Meg, short for Margaret, is the oldest and (until Amy grows up) the prettiest of the four March sisters. She's also the most typical of the sisters – we think of her as everything that you might expect a nineteenth-century American girl from a good family to be. Meg loves luxury, nice things, dainty food, and good society. She's the only sister who can really remember when her family used to be wealthy, and she feels nostalgic about those good old days. Her dream is to be wealthy once more, and have a huge mansion with lots of servants and expensive possessions. She's also a bit of a romantic; when she has to tell a story to amuse her sisters, it's about love and marriage, and Jo starts to suspect pretty early on that Meg might have a real-life Prince Charming in her thoughts. Meg is sweet-natured, dutiful, and not at all flirtatious – in fact, she's unrealistically good and proper. Perhaps that's why she's so alarmed by her sister Jo's rambunctious, tomboyish behavior.