Episode 7 – Anne Shirley

Interestingly, after everything Anne Shirley has left out – Aunt Josephine, the liniment-flavored cake – it decided to show something that’s only mentioned but not shown in the book. (I’m choosing to believe based on the preview that we haven’t jumped from chapter thirty to chapter thirty-seven.) At the end of chapter thirty, Marilla mentions to Anne that Matthew “had a bad spell with his heart Thursday,” a piece of foreshadowing that should worry everyone. But in episode seven, we see that happen rather than Marilla telling Anne about it. Given the age of the original text and its popularity in Japan (to say nothing of the US and Canada), I’m not sure this was necessary. Those who have read the book (or seen one of the many adaptations) know what’s coming. Those who haven’t don’t need to see it spelled out. Unlike adding in more of Gilbert’s feelings for Anne, a decision I applaud, this feels like it’s not trusting the viewer or trying to wring more emotion out of a coming event that’s plenty emotional as is.

This episode is full of high emotions, regardless. One of the two famous scenes left from the first novel happens, and it’s significant not just for poor Gilbert, but also for Anne’s emotional development. When the girls’ game of Elaine of Astolat (AKA the Lady of Shalott) goes awry, Anne is left clinging to a bridge piling in the middle of Barry’s Pond, er, the Lake of Shining Waters. Unable to swim or to climb up (if you’ve ever tried to hold onto wood that’s spent a long time in the water, you’ll know how slimy and slick it is), she’s rescued by Gilbert Blythe, who takes the opportunity to try to apologize for his past transgression against her hair. While he’s hurt by her spurning his offer of friendship, the more important reaction is Anne’s. She wants to forgive Gilbert. Even if Diana hadn’t been making comments about him being handsome or seeing him pick up Anne’s rose, she’s known him long enough now to know that he’s not bad and that he had a bad case of being thirteen years old when he made the carrots comment. But Anne is stubborn. And he hurt her. And now she has a case of being thirteen, and we can all agree that none of us made our most mature decisions at that age. She turns him away, but she feels awful about it, and we can see her regretting that decision for the rest of the episode.

I think that’s one of the reasons Anne is such a timeless heroine. A lot of other girls from the literature of the early twentieth century (or late 19th) are more sweet than substantial. Those girls would have forgiven Gilbert long ago, or at least in this moment. But Anne acts like a human. She’s got complex feelings about Gilbert and her relationship towards him, and they’re all churning inside of her. Anne is real in a way most other novel heroines of the time aren’t – and if I’m being honest, many heroines written today aren’t. If you’ve ever been too stubborn for your own good, cutting your nose to spite your face, you can relate to Anne in this moment. Or when she can’t figure out what her “purpose” in life will be. Or when she frets about growing apart from Diana. We’ve all been Anne, gender notwithstanding.

If you’re not familiar with the phrase “cut your nose to spite your face” (sometimes “cut off your nose to spite your face”), it’s an old idiom meaning stubbornly making a bad decision despite knowing better. You’re more likely to hear it today than the idiom Jane uses this week in the episode, when she says her father is “meaner than second skimmings.” It refers to cream – when you skim the top of raw milk, you get the cream, but when you do it again, you get thin skim milk, so Jane is saying that her father is incredibly cheap – he only goes for second skimmings. I grew up in a place where people still occasionally say that someone is “slipperier than a hog on ice,” but I do love those old idiomatic expressions. And Jane’s declaration that she’ll never marry because a job has to pay you while a husband doesn’t is another one of those moments of realism L. M. Montgomery was so good at injecting into the book – and proof that Miss Stacy truly is a teacher who can reach her pupils.

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Anne Shirley is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.