The courtship of Laura Elizabeth Ingalls and Almanzo James Wilder is part of the reason we are still talking about them, their families, Wilder's books, and the shows based upon them. As already discussed in a post from earlier this month, the courtship of Laura and Almanzo is portrayed very differently in the books than on television. Almanzo pursues Laura in These Happy Golden Years, but Laura is the one pursing Almanzo in Little House on the Prairie. This necessitated changes in how TV Laura and Almanzo acted toward one another.
For TV Laura, it is love at first sight when Almanzo pulls into town in his rig looking for his sister, the new school teacher, Eliza Jane. Book Laura first noticed Almanzo's horses. When TV Laura is introduced to Almanzo in the episode, "Back to School," Laura accidentally calls him, "Manly," instead of Mannie. The next day, he, in turn, tells her that now he must give her a special nickname. Asking what her full name is, Manly christens her, "Beth." These will be the nicknames they call each other throughout the Little House on the Prairie show.
For book lovers, however, these pet names will not appear until the final book in the series, The First Four Years, and Almanzo calls Laura "Bess" to avoid confusion with his older sister, who is also named Laura, not "Beth." I can only imagine that the years in which the show originally aired played into the change in her nickname.
Eager for Almanzo to see her as a woman, in "Back to School," Laura studies for her teaching exam, which she fails miserably thanks to Nellie's interference. For three episodes in Season 6--"Annabelle," "The Werewolf of Walnut Grove," and "Silent Promise," Laura yearns for Almanzo to see her as older than she is and hopes he will wait for her to grow up... much to the dismay of her pa.
Almanzo's perspective begins to shift in the episode, "Wilder and Wilder," when his younger brother, Perley Day visits Walnut Grove unexpectedly. Perley Day reminds Almanzo that Laura--who Manly had just called a kid--is almost 16, and when Almanzo is later caring for Barnum at the Ingalls farm after his brother nearly cripples him, he tells Charles that Laura is one "grown up young lady." It will, however, be driving Laura to her first teaching job in "Sweet Sixteen," that finds Manly's friendship with Beth blossoming into love.
With a new hairstyle and boots, and with a week spent apart, Laura suddenly looks older to Almanzo when he picks her up in Curry. Struggling with his newly discovered feelings for Beth, he punches a student who he thinks is making advances to Laura, which he later admits to Charles.
When Charles arrives on Laura's birthday to pick her up, she is disappointed that Almanzo hasn't come, but she is encouraged when Charles tells her he believes Almanzo might be in love with her. That night, at the church social, Almanzo and Laura share their first dance and their first kiss.
Two more, two-part episodes will focus on their courtship: "He Loves, He Loves Me Not" and "Laura Ingalls Wilder." The latter is the opening for Season 7. Like viewers will see in the early days of their TV marriage, Manly and Beth have temporarily life-altering disagreements during their courtship as well, which wasn't as much of an issue for book Almanzo and Laura.
At the end of seventh book of the series, Little Town on the Prairie, Laura earns her teaching certificate. By the opening of the next book, These Happy Golden Years, she has her first teaching job at the Brewster settlement. In Chapter 4, Almanzo is the one bringing her back and forth to Brewster, just like TV Almanzo brought Laura back and forth from Curry.
Laura is quick to correct her friends, who call Almanzo her beau (pg 39). Later in the book (pg 62), she tells Almanzo that she wouldn't be riding with him anymore once she is back in town permanently. So, she is surprised when he arrives to bring her home again (pgs 69-70). They have a small disagreement (pgs 76-77), and he asks her if she thinks he is the kind of guy who would leave her in Brewster, while she is missing home, just because there is nothing in it for him. And this is where the reader gets insight into Laura's thoughts, because she admits to herself, she never really thought about him because he is older and a homesteader (keeping in mind that Almanzo lied about his age when he went west because a man had to be 21 or head of the family to make a claim).
Though TV Laura saw herself getting married to Almanzo, in These Happy Golden Years, when Mary suggests she write a book, Laura says she will be an old maid schoolteacher like Miss Wilder. (pg 136). Which is so funny, because men keep showing up at her family's home to take her for rides (pg 170).
Unlike Laura and Almanzo's TV courtship, readers see the seasons and regular activities for courting couples in the book. Winter means they go out on sleigh rides, which become buggy rides in the spring. They have singing school, which Almanzo invites Laura to attend with him (pg 199).
We see a bit of Almanzo's temper when Laura's Uncle Tom comes to visit. Manly doesn't realize it is her uncle, so he gets teased by Laura's friends because he is jealous (pg 112). Seems book Almanzo and TV Almanzo have that in common.
Just like TV Laura, book Laura is not afraid to assert herself when needed. A few times, Almanzo shows up to take Laura for a buggy ride with Nellie Oleson. One day, she tells him not come if Nellie will be with him (pg 177). So, next time, he shows up alone. Once they get engaged (pg 214), see plainly tells Almanzo that she will not say the word "obey" in their vows because she can't make a promise she won't keep (pg 268).
Book readers also get to see Laura's mischievous side. While riding with Almanzo in his buggy, he puts his arm around her shoulders. Laura shakes the buggy whip, causing the colts to jump, so Almanzo must use both arms to bring the colts under control (pg 166). Reminds one of the cinnamon chicken incident in "Back to School" or how Laura "accidentally" forgot to sew Christie Norton's skirt to the bodice of her dress in "Annabelle."
I previously spoke about Ma's reaction to Almanzo in Little Town on the Prairie, because we see Caroline as supportive of Laura's desire to make Almanzo see her as a woman in the show. In These Happy Golden Years, she isn't thrilled about Laura riding with Almanzo while he is breaking in a new team. She actually tells Laura that she thinks he is trying to break her neck, and that she hopes he breaks his own first (pg 186). Ouch! After Laura receives an engagement ring from Almanzo, Ma asks her if she is sure she doesn't care more for his horses. Having not read this book for decades, this suspicious, stern Caroline is foreign to me, especially in light of how loving Grassle's Ma is.
The winter before Almanzo and Laura get married, he and his brother Royal decide to visit their parents in Spring Valley. They plan to be gone until spring, but on Christmas Eve, Almanzo returns to surprise Laura (pg 229). This is one of those scenes I wish Little House on the Prairie had reimagined, despite it not being practical. Side note: In "Wilder and Wilder," Perley Day said he visited the folks in New York, but they had moved to Spring Valley in the 1870s.
After Almanzo's return, book Laura and her family get busy preparing for the wedding day. Mary comes home from college, and Pa gets Ma a new sewing machine so she can make Laura's new things (pgs 241, 246 & 265). This is another everyday life detail I wanted to catch a glimpse of in the show. Instead, we had Almanzo losing his crop on the land he bought when the man who sold it to him cut off his water supply ("Laura Ingalls Wilder"), and a major disagreement between Laura and Almanzo as she takes a job in Radner to help earn money so she and Almanzo can get back on their feet. This will cause the first rift between Eliza Jane and Almanzo since we have met them. She tells him he is wrong and he is being stubborn.
Laura and Almanzo call off their engagement. She plans to take the job in Radner and stay there so she can forget about Manly, and it looks like he plans to go on living with his sister for all eternity. That is, until Eliza Jane tells him she is moving to St. Louis to marry Harve Miller, which means Laura and Almanzo can have the house in Walnut Grove, and Laura can teach in town. Thrilled, Almanzo grabs Laura's engagement ring, races after the stage, and proposes to Laura.
Then, in an odd bit of writing, Laura and Almanzo agree to drive to Sleepy Eye to tell Ma and Pa, who are at the blind school celebrating Mary and Adam's anniversary, picking up Eliza Jane before they drive the 40 miles to Sleepy Eye. Keeping in mind that a wagon could travel about 5 - 8 miles per hour, and that Laura was over an hour away from Walnut Grove when Almanzo stopped the stage, I don't think they would make it. But in the end, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls becomes Laura Ingalls Wilder.
The television courtship seems to take place over a year and a half. Charles told Almanzo in "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not," that they had to wait one year to get married, which would make Laura 17. Now, we won't know how much time passed between "Sweet Sixteen" and "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not," but we know six months has passed since Charles gave his permission for them to get married in a year--based on Laura telling Ma she would be Laura Ingalls Wilder in six months ("Laura Ingalls Wilder"). Laura had applied for a teaching job in Radner while Almanzo was plowing the field to plant his first crop in "Laura Ingalls Wilder," so that must be spring time. Later in the episode, Laura also talks about the mid-year break coming up and going to teach in Radner in a few weeks, so at least a few months have passed.
On page 270, Laura mentions that she and Almanzo had been together for three years by the time they rushed their wedding to avoid Eliza Jane's arrival in De Smet to plan a big wedding with Almanzo's mother. Laura feels anxious as she realizes she will be leaving home for good (pg 276), just like TV Laura realizes at the beginning of "Laura Ingalls Wilder" that not only in six months would she be married, but she wouldn't be teaching anymore, which as fans know was not the case until later in the series.
As we compare the books and the Little House on the Prairie television show, we see how much Michael Landon and his team honored the source material the show is based on up until this point. I feel like once we get into The First Four Years, it will be more challenging to find similarities.
No comments:
Post a Comment