The Heroine Myth: The Little Woman’S Transformation From Literature To Cinema

Abstract

Little Women (Louisa May Alcott's literary source and numerous film adaptations) have won the love of mass audiences and the interest of feminist critics as they represent the "American female myth" and provide ample room for interpretation. The novel itself simultaneously asserts and undermines Victorian gender norms, and each subsequent film adaptation redefines these norms from the standpoint of its time. An analysis of Greta Gerwig's latest film adaptation of 2019 traces how contemporary cinema remythologizes Victorian gender norms to construct contemporary normative models of gender identity. This study, using the "heroine myth" model, presents Little Women as a female developmental narrative that includes the successive passage of three stages: Wonderful Child -Beautiful Virgin -Wise Mother. The adaptation of Greta Gerwig offers two options for the development of the heroine -the first corresponds to the book, and the second demonstrates the following sequence: Wonderful Child -Beautiful Virgin -Wonderful Virgin. These changes allow the heroine to maintain her transformative nature, which she is forced to sacrifice in the traditional scenario. At the same time, the preservation of the duality of the ending can be interpreted as an assertion of the variability of women's life or as a concession to romantic conventions while formally defending feminist values.