In the 2019 film adaptation of Little Women, minor character John Brooke serves a pivotal role in main character Meg March’s character transformation by acting as a metaphorical stand-in for values of love and friendship through his positioning as an ensemble player. The beloved 19th century story, Little Women, is a coming-of-age story about the March sisters, a poor but loving family from Massachusetts who do their best to look out for each other while their father is away fighting in the Civil War (Alcott). Due to the wide-spanning timeline of the film, Little Women works as an ensemble piece, and we watch as four sisters grow up, make mistakes, and find themselves, while surrounded by a vast array of family and friends. Enter minor character John Brooke, whose camaraderie with the March sisters make him a pleasant addition to the lively group. His character doesn’t shine tremendously as an individual, but works perfectly alongside the other personalities, giving him the role of the sweet and awkward friend who inevitably falls in love with a main character and who the audience can’t help but root for (Mathijs 90). The object of his infatuation is Meg March, who, more so than any of her sisters, resents being poor, and longs for a life of luxury (Gerwig). The plot thickens, therefore, when Meg and John become married, and John cannot provide Meg with a financially optimal life. Meg and John inevitably hit a roadblock, and Meg is forced to decide if she wants to continue living a life of poverty in the “March way”, or if she wants a completely different type of life. By this point in the film, we’ve witnessed John socializing with the other characters enough times to associate him as a key group member – he’s cemented his place with the others by being so likeable and behaving “in the way the audience expects” a character in his position in the ensemble to act (Mathijs 90). Because of this, we’re able to view him less as an individual and more so as a representation of the larger collective of friends. Therefore, John not only represents Meg’s husband, but their whole community, and all the things Meg both loved and hated about her upbringing. So, even though John is not a terribly complex character with a grand arc or a lot of substantial scenes, he contributes vastly to the narrative structure of the film because of his likability and strong association with the major characters, which in turn leads to him becoming a token for larger overall themes (Mathijs 90). So, when Meg concludes that she’s committed and happy and fulfilled to be John’s wife, and she means it, we not only see Meg’s character arc completed, and John Brooke’s massively important narrative purpose achieved, but also, the return of the jovial ensemble, which suggests a happy return of the golden days for everyone involved (Gerwig).
Works Cited
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Roberts Brothers, 1869.
Gerwig, Greta, director. Little Women, Columbia Pictures, 2019.
Mathijs, Ernest. “Referential Acting and the Ensemble Cast.” Full Text of “Screen Volume 52 Issue 1”, https://archive.org/stream/Screen_Volume_52_Issue_1/Screen_Volume_52_Issue_1_djvu.txt.
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