Little Women & Promising Young Woman

Opening Sequence

Sound

• Diegetic sound dominates: the scratching of pens, rustle of paper, footsteps — creates a quiet, subdued mood that mirrors Jo’s anxiety and professional vulnerability.

• The publisher’s dismissive tone contrasts with Jo’s uncertain politeness - power imbalance is aurally emphasised.

• Lack of score reinforces the realism and harshness of Jo’s environment — no romantic or nostalgic cues are provided.

• The digetic or foley sound effects of the paper being ripped, pen striking lines of work & the slamming of the work reflects the harsh tone of atmosphere for Jo & the spectator

Editing

• Jumping into the story in media res creates disorientation — spectators are forced to adjust to a version of Jo that is older, more independent.

• Cross-cutting between Jo and the publisher subtly controls pace — Jo’s uncertainty is contrasted with the publisher’s businesslike efficiency.

• The choice to withhold childhood context distances the spectator emotionally — Gerwig delays warmth and nostalgia.

Cinematography

• Opening tight mid shot of Jo about to enter the office presents her as a boxer about to enter the ring, the door with its cold blue hues represents the ring / the male dominated office, making spectators wonder what’s going to happen & who this character is

• Muted, greyish tones contrast with the warmth of later domestic flashbacks — visually signals the coldness of Jo’s working world.

• Over-the-shoulder shots and mid shots during the negotiation restrict Jo’s space within the frame — she’s dwarfed by the publisher, symbolising her lack of power.

• Tight framing around Jo’s face shows flickers of nervousness and pride — spectators are encouraged to interpret Jo’s inner world through subtle facial cues.

Performance

• Saoirse Ronan plays Jo with quiet restraint: nervous fidgeting, polite smiles that mask tension — reveals her emotional labour.

• Jo’s attempts to appear confident are undercut by her hesitant voice and awkward body language, inviting empathy from spectators.

• The publisher’s smugness and casual dismissal serve to alienate the audience from patriarchal power.

Mise-en-scène

• Cluttered, masculine office: ledgers, ink, piles of manuscripts — evokes the gatekeeping of male-dominated literary spaces.

• Jo’s dark, practical clothing contrasts with the richness of the publisher’s surroundings — highlighting class and gender inequality.

• The setting is distinctly public, urban, impersonal — a stark departure from the cozy, feminine March household we later see.

Spectatorship Effect

• Audiences are positioned to sympathise with Jo as a struggling creative woman, rather than to nostalgically reminisce on her youth.

• The scene encourages a critical mode of viewing: what compromises must a woman make to be heard in a male system?

• Spectators are made to feel Jo’s tension and powerlessness, aligning them with her feminist frustrations from the start.

Ideology:

• Patriarchal control of the publishing world reflects hegemonic ideology (Gramsci); Jo’s success is conditioned by what men deem “sellable.”

• Gerwig inserts meta-fictional commentary on authorship: the struggle for female narrative control mirrors historical suppression of women’s voices.

Contextual Link

• Reflects Louisa May Alcott’s own negotiations with male publishers — like Jo, she faced pressure to alter her work for market appeal.

• Gerwig’s decision to open here foregrounds her meta-feminist critique: this is not simply a period drama, but a commentary on authorship, gender, and artistic compromise.

• The publisher's instruction to make the female character married or dead at the end foreshadows the film’s thematic tension between commercial expectation and feminist agency.

Jo’s Attic Monologue ("Women Have Souls")

• Sound: Diegetic silence allows Jo’s emotional voice to resonate clearly. Her rising pitch and breathless delivery reflect a boiling point of frustration.

• Editing: Long take captures her speech in real-time, forcing the audience to sit with her pain. No cutaways to romantic fantasy — full focus on her anger.

• Cinematography: Close-up on Jo’s face and eyes — draws spectator into her emotional intensity and ideological rejection of passive womanhood.

• Performance: Saoirse Ronan’s pacing, clenched jaw, and voice cracking reveals Jo’s conflicting emotions — not just anger, but vulnerability.

• Mise-en-scène: Bare attic, symbolic of female isolation in a domestic space filled with unfulfilled dreams.

• Spectatorship:

  • Gerwig constructs the scene to emotionally interpellate female-identifying spectators; frustration and yearning are familiar.

  • Spectatorship split: those used to romantic tropes expect a declaration of love, but are instead given an existential feminist outburst.

• Ideology:

  • Critique of patriarchal gender roles: Jo voices a rage against women being defined solely by love and marriage.

  • Promotes feminist individualism: the idea that women have desires, intellect, and ambitions independent of men.

  • Challenges romantic ideology in mainstream storytelling: Jo asserts the need for self-definition beyond traditional narratives.

  • Spectator is ideologically aligned with Jo’s feminist awakening.

• Context: Reflects Alcott’s feminist themes — she herself never married. Greta Gerwig modernizes Jo’s voice for 21st-century gender politics.

Amy’s "Marriage as Economics"

• Sound: Minimal score — focus on Amy’s articulate delivery. Her steady, quiet tone commands attention without emotional manipulation.

• Editing: Static shot-reverse-shot enhances a debate-style dialogue — framing Amy as intellectual, not emotional.

• Cinematography: Mid shot places Amy centered and framed with classical Parisian elegance — not childish, but composed.

• Performance: Florence Pugh’s grounded stillness, controlled gestures, and cool logic directly challenge viewers' prior judgments of Amy.

• Mise-en-scène: Refined setting — velvet gowns, polished rooms — enhances contrast between wealth and women’s lack of power within it.

• Spectatorship:

  • Viewers are made to rethink Amy: no longer the “spoiled” sister, but a young woman surviving through the roles patriarchy offers.

  • Encourages a critical viewing position — especially from a feminist or oppositional spectator.

• Ideology:

  • Exposes the capitalist commodification of women: marriage as financial survival, not romantic fulfillment.

  • Offers a realist feminist counterpoint to Jo's idealism — highlights structural constraints women face.

  • Deconstructs the myth of choice in 19th-century femininity — Amy doesn’t lack ambition, she’s strategic.

  • Spectators must re-evaluate class, privilege, and power from a feminist lens.

• Context: In 19th-century America, women couldn’t legally own property or control their finances — marriage was literal economic survival.

Beth’s Death Cross-Cut with Beach Scene

• Sound: Lush, nostalgic music (Desplat’s score) swells during the beach, then fades into silence during deathbed moments.

• Editing: Cross-cutting between past joy and present tragedy creates emotional manipulation — audiences feel the loss twice.

• Cinematography: Washed-out colour palette for the deathbed; warm golden glow for the beach. Contrast reinforces the loss of innocence.

• Performance: Eliza Scanlen’s stillness is devastating; no dramatics. Ronan’s quiet heartbreak conveys Jo’s helplessness.

• Mise-en-scène: The bed is surrounded by soft, feminine fabrics, contrasting the sterile white sheets of illness.

• Spectatorship:

  • Spectators are emotionally manipulated via nostalgia and parallelism — forces empathy not just with Jo, but with the loss of innocence.

  • Encourages mourning of a life sacrificed to feminine virtues (quiet, helpful Beth).

• Ideology:

  • Highlights the gendered nature of domestic suffering: women confined to private spaces to live and die.

  • Portrays female grief as profound and communal, contrasting it with action-based masculine heroism.

  • Romantic nostalgia is undercut by reality — critiques sentimental portrayals of “angelic” women.

  • Spectators feel the weight of unspoken loss — ideological investment in emotional truth over spectacle.

• Context: Scarlet fever was a common killer; domestic death was a frequent Victorian experience — Gerwig honors feminine grief.

Jo Selling Her Book To Publisher

• Sound: Fast-paced dialogue over quiet ambient noise — the patriarchal control over Jo’s story is exposed through words.

• Editing: Quick intercuts highlight Jo’s negotiation struggle and her moments of self-doubt.

• Cinematography: Tight, cramped framing in the publisher’s office reflects Jo’s entrapment in male creative systems.

• Performance: Ronan’s firm voice, still posture, and clipped responses show her assertion; the publisher’s casual dismissiveness creates dramatic contrast.

• Mise-en-scène: Books everywhere — male intellectualism surrounds Jo, symbolising her challenge to enter the canon.

• Spectatorship:

  • Spectators are emotionally manipulated via nostalgia and parallelism — forces empathy not just with Jo, but with the loss of innocence.

  • Encourages mourning of a life sacrificed to feminine virtues (quiet, helpful Beth).

• Ideology:

  • Direct critique of patriarchal control over female creativity: men dictate what sells and what is “relatable.”

  • Feminist commentary on institutionalised censorship of women’s stories.

  • Gerwig critiques the demand for tidy resolutions (e.g., marriage) imposed on female protagonists.

  • Spectators see the tension between artistic integrity and commercial success.

• Context: Louisa May Alcott had to write a “marriage” ending for her novel to satisfy 19th-century publishers — mirrored directly here.

Ending, Jo’s Book or Jo’s Actual Marrriage

• Sound: Two types of musical scoring — joyful strings for the school and family life, more triumphant, slower music for the publishing.

• Editing: Parallel montage splits Jo’s professional and romantic futures — open-ended editing forces spectator interpretation.

• Cinematography: Soft golden lighting used for both sequences — blurs the lines between “real” and “fiction.”

• Performance: Ronan’s radiant joy at holding her book is more grounded than her courtship kiss with Bhaer — the latter is stylised, possibly imagined.

• Mise-en-scène: The tactile book-making process is rich in detail — Gerwig romanticises female labour over romantic fantasy.

• Spectatorship:

  • Viewers are led to question what they desire: romance or autonomy? This forces introspection

  • Spectator complicity is foregrounded — the audience is part of the problem.

• Ideology:

  • Offers a postmodern feminist ending: ambiguity allows the woman to claim authorship over her narrative.

  • Spectators are made to question whether marriage is a happy ending or a patriarchal compromise.

  • Challenges romantic ideology and its function in controlling female narratives.

  • Empowers spectators to choose the truth they prefer — autonomy through spectatorship.

• Context: Gerwig’s meta-commentary — balancing Alcott’s legacy with modern feminism — challenges spectators to question narrative expectations.

Opening Scene — Cassie "Pretending" Drunk

• Sound: Club music fades into silence as Cassie reveals sobriety — shocks the viewer.

• Editing: Slow cuts and held reaction shots build discomfort and expectation.

• Cinematography: Red and blue strobe lights create danger and seduction — visual metaphor for moral ambiguity.

• Performance: Mulligan drops her act with icy precision — fierce vocal shift positions her as a powerful avenger.

• Mise-en-scène: Mini dress, smeared makeup — weaponised femininity.

• Spectatorship:

  • Initially, audience might “enjoy” Cassie’s appearance through the male gaze — then this is violently disrupted.

  • Mulvey's "male gaze" turned back on itself — spectators are forced to confront their complicity in viewing women as objects.

• Ideology:

  • Exposes rape culture and how men exploit female vulnerability.

  • Subverts the male saviour trope — the “nice guy” is a predator.

  • Cassie’s revenge strategy becomes an ideological tool for feminist disruption.

  • Spectators are confronted with their own assumptions: are they complicit in normalising predatory behaviour?

• Context: Direct commentary on how women are perceived when drunk vs sober; linked to #MeToo revelations of systemic predation.

Coffee Shop Meet-Cute

• Sound: Light-hearted rom-com soundtrack and ambient café sounds lull the viewer.

• Editing: Snappy, upbeat editing; flirty back-and-forth rhythm.

• Cinematography: Warm, golden lighting — overly cheerful.

• Performance: Mulligan performs bubbly charm; Bo Burnham plays disarmingly awkward.

• Mise-en-scène: Bright pastels and soft interiors reflect genre parody.

• Spectatorship:

  • Re-positions audience into traditional romantic spectatorial mode — identification with Cassie’s seeming happiness.

  • But this is later undermined — making viewers feel betrayed, just like Cassie.

• Ideology:

  • Satirises rom-com ideology that frames relationships as redemptive for women.

  • Encourages critical spectatorship: is Ryan’s charm masking entitlement?

  • Challenges the expectation that love will “heal” trauma.

  • Spectators are ideologically manipulated — seduced by genre only to later be betrayed.

• Context: Fennell parodies genre expectations to show how easily viewers — and victims — are deceived by “nice guys.”

Confrontation of Madison at Restaurant

• Sound: Calm ambient music in background — discomfort grows under the surface.

• Editing: Long static takes — uncomfortably holds viewers in place.

• Cinematography: Clean symmetrical framing — ironic control as power shifts.

• Performance: Alison Brie becomes visibly anxious as Mulligan grows increasingly stoic.

• Mise-en-scène: Upscale restaurant with wine and polished surfaces — symbols of privilege and class insulation.

• Spectatorship

  • Audience discomfort is deliberate: how far is too far? Is Cassie’s revenge justifiable?

  • Encourages negotiation between emotional empathy and moral ambiguity.

• Ideology:

  • Interrogates internalised misogyny: women complicit in silencing other women.

  • Ideological critique of social privilege as moral insulation.

  • Shows how female loyalty is fractured by patriarchy — Madison is both victim and enabler.

  • Spectators experience cognitive dissonance — reassessing female characters not as victims or villains, but complex participants in rape culture.

• Context: Scene reflects how many women uphold patriarchy through victim-blaming — echoing real-world dynamics in assault cases.

Bachelor Party / Cassie’s Death

• Sound: Music cuts out; the sound of Cassie’s breathing and struggle dominates. No non-diegetic score.

• Editing: Long, uninterrupted takes — real-time suffering forces uncomfortable spectator engagement.

• Cinematography: Harsh overhead lighting — exposes the act without cinematic protection.

• Performance: Cassie’s struggle is human and desperate; not stylised. Al is panicked, disturbing — not a villain caricature.

• Mise-en-scène: Childish décor of the room — horrifyingly mundane setting for brutality.

• Spectatorship:

  • Cassie’s death destabilizes revenge narrative expectations — denies spectator catharsis.

  • Challenges female empowerment fantasies seen in pop-feminist media — you don't always win.

• Ideology:

  • Dismantles revenge fantasy ideology — there is no justice without sacrifice.

  • Brutal truth: the system protects abusers and punishes disruptors.

  • Cassie becomes a martyr figure — feminist resistance is fatal under patriarchy.

  • Spectators are denied catharsis, forced to sit with the ideological horror of real-world injustice.

• Context: Reflects the reality that many survivors don’t get justice — violence is normalized and even silenced by institutions.

Wedding + Revenge Texts

• Sound: Uplifting wedding music interrupted by digital pings — Cassie’s message breaks the fantasy.

• Editing: Rapid cross-cut between wedding joy and police arrest — tonal clash jars viewer.

• Cinematography: Glossy, oversaturated wedding visuals mock the rom-com ideal.

• Performance: Chris Lowell shifts from smug confidence to panic; Burnham’s subtle guilt adds emotional complexity.

• Mise-en-scène: The wedding as a stage — superficial happiness masking hidden crimes.

• Spectatorship:

  • Audience finally gets revenge satisfaction — but it’s bittersweet.

  • Split spectatorial response: is this empowering, or tragic?

• Ideology:

  • Explores institutional complicity in gender violence: a fairy tale ending conceals a criminal past.

  • Cassie’s revenge lives on through digital empowerment — a new form of resistance.

  • Fennell critiques patriarchal performativity (weddings, careers, public personas).

  • Spectators are left in a conflicted state — victory comes only through symbolic, posthumous justice.

• Context: Reflects real-world use of digital media as resistance; a woman must die for justice to occur — harsh feminist critique.