Guest Post: The March Family from ‘Little Women’ and The Weasleys

David Martin has been thinking about Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, forgive me for assuming it is because of the new movie adaptation, and left his reflections about the March family and the Weasleys on a comment thread beneath my 2011 post, ‘Little Women and Harry Potter: Jo Rowling is Jo March.‘ With his permission and reformatting, I have bumped it into its own post so that more readers will see it. Enjoy!

Little Women is the story of a family more than it is the story of any one individual. Although the Harry Potter books are mostly about Harry Potter, there is also within them a story about the Weasley family. If we look at the stories of those two families – the Marchs and the Weasleys – there are a number of similarities.

Both families are ruled by the mother.

• Molly Weasley clearly runs the Wesley family
• Marmee runs the March family.

Both families have mostly or entirely children of one gender.

• The Weasleys have six sons and one daughter.
• The Marchs have four daughters.

Both families take an interest in (and almost adopt) an outsider who then spends a lot of time at their house.

• The Weasleys take in Harry.
• The Marchs take in Laurie.

In both family stories, that outsider has lost mother and father and is living with his relatives.

• Harry lives with the Dursleys
• Laurie lives with his grandfather.

Both families are poor but kind.

• The Weasleys take care of Harry.
• The Marchs give away their Christmas breakfast and perform many other acts of charity.

In both families, some (or one) of the children are (or is) obsessed with making money.

• For the Weasleys, that would be Fred and George.
• For the Marchs, that would be Jo.

Both families are in a way elite.

• The Weasleys are pure blood.
• The Marchs are part of the intellectual or scholarly elite.

For both families, there is a time when the father is very sick and the mother goes to be with him.

• When Arthur Weasley is bitten by Nagini in Order, Molly goes to St. Mungo’s hospital to be with him.
• When Mr. March is taken ill during the Civil War, Marmee goes to the hospital in Washington to be with him.

In both families, the oldest child marries, and that wedding is described in detail.

• Bill Weasley marries Fleur Delacour.
• Meg March marries John Brooke.

In both families, when the other children marry, it happens “off-stage.”

• Ron, Percy, and Ginny marry, but we don’t see those weddings.
• Amy gets married in Paris. Jo marries sometime in the “Harvest Time” chapter at the end of Little Women. We don’t see any of those wedding.

In both families, one of the children dies.

• Fred Weasley dies in the Battle of Hogwarts.
• The chapter entitled “The Valley of the Shadow” describes Beth’s death.

In both families, the youngest child in the family marries the outsider.

• Ginny Weasley marries Harry. (Maybe that’s why the Weasley family needed a girl?)
• Amy March marries Laurie.

In both families, one of the children marries a really brainy spouse.

• Ron Weasley marries Hermione.
• Jo March marries Professor Bhaer.

In both families, one of the children marries a foreigner.

• Bill Weasley marries a French woman, Fleur Delacour.
• Jo March marries a German man, Friedrich Bhaer.

At the end of the stories, we see the extended form of both families.

• In the epilogue chapter, we see the extended Weasley family putting their children on the Hogwarts express. Ginny’s children are there. Ron’s children are there. Percy is heard, so at least one child of his must be there. Bill’s daughter Victoire is there. So that’s four of the Weasley children and at least seven grandchildren if I’ve counted correctly. And considering the news that James is eager to share about Victoire and Teddy Lupin, maybe the Weasley family will be extending further.
• In the “Harvest Time” chapter at the end of Little Women, we see the extended March family celebrating together, three daughters, three sons-in-law, and at least five grandchildren if I’ve counted correctly.

For both families it appears that the parents (now grandparents) are alive and well at the end of the story. We are told this explicitly about the Marchs in “Harvest Time” chapter of Little Women. During the epilogue chapter of Harry Potter, Rose is warned that “Granddad Weasley” would never forgive her if she married a pureblood, so clearly Arthur Weasley is still alive. Let’s assume that Molly Weasley is too.

Maybe we should call the series The Weasley Family Saga.

—– David Martin of Hufflepuff