Episode 17 – Anne Shirley

Jo March may not be the only famous children’s book heroine to fling away perfectly good marriage proposals, even if she did it at least fifty years before Anne. Not that being proposed to via a prospective husband’s little sister is anything anyone wants, and Jane’s desperation and eventual mention of Nettie Blewett waiting in the wings may say more about who Jane wants Billy to marry than who Billy’s preferred wife is. But it’s still an important scene, because, as the final lines of chapter eight of Anne of the Island put it, “And now, this thrilling experience had turned out to be merely grotesque… There was romance for you, with a vengeance! Anne laughed—and then sighed. The bloom had been brushed from one little maiden’s dream. Would the painful process go on until everything became prosaic and hum-drum?”

Although this line isn’t quoted in the episode, we can still see it playing out. Phil’s interest in Gilbert is dimmed, or at least held back, because she can see that he’s in love with Anne, and she can’t understand why Anne isn’t more interested in marrying him. When Prissy says that Anne’s been in love with the same person since childhood, Phillipa assumes that it’s a real person – but what Prissy means is Anne’s romantic ideal. Anne’s still looking for him, and she daydreams about him after Jane’s failed proposal on Billy’s behalf. She’s not at the point where she’s ready to tuck that dream away yet, even though she’s starting to realize that it is a dream. But she’s also starting to feel like she’s standing still compared to her old friends Ruby, Diana, and Jane, and that’s not comfortable. It’s a tough place to be, and although this episode doesn’t dwell on it, that just makes it all the more clear. Sorry, Gilbert, but it looks like you will have to wait a bit longer.

But at least Gilbert has the good sense to do so – Charlie Sloan looks like he’s gearing up to do something foolish. This is where I’m sorry that this adaptation didn’t spend a bit more time on the first two novels, because while Charlie’s feelings for Anne may feel like they’ve come out of the blue here, the ground is laid for them in both Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea.

All of this is to say that adulthood is coming for Anne whether she wants it to or not. That makes Phil an important character, because she’s ready to fling herself headlong into adulthood, as her character design makes clear, even if it is a bit anachronistic. She’s gleefully playing two suitors off of each other, pining just a bit after Gilbert, and can’t understand why Anne would rather go home to her boring island farmhouse, two old ladies, and the twins instead of coming to Bolingbrook, Nova Scotia with her. Phil is an urban creature, a wannabe sophisticate, and Anne’s imaginative and peaceful world is alien to her. The two young women are foils, with Phillipa representing the modern world and Anne representing old-fashioned simplicity. Both are still refutations of popular late 19th-century and early 20th-century literary tropes, with Phil being the New Woman I mentioned last week and Anne the rambunctious country girl far removed from Dora-style orphans. She has more in common with the heroine of Susan Coolidge’s 1872 novel What Katy Did than any orphan Anns, and that continues to be true in her college years. They’re close enough to their types to be recognizable while being infinitely more human than either of them. Phil’s never painted as “unnatural” or “fast,” two terms used to describe young women who, for example, dangle two young men at the same time; her foibles are shown kindly, even when she does something particularly foolish. And Anne is moving at her own pace, not bowing to the expectations of when her story was written. They’re both statements that women can be their own people and make their own choices, even if those choices don’t make everyone happy. And if that means flinging away perfectly good proposals? Sometimes that’s just what you have to do.

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Anne Shirley is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.