L.M Montgomery in her novel, Anne of Green Gables weaves the story of an orphaned child (quite wild) who is brought up by two siblings and who grows up to be an intelligent , accomplished young woman. An interesting aspect of Anne in the novel is her spirit. When she enters the Cuthbert household, she is an orphan, wild, free, talkative and with a vivid imagination. This spirited nature of hers is a contrast to what is expected behavior in the little village she goes to live in. Although Anne is constantly told to behave in the expected manner and changes to a certain level, she retains her optimistic and happy attitude towards life till the end. Although Anne’s whole life is a conflict between her imagination and the social expectations, she manages to navigate the conflict, remains a happy person and eventually wins over everyone.
Even when little, Anne is full of imagination and a romantic attitude towards life and the world around her. Lacking any real friends in the orphanage she makes up imaginary friends and when finally introduced into society, her way of life comes into conflict with how she is expected to behave. She is full of daydreams which come in between her conversations with other people and the household chores she has to do. Many a times this pulls her away from the real world and takes her back to her imaginary world. An instance where Anne’s imagination is displayed and which shocks Marilla Cuthbert is when she goes to pray for the first time in the house. When Marilla decides to teach Anne some religion and asks her to pray, Anne tells her that Marilla needs to teach her what to pray and that she would later come up with a little prayer when in bed. This shocks Marilla who then tells Anne that she ought to kneel down to pray. Hearing this Anne says, “Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer (Montgomery, Chap 7).” And when she eventually says her prayer, it is unlike the prayer of any small kid and she keeps stopping to add a few more things. Marilla is shocked at this behavior and vows to her brother that she would teach Anne how to pray and also send her to sunday class to learn some religion. This incident however is not the only time where Anne fails to fit into the societal expectations. There are other household disasters that happen because her imaginations take her away from the chore at hand. She puts liniment instead of essence and makes the cake inedible, she almost drowns when trying to act out a poem and gives her friend alcohol instead of a non-alcoholic drink. This character of Anne is completely different from that of Marilla who believes that goodness comes out of following decorum and behaving sensibly. She follows the social code set out to good ladies and is many times shocked at the behavior of Anne.
Anne however is at a loss to understand as to why Marilla would not use her imagination to be happier and also to make the world a better place. Marilla, although not prone to imagination understand Anne but is also worried about her as she believes that Anne’s romanticism might lead her to a big disappointment when she has to face the real world. Anne likes to please Marilla but does not let go of her imagination, And as she grows up she finds a perfect balance between her romantic imagination and respectable behavior that is expected of her. The conflict between an imaginative free mind and expected behavior is resolved in a wonderful manner in the story. Anne does not have to let go of her original self to be what society expects of her and that is how it should be. This is one of the captivating themes of the novel.
Works Cited
Montgomery. L.M. Anne of Green Gables. London: Gideon House Books. 2015.
