Angel in the House: Gladys in "A Modern Mephistopheles" by Louisa May Alcott

<Tab/>In 1877, Louisa May Alcott went to Boston's Bellevue Hotel for a few weeks to write A Modern Mephistopheles, a gothic thriller that was a major change from Little Women and her other youth books that Alcott called "moral pap for the young" (Strickland, 1). A Modern Mephistopheles is the story of nineteen year old Felix Canaris, a poet on the brink of starvation, until Jasper Helwyze helps him. Helwyze promised Felix …

…A Modern Mephistopheles Louisa May Alcott showed that a Victorian woman could be strong and feminine inside and still be a perfect angel on the outside, like Gladys. Gladys is truly "ever womanly" (Stern 1), able to win over the coldest, haughtiest individual with her womanly, compassionate ways, and is even able to influence people from "beyond the grave." She refuses to have a master, yet Alcott still portrays her as an "angel in the house."