Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, unmarried siblings rather advanced in age, decide
to adopt an orphan boy to help out with the work around the farm in
turn-of-the-century Prince Edward Island. When Matthew goes to
pick up the child, however, instead of a boy, there is a red-haired,
freckled, talkative, and imaginative girl, who, oblivious to the fact
that there was a mistake, thoroughly enjoys the ride home, talking
non-stop and enjoying the spring flowers. Both Marilla and
Matthew are rather quiet individuals who keep to themselves, so Anne is
quite a contrast. Matthew takes an immediate liking to Anne,
but Marilla takes some persuading. Anne spends a miserable night at
Green Gables, having her dream of a loving home taken from her.
The next morning, Marilla discovers that another woman would take
Anne, but her reputation is such that Marilla is hesitant to turn Anne
over to her, especially since Anne's previous homes have worked her
pretty hard. Marilla decides that she could not in good
conscience send Anne to that woman, and since Matthew liked her, they
decide to keep her.
Anne is quite an imaginative girl. The
loves experiencing life and rejoices exuberantly in the trees and
flowers and creeks and glens of the area. She imagines all sorts
of romantic and fairy-tale situations, and if something is not going
well for her (such as not having dresses with fashionable poofy
sleeves), she imagines it away. She also wants to have a
romantic sounding name, but Marilla will have none of that, so Anne, she is,
although Anne is very particular that it is Anne,
with an 'e'. Anne is always looking for kindred spirits, and
finds one in Diana, who lives across the street. They become
bosom friends and play for hours in outside in the beautiful places
imaginatively christened by Anne.
Anne's imagination tends to get her into all sorts of odd situations.
Cooking is particularly problematic, since she wanders into a
reverie and forgets something (flour in the cake, for instance).
Of course, this somehow always seems to happen when company
comes over... In addition to cooking, her imagination gets
her into trouble when she and Diana imagine a piece of the woods to be
haunted ("because it's so romantic"). She imagines too well
and is actually afraid; Marilla cures her by forcing her to
walk through it at night.
A number of situations happen because of Anne's propensity to speak
what she thinks, particularly early on. When the town gossip,
Mrs. Rachel Lynde, sees Anne for the first time, she comments to
Marilla that Anne is not very pretty; too many freckles and
hair red as carrots. Anne is already very self-conscious
about her freckles and is convinced that her red hair means that she
will never be beautiful, and she loses her temper. She storms
up to Mrs. Lynde and retorts that she is a old, fat, insensitive woman
(all rather true). Mrs. Lynde is, of course, insulted, and
Marilla makes Anne stay in her room until she apologizes.
This takes a day or so, because Anne cannot bring herself to
apologize until she feels sorry, and she does not at all feel sorry.
But eventually she realizes that she can give a romantic
apology, and is so thoroughly contrite and humiliated that she enjoys
it immensely (fortunately, Mrs. Lynde was somewhat less perceptive than
Marilla).
A somewhat similar scene with Anne's hair plays itself out that autumn
when school starts. Gilbert Blythe shows his interest in the
girls by teasing them, which generally works out. When he
loudly whispers "carrots" in Anne's direction, in reference to her
hair, Anne takes her chalkboard, walks over to Gilbert, cracks it over
his head, and refuses to talk to him or even acknowledge his existence.
Gilbert tries for years to make it up, but Anne continues to
ignore him. There does develop a fierce academic rivalry, the
ferocity being mostly on Anne's end since she refuses to be outdone by
Gilbert.
Church is a bit difficult for Anne at first. Anne's prayers
tend to be thanking God for the trees and flowers, which horrifies
Marilla, and she teaches Anne more standard prayers. The
problem with the standard prayers is that they lack any specifics for
Anne, a problem that she also encouters with the minister, who she says
prays like he has to, not like he wants to. The minister
retires a few years later, and Anne has a role model in the new
minister's wife, who is pretty, fashionable, and a kindred spirit.
She treats Anne like a lady, and also lives out being a
Christian like she wants to, and Anne is relieved that being a
Christian is something one can do with all one's heart.
The random trouble that Anne gets into is sort of typefied by the time
that Marilla let her invite Diana for tea. Marilla had told
Anne that she could serve the raspberry cordial, but had forgotten that
she had swapped it for the much more potent currant wine.
Diana ended up feeling rather dizzy and had to go home,
whereupon her mother, Mrs. Barry, who was opposed to alcohol (and
Marilla's currant wine as an especial example) bans Diana from playing
with Anne, unmoved by entreaties from both Marilla and a
very tearful and contrite Anne. Some time later,
however, all the adults are at a political event and Mrs. Barry's
infant daughter comes down with croupe, which apparently can be fatal.
Fortunately, having had care for one of her previous
guardian's multiple twins, she was experienced with croupy babies and
is able to cure Mrs. Barry's daughter. Mrs. Barry is most
grateful and Anne's bosom friendship with Diana is restored.
As Anne grows older, her love of the dramatic makes her a very
effective recitalist, and she is well-received at the socials.
Likewise, she is an excellent student, and the teacher of
their school gives her, a few of the other girls (and Gilbert)
additional lessons so that they can pass the entrance exams to Queens.
Graduating from Queens would permit Anne to teach.
In addition, Anne is regularly invited to go to concerts and
fairs with the Barrys. In fact, the Barry's elderly aunt
takes a liking to Anne. They first met, as it were, when
Diana had a sleepover with Anne. They were to sleep in the
spare bedroom, and Anne suggests that they race to the room and jump in
the bed. Unbeknownst to them, the elderly aunt had arrived
that afternoon and pre-empted them in the spare bedroom, so that they
land on the unsuspecting, slumbering aunt, who is, of course, incensed.
After one of Anne's contrite, with a flair of the dramatic,
apologies, the aunt decides she really likes Anne, and Anne visits her
from time to time.
In the course of time, Anne, Gilbert, and the other pupils pass the
entrance to Queens, and eventually graduate: Gilbert as the
top student, but Anne with the scholarship to the provincial school.
As Anne is contemplating whether she can leave Matthew and
Marilla, who are rather older now, Matthew dies of a heart attack after
receiving a letter that the bank where he put all of his and Marilla's
money failed. Anne gives up her scholarship so that she can
help provide for Marilla. Gilbert, who had received the
teaching position at the local Avonlea school, resigns and requests the
board to hire Anne, and takes a position at a nearby school instead.
Anne happens across Gilbert, thanks him, and confesses that
she had actually forgiven him, but did not realize it until after it
had happened, but was to proud to admit it. The book ends
with a promising friendship and likely romance developing between the
two.
The book at first appears to be humorous, but unrelated stories about
Anne, but it does progress in a definite direction. Most
noticeably, Anne matures as a person, from a happy-go-lucky, outspoken,
absent-minded girl to a smart, pretty, well-liked, and elegant young
woman. Marilla's transition is a little harder to see, but
she becomes a much warmer woman, less rigid, and more able to admit and
deal with people's flaws. She even comes to realize that she
loves Anne, and that it is ok to express it. This learning
process leads to a lot of hilarity in the book, where Anne will express
an opinion that on the surface is "wrong" ("Mrs. Lynde, you are a fat,
ungracious woman", or "the preacher didn't seem to want to pray") but
which expresses a truth that Marilla had realized but not let herself
think, usually leading to, as Montgomery puts it, "a most reprehensible
desire to laugh." Finally, Matthew, too, changes, although
somewhat less. Early on he knows he enjoys Anne, and but he
grows in his ability to see who she is. At one point, it
dawns on him that Anne is not dressed like the other girls, for Marilla
makes functional, not pretty dresses for Anne, and he insists that she
have a fashionable dress.
Anne of Green Gables
is at first glance simply a fun tale about a precocious girl growing up
in the countryside. However, it appears to have deeper themes
of maturity. We see Anne learn that that maturity requires
control over the gift of one's imagination, and we see Anne learn to
use her love of life to benefit others. We also see Marilla
begin to see that rigid adherence to the rules is not
necessarily sufficient, and we see her learn to love Anne, initially
out of a choice of the will, and finally realizing that she loves her
from the heart. There is also a subtle theme of how we relate
to God and how He relates to us. Montgomery consistently
paints God as being pleased with Anne's unconventional prayers of
thankfulness from her heart, over prayers prayed because one should
pray them. She paints the Christian life as not just doing,
but also enjoying what God has made (and presumably enjoys).
And arguably, the plot of the book mirrors how God has
related to us: the unloved orphan Anne is adopted out of no
merit of her own (she wasn't the boy they wanted), but is shown
unconditional love and flourishes under it. Likewise, though
we have ignored God, He nonetheless died for us, adopting us and
showing us love under which we may flourish if we accept His payment
for our sins.
Anne's raw insights into the truth of who people are, Marilla's
uncertainty at how to face these socially incorrect (but accurate)
views, and the situations that Anne gets into make this book a little
difficult to read due to the lengthy interruptions of laughter.
This is most excellent situational comedy. But, as
Anne exposes other people, Montgomery exposes the fears and joys of a
young girl, so that the laughter is interspersed with tears for the
pain that Anne endures. I suppose I shall have a corner cut
off my Man-card for saying this, but I really enjoyed this book and
highly recommend it.
Review: 9
Copyrighted 101 years ago,
this is definitely a hundred-year book, as its popularity is still
going strong. It is well written, with subtlely presented
humor, a fun yet intellectually rigorous style, and a good amount of
sadness and heartache. The only drawback is that about 2/3 of
the way through, the plot appears to lose its direction. The
direction is, in fact, there, but this does not become apparent until the end.
Copyright © 2009 by Geoffrey Prewett