Eight Cousins

The novel’s depiction of Uncle Alec’s year-long “experiment” in parenting the orphaned Rose promotes the progressive vision of the “real” woman that emerged in the mid-19th century over the conventional view of “ideal” womanhood. Upholding the contemporary belief that femininity and morality are constructed, Rose’s growth into a vibrant, skilled, and compassionate young woman is attributed to Uncle Alec’s bold parenting approach. His views outshine the disparate and conservative mothering styles of the aunts. The aunts are representative of the virtues of piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness associated with the ideals of womanhood: Aunt Plenty and Jane are responsible housekeepers, Aunt Peace is pious and pure, and all of them submit to Uncle Alec’s complete parental authority over Rose. Even Aunt Jessie, who possesses the insight to warn Rose of letting Uncle Alec spoil her, defers to Uncle Alec’s wisdom. Ultimately, the novel credits Uncle Alec with Rose’s improvement, as she becomes the “family flower” and central to her aunts and cousins’ happy homes, willing and able to fulfill her conventional role through Uncle Alec’s unusual methods.

Uncle Alec’s expectations of womanhood are modeled on a type retrospectively defined by Frances B. Cogan as a “real” woman who possesses “intelligence, physical fitness and health, self-sufficiency, economic self-reliance, and careful marriage” (Cogan, Frances B. All-American Girl: The Idea of Real Womanhood in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America. University of Georgia Press, 1989, p. 4). Uncle Alec, a world-traveling physician, pushes Rose to be physically strong and active through increased amounts of exercise and cold-water ocean swimming. Rose develops an athleticism that is a more traditionally masculine characteristic and is inspired to keep up with her young male cousins outdoors and at play. Uncle Alec also rejects female garments, viewing corsets as “instruments of torture” and teaching Rose physiology so that she won’t abuse her body for fashion (280). She becomes outdoorsy, learning to ride horses and spends “nearly all day enjoying the beautiful awakening of the world” (382), and has a strong enough constitution to survive pneumonia. Rose becomes a “real woman,” which in turn prepares her for the physical rigor of her adult responsibilities, such as running a house and bearing children.

Despite her masculine influences, Rose retains her femininity and viability on the marriage market. She is admired by her cousins, who vie for her affections, though her eligibility for marriage isn’t explored explicitly until the sequel, Rose in Bloom, in which she ultimately marries her cousin Mac. Her moral influence over her cousins is also demonstrated through her effect on Charlie, who is troubled and hovers on the edge of moral and physical peril. When she is sent by Uncle Alec to live with Charlie for a month, the boy’s “heart was touched by her artless endeavors to ‘help him be good’” (379). Rose’s goodness eventually leads Charlie to fall in love with her in the sequel, though it does not ultimately save him from tragedy. Rose, under the guidance of Uncle Alec, becomes in many ways both a “real” and “ideal” woman; she is domestically skilled but also self-sufficient, desired for her sensitivity and tenderness yet strong enough in mind to be a reliable moral support for her family. Alcott hence advocates for the “real” woman in the novel by highlighting Rose’s retained “ideal” virtues rather than the degeneration of such virtues.