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.
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MARMEE: Jo! Jo, dear! I want you.
JO: Laurie. This won't do.
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(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.