AHS Season 12: Delicate Based on the Story of a Real Anna Alcott?
And what is it about the spiders, anyway?
The premiere episode of American Horror Story: Delicate has landed on FX and Hulu, marking the start of the spooky 2023 season. It introduced the leading characters and outlined the main theme of the new creepy story.
This time, the focus is on Emma Roberts' Anna Victoria Alcott, the Hollywood actress who has just joined the A-list. But her blossoming career is not what Anna cares about most. She wants to have a baby.
For that, she is willing to go through the IVF process again and again. But some mysterious figures popping here and there seem determined to prevent Anna's pregnancy. Reality and the effects of medication and stress mix together, making Anna doubt what's real and what's not.
There was a real Anna Alcott
Delicate's protagonist actively uses her full name, which makes you think she might have been inspired by a real woman. And indeed, there is a woman in history with almost the same name.
Anna Bronson Alcott lived in the Victorian era (hence Victoria in Emma Robert's character's name?) and was a sister of the popular American author Louisa May Alcott, who gave us Little Women. Anna served as the basis for the character of Meg, played by Emma Watson in Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation.
If you take a closer look at Anna Alcott's biography, you'll find some uncanny similarities to American Horror Story's new protagonist. She was a stage-struck child who dreamed of being a prima donna, but ended up as a teacher and homemaker.
Like her Little Women character, Anna was conventionally good and a woman of her time who put her family first. And while there is no record of Anna's pregnancy issues, there is an eerie line in her letters that could send chills down the spine of a sensitive viewer.
‘We watched a little spider and gave it some water to drink,’ Anna wrote.
A strange love for spiders, right?
Could AHS' Anna be based on Victorian-era Anna?
American Horror Story Season 12 is actually based on a new book by Danielle Valentine, Delicate Condition. And the name of the protagonist is taken from it. Many readers thought that Delicate Condition was inspired by one of the most popular feminist novels, Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby.
But could it also be an homage to the feminine and caring eldest sister in Little Women? Danielle Valentine has denied any connection to Rosemary's Baby or any other novel.
‘I was really much more inspired by Alien, which I think will also give readers an idea of where I'm taking this,’ the author told EW.
So it looks like other than the same name, a love of acting, and a weird connection to spiders, Emma Roberts' character doesn't have a whole lot in common with the real-life Anna Alcott. What do you think?
Sources: Louisa May Alcott is My Passion Blog, EW.