I see I didn't respond to your first post, Julie. I should do that.
First, you know the books so much better than I do, and I simply can't argue with you when you say that Anne was happy during much of her married life. I'm sure she was. I guess one reason why the sense of happiness somehow didn't penetrate when I read them is that L.M. Montgomery seemed to
tell me rather than
show me that Anne was happy. I was
told more about her happiness than I
saw of it.
Anyway, my main objection was always the "disappearance" of Anne in the last book.
You say she seemed to go on many lonely walks. Did you miss the whole point of the first book in the series, Ann? Anne had a unique imagination that could keep her occupied for hours on her own, and she loved giving it that freedom. She also enjoyed nature and everything she met - every little rock and flower - were precious to her and were company she sometimes preferred over the company of people. I suppose from the way you got so many details wrong, I can assume it's been ages since you've read them, but I'm not really that forgiving when someone rats on my Anne. <g>
I guess the difference to me was that in the first book, I
felt Anne's happiness so intensely. I
felt how much she loved the nature around her, every little rock and flower, like you said. I didn't
feel that she was that totally caught up in the loveliness of the nature she had around her when she was a young married woman. Case in point: I can quote several passages (in Swedish, unfortunately) where Anne declares her love for a cherry tree or a brook in the first book about her, but I can't remember a single instant when she admires a particular tree, rock or flower after she had married Gilbert. But that could just mean that I was much less responsive to the later books than to the first one, of course.
As for Anne taking care of children and staying at home - as other have said, she was a product of her time. As well, she was fulfilled in her life and her relationship with Gilbert was the sort I'd like to have some day. Taking care of a household and six children was a full time job no less busy than being a teacher (probably busier, in fact).
I don't want to say anything negative about being a housewife and devoting all your time to your home and family
if that is what you really want to do. My problem was that I didn't get the impression that this is what Anne really, really wanted to do with her life. All right: I never doubted for a moment that she loved her children, and when her children were young I'm sure that she liked nothing better than being with them and taking care of them. But when they were older, and she was a totally "spent force" who could seemingly do nothing with her life, I was actually horrified. This was so wrong! This woman had seemed so gifted! Why did she have to be like an empty shell now?
Consider Martha in LnC. She is a housewife, and she may well have been a housewife all her life. But she is so interesting! So well-rounded! So full of life! And she has so many hobbies! Anne most certainly didn't seem anything like that when her children had grown up.
I also resent the way you describe Diana's situation. You put down their physical appearance, first of all, unnecessarily and hurtfully - overweight people deserve credit and happiness no less than others. As well, Diana married at the expected age and she too, was in love with her husband as he was with her, and found happiness with him.
I agree. I shouldn't have said what I said about her. But let me say this. I do think that Diana's marriage made her and Anne grow apart more than they had grown apart already. Also, interestingly, I think that Diana's marriage may have put pressure on Anne to marry Gilbert. She was reminded that she was supposed to get married instead of studying at a college, and instead of becoming a teacher. Diana reminded her what a woman's proper place was - but Diana, I think, was perfectly happy in her marriage, and it doesn't necessarily follow that Anne was equally happy in
her marriage. At least that was my own gut reaction. When I think about Diana and Fred, I
feel Fred's love for Diana. But when I think about Anne and Gilbert, I don't feel Gilbert's love for Anne in the same way. Of course, that may very well just be me.
I wonder what you would have preferred for Anne. Your basic point is that kids kill a marriage - so should she not have had children (whatever that may have meant to her love life) and remained a teacher?
I'm sure that Anne loved her children. Of course I'm not saying that she should not have had her kids! I just wish that she could have done other things as well, like Martha Kent of LnC. I would have loved to see her paint, take various courses in various subjects, laugh and smile, be a part of the world... and be a source of strength and wisdom for her kids when they had grown up, not just be a woman who couldn't say another word when she had discovered her first grey hair.
Ann
