Defying Convention | Little Women
Video Transcript

JO: Where are you floating off to, on that cloud of cologne and pomade?

LAURIE: Eugenia Randall's house.

JO: Eugenia Randall? Is she the girl you sent a rose to every morning of your sophomore year?

LAURIE: She's giving a tea party so everyone can see her engagement presents. She was a delicious romp, and a fine flirt...

JO: Marmee doesn't like that sort of girl.

LAURIE: Marmee didn't raise that sort of girl.

JO: I wouldn't know how to flirt even if she had allowed it.

LAURIE: I flirt constantly. I can't help myself. But what I really like are sensible, straightforward, modest young women.

♪ ♪

MARMEE: Jo! Jo, dear! I want you.

JO: Laurie. This won't do.

♪ ♪

(grunting)

(mattress drops)

MARMEE: What is it, Jo?

JO: I want to go away.

MARMEE: Where?

JO: To a hospital in a big city to train to be a nurse.

MARMEE: No, Jo-- no, no. Besides, the war is over.

JO: Do you think disease has stopped existing because the country is at peace? People will always need help, Marmee.

MARMEE: And what do you need, Jo? Because--and forgive me if I sound disrespectful--I don't believe the state of the sick and the suffering is your principal concern.

JO: I need to not live out my entire life in the tiny town where I was born. I need to see things, and be things, because I'm terrified that if I don't, my writing will have to be forced out of nothing, and go nowhere. And I need to get away from Laurie. He's become...fond of me.

MARMEE: And, uh...You don't think you could become fond of him?

JO: No. I love him, but like I've always loved him, like a brother. And that won't change. I know it won't change.

MARMEE: Good. Because you and Laurie...You're too much alike. Both have hot tempers and strong wills. Marriage takes infinite patience and forbearance, Jo. As well as love.

JO: I know that. Because I have seen that. But I'm not sure I could manage it with anybody, and I don't intend to try.