Yipee~ Gilbert is finally here! He’s one of my favourite characters of this series, and I have so many things to say about him but alas it’s too soon for most of it hahaha!
Gilbert Blythe is fourteen, making him the eldest student at the school (so about two years older than Anne and Diana). He had been away from Avonlea for a few years because his father was sick, so that’s why he hadn’t been around for a while. Before Anne had arrived, he was the head of the class, which is why Anne considers him her rival.
Gilbert is one to tease the girls a lot, something Anne picked-up quickly and was not impressed with, where-as Diana (who has a bit of a crush on him because he’s handsome) gushes over being called “Crow” because of her black hair (Anne was like: What…?) , and Ruby (another friend Anne had made today) basically laughs it off when he tugged her hair when she had to stand up. So when he finally takes notice of Anne as the new-girl, he tried to get her attention, but quickly grew frustrated when she didn’t acknowledge him at all. Like, Anne was so enamoured with the beautiful and sparkling lake by the school, that she was blissfully soaking herself in the world of imagination.
And while doing so, she was completely tuning Gilbert out. He could not withstand the embarrassment of being ignored, especially since the boys were calling him out for getting ignored by a girl for the first time. So he resorted to saying what we’ll call it as ‘Anne’s trigger’: Carrots like hair- and of course that’s what snapped her out of it. And as we all know by now, Anne doesn’t put up with people saying and doing mean things, especially towards her. So this was one hell of a wake-up call for Gilbert. I like to describe this whole situation of having poked a a slumbering bear from its blissful dreams, and faced the consequences for rudely awakening it. In this case: Getting smacked on the head with the slate.
But perhaps the most hilarious thing about this incident, was the way Anne had retaliated against him actually impressed him. It was a ‘holy smokes, this girl is not like the rest’ moment, ahahahaha.
And credit where it is due: Gilbert did immediately acknowledged his wrongdoings, and confessed to the teacher (Mr. Phillips) that he was the one to blame for making Anne mad, and later tried apologizing her further during break. But unfortunately for him, Anne is not one to quickly forgive people who get on her bad side. And worse off, this was a first instance of the teacher showing bias favouritism towards the boys VS the girls. Anne was the only one who was punished by standing at the board, regardless of the fact Gilbert had admitted his wrongdoing.
Which leads me to the second instance when Mr. Phillips chose to solely blame Anne instead of the boys in a slight mishap. She was punished for running into the teacher after she had barely stopped herself, only to get accidentally plowed by the boys behind her (so it was really their fault) because they couldn’t stop running fast enough to meet the bell. And on top of that, rather than the boys getting in trouble for that instance, it was her. She was punished by being put into the “boys seat”, which she considered extremely insulting.
I think it’s fair to say Anne is very much a character who is ahead of the times (as this story was written and set in the 1900s). She’s stands resolute when it comes to wrongdoings against her, she won’t tolerate injustice. She in a sense gave the day three strikes. The first was retaliation against Gilbert teasing her to get her attention, the second was her teacher’s failure to put an “e” next to her name (which I know may seem really trivial, but anyone who has had their name constantly spelt wrong would understand the frustration). And then the third was the most unjustified punishment, being the sole blame for accidentally knocking the teacher over. After that she was done with the bullshit, and decided to leave class early, vowing to never return.
And it’s a pity, considering how good of a student Anne actually is. We saw her being able to problem solve how to identify where Avonlea was, when she had never seen a map in her life before. She was able to identify the names on the map from where she started her journey in Nova Scotia, all the way to where she is now on Prince Edward Island. We also saw how her classmates are very impressed and smitten by her dictation skills. It’s most definitely thanks to the fact she talks a lot, and very eloquently. She’s very good at making it interesting for those who listen. As Ruby noted, she was able to envision the things Anne was reading off of more clearly than she could reading it herself.
That wasn’t the only incident of the episode though. There was actually a spat between Marilla and Anne in the first half, where Marilla was accusing Anne for taking and losing her amethyst brooch. It was a gift from her mother, so it’s understandable how priceless it is to her, but her mistake was lashing out at Anne when she had committed no crime. And Anne who was being unjustifiably punished had plans of going to the Sunday School’s picnic that she was really looking forward to, so she thought the best way to resolve this faster was to weave up a story for a confession of her non-existent crime. But by doing so, she made two mistakes. One, since she’s not to blame, she shouldn’t have done that in the first place. She mistakenly thought she could smooth things over with this just as she had done with carrying out Rachel’s apology. The second is a follow up to her first mistake: She didn’t consider just how precious the brooch was to Marilla. So regardless of the fact she didn’t do it, she was overlooking why Marilla was so distraught about it in the first place, which is why her dramatic tale she put together for her ‘confession’ ended up blowing up in her face.
Fortunately Marilla was able to find her brooch, which had gotten caught on her shawl she had previously worn out. She felt terrible for having lashed out at Anne, and not only apologized for it, but made a point to Anne not to claim responsibility for something she didn’t do again. Luckily Anne was still able to make it to the picnic, and Marilla was going to make sure that she made it on time.
That said, it was very wise of Marilla not to seek advice from Rachel. Holding back and dealing with it on her own was the right call. Rachel would’ve undoubtedly would’ve only escalated the situation further, and could’ve resulted creating a deep rift between Marilla and Anne. It’s a good thing that the two were able to make up with each other on their own. And better yet, it’s great to see that Marilla truly appreciate how much Anne has livened up and their home.
Now before I wrap up, I do have one thing to get one thing out of the way: I got to nitpick about Gilbert’s character design… and that’s his hair colour.
Sure, while it’s not the end of the world, the reason why I have a little problem with this is because they made his hair pinkish/coral instead of brown. I know it’s supposed to help make him stand out from the rest of the background characters, but I feel like it sort of… what’s the word of it… spoils the consistency with the whole teasing he does about Anne’s hair being the colour of “carrots” if you get what I mean. So it’s a shame really.
While the series has been progressing quite quickly, I didn’t get the sense the pace was moving as fast as it did today. This week’s episode definitely came off as feeling more hasty. Now it wasn’t too bad, but it’s a bit of a shame. It’s been a long time since I’ve last read the books, so my memory is quite hazy about some of the details, which is why I probably won’t be making too making critiques. But iconic moments like Anne smacking Gilbert’s head with her slate is one of those many moments in the series that has been living rent free in my head forever. And truth to be told, as a child I had taken some liberty of inspiration from her character. Of course not the part of smacking people in the head with a slate (that could give someone a concussion!!!!), but in general of standing up for myself against both kids and adults (ironically, teachers like in this episode) that would pick on me when I was younger. You could say that’s it’s a little something from the series that I’ve subconsciously carried with me my entire life, and it’s paid off! So it’s really no exaggeration when I say how dear Anne of Green Gables is to my heart!
Next week…. ooh another fall out. It’s been hinted at last week, and you can probably connect the dots what’s happening in the preview of the kind of trouble Anne will find herself dealing with this time! Looking forward to it, until next time!
Extra Note: We finally got to see the Opening this week! Ahhhh I love it so much~ It’s wonderful!
