Anne Shirley

Episode 19

Death has been on the periphery of Anne's story from the start. Her journey began with her parents' deaths, and even after Matthew's was given more prominence in the story, it's always been there just out of sight. Mr. Lynde, Paul's mother, the twins' mother, and others have died on the fringes of the plot so that the main story could move forward. But now death has returned to the front pages of Anne's life as it comes for Ruby, one of her closest friends.

We all know that it wasn't (and still isn't) uncommon for people to die young. That Ruby dies of what was then known as consumption (tuberculosis) is even less surprising; not only was it common in the 19th century, it was, in 19th-century literature, considered a “romantic” death for the lingering suffering and complexion it gave its victims. Consumption is one of the most common ways for a heroine to die in Victorian literature, something L. M. Montgomery would have been very well aware of. Perhaps that's why she makes Ruby's death anything but romantic. Ruby is in pain, she suffers delusions, and, most of all, she desperately wants to live. She has a beau and plans for the future. It doesn't seem fair that it should all be taken away from her.

Intertwining this plotline with Anne's attempt to write a story for publication helps to bring home the harsh reality that's suddenly staring Anne in the face: death isn't just a plot device. From way back in her Geraldine days, we've seen Anne romanticize death in her mind, even when she learned firsthand from Matthew's, the pain it brings. But Matthew was old; it was sudden, but perhaps more easily justified. Ruby is Anne's own age. She's her friend. And there's nothing beautiful about the way she passed. Anne eventually setting aside her fiction is less of a statement about her frustration with the magazine publishing industry and more about her needing to step back and really think. Matthew's death changed her life, but Ruby's has changed her future.

Anne's visit to Bolingbrook and her return home to Avonlea may have been switched timeline-wise to help make this point. Anne received closure about her parents when she visited Phil, but that didn't really prepare her to lose Ruby. Still, the judicious use of poppies in the background helps to show symbolically what she's going through: according to the 1879 book Our Deportment, in the Victorian language of flowers, poppies mean “consolation,” while white poppies specifically signify “sleep of the heart.” The flower is about coping with grief, which both Anne and Ruby need to do.

In the book, Montgomery writes that “[Ruby] had died in her sleep, painlessly and calmly, and on her face was a smile—as if, after all, death had come as a kindly friend to lead her over the threshold, instead of the grisly phantom she had dreaded.” Peace is harder to find for those left behind. Whether Anne will manage it remains to be seen.

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Post-Script: I am struck by similarities between Ruby's death and that of Alfredo in Romeo's Blue Skies, which carries an interesting series of links. Anne Shirley is thirty-odd years after Romeo, so there could absolutely be inspiration. (I think that's why the weasel plays such a large role; it's a callback to Piccolo.) But Lisa Tetzner published The Black Brothers in the 1940s, which means that she could have been influenced by L. M. Montgomery, creating a circle of inspiration. A stretch, perhaps, but I hope it's true.

Anne Shirley is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.