Beth March

Little Women (2019)

Eliza Scanlen (2019)

Shy Little Beth

Bess Laurence (niece)

### Personalities

Young, shy, graceful, gentle, sweet, kind, caring, quiet, pure, angelic, innocent, musical, pious, intelligent, loving, humble, emotional, self-sacrificing, supportive, creative, sickly, weak

### Allies

Meg March
Jo March
Amy March
Marmee March
Mr. March
Laurie Laurence
Mr. Laurence
Aunt March

Hannah

### Likes

Music, playing the piano, her dolls, her kittens

### Goal

To be a good daughter and follow her mother's lessons and morals (succeeded)

### Fate

Suffers from scarlet fever, which causes her health to hail, and dies

### Famous quotes

"I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is leaving you all. I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven."

> "*There are many Beth’s in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.*"
> ― Part 1, Chapter 4
>
>

Beth March is one of the protagonists in Louisa May Alcott’s *Little Women*. She is the daughter of Mr. and Marmee March and the sister of Meg, Jo and Amy March.

A shy, sweet girl, Beth doesn't go to school or work outside of home, and instead makes herself useful around the household and follows the important lessons and morals her wise mother, Marmee, teaches her and her sisters.

## Description

Beth March is the third March sister, and she is the most different from her sisters. She resembles an old-fashioned heroine who mostly keeps to herself and doesn’t appreciate the roles that women were allowed to accept at the time, such as going to school or work. However, like her sisters, Beth makes a different step in her journey from childhood to adulthood by overcoming her problems, such as getting over her shyness. At the same time, the girls have their “Castles in the Air”, in which they have different sets of goals they would like to accomplish. Unlike her sisters, Beth doesn’t wish to be rich or have a successful career; instead, she is satisfied with herself and has no other goals.

She is inspired by Alcott’s younger sister, Lizzie Alcott. Like Beth March, Lizzie was shy, sweet and loved playing the piano. Very little is known about her life, although she contracted scarlet fever but never fully recovered from it. As her health failed, she refused medical treatment and died at age 22. Her death devastated Alcott and the family, and Alcott had written in her journal that she was relieved her sister wasn’t in pain anymore, and her soul was finally free. Since Lizzie’s personality traits and life are immortalized in the character of Beth March, it’s clear that she was never meant to live a long, successful life like her sister. However, the narrator assured readers that Beth was now at peace with her death.

Some readers underappreciate Beth, as she has less action than the sisters and the choices she makes have grim results, such as forgetting to feed her pet canary, which resulted in it starving to death, or holding a poor family’s sick baby that died in her arms. At the same time, Meg and Jo had been selfish when they refuse to visit the Hummels, and Beth decided she would go alone, even if it meant she would contract the sickness from them. However, Alcott insisted that Beth did a selfless act in helping the less fortunate and blamed society for their treatment of weak women who cannot give their support. If readers had paid close attention and analyzed Beth’s characteristics, they would learn the empathy of Beth’s selflessness and how her illness becomes an important lesson to those who love her.

## Storyline

### An Impoverished Christmas

On Christmas Eve, 13-year-old Beth sits in the parlour with her sisters, Meg, Jo and Amy, who lament about living in poverty and not having Christmas gifts. Beth reminds her sisters that they should be grateful that they still have their parents and each other. But Jo laments that their father is absent and they won’t see him again for a long time.

## Personality/Appearance

Beth is a sweet, loving and gentle girl whose traits keep her family close. She never complains about not having everything and is grateful for what she has: her sisters, her kittens, her dolls and her music. She spends all her time in her home as she's too shy to attend school or work, and she often finds her home to be a haven. As such, she is considered to be the most feminine of the March sisters, since she is depicted as an angel from Heaven who provides peace in her home, and eager to accept traditional female roles.