25 of the most memorable TV and movie siblings of all time

The March Sisters – Little Women 

Perhaps one of the first and only books zeroing in on the power of female sisterhood, Little Women is quintessential reading for many, many young girls. It’s often the very first book a girl reads, so when it was translated (again) into a movie starring Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon in 1994, a whole new generation was exposed to one of the greatest of expressions of female love and support.

Jo is the headstrong and ambitious young woman who feels suffocated by gender roles of the time and longs to be a writer. She has three sisters, and much of the plot of the movie involves the drama and histrionics that comes when you have a house full of teenage girls.

The movie has two great tragedies if you ask me. For one, Jo’s young sister, Beth (played by Kirstin Dunst) dies at the tender age of 18. Beth was always the free-spirited, lovable baby of the family, so when she dies of scarlet fever, the entire family is crippled with regret and grief.

The next bit tragedy is that Jo doesn’t end up with her childhood sweetheart, Laurie. As much as the book is about the relationships among the sisters, it’s also Jo’s coming of age story. She realizes the difference between being a girl and being a young woman. A lot of that has to do with Laurie, but she winds up marrying someone else in the end. Let me tell ya, it’s a real bummer.