Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery which explores the coming of age of a girl named Anne Shirley in the town of Avonlea. While Anne’s imaginary adventures make the book resonate with children, it is Marilla’s struggles that adults identify with. In the beginning of the novel Marilla is an austere, strict woman without joy who sees the world rationally, but meeting Anne and seeing her emotions and idealism, along with her desires, awakens in Marilla her own emotions and idealism, and eventually brings her relative peace. Marilla has an undeveloped spark of humour and light-heartedness, but it is buried under her cold, serious personality. Anne awakens the spark, but Marilla is strict with her. This changes when Marilla pressures Anne to reveal her treasured amethyst brooch, which she had believed was stolen, as Marilla learns to value Anne more than the object and not to pressure her. Marilla also gives Anne clean and new but bland dresses, but later appreciates the value of beauty and gives her an evening dress to go to Queens. Through all these things, Marilla takes on Anne’s emotional idealism and eventually has her vision fulfilled.

Marilla has a lightheartedness buried within her. She is described in the beginning as a woman of “narrow experience and rigid conscience … but there was a saving something about her mouth, which, if it had been ever so slightly developed, might have been considered indicative of a sense of humour” (Montgomery 8). A metaphor for this is shown in how the table of Marilla’s home for their awaited guest is set up, with only “everyday dishes … crab-apple preserves and one kind of cake”, showing how bland and ordinary Marilla is (Montgomery 7). She has not gone through much in her life to enliven her, and her life and routines are repetitive. When Matthew brings Anne home, Marilla is unhappy and calls her “a pretty piece of business” (Montgomery 31). This reveals how Marilla sees her new guest: as a worker to help them, a business object to serve them. She wants to get rather than give something. Marilla tells the tearful Anne that “there’s no need to cry so about it” (Montgomery 32). This shows her lack of sympathy and cold-heartedness. Because she is so emotionally austere, she cannot understand what Anne is going through, or see any need for Anne to react so strongly. But soon after, “a reluctant smile, rather rusty from long disuse, mellowed Marilla’s grim expression” (Montgomery 32). This is the first time she smiles, because she was touched by Anne asking her to imagine how she would feel if she was in the same situation. The spark of imagination grows within her out of sympathy. The sympathy only grows when Anne tells her story, and she then understands Anne. Marilla yearns for a “pastoral myth, the vision of a social ideal”. She has a “nostalgia for a world of peace and protection, with a spontaneous response to the nature around it, with a leisure and composure” (Janes Slide 2). Although Marilla has the “peace” she lacks the “leisure” and “spontaneous response”, which is emotion, making her ideal incomplete. But this yearning is suppressed as she is not fond of Anne’s emotions and tendency to daydream. She believes that “When the Lord puts us in certain circumstances He doesn’t mean for us to imagine them away” (Montgomery 71). She has no myth, no nostalgia, in her head the way Anne does, but simply accepts things the way they are. She believes in a set destiny. Rather than allow Anne the freedom of her mind, she wants to mold her in all her activities. She wants things done a certain way and does not want them to be questioned by Anne. Marilla shows this same fear of the unknown when Anne takes her hand, “Something warm and pleasant [wells] up in Marilla’s …  – a throb of the maternity she had missed, perhaps. Its very unaccustomedness and sweetness disturbed her” (Montgomery 97). Marilla feels that the icy personality she has inside her can keep her safe. She fears that the warmth that springs up in her heart will melt and that she will no longer be solid in her demeanor. That is why she fears that if she sets her heart too much on things, she may lose them. She would rather be restrained with how much she sets her emotions on anything. That is why she fears that Anne has “a great many disappointments in store … through life” (Montgomery 119). Marilla’s restraint stubbornly clings on to her through the first half of the book.

One episode that changes this is Marilla’s experience with almost losing her amethyst brooch that she always wears to church. It is considered “Marilla’s most treasured possession” because “a seafaring uncle had given it to her mother who in turn had bequeathed it to Marilla” (Montgomery 119). In addition, it has a lock of her mother’s hair. The brooch’s value to Marilla comes from her lack of a large family, as she only has Matthew to rely on, so it is a family heirloom. This explains why Marilla feels so confused and upset with Anne when she believes she had lost it: she was beginning to see her as a part of her family. Another thing that could explain her anger is what the amethyst represents: calmness and healing. By being in the house, Anne is taking her tranquility away and making everything less certain for Marilla. The fact that she needs such an object to feel orderly just goes to show how lonely she is. That is why “she felt deserted by everyone” after it was taken. But on the other hand, Anne may be taking it because she yearns for the calm that it provides: it is her “nostalgia” again. In a twist of irony, when Anne confesses, she is “calmly reciting the details thereof” while “Marilla felt hot anger surge up in her heart” (Montgomery 126). Marilla also screams at Anne, telling her she won’t go to the picnic as a punishment and that “it isn’t half severe enough either for what you’ve done” (Montgomery 127). This is perhaps the strongest condemnation that Marilla gives Anne, because she feels that Anne has taken a part of her. The brooch being lost in her black lace shawl is a metaphor for Marilla’s peace and calm being lost in her own blandness, paranoia and joylessness. Although Anne has done nothing wrong, Marilla is so paranoid towards Anne that she cannot conceive that she herself may have lost the brooch. Ironically, she herself shows the vanity that she criticizes Anne for. Her own suspicions appear to be proven right, because if one goes searching for anything hard enough, they will eventually find it from their point of view even if it is not true. Her amethyst, which is her tranquility, is a good thing, but it was buried under her dullness. When she discovers it, the sunlight strikes “upon something caught in the shawl – something that glittered and sparkled in facets of violet light” (Montgomery 129). It represents a spark of joy and lightheartedness, which is what frees her calm personality from her bitterness. The situation also teaches her not to pressure Anne too much. Therefore when she is speaking to Matthew about the story, she said “there’s one thing certain, no house will ever be dull that she’s in” (Montgomery 131). Although her developmental journey is not over, she has begun to see Anne’s value as a colorful and light addition to the house, and it has been transferred from the brooch to her. She is now more idealistic.

Another situation that changes Marilla is her dressing of Anne. At first, Marilla crafts three dresses for Anne that are “neat and clean and new” (Montgomery 99). But Anne doesn’t find them beautiful and wants a dress with puffed sleeves. The dress represents the “plain, sensible” woman that Marilla wants to mold Anne into. Marilla fears that imagination and beauty will distract her from that path. Her expectations for Anne towards this dress are the same she has for all of Anne’s activities. She hopes that Anne will take care of them, and she also wants Anne to keep her room tidy and clean. Anne is being brought up with less freedom and more rules than the other students, which is why she wears bland dresses while the others can have puffed sleeves. Anne’s preferred puffed sleeves represent her desire for more freedom to use her imagination and mind, since those sleeves allow more space for the arm and more air to penetrate them. But Marilla does not relent. Matthew later discovers how Anne stands out from her friends in clothing and conspires with Mrs. Lynde to give Anne a new dress. Marilla is dismayed at first, but she allows the dress in the hopes that Anne will take good care of it and be satisfied. That Christmas, to watch Anne perform “the Fairy Queen”, they go “out to a concert or the first time in twenty years” (Montgomery 256). So Marilla has given both Anne and herself freedom: the former to wear beautiful dresses and to perform at the concert and herself to go and watch the concert with Matthew. Although she is opposed to it at first, she concludes that there is no harm and is happy with Anne’s performance. Marilla soon decides to allow Anne fashionable dresses. She later gives Anne an evening dress to attend Queens. Meanwhile, she remembers her first view of Anne – “the odd, frightened child in her preposterous yellowish-brown wincey dress, the heartbreak looking out of her tearful eyes” and contrasts this with the new Anne who has become “so tall and stylish…altogether different in that dress- as if you didn’t belong in Avonlea anymore” (Montgomery 346). Marilla accepts that Anne has grown up and has understood that clothing’s beauty is important, not just its utility. Marilla has molded Anne into a disciplined, smart young woman, but recognizes that she will always have an imagination, ideals and a desire for beauty. Now that Marilla has allowed Anne free rein, she herself has loosened her emotions. While Anne is performing “The Maiden’s Vow” for Marilla and Matthew, the memory “brought tears to Marilla’s own eyes” and she is wishing that Anne “could have stayed a little girl, even with all your queer ways” (Montgomery 346). This is an ironic reversal from earlier: Marilla is now the one who gets distracted in her thoughts and wishes for something different. Marilla and Anne are becoming similar in their emotions.

But it is only at the very end, after Matthew’s death, that Marilla can fully open herself up to her emotions. Marilla had an “impassioned grief, breaking all the bounds of natural reserve and life-long habit in it’s stormy rush” while Anne has a “tearless agony” (Montgomery 369). So, the two of them have been reversed, and this release is good for Marilla, as she no longer must suppress her emotions. Looking at the metaphor of a storm, it is scary and gloomy, but the rain also brings life to the world. Later Marilla comes to Anne’s room to comfort her when she is crying, and she tells her she loves her “as dear as if [she] were [her] own flesh and blood” (Montgomery 371). The grief that this event caused released Marilla’s emotions fully, and now that her only flesh-and-blood relative is gone she is finally able to express her appreciation for Anne. Marilla also reveals a past event to Anne: her quarrel with John Blythe that was never resolved. She had once had a romance with John and considered him nice. Marilla had “always felt – rather sorry” and had “always kind of wished [she’d] forgiven him when [she] had the chance” (Montgomery 375). This is a big reason Marilla is so averse to showing her emotions or setting her heart too hard on anything, because she has nostalgia, a suppressed imagination, and trauma. Anne is having similar problems with Gilbert, so through telling Anne this, Marilla is making her pick up where she left off. Anne must solve a family feud, succeed where Marilla had failed and set things right, and she will. Anne will be greater than Marilla, and this is symbolized by Anne being taller than Marilla at this point. This can also be connected back to the storm, as Marilla is releasing this bad news for Anne, and through this, she will bring peace between the two families. This strengthens the idea that Anne and Marilla are like blood kin. When Anne tells Marilla she will stay at Green Gables to take care of her, Marilla listens “like a woman in a dream” and she pleads with Anne not to do so (Montgomery 379). But Anne holds to this, and Marilla “feels as if [she’d] given [her] new life” (Montgomery 381). That is what has been happening throughout this novel: Anne has been growing life in Marilla progressively as Marilla has further let go. Marilla has given Anne a home and Anne has given her life back. Anne was a second chance for Marilla to fix things, and she has succeeded in doing so. Finally, Marilla has found true happiness. As Mrs. Lynde said “Marilla Cuthbert has got mellow” (Montgomery 383).

Marilla begins the novel with her emotions buried in her cold character. Although Anne touches her emotions, she suppresses them, but three important situations end up changing this: Marilla finds her lost brooch, Matthew gifts Anne a Christmas present and then dies. The first situation teaches her to value Anne while the second and third to appreciate beauty and to release her emotions. Eventually, Marilla can find true peace through Anne. Marilla’s story does show some of the struggles of adults as well. The adult world can often be very strict and stifling with all the work that it requires, and adults can also find it hard to learn or imagine the way children can. Therefore, having some fun and taking a break occasionally stimulates the mind and body. Being too hard on oneself is also not a good idea, as you cannot be perfect and will make mistakes sometimes. Although emotional control is important, there are events where it is not wrong to cry: like when a loved one passes away. Imagination can tell you where you yourself want to be in life, an ideal to strive for. Having a child can also teach you to be emotionally flexible, as a child can inspire happy feelings and lightheartedness. So Margaret Atwood is correct when she says that it is Marilla’s struggles that adults identify with.

Works Cited

Janes, Daniela. “Anne of Green Gables.” ENG255. UTM, 11 February 2021. Lecture.

Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. Boston: L.C. Page & Co., 1908. PDF.