The Oldest: Meg March and Anna Alcott Pratt

A portrait of Anna Alcott Pratt

The oldest of the four Alcott sisters was Anna, born in 1831, one year after her parents, Amos and Abigail were married. Anna was followed by Louisa (Jo), Elisabeth (Beth), and May (Amy). By all accounts she was a loving sister and daughter--in fact she seemed to be the family model for Victorian female domesticity.

Anna, of course, was the real-life woman that Meg March was based on.

Much of the characterization we see of Meg can be interpreted as Louisa's representation of her sister, Anna. Which is never going to give us a full and total look at Anna. But we do know that Louisa got a few things spot on.

Louisa (Jo) and Anna really were quite dramatic. They formed a society called the Concord Dramatic Union that would put on plays in the Alcott family's Orchard House. While performing in a play called The Loan of a Lover, Anna fell in love with John Pratt (called John Brooks in Little Women), who later became her husband. They were playing opposite each other.

In her journal, Anna reported her wedding day as the happiest day of her life. She married John in her family's farmhouse parlor. In writing the wedding scene in the book, Louisa actually took no poetic licenses whatsoever! It is a direct account of what happened the day Anna and John wed.

Meg (Trini Alvarado) and John's (Eric Stoltz)
wedding in Columbia Pictures'
1994 Little Women

The Alcott's lived under many burdens during their lives, and so the wedding day was a day that was remembered and cherished by all members of the family. A rare day of joy. Here's what Anna had to say about it in her journal:

"I was in a dream, the lovely day, the bright May sunshine streaking in upon the sweet flowers and loving faces, the influence of the kind hearts around me. All seemed so beautiful that although my heart beat fast and the tears  came to my eyes, I did not feel like Annie. John looked like an angel, fair, innocent, with such loving eyes that I could not look at them but only held his hand and thought, He is my husband."

I'm looking forward to seeing what new life and sparkle our very own Anna can bring to portraying beloved Meg March.

Anna Romney, Meg in BYU's 2014
 production of Little Women

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