Anne Shirley

For the American movie actress (1918-1993) who portrayed Anne Shirley and adopted the name, see Anne Shirley (actress).

An actress as Anne Shirley, at Green Gables Heritage Centre, within Prince Edward Island National Park.

Anne Shirley is a fictional character introduced in the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Montgomery wrote in her journal that the idea for Anne's story came from relatives who, planning to adopt an orphaned boy, received a girl instead. Anne Shirley's appearance was inspired by a photograph which Montgomery clipped from the Metropolitan Magazine and kept, unaware of the model's identity as the notorious 1900s Gibson Girl Evelyn Nesbit.

Series overview

Anne was born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia and spent the earliest years of her childhood there. She was orphaned as an infant of three months, when her parents, schoolteachers Walter and Bertha Shirley (née Willis), died of typhoid fever. Without any other relations, Anne was taken in by Mrs. Thomas, who had done housework for the Shirleys. After Mr. Thomas died, Anne went to live with the Hammond family for some years and was treated as little more than a servant until Mr. Hammond died, whereupon Mrs. Hammond divided her children amongst relatives and Anne was sent to the orphanage at Hopetown. She considered herself as "cursed" by twins — Mrs. Hammond had three sets of twins whom Anne helped raise.

She is sent from the orphanage to the neighboring province of Prince Edward Island, which she regards as her true home ever after. Unfortunately, she was sent there by mistake — her sponsors, the siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, wanted to adopt a boy to help them on their farm, but the neighbor with whom they had sent the message was certain they had requested a girl instead. Matthew quickly becomes charmed by the girl's good-hearted spirit, charming enthusiasm and lively imagination, and wants her to stay at Green Gables from the very first. Marilla's instinct is to send her back to the orphanage, but she is eventually won over by Anne's quirky joy in life — and by the fact that another woman, much harder than herself, was set to take Anne should Marilla decline to keep her.

Anne initially makes a poor impression on the townsfolk of Avonlea with an outburst at the Cuthberts' neighbor, the outspoken gossip Mrs. Rachel Lynde, but this is amended by an equally impassioned apology. Anne soon becomes 'bosom friends' with a girl from a neighboring farm, Diana Barry. The friendship is disrupted by the temporary enmity of Diana's mother after Anne mistakenly sets Diana drunk on Marilla's homemade currant wine, which Anne had mistaken for raspberry cordial, but Anne is restored to the family's good graces by saving the life of Diana's little sister Minnie May. Minnie May had an attack of the croup, which Anne was able to cure with a bottle of ipecac and knowledge acquired while caring for numerous Hammond twins.

Anne also forms a complex relationship with Gilbert Blythe, who is three years older than Anne but is studying at her level, having interrupted his schooling when his father became ill. On their first meeting as schoolmates, he teases Anne with the nickname "Carrots". Anne, perceiving it as a personal insult, becomes so angry that she breaks her slate over his head. When her teacher punishes her by making her stand in front of the class, a long-lasting hatred is established. Throughout Anne of Green Gables, Gilbert repeatedly displays admiration for Anne, but she coldly rebuffs him. Her grudge persists even after he saves her from a near-disastrous reenactment of Tennyson's "Lancelot and Elaine" when her leaky boat sank into the pond. For the rest of their school years in Avonlea, they compete as intellectual rivals for the top of the class (though the competition is entirely good-natured on Gilbert's side); immediately afterward, they also go to Queen's College together and split the most prestigious prizes between them.

After Matthew's death near the end of Anne of Green Gables, Marilla's failing eyesight leads Anne to defer her enrollment at Redmond College to stay at Green Gables to help her, despite the scholarship she had won. Gilbert had already been appointed as the Avonlea schoolteacher for the following term, but as an act of kindness, he moves to White Sands School and gives the Avonlea position to Anne instead. She finally overcomes her old resentment and accepts him as a friend, though she is still uncomfortable at his occasional hints of deeper feeling.

Marilla decides to take in her cousin's twin children, Davy and Dora (continuing Anne's "curse of twins"). However, Anne takes to Davy and Dora immediately, in particular Davy, who is constantly getting into trouble. The following year, Rachel Lynde's husband Thomas dies and Rachel moves in with Marilla at Green Gables, leaving Anne free to continue her education at Redmond College.

Anne's academic and social life blossom at Redmond. Gilbert, who has always loved Anne, proposes to her, but she rejects him ultimately because Anne's vision of love is rooted deeply in sentimental fantasies and she does not recognize her closeness to Gilbert as love. Feeling deeply disappointed, Gilbert distances himself from Anne. Anne later welcomes the courtship of the darkly handsome Roy Gardner, but she realizes that he does not truly belong in her life and rejects his proposal after two years of courtship.

Upon her return to Avonlea, Anne learns that Gilbert is deathly ill with typhoid fever. Anne is deeply shaken by the prospect of losing him and realizes that she loved Gilbert all along. Once Gilbert recovers from his illness, he offers a second proposal to Anne, and she accepts.

Their engagement lasts for three years. Her engagement ring is noted to be a circlet of pearls rather than a diamond, a stone which Anne said always disappointed her because they weren't the lovely purple she had dreamed. After graduating from Redmond College with a B.A., Anne resumes her teaching career in the island's second-largest town, Summerside, while Gilbert completes his three-year medical school course.

Anne and Gilbert's married life largely takes place in the town of Glen St. Mary, also on Prince Edward Island. Anne and Gilbert have seven children: Joyce (or "Joy") (who dies very soon after her birth), James Matthew ("Jem"), Walter Cuthbert, Diana ("Di"), Diana's twin Anne ("Nan"), Shirley (the youngest son), and Bertha Marilla ("Rilla").

Books

In addition to Anne of Green Gables (1908), Anne is the central character of subsequent novels written by Montgomery: Anne of Avonlea (1909), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne's House of Dreams (1917), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936; UK title Anne of Windy Willows), and Anne of Ingleside (1939). Other books in the Anne series include Rainbow Valley (1919), which focuses on Anne's children during their childhood, and Rilla of Ingleside (1921), which focuses on Anne's youngest daughter during World War I.

Anne also appears and is mentioned in Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea, as well as several other short stories by Montgomery. In The Blythes Are Quoted (published in an abridged format as The Road to Yesterday and in a restored, unabridged edition in 2009), Anne is a peripheral character as a grandmother with several grandchildren, at least two of whom are preparing to enlist in the Canadian army during the opening days of World War II. These were among the last stories Montgomery wrote before her death in 1942.

Anne Shirley also appears in Budge Wilson's Before Green Gables, an authorized prequel to Anne of Green Gables supported by the heirs of L.M. Montgomery. Based on background information from the original series, the book tells of the first 11 years of Anne Shirley's childhood, beginning with the brief happiness of Bertha and Walter Shirley's marriage before their early deaths.

Film and television

The first filmed appearance of Anne Shirley was in the 1919 silent film, Anne of Green Gables, in which the role was played by Mary Miles Minter. The film was directed by William Desmond Taylor, whose later, unsolved, murder became one of Hollywood's biggest scandals. As of 2011, no prints of this silent film adaptation are known to survive.

In the 1934 adaption of Anne of Green Gables, Anne Shirley was portrayed by Dawn O'Day, who later adopted the character's name as her own stage name. She reprised the role in Anne of Windy Poplars, a 1940 film adaption.

Anne was protrayed by Kim Braden in two BBC mini-series in the early 1970s, based upon the books Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea

Anne was portrayed by Megan Follows in three of the four CBC Television film adaptions by Kevin Sullivan: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, and Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story; the third film is an original story not based on any of Montgomery's work (and, indeed, it contradicts the chronology of the novels by featuring a 20-something Anne during World War I). Sullivan's fourth film, Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, features Barbara Hershey as a middle-aged Anne looking back on her early years and Hannah Endicott-Douglas as a young Anne before arriving at Green Gables.

In 1979, Japan's World Masterpiece Theater produced Akage no Anne. Later, in 2009, the prequel novel Before Green Gables was adapted into an anime, Kon'nichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables, in which Anne also appears as the central character.

In 2005, Sullivan produced an animated reimagining of the story, Anne: Journey to Green Gables, with McKenzie Sullivan providing the voice of Anne.

Reception and legacy

Lennie Goodings, a publisher for Virago Press, chose Anne as her favorite fictional characters, stating, "The feisty, funny and above all unabashedly passionate Anne of Green Gables...[she] faces the world with absolutely nothing but the sheer force of her personality. I love her."

References

• Busby, Brian (2003). Character Parts: Who's Really Who in CanLit, pages 235-237. Knopf.

External links

• Lucy Maud Montgomery Resource Page
• The Anne Shirley Homepage - A great resource for all Anne fans with galleries, fan art, time lines, recipes and calendars.
• Anne of Green Gables Electronic Text
• The L.M. Montgomery Research Group This scholarly site includes a blog, an extensive bibliography of reference materials, and a complete filmography of all adaptations of Montgomery texts.
• Anne of Green Gables Centenary - This site includes information about the centenary anniversary of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables.
• Looking for Anne Trailer