1. Anne of Green Gables
Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery

2. Basic Plot
 A brother and sister (Matthew and Marilla) seek
to adopt a boy but get a girl instead
 Decide to keep her
 Anne gets into trouble often but the situations
are resolved
 Marilla, Matthew and Anne enrich each other’s
lives

3. Not a Unique Plot
Short stories about orphans very common
in magazines before Anne was published
 “Charity Ann” – plain orphan girl experiences
hardship, is adopted by family, finds love
there
 “Lucy Ann”
 woman is resistant to taking in a little orphan girl
 Lucy Ann saves woman’s life
 woman’s heart warms toward girl and she adopts
her

4. Anne Rises above the rest
 Anne of Green Gables is much more popular
than the other stories
 Went through seven printings within first six months of
its publication
 Today has sold over fifty million copies
 Musicals, movies, cartoons, dolls, figurines
 Why is Anne of Green Gables remembered and
the others forgotten? Why is Anne of Green
Gables a classic?

5. Background to its creation
 Written by Lucy Maud Montgomery
 Born November 30, 1874
 Mother died when she was young, father travelled
 Raised primarily by grandparents in Cavendish, P.E.I.
 Got teaching license and taught, also wrote short stories
for magazines
 At time she wrote Anne (1905), she was back living with
grandmother helping her manage her household

6. Montgomery’s writing career
 Approached writing as a businesswoman
 Short stories in magazines were formulaic
 Stories often had moral messages
 Learned how to write according to formulas
 Wrote first novel, A Golden Carol
 Preachy, predictable
 Too saccharine for even Sunday school publishers
 “It was the re-action that drove me to ‘Anne’ and
probably kept me from making a dummy of her.”

7. Montgomery’s writing breakthrough
 Montgomery said she was looking to for a
subject for a formula story
 Found note in journal about couple mistakenly
sent a girl
 Experienced creative inspiration
 “Nothing I have ever written gave me so much pleasure
to write. I cast “moral” and “Sunday School” ideals to the
winds and made my ‘Anne’ a real girl.” – L.M.
Montgomery

8. Walkthrough of incident
 We’ll go through incident of Anne yelling at Mrs.
Lynde and its resolution
 Incident shows the features that make the novel
go beyong formula fiction
 The character of Anne
 The humour
 The relationship of Anne to her caregivers

9. The Character of Anne
 Conflict in narrative reveals character
 She’s not perfect, capable of anger
 “Come here, child, and let me have a look at you. Lawful heart,
did any one ever see such freckles? And hair as red as carrots!
Come here, child, I say."
 Anne "came there," but not exactly as Mrs. Rachel expected.
With one bound she crossed the kitchen floor and stood before
Mrs. Rachel, her face scarlet with anger, her lips quivering, and
her whole slender form trembling from head to foot.
 "I hate you," she cried in a choked voice, stamping her foot on
the floor. "I hate you--I hate you--I hate you--" a louder stamp
with each assertion of hatred. "How dare you call me skinny and
ugly? How dare you say I'm freckled and redheaded? You are a
rude, impolite, unfeeling woman!"

10. Humour in the narrative
 Contrast between Anne’s dramatic personality and
Marilla’s matter-of-factness
 “…You were rude and saucy and"--Marilla had a saving
inspiration of punishment--"you must go to her and tell her you
are very sorry for your bad temper and ask her to forgive you."
 "I can never do that," said Anne determinedly and darkly. "You
can punish me in any way you like, Marilla. You can shut me up
in a dark, damp dungeon inhabited by snakes and toads and
feed me only on bread and water and I shall not complain. But I
cannot ask Mrs. Lynde to forgive me."
 "We're not in the habit of shutting people up in dark damp
dungeons," said Marilla drily, "especially as they're rather scarce
in Avonlea.”

11. Continued character revelation
 Matthew anxious for situation to be resolved
 Anne continues to show she’s not perfect
 She’s reluctant to apologize
 “I wasn't in a temper anymore--and it left a dreadful sort of goneness,
too. I felt so ashamed of myself. But I just couldn't think of going and
telling Mrs. Lynde so. It would be so humili- ating. I made up my mind I'd
stay shut up here forever rather than do that.”
 Will apologize to please Matthew
 Cares about him
 Not bratty

12. Resolution of Incident
 Resolution shows how dramatic and imaginative
she is
 "I'm a dreadfully wicked and ungrateful girl, and I deserve to be
punished and cast out by respectable people forever. It was very wicked
of me to fly into a temper because you told me the truth. It WAS the
truth; every word you said was true. My hair is red and I'm freckled and
skinny and ugly. What I said to you was true, too, but I shouldn't have
said it.”
 Not tidy, preachy lesson
 Contrast between mundane events and Anne’s
perspective continues to provide humour

13. In Summary
 What makes it classic
 Anne’s personality is charming
 Warm humour
 contrast between Anne’s dramatic perspective and reality
 Sweet, but not too sweet relationship between Anne,
Matthew, and Marilla
 Thank you for listening!