Louisa May Alcott’s Work

Floral Diction and Sexual

Undertones in Louisa May Alcott’s Work

Olivia Grenier, Ball State University

Work by Louisa May Alcott is a coming of age story of a young girl finding her way in the working world. After many exhausting jobs, her last one was the most rejuvenating and impactful because not only did she find work, she found love. Upon arriving at the Sterling residence, the book becomes more floral in diction and whimsical in setting to enhance the oncoming change in Christie. Christie enters her new residence in the springtime which was an intentional stylistic move by Alcott due to the associations to new life and fertility that spring suggests. “A Story of Experience” is the subtitle to the larger Work. Alcott is carefully curating a story around a maturing girl and is not shy in including the sexual experiences that the subtitle may denote. However, Alcott is rather modest in doing so. Due to the intentional absence of explicit sexual images throughout Work, Alcott relies on these associations connected to spring and the symbolism of flowers to augment the flourishing romantic relationship between Christie and David. Alcott is able to foster a growing relationship, enhance the familiar connects to spring and create a type of sexual awakening all with the absence of explicit sexual imagery between David and Christie. Alcott uses floral diction as a way to foreshadow the growth of David and Christie’s relationship and as a way to hint towards sexual undertones without being overtly sexual. Christie and David’s first interaction was in a garden, which conveys a basis for sexual attraction. David is the Gardener in this story, so whenever flowers are present, they have some connection to his craft which sets up the relation between David and the flowers throughout the novel. Christie is not instantly attracted to David as Alcott even writes in regard to his looks, “What a blow it was to be sure! Christie actually felt vexed with him for disappointing her so” (chapter 10). Although Christie states her initial disappointment, that does not stop her from wanting to look her best in front of a new man, “She would have been more than woman if she had not first slipped upstairs to smooth her hair, put on a fresh collar, and black silk apron with certain effective frills and pockets …” (chapter 10). Christie got dressed up as if meeting in the greenhouse were her and David’s first date. Flowers are indictive of sexuality and sex is not something Alcott explicitly describes in her story. Therefore, the incorporation of heavy floral

diction and being surrounded by flowers when David and Christie are together denotes hints of sexuality. Andrea Frownfelter states, “The flower can be used as either a negative or positive symbol, showing either an absence or presence of sexuality” (21). In David and Christie’s case, the flowers are supporting the presence of sexuality. Since Alcott does not explicitly write about sex, the flowers are the substitute. Frownfelter continues to include that, “flowers are sexy to the masculine gaze…” (21). While Christie got all dressed up to impress David, the environment they are in is enough the sway towards sexual undertones –flowers are sexy. Although Alcott does not specifically write about the sexuality between David and Christie, it is prevalent through the abundance of flowers that sexual attraction is present. In the strawberry bed is where Christie had her first sexual awakening. The chapter titled, “In the Strawberry Bed”, opens with Christie expressing her gratitude and appreciation for spring. She is commenting on how, “never had spring seemed so early and so fair” and is noticing, “never had such a crop of hopeful thoughts and happy feelings sprung up in her heart as now …” (chapter 11). Alcott intentionally placed David and Christie’s relationship to flourish during the spring season because spring is associated with fertility and new life. Alcott’s diction is also intentional by her unusual pairing of the word “crop” to mean something like an “abundance of.” This word play continues when Alcott writes that happy feelings “sprung up” in Christie’s heart. This opening scene supports that David and Christie’s relationship is narrated through floral diction. Christie’s outlook on spring is starting to change because of how David has positively impacted her life thus far. On a general level, “beds” are thought of alluding to the physical action of sex. Again, Alcott does not describe overtly that David and Christie have had sex but by having Christie in a strawberry bed in David’s garden definitely leaves undertones of sexual behaviors. Along with the intentional diction, Alcott visually describes a type of sexual awakening for Christie. In the strawberry bed Christie is seen with having “her fingers deeply stained with the blood of many berries” (chapter 11). Mr. Powers, who is another resident of the property, approaches Christie to ask if she is “still happy and content here?” to which Christie replies, “I feel as if I had been born again” (chapter 11). Alcott writes that Christie answered Mr. Power with “perfect satisfaction in her face” (chapter 11). In this quick exchange, Alcott leaves her readers with undeniable sexual undertones. David is not with Christie in the bed –the strawberry bed but knowing that she is in his garden is enough to support his presence. Describing the red stain on Christie’s hands from the strawberry juices as blood alludes to a

loss of virginity and by having Christie reply in a way with “perfect satisfaction” is diction that connects to a sexual experience. With this novel being “A Story of Experience” it would make sense for Alcott to include a sexual scene in the progression of a maturing girl’s life. The way Alcott approaches sexuality in Work is notable due to the fact of her intentional omission of explicit sexual behaviors. Not only does this intention make for a more modest read, but it also grants the realistic privacy that Christie may have desired in this type of situation. Not overtly and obviously stating whether Christie and David had sex or not makes the characters more realistic and the story more gripping. Continuing on with the scene, Frownfelter says, “… female puberty, menstruation, first sexual experience, fertility, pregnancy, motherhood, and menopause can be described with floral terminology” (21). This claim is supported in this event because the “blood” on Christie’s hands represents her first sexual experience as well as her reply being presenting in a “satisfied” manner. Strawberries alone hold associations to sexuality with the fruit being an aphrodisiac. According to Cosmopolitan, “While the legend says that strawberries originated from the heart-shaped tears of Aphrodite after she learned of her lover Adonis’s death, modern-day strawberries are anything but a bummer. Dr. Hoppe says they’re loaded with vitamin C, which is important for the production of sex hormones and chemical neurotransmitters in the brain to increase libido” (25). The origin of the strawberry has connections to love, but also their internal makeup is thought to aid in promoting a sexual mood. So, did Christie lose her virginity in David’s strawberry bed? It is never a conclusive assumption due to Alcott’s lack of explicit sexual imagery but given the location of being in a type of bed, comparison to blood, being satisfied, strawberries themselves, and with the knowledge that Christie does bare a child in the final chapters of the novel proves a convincing case for when David and Christie first had sex. According to Mehdi Aghamohammadi, flowers are used too often as being just a symbol of female sexuality that much literature is missing the other qualities that flowers can represent. In Aghamohammadi’s article, he is not denying that flowers indicate a sexual presence but is disproving the absolute of “flowers have always represented female sexuality throughout history …” (21) which is something Frownfelter believes. Aghamohammadi’s article analyses Persian literature and Iranian culture for their inclusion of floral symbolism but with the absence of sexuality to give a more holistic view of the symbolism connected to flowers. He writes that, “The present article is an apology to flow-

ers against misusers, or abusers, of flower symbolism, those who restrict symbolic referents of flowers not only to gender but also to the sexual organs” (Aghamohammadi 35). Aghamohammadi is highlighting that flowers “have the potential for multiple interpretations” and by claiming they are only symbolic of sexuality is a gross generalization (35). In Alcott’s Work, even with the connection to sexuality aside, the use of floral diction still constitutes a basis for Christie and David’s growing relationship. Aghamohammadi shares that, “As seen in examples of Persian poetry, no reference had been made to the female sexual anatomy, experience, or of the presence or lack of sexuality … thereby precluding possibilities of interpreting flowers form a fresh perspective” (36). Alcott incorporates this “fresh perspective” lens in Work when she shares the candid moment between Christie and David in the greenhouse looking at the pansies. Christie becomes immersed in admiring the flowers so much so that David interrupts her gazing by saying, “You look as if you saw something besides pansies there.” To which Christie replies, “I do; for, ever since I was a child, I always see a little face when I look at this flower. Sometimes it is a sad one, sometimes it’s merry, often roguish, but always a dear little face …” (chapter 10). Alcott generates this romantic and nostalgic scene through the incorporation of flowers but with the absence of the flowers overtly signifying a sexual presence. Aghamohammadi does not dismiss the fact that flowers are inherently romantic, he even states that, “… to Romantics, women were part of flower symbolism” but he is making the claim that flowers can symbolism much more than just sex (31). Aghamohammadi says that “flowers could represent such things as the eyes, hair, or face, rather than the genital organs” (36). In the scene Alcott created, as described above, she uses these other qualities that flowers represent by seeing faces within the pansies. Through Aghamohammadi’s article he is not entirely dismissing the sexual symbolisms that flowers evoke yet he is adding other qualities of representation to the overarching symbolism of flowers. The new qualities and what Aghamohammadi describes as giving a “fresh perspective” are aspects to the flower symbol that Work supports. Even when putting aside the sexual connotation that flowers could constitute, Alcott has still created an undeniable relationship between David and Christie through floral diction. Alcott has imbedded floral imagery to denote sexual undertones between David and Christie’s relationship, but she also uses the construction of the double-carnation to insinuate a lack of ridged gender roles. Gregory Eiselein focuses his article on the bisexual erotic’s that the double-carnations could

contribute to Work but he also writes, “The double flowers also suggest David’s and Christie’s doubly gendered identities” (224). To this end, Alcott is not trying to hide the fact that she disagrees with strict gender roles and respective expectations for men and women. In chapter one, Alcott has Christie express feelings of confinement within her female body hindering her from her ambition to find work. In conversation with her Aunt Betsey Christie tries to explain that her wanting to go and find work is “A very sane and sensible” (chapter 1) idea. Christie used the expectations of gender to support her ambition saying, “if I’d been a boy, I should have been told to do it long ago” (chapter 1). Work showcases all of the professions Christie was able to acquire throughout her life. Due to her coveted pride, Christie becomes closed off to accepting help from others in fear of aligning herself with one of the socially constructed gender norms for women –dependence. Christie and David are in the garden inspecting the flowers when Christie says, “I like the single ones best: double-carnations are so untidy, all bursting out of the calyx as if the petals had quarreled and could not live together” (chapter 11). Alcott personifies the carnations in Christie’s mind to emphasize her fondness of being independent and fear of dependence so much so that she does not even see how double stemmed flowers could work together harmoniously. David replies saying, “The single ones are seldom perfect, and look poor and incomplete with little scent or beauty” (chapter 11). David’s view of the double flowers contrast Christies by him expressing a harmonious, balanced stance whereas Christie’s view is self-focused and isolating. Christie fails to see David’s construction of the flowers due to her rejection of dependence. Instead of only attributing stereotypically male qualities onto Christie’s character and female qualities onto David, Alcott instead blends the traditional in with modern ideals making her characters dual sided. The conversation around and ultimate rejection of the beauty that the double-carnation could represent goes beyond floral arrangement aesthetics. David is a gardener and is enthralled by flowers. The enthusiasm and the passion that David expresses for his craft is what gives him the female sided traits alongside his male body. Christie aspires to find work which is a male associated goal. Alcott uses this unique flower as a symbol for what society could be. There could be men who like flowers and still hold the passion to go off to war, like David. There could be women who want to find work and still become mothers, like Christie. The double-carnation that Christie once saw as “untidy” is no longer so and is instead seen as unifying. Alcott has fostered a nuanced dynamic between David and Christie by

having each character express both male and female qualities within one body. Before Christie and David married, Christie admits, “he has convinced me that ‘double flowers’ are loveliest and best” (chapter 15). Christie was hindered by her female body taking away the ease of finding work that rather a male body would grant. Christie was isolating herself due to her fear of dependence but has since reveled in the understanding of a partnerships that would strengthen your individuality. Marriage is the unification of two people in itself but when coupled alongside the double-carnation enhances the nuanced dynamic. Alcott has crafted two people who are not confined by societal expectations but instead liberated by the qualities that their respective partners exhibit. In Louisa May Alcott’s Work, she creates a loving relationship between Christie and David with the absence of explicit sexual imagery but produces the same effect through floral diction. Although the inference of Alcott’s incorporation of floral diction being allusive to sexuality is not conclusive, it is heavily bolstered through her usage of the floral diction during scenes between David and Christie and when paired with other language that could constitute a sexual presence. Nonetheless, Alcott has created a relationship between Christie and David through the basis of floral diction and naturalistic imagery. Not only does flowers unit Christie and David, but the intentional usage of the double-carnation to symbolize gender roles instills a deeper relationship between the characters bodies and their actions. One could imagine that Alcott’s absence of sex and instead her inclusion of floral diction as its substitute could be because Alcott wanted to preserve the innocent nature of her carefully crafted coming of age story. Or maybe Alcott was hesitant to publish a book that included heavy sexual imagery considering the social norms in the 1870s, or maybe she simply preferred the stylistic integrity that the substitution of flowers for sex promoted throughout her writing process among a multitude of other reasons. However, I wonder if Alcott omitted overtly sexualized passages in her book due to her own discomfort with talking about sex. Alcott was never married, so maybe if she published Work with no inclusion of flowers and instead written blatantly with the sexual behaviors between David and Christie, she would risk tarnishing her reputation. David and Christie’s love affair was present in the majority of Alcott’s plot line, so if she did not have her symbolism of flowers as a mask for the sexual connections between David and Christie, her book would have a lot of sexual scenes, maybe too many to be tasteful or maybe too much sex to comfortably write about. Whatever her reasoning, Alcott’s intentional usage of floral

diction as a substitute for sexual behaviors nonetheless created a romantic relationship between David and Christie without either character being overly sexualized. Alcott uses flowers as a symbolic aid to the romantics of David and Christie’s “first date,” she uses floral diction to enhance the familiar connections that springtime offers, she uses the strawberry bed as a way to convey a type of sexual awakening, and ultimately, she uses flowers to support David and Christie’s growing relationship together and within their individual selves. Alcott’s incorporation of floral diction makes the relationship between David and Christie undeniably romantic in nature but ultimately more holistic than just sexual.

Works Cited

Aghamohammadi, Mehdi. “An Apology for Flowers.” International Journal of Comparative

Literature and Translation Studies, vol.5, no.1 January 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac. ijclts.v.5n.1p.31 Eiselein, Gregory. “Sentimental Discourse and the Bisexual Erotics of Work” Texas Studies in

Literature and Language, vol.41, no.3 1999, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40755290 Hsieh, Carina. “29 Aphrodisiac Foods That Can Help Make You Horny AF.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 1 Oct. 2019, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/advice/g1022/aphrodisiac-foods-0509/

Frownfelter, Andrea. “Flower Symbolism as Female Sexual Metaphor.” Eastern Michigan

University DigitalCommons@EMU, 2010.