, 1843, eleven-year-old Louisa writes:

Anna and I did the work. In the evening Mr. Lane asked us, “What is man?” These were our answers: A human being; an animal with a mind; a creature; a body; a soul and a mind. After a long talk we went to bed very tired.

Years later, Alcott commented, “No wonder, after doing the work and worrying their little wits with such lessons” (Journals 46-47). The contrast between Alcott’s work ethic and Lane’s attitude is striking. Sharing his vision of the “consociate family,” Lane writes, “Of all the traffic in which civilized society is involved, that of human labour is perhaps the most detrimental” (The New Age [November 1, 1843] pp. 116-120). Lane subsequently left Fruitlands for a Shaker community, where “he soon found the order of things was reversed, and it was all work and no play” (“Transcendental Wild Oats”).

The “Experiments” story is similar to one Alcott remembers Lane reading at Fruitlands. She recounts the story of “The Judicious Father” in which a “rich girl” is punished for being cruel to a “poor girl” who only wanted to “look over the fence at the flowers” in her yard. The girl’s father makes her exchange clothes with the other girl, forcing her to wear the old rags for a week. The moral lesson was not lost on young Louisa: “I liked it very much, and I shall be kind to poor people” (Journals, 45). Such kindness is evident in the charity the March sisters give to the less fortunate Hummels. In “Experiments,” however, we hear the story from the perspective of the “shabby girls” who escape the drudgery of their housework to enjoy a week in their own flowerbeds. Luckily, they have a judicious mother to give them a lesson in the vice of idleness and the virtue of work.

The girls soon tire of the experiment and wish it were over. They are ready to take up their responsibilities again but not before one vulnerable friend suffers, as Daniel Shealy notes, the “consequences of neglected work” (Annotated Little Women, 168). Pip’s death is a melodramatic reminder to those children for whom Isaac Watts’ warning against the evils of “idle hands” is not enough of a moral. When Jo promises, “We’ll work like bees, and love it too, see if we don’t,” it is an imperative as well as a prediction. For while it was common for children to work with their families—on farms, in the family business, or doing housework—too often families suffered from failed entrepreneurial schemes and other risky endeavors that made child labor an economic necessity. Alcott’s experience at Fruitlands taught her that.

Mark Gallagher (@MarkRussellG) is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at UCLA. His primary teaching and research interest is American Transcendentalism.

“Here lies Pip March, / Who died the 7th of June; / Loved and lamented sore, / And not forgotten soon.” — Jo [Image courtesy of J. Alden Weir, “Children Burying a Bird” (1878), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.]

Chapter XI. Experiments

Take One

Melissa McFarland Pennell

I did not read Little Women until I was an adult, but since that first encounter, I’ve enjoyed rereading the novel many times and often include it as a text in one of my courses. Perhaps that is why when asked which might be my favorite chapter, I picked “Experiments” –a chapter about lessons learned and the value of trial and error.  It is also a chapter about work, presenting some forms of paid employment that women held in the nineteenth century, but also speaking to much of the invisible work that women did and continue to do. For me the key to the chapter is in Marmee’s commentary near its end that “Work . . . gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion”—but then she cautions her daughters to seek a balanced life, to make each day “both useful and pleasant.” Alcott seems to anticipate the desire for a work-life balance that so often arises in our lives.

The chapter opens with the four March sisters expressing their joy at having some “time off,” the chance to set aside their daily responsibilities and embrace, at least briefly, freedom from duties. Asking their mother’s permission to do just as they please for the week, the sisters soon discover that things are not as pleasant as they had expected: time drags, they feel out of sorts, and boredom is creeping into their anticipated ease.  Even saintly Beth becomes cranky. The chapter’s humorous highpoint comes in Jo’s attempts at cooking, as she assumes that skill and experience are negligible while preparing a company dinner as long as one has a recipe book to follow. Her burnt bread, undercooked potatoes, and salted strawberries result in a dinner disaster that “became a standing joke.” Fortunately, Jo’s guests could join her in laughing over her kitchen fiasco, and the sisters learn the wisdom of Hannah’s belief that “Housekeeping ain’t no joke.”

In this chapter Marmee, with Hannah’s help, proves herself to be a skilled and patient teacher. She and Hannah are both amused by what they see but step back and allow the sisters to make their mistakes. To move her daughters toward a better understanding of the lesson she is trying to impart, Marmee, who admits that she “never enjoyed housekeeping,” gives herself and Hannah a day off, to let the full effect of chaos and inexperience take hold. In doing so, she allows the girls to discover how much “invisible” work goes on around them every day and that knowledge, planning, and organization allow goals to be achieved.

As I began thinking about this blog entry, an article appeared in The Boston Globe that discussed gender-neutral skills necessary for modern adults.  Some of the items on the list are specific to our own era. Among the others, however, being able to cook a meal, do your own laundry, take responsibility, listen, ask for help, and make and hold onto friends are all ones that I think Mrs. March would endorse.

Melissa McFarland Pennell, Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, specializes in the study of nineteenth-century American literature and culture.

Miss Crocker, one of the Miss Marches’ unhappy dinner guests from chapter XI of Little Women (image by Frank T. Merrill, from the 1880 illustrated edition of Little Women).