A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Award of the degree" Licence en langue et littérature Anglaises"

Résumé,

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women tackles an American society of the nineteenth century, specifically the unfair treatment of women of that period and the struggle they lead to overcome this social injustice. It shows to what extent the patriarchal system already established undermines the American woman and shows how women should lead a fight to overcome this system. Little women provisions women successful weapons for their fight which are work, love and marriage.

This work examines the opportunities and means that of women to achieve one's identity and through hardworking'a woman should gain much independence. She rejects domesticity and submissiveness and promotes the idea of working out of their home. A woman is self-assertive when she is financially well supported.

By denouncing the traditional marriage as a net that women are captured within, she paints a new image of that relation. She rejects the traditional role of love and marriage that, according to Alcott, undermine an American woman. She suggests that marriage should no more be considered as a goal for life but a step for life. In addition, a woman should marry when she pleases and who she wants. At the end, marriage should be equal.