Chapters 40-41

NOTE: Page numbers refer to the Barnes & Noble Classics paperback edition.

Background Information/Vocabulary

•  "weeds" (p. 406)--in this context, weeds are the clothing a person wears when they are mourning a recent death.  In this case, Laurie is mourning his "blighted affections", or his love for Jo, but has reflected that he doesn't need to "wear his weeds ostentatiously"--in other words, he's decided to stop moping around over Jo's rejection.

• "interred" (p. 406)--buried (as a coffin)
   
• "embalm" (p. 406)--to preserve a corpse for burial (in this case, Laurie intends to preserve his feelings about Jo by writing music about them)

• "requiem" (p. 406)--a musical composition to be played at a funeral or memorial service (usually has religious connotations)

My Noticings: 

•     Ok, so as a modern reader, I have some problems with Beth.  She's this perfect little angel, and we never really see her point of view because she's barely even human--she's just a pillar of goodness and light.  She's an example of a problematic trope in "sicklit" or disability lit in which the invalid character is entirely good and pure and inspirational, when in fact sick people are roughly the same as everyone else: a few really nice ones, a few jerks, and most in between.  But none of that keeps me from crying at the end of this chapter every single time I read it.

• Wow--I never noticed that immediately following Beth's actual death, we get this whole extended death metaphor from Laurie--his love for Jo has been killed, so he has to bury it and go into mourning over it and write a requiem for it and so on.  The comparison really makes him look foolish and melodramatic!

• By the end of this chapter, though, I've completely forgiven Laurie's melodrama: he and Amy are so sweet together and I have to admit, I'm crying again.  Double whammy today!

Final Thoughts:

A lot happens in these two chapters--as with the end of part one, suddenly the pace is really starting to pick up as we draw near the end of the book. 

Question for readers:

Are you on board with the pairing of Laurie and Amy?  What makes you like them together or wish they had stayed apart?