This thesis uncovers the subversive portrayal of Beth March from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. The goal of this project is to illustrate the limitations of the saintly child trope and demonstrate Beth March’s complicated relationship with it at the time of publication and in subsequent adaptations and fan response. Chapter 1 of this project will explore the history and meaning of the trope and how to tell if a character you are reading about belongs to this special category. Chapters 2 and 3 explain how, although Beth may initially appear to align with this trope, in reality she represents a subversive and critical take on its limitations and harms. Chapter 4 will track how and why the incorrect assumption that Beth is a part of the saintly child trope has permeated throughout media in new film and book adaptations of Little Women, while the Epilogue explores how recent fans allow Beth to surpass and expose limitations of the trope via Tumblr, Archive of Our Own.com, and FanFiction.net. This thesis adds to Alcott studies because Beth March is discussed much more infrequently than other characters and when she is, she is relegated to the role of saintly child who must die without proper evidence that she is such a character. Additionally, no other work within Alcott studies has analyzed Beth’s subversive potential. This is an important step in Alcott studies because Little Women continues to be a part of classrooms and popular media, so if Beth’s subversion continues to be overlooked, this story can be harmful to women and people with mental or chronic illness due to the sentimentalized portrayal of characters like them.