Anne Shirley

Episode 22

Lots of people cry at weddings. Most of them cry from joy at seeing people they love happy, but I think for some, weeping is for loss. Not that someone getting married is a loss by most measures; even in the bad old days when a woman was fully expected to take her husband's name and leave her family for his, it was still more of a new stage of life. But Anne's still not wrong when she laments Diana's marriage as the end of something. Things are going to be different between them – as she says, it's the last time Diana Barry will kiss her. Sure, Diana Wright will, but she's not quite the same person – she's unequivocably an adult by 19th-century standards. And Anne, despite her similar age, is still a child.

Or at least, that's how she feels. Anne's feelings haven't always been respected by those around her, especially since the Gilbert Incident, where people weren't shy about telling her that she made a mistake. Maybe she did; certainly Gilbert seems a better match for her than Roy, who has all the personality of a cheese puff. But it's still Anne's decision to make and her emotions to feel. She notes that this week, at least part of her refusal was based on a fear of losing a good friend; she couldn't quite envision her relationship with Gilbert staying the same once romance became involved. I think she fears not of losing Gilbert, but of growing up.

I can understand that. Growing up is frightening, and change is even more so. Anne's early life before Marilla and Matthew was so unsettled, with her being moved from one home to another, that it makes perfect sense that she'd be leery of further changes. She's genuinely happy for her friends, but she can't quite bring herself to want the same thing for herself, even though she knows she's “supposed” to. It's one of the greatest achievements of Montgomery's writing that Anne is allowed to be fearful, to resist what she's supposed to want, flying in the face of Victorian culture. Rachel Lynde may comment that Marilla “made a mistake” in the past, alluding to a refused marriage proposal. However, we've still seen Marilla lead a comfortable life, even if it wasn't a traditional one. (You could even make an argument for Marilla and Rachel currently having a Boston Marriage.) This isn't a case like Jo March not marrying Laurie in Little Women because Louisa May Alcott was (possibly apocryphally) annoyed that fans wanted it to happen and decided to spite them. Anne is trying to comb through a tangled knot of emotions, and Montgomery allows her to.

It seems clear this week that Anne doesn't really love Roy. She clearly thinks she ought to, but all of her swooning feels very performative. He's putting so much effort into his courtship that she feels duty-bound (or perhaps sentimental novel-bound) to accept him and be happy about his dreadful little verses. But it's just not there, any more than there's chemistry between Gilbert and Christine (she of the 1980s hair), no matter how much Anne wants to see it. Even Davy and Dora seem aware that Anne doesn't really love Roy, and Marilla seems to have some doubts as well.

No one gets to tell someone else how they feel, or how they're supposed to feel. The people of Avonlea haven't quite got that message yet, but despite them, Anne is sorting herself out. She may never grow out of her fear of change, but maybe, going forward, she can find a way to make it more comfortable for herself.

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Post-Script: Anne mentions this week that she's going Down East. Technically, she's already Down East, a term that encompasses the Maritimes and the northern Maine coast, so she's probably referring to either Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, possibly on the border with Maine.

Anne Shirley is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.