Episode 9 – Anne Shirley

I should probably be more annoyed than I am at how quickly Anne’s time at Queen’s was dispensed with. Not that it takes up that many chapters in the book – it’s only three chapters, thirty-four through thirty-six. But what’s most important here is that the end of chapter thirty-six, “The Glory and the Dream,” is presented verbatim: Matthew’s beautiful line about Anne being better than a dozen boys because she’s his girl and the final sentence of the chapter, “It was the last night before sorrow touched her life; and no life is ever quite the same again when once that cold, sanctifying hand has been laid upon it.”

Even if you’ve never read the book or seen another adaptation, you can probably guess what’s coming. I’ll save discussing that until next week, while simply saying that it’s a very standard trope for literature of the time. That won’t make it any better, although it perhaps went down more easily in 1908 because it was, more or less, expected.

What’s less expected for the time is Anne’s academic triumph and intention to go to college. In many other works of the same age, Gilbert would have won the scholarship while Anne took the medal, and that it was reversed here is just one of the many reasons why Anne of Green Gables is both so important and so beloved. Gilbert’s not even going to college in the fall – because he didn’t get the scholarship, he’ll have to work to pay his own way through. ($250 a year was not a small sum.) Anne has, therefore, finally, fully triumphed over her rival. And yet…she doesn’t seem all that happy about it. In part, that’s because she assumed that Gilbert would be joining her in the fall, heading to Redmond College. It says a lot about the way she thinks about him – even though she proclaims her disdain loudly, it’s plain to see that she doesn’t really hate him. He lives in her head (and possibly her heart), and “rivalry with Gilbert Blythe” has become as much a part of her identity as “Green Gables” and “Diana’s bosom friend.” To think that he’ll no longer be in her life hits her hard, for reasons she can’t quite bring herself to say.

To her credit, she is trying to be a little nicer, even if she’s too stubborn to admit that she wants to be friends. She’s jealous when another girl tells Gilbert how fetching he looks, and if no one’s around to see, she will talk to him in a normal way. She can’t be happy for him winning the medal, but that’s her competitiveness, a trait Gilbert himself seems to lack, because he’s always happy for Anne when she’s honored. He’s a long way from that thirteen-year-old boy who said the wrong thing, and even Anne knows that – and now Matthew knows that she knows that, because rather than leaving Anne at the train station, he hid and waited to see her safely on the train, resulting in him overhearing their conversation.

There’s a beautiful symmetry to Matthew’s actions. When he first met Anne, she was waiting for him at that same train station, and he was too kind to leave her there or to tell her that there’d been a mistake. His loving nature came through, tempered by his shyness, and he’s been Anne’s steadfast ally ever since, adoring her with his whole heart. Even now, he can’t bring himself to just leave her at the station, and his quiet support is one of the pillars of Anne’s life. Matthew has always made sure that Anne feels loved and wanted. It’s the greatest gift that anyone could give her, and ultimately more important than any scholarship or academic honor. If Anne doesn’t know that now, she soon will.

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Anne Shirley is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.