But you know who can't be forgiven? Do you know who the true villain of Little Women is?
It's Beth and here's why I hate her.
Beth is annoying. She is arguably the most annoying character in the book. She was the "goodest" of the sisters. This not because of anything she actively does for other people, but because she doesn't do anything bad, like the other characters. Beth does nothing. She doesn't effect the plot. She doesn't go anywhere. She doesn't come up with any good ideas. She is only good, because everyone else around her does things, both good and back.
When one compares Beth to other "goodest" characters, she also comes out pretty flat. Jane Bennet is supposed to be the core of her sisters. Jane stops the infighting between her sisters, she advises Elizabeth, she empathy for her mother (which few other characters show). She is the "goodest" Bennet sister and gets her happy ending. Beth, on the other hand, helps her sister when she's sick and has to die for it. Beth didn't work to earn anything in the novel. Another type of "goodest" character is the abuse victim. Beth not a Cinderella or a Jane Eyre, where she's actually abused by her family and has to over come her situation. She's just sort of there.
It's pretty common for people to see Beth as the grounded, optimistic sister. She's not optimistic. She just wishes for things to be different or like how they were. because if she was, she would actually do something to help her family get out of their situation. The other three sisters do what they can while Beth just gazes wistfully out the window. I see her has more of a complainer than as an optimist. Amy March is greedy and a little lazy, but she marries well in order to provide for herself and her family. Meg also marries to help her family. Jo... well she shouldn't have gotten married, but she did manage to follow her dreams.
So... I hate Beth. And honestly, I think Alcott relished killing her off, just so she didn't have to write her character anymore.
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