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Margaret Atwood on the centenary of "Anne of Green Gables"If you fancy some Canadian-on-Canadian literary action, you might want to take a look at this recent article in U.K. newspaper the Guardian. To celebrate the centenary of Anne of Green Gables (first published in 1908) author Margaret Atwood has written a long, wide-ranging article that takes on the life of Anne's author, L.M. Montgomery, as well as 100 years of cultural response to the book and her own personal feelings about it.
I'm a fan of both Montgomery and Atwood. But since Atwood is known for such dark, troubling adult novels as Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, I was initially a little apprehensive as to what she might make of bright, cheery Anne. Was this going to be a hatchet job on maudlin sentimentality?
Admittedly, there are some traces of Atwood's sardonic humor in the article. She describes Anne as “hit[ting] Prince Edward Island's Green Gables farmhouse in a splatter of exclamation marks, apple blossoms, freckles and embarrassing faux pas.” And reflecting on the likely real-life fate of a Victorian orphan, as opposed to Anne's fairy-tale ending, she writes:
Overall, though, it's a surprisingly appreciative article, with some interesting suggestions about and insights into a book that many readers may feel they know back to front. Atwood recounts the answers that were given when she asked a Japanese audience about Anne's popularity in Japan, for example: “Anne has a passion for apple blossoms and cherry blossoms — the latter are especially dear to the hearts of the Japanese — so her brand of aesthetic sensibility was very sympathetic.” Atwood also offers the interesting theory that it is really Marilla, not Anne, who is the central character of Green Gables, since it is Marilla who most develops and changes over the course of the book — from repressed and forbidding guardian into a woman almost more emotional and vulnerable than Anne herself. Like Atwood, I admit to sobbing like a wuss when Marilla tells her adopted daughter after Matthew's death: “I love you as dear as if you were my own flesh and blood and you've been my joy and comfort ever since you came to Green Gables.”
As for many other modern readers of the books, my mental images of Anne and Marilla are all tied up with the 1985 Canadian television movie and its 1987 sequel, starring Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst in the roles of Anne and Marilla, respectively. Recently I had the chance to re-watch these movies, and I was much more put off this time around by all the ways in which they differ from the books. But I was also much more struck by the romantic overtones in the friendship between Anne and Diana Barry (played by Katharine Hepburn's great-niece Schuyler Grant):
Back in 2000, Canadian professor Laura Robinson caused something of a furor when she wrote a paper called Bosom Friends: Lesbian Desire in L.M. Montgomery's Anne Books. An “expert” on Montgomery was even brought in to react to the claim in a radio interview you can listen to here. I'll admit that personally I don't find Anne and Diana's friendship particularly lesbianish in the books, and from Montgomery's repulsed response to a lesbian fan, recorded in the fourth volume of her journals, it seems fairly clear that subtext of that nature wasn't what she had in mind, but I know that other readers have seen it the way Robinson does.
If I was to add anything to all the fascinating information contained in Atwood's article, it would be a strong recommendation — for those who haven't already — to read Montgomery's journals. But be prepared that Montgomery's life was much more difficult than Anne's, and in many ways closer to that of her less famous but no less interesting heroine, Emily Byrd Starr of the Emily books. I'd also recommend the Anne of Green Gables thread over on TelevisionWithoutPity.com. Although ostensibly created to talk about the first two television movies (and to groan over the third and upcoming fourth one, which leave Montgomery's plotlines behind), it's also got lots of analysis about the entire series of Anne books, up to Rilla of Ingleside. Are you an Anne fan? Did you see her as secretly in love with Diana? Or do you prefer the Emily books? Submitted by on April 8, 2008 - 9:00am. |
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I'm an Anne fan, but the
I'm an Anne fan, but the Emily books hold a special place in my heart, too, especially since I identified with Emily much more strongly. (Present tense, too). And also because they were my first introduction to Jane Eyre, which became one of my favorite books in high school...
Never really saw any lesbian subtext in the Anne books, though; it was more present to me in the film, really (especially when they're preparing for Diana's wedding in her bedroom). But while there were lots of characters in Montgomery's canon that I'd thought of as potentially lesbian, Anne really was never one of them. Or Diana, I suppose.
Layla, which Montgomery characters...
... did you see as potentially lesbian? I'd be interested to know.
I bet one of them is Katherine Brooke :P
"Katharine" with a K
"Katharine" with a K indeed! ;) 'Specially film!version, with that scene picking apples ... all of that boy talk was nonsense.
Ok, Montgomery characters that I saw as being potentially lesbian at one point or another: certainly her, Jen Pringle (specifically movie! Jen Pringle, but maybe that's because I kind of liked her, too), Ilse from the Emily books, Marilla, Jane Andrews, Miss Stacy ... um, I never saw Pat of Silver Bush as a convincing heterosexual, either (don't know why).
Friendship/Romance Line
The relationships between women in Anne of Green Gables gave me context for the feelings I was having for women when I was growing up. Looking back, I was so drawn to these characters, even at age 10, and I wonder how much of it appealed to me beause of the openess they had in their expression of their feelings for each other. I think my favorite scene was when they get drunk on cordial because it is "medicine." But their scenes of declaring love for each other are pretty great in general. I get the impression that during the Victorian era it was common for women to have "passionate friendships." That has always raised my eyebrows. You should ennumerate the scenes you felt exemplified the romantic subtext between Anne and Dianna. This stuff is ripe for fan fic.
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One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory. ~ Rita Mae Brown
Anne and Diana
Upcoming Fourth Film?!
What's this?
I'll admit to not having read the series of Anne books (Yes, blasephemy.); A friend once told me she married Gilbert and has boat loads of children which completely put me off.
Her teaching days in the movie sequel were always my favourite. The idea of a gang of forward thinking girls lead by Anne in a girls school! Come on. Emmeline Harris, Jen Pringle, Katherine Brooks, Miss Stacey, Mrs. Barry, Aunt Josephine and Alice Lawson.... Come to think of it, perhaps I should give the books a chance.
...and on a side note: Mag Ruffman who played Alice Lawson (edit: the general store clerk) used to write a weekly column in the toronto newspaper titled Tool Girl as well as her own TV show in Canada called A Repair To Remember. (My family couldn't figure out why I liked it so much... :P)
Oooo, and it appears she's up-to-date with a website called toolgirl.com (Mag Ruffman's Offical Web Log - Luminous prose about power tools, home repair, creativity and making stuff.) *swoon*
To Clarify
The Mag Ruffman reference is to Alice Lawson who later becomes Miss Olivia Dale in The Road to Avonlea (The spin-off series that introduced the talented Sarah Polley). She helps Mathew Cuthbert find Anne her infamous puffed sleeves :P
I first watched the Anne of
I first watched the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea movies when I was just a little girl, and they hold a very dear place in my heart. When I'm feeling miserable, I curl up and watch them and recite all the lines (my favorite: "You don't know how utterly wretched I am."). I know them all by heart.
The books are also quite good. Somehow, the differences between the books and the films don't bother me at all (whereas I usually hate it when films maul their source material). They're each their own accomplishments, in my opinion. The films are absolutely gorgeous and funny and wonderful, and so are the books, but each in their own way.
The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you, and you are standing in the doorway. - The Mountain Goats
http://dimethirwen.livejournal.com
Love Anne!
I was just considering the Anne/Diana subtext the other day when I heard about Atwood's article. I mean to read it at some point.
Anyways, I remember being totally enchanted by the relationship between Anne and Diana when I was a kid, although I was too young to think of it as anything more than a close friendship. I wanted to have a friend exactly like Diana! However, despite all the bosom friend-ness and the swearing to love each other forever, I think it's definitely clear all along that Anne's romantic interest is in Gilbert, especially once you get to the later books, when Diana marries and Anne gets engaged to Gilbert. Despite that, there are quite a few characters in the books who seemed to be very easily read as gay to me when I reread the books as a pre-teen, but that's probably just the Victorian era with its reverence for close same-sex friendships and sensitive, poetic, somehow unattached men (and L.M. Montgomery's fondness for spunky, independent female characters.)
I adored the books and the movies (first 2)
From when I read these books as a young girl, I loved them. I loved the movies as well even when they varied from the books. Anne's friendship with Diana was similar to the intensity of many of my girlhood friendships. When I was reading them, I would not have thought to look deeper than that. I love rewatching the movies to this day and have enjoyed seeing Megan Follows act on stage at Stratford Festival.
"Forget regret or life is yours to miss." - Rent