Will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. You can help us out by revising, improving and updatingĪfter you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Thus, the creator is but a replica of her creations namely a strong, determined, and independent woman. Inspired from Alcott herself, Tribulation is no different. Her protagonists are often strong women, who would go against anything in order to reach their goals and live up to their potential. The second communicates the fact that the emancipation of women is not sought as a luxury, but as a means to prove that women were as capable as their male counterparts.īy and large, Alcott is considered as one of the most outspoken feminists in recorded history. Determination and hard-work are the characteristics which Alcott wanted her female readers to adopt just like Tribulation had done, for only through perseverance in the face of the most difficult situations would they finally reach the state of independence which they had so long desired. The first takes the form of a message addressed to the women of the time.

This part of the narrative throws the light upon two very important key points in the plot. The journey itself is a challenge for a young unmarried woman in the midst of an unprejudiced patriarchal society. Tribulation exchanges the comfort of her home with the coarseness of an unfamiliar and harsh field hospital. The road towards independence, however, is depicted as neither easy nor pleasant. So far, these aspects paint her character in the colors of an independent and strong woman very similar to Alcott’s other fierce heroine, namely Jo March, the protagonist of Little Women. Frustrated with the endless barriers set by a patriarchal society, she finally decides to set sail into the big wide world, and create opportunities where she finds none. This meaningful opening sets the tone of the work, and gives Tribulation the characteristics of a new woman and a feminist character, who would let nothing get in the way of her ambitions. She refuses marriage, declines teaching, opposes writing, and only settles on the bold career of a field nurse. The story begins accordingly when the protagonist takes a decisive step outside her conventional life by declining all the social positions, which gender roles, at the time, had suffered her to occupy. Thus, its heroine, Tribulation Periwinkle, is no other than Alcott herself behind the veil of a fictional character. Hospital Sketches is a fictionalized record of Louisa May Alcott’s own career as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War. Written by Polly Barbour, Sid Ali Kercenna We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

Hospital sketches