Love is a great beautifier.

Taken at face value, the line suggests that affection and emotional warmth change how people appear—both to themselves and to others. “Beautifier” implies not merely physical attractiveness but a kind of radiance produced by kindness, attention, and sympathetic perception: love makes the beloved seem more beautiful, and it can also soften the lover’s features through happiness and generosity. In Alcott’s moral universe, beauty is often linked to character rather than ornament; the remark fits her recurring emphasis on inward virtues (tenderness, self-forgetfulness, loyalty) as the truest sources of “beauty” in everyday life.