It's interesting how different our takes on Diana's marriage is. From my perspective, Diana married at the age that was considered suitable for women of that time, and always having being a domestic soul, she loved her husband and revelled in motherhood. On behalf of women who are content to stay home and take care of their families, I find the connotations in your wording rather insulting. Should she only been wrapped up in her family if her husband had been less chubby and bland and her baby more beautiful?
Right, I put my words about Diana's marriage harshly. And I didn't disapprove of her marriage. But to me, she had been interesting mostly because she had been Anne's friend. The scene I'm describing, from memory, is when Anne came to see Diana shortly after her dear friend had had her first baby. I remember a sense of melancholy in that scene on Anne's part, because she felt rather strongly that Diana had entered into a world where she couldn't follow. She was sad because she and Diana were growing apart, and indeed I can't remember that the two of them saw each other a lot after that. And in view of how incredibly important Diana had been to Anne during her childhood in Avonlea, growing apart was a sad thing for her.
But I want to underscore that I never got the impression that Diana's marriage was wrong for
her. On the contrary, I, too, thought that she seemed very happy in it. Fred, her husband, was indeed a sweet man, and I don't think Diana wanted a lot more in life than Fred and the home and the children she had with him.
Again, you are applying the standards and social perceptions of our own times to Anne's life. It was expected of women to give up their careers once they were married, and Anne was hardly a social reformist. She enjoyed her career in teaching, but it has always been clear that having a family of her own - which she has never really had, until then - was her goal, ever since she fell in love with Gilbert.
I quite agree that Anne wanted a family. And that was for several reasons. I'm sure she
wanted a family, of course. But it must also be remembered that the alternatives to having a family weren't great for a woman in her day. Anne could have remained a teacher, but only if she stayed unmarried. Weren't female teachers always called 'Miss'? That was because they automatically had to quit if they got married. And unmarried women didn't enjoy the same respect as married ones around the year 1900. In Sweden, we had a female writer who was in fact famous over large parts of the world at that time, Selma Lagerlöf. Because her books sold so very well both at home and abroad, she had become quite rich. In her local district of Värmland, she was one of the most important employers, because she had bought a lot of land and employed many farm workers. And yet, when the people of Värmland had their grand local parties, where everyone took part, Selma Lagerlöf was was given a rather humble and obscure seat, slightly to the side, because she was an unmarried woman. The married women all sat at better, more "honorable" tables. I'm sure that unmarried women in Avonlea were similarly looked down on. So when Anne said yes to Gilbert, she said yes not only to him, but to the life she was expected to live as a woman of her time.
Taking care of two kids and a house is hardly "doing nothing all day", let me tell you.
I know it isn't! But I want to point out two things. Some upper-class women had servants, who did all the housework for them, and there really
were women of that time who did practically nothing!
I don't know if Anne had any servants. I didn't get the impression that she did. But the way I remember the books, L.M. Montgomery didn't write much, or anything at all, about Anne's housework. And since Anne probably spent most of her day doing housework, but Montgomery didn't want to write anything about that, her way of describing Anne's life made it seem as if Anne wasn't doing anything.
Let me add that I
loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's books about her family's life as settlers at the frontier in America in the late nineteenth century. Ingalls Wilder described everything the family did in order to survive in painstaking detail, including all the housework they did, and I found it all absolutely fascinating. But Montgomery didn't describe Anne's housework, as if it wasn't worth mentioning.
That is what made it seem boring or unworthy to me.
I myself chafe at my household duties because I've never been a particularly domestic animal.
The way Montgomery wrote about Anne, I got the impression that she wasn't much of a domestic animal, either. And that is precisely my objection to the life Anne led. She didn't have much of a choice, and to me she didn't seem happy as a married woman. Or at least, L.M. Montgomery failed to make me feel her happiness.
quote:
The last book I read in the series was called "Lilla Marilla" (Little Marilla(?) in English).
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Really? The one I read was called "Rilla of Ingleside".
The question mark I put in there was meant to say that I didn't know what the English title was. Thanks for telling me.
Again you must account for the time period, Ann. Anne was about forty-five years old in this book, and in that time that was considered pretty old. Also, Anne was by now enough of a well-rounded and fulfilled individual that her own story did not make for great plot. Her role was in the capacity of a mentor, and her presence was felt very strongly by me through the legacy of wisdom and upbringing she had bestowed upon her children.
Well, here we must agree to disagree. I felt Anne's presence hardly at all in that book. But then, to me it is not enough to feel a woman's presence exclusively through her children - particularly if her children aren't talking or thinking about their mother.
Although I missed Anne myself in this book, in retrospect, I still love the glimpses of her life that we were given in the book.
I remember Anne's presence in a single passage in that book. That is when Anne suddenly, and to me almost shockingly, opens her mouth to speak. She says to Gilbert(?) that she has just found her very first grey hair that morning. And I think Gilbert gives her a rather sweet answer, although I can't remember what it was.
As far as I can remember, Anne never said another word in that book.
Well, Woman in the Mirror is still being written, but it perfectly matches all your requirements, so I think you know what my stand is on that.
And I loved that fic! Please finish it, Hasini!
Hasini, you gave me a very sweet quote from the book Anne of the Island. But unless I'm very wrong, Anne isn't married in that book. The love Anne describes there, which is waiting for her, is not the love of her husband and family. It is, rather, the love of her foster mother Marilla and Mrs Rachel Lynde, who wait for her in Anne's childhood home of Green Gables. To me, that quote is worthless as proof that Anne was happy in her marriage.
And Kathy, please - I wasn't writing what I did in order to make a general attack on housewives. Why should I question anybody's right to live the life that he or she wants? But it just seemed to me that married Anne didn't have a very good life, and maybe not a life that she really, really wanted. Or at least not a life that was good for her. My points were these:
1) it seems to be rather unpopular to write LnC fanfics about married Lois and Clark, and
2) Anne of Green Gables is an example of a girl who grew up to be a housewife, and, to me at least, seemed to have a rather unfulfilling life as a housewife (although I most certainly don't doubt that she loved her children).
I was wondering if it is considered generally hard to write satisfying fics about married LnC, and I was using Anne of Green Gables as an example of a woman who was, to me at least, "killed as a character" by her marriage. I was really asking people if Lois has to be "killed as a character" if she has been married for a long time to Clark. I was really hoping that you would say that there are many absolutely great fics about married Lois and Clark!
I do think that Lois seems to be the wrong sort of person to devote her life exclusively to her house and her children. To me, Lois seems too interested in the world for me to be happy with the idea that she would "close her doors to shut out the world" if she got married.
Let me comment on something LabRat said:
Next Gen/kidfic is probably at the bottom of my list to read, still, though.
Personally I don't like it when the kids take over the story. I don't want Lois and Clark, and
certainly not Lois, to be relegated to a background supporting role while the kids take center stage. I want the focus of the story to be on Lois and Clark! I don't mind if they have kids - heck, I love it if they have kids! - but I want to see the kids through Lois and Clark's eyes, rather than having the kids grab the story all for themselves. That's why I don't want to read married Lois and Clark stories that are really Next Generation fics.
Ann
