Gilbert: I can have any girl at this school that I want
Anne: *smashes a slate on his head and vows to never speak to him*
Gilbert: That one, I want that one
mollywog reblogged
ok besties have some gilbert blythe/peeta mellark parallels
- …she saw Gilbert Blythe away at the back of the room, bending forward with a smile on his face—a smile which seemed to Anne at once triumphant and taunting. In reality it was nothing of the kind. Gilbert was merely smiling with appreciation of the whole affair in general.
- I hear Peeta’s voice in my head. She has no idea. The effect she can have. Obviously meant to demean me. Right? but a tiny part of me wonders if this was a compliment. That he meant I was appealing in some way.
- But as soon as Gilbert heard … he went to them and told them that he withdrew his application, and suggested that they accept yours. He said he was going to teach at White Sands. …I think it was real kind and thoughtful in him, that’s what. Real self-sacrificing, too
- Peeta’s not hard to predict. While I was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking only of myself, he was here, thinking only of me. Shame isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel.
- “I’m sorry. Forgive me, Gilbert,” was all Anne could say. Gilbert released her hand gently. “There isn’t anything to forgive. There have been times when I thought you did care. I’ve deceived myself, that’s all. Goodbye, Anne.”
- Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peeta extend his hand. I look at him, unsure. “One more time? For the audience?” he says. His voice isn’t angry. It’s hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.
- Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather “fast” set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne’s friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it.
- “So, since we were five, you never even noticed any other girls?” I ask him. “No, I noticed just about every girl, but none of them made a lasting impression but you,” he says.
- “Precious little,” sniffed Mrs. Rachel. “However, I think Anne will. She never was flirtatious. But she doesn’t appreciate Gilbert at his full value, that’s what.
- “You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know,” Haymitch says.
- A world without any Gilbert in it! Anne repeated the words drearily. Would it not be a very lonely, forlorn place?
- And while I was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die. And it’s not about the sponsors. And it’s not about what will happen back home. And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread.
mollywog reblogged
Thinking about Gilbert Blythe and how he shaped his teen years around “what would Anne approve of?” and now I’m thinking of 5yr old Peeta Mellark and how much Katniss must have shaped him without even knowing.
Thank you thank you thank you @daydreamingandprocrastination!!!
I squealed!!!
I can not stop thinking about it!!!
So, I love this passage:
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
I’m thinking how little would need to be changed to make this about Peeta and Katniss.
I would also like to point your attention to Gilbert/Peeta parallels by @petruchio - go read it and scream with me!!
The second half of this bit makes me laugh. It also applies to Katniss: She’s so busy assessing risk and surviving, she doesn’t have time for ‘the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor’. She’s internally a little petty (which I love) but she doesn’t give any thought to being liked or popular: she just is…
Going further - it harkens back to Katniss’s ‘whole thing’:
“She has no idea. The effect she can have.”
While she’s beating herself up about her reasoning for why she saved Peeta, people everywhere where drawing the strength and courage to rebel. She’s out there, unknowingly, shaping all sorts of lives!
mollywog reblogged
“In daylight I belong to the world… in the night to sleep and eternity. But in the dusk I’m free from both and belong only to myself… and you.”
Anne Shirley, letter to Gilbert Blythe, ‘Anne of Windy Willows’
mollywog reblogged
ok besties have some gilbert blythe/peeta mellark parallels
- …she saw Gilbert Blythe away at the back of the room, bending forward with a smile on his face—a smile which seemed to Anne at once triumphant and taunting. In reality it was nothing of the kind. Gilbert was merely smiling with appreciation of the whole affair in general.
- I hear Peeta’s voice in my head. She has no idea. The effect she can have. Obviously meant to demean me. Right? but a tiny part of me wonders if this was a compliment. That he meant I was appealing in some way.
- But as soon as Gilbert heard … he went to them and told them that he withdrew his application, and suggested that they accept yours. He said he was going to teach at White Sands. …I think it was real kind and thoughtful in him, that’s what. Real self-sacrificing, too
- Peeta’s not hard to predict. While I was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking only of myself, he was here, thinking only of me. Shame isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel.
- “I’m sorry. Forgive me, Gilbert,” was all Anne could say. Gilbert released her hand gently. “There isn’t anything to forgive. There have been times when I thought you did care. I’ve deceived myself, that’s all. Goodbye, Anne.”
- Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peeta extend his hand. I look at him, unsure. “One more time? For the audience?” he says. His voice isn’t angry. It’s hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.
- Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather “fast” set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne’s friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it.
- “So, since we were five, you never even noticed any other girls?” I ask him. “No, I noticed just about every girl, but none of them made a lasting impression but you,” he says.
- “Precious little,” sniffed Mrs. Rachel. “However, I think Anne will. She never was flirtatious. But she doesn’t appreciate Gilbert at his full value, that’s what.
- “You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know,” Haymitch says.
- A world without any Gilbert in it! Anne repeated the words drearily. Would it not be a very lonely, forlorn place?
- And while I was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die. And it’s not about the sponsors. And it’s not about what will happen back home. And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread.
Thinking about Gilbert Blythe and how he shaped his teen years around “what would Anne approve of?” and now I’m thinking of 5yr old Peeta Mellark and how much Katniss must have shaped him without even knowing.
Thank you thank you thank you @daydreamingandprocrastination!!!
I squealed!!!
I can not stop thinking about it!!!
So, I love this passage:
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
I’m thinking how little would need to be changed to make this about Peeta and Katniss.
I would also like to point your attention to Gilbert/Peeta parallels by @petruchio - go read it and scream with me!!
The second half of this bit makes me laugh. It also applies to Katniss: She’s so busy assessing risk and surviving, she doesn’t have time for ‘the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor’. She’s internally a little petty (which I love) but she doesn’t give any thought to being liked or popular: she just is…
Going further - it harkens back to Katniss’s ‘whole thing’:
“She has no idea. The effect she can have.”
While she’s beating herself up about her reasoning for why she saved Peeta, people everywhere where drawing the strength and courage to rebel. She’s out there, unknowingly, shaping all sorts of lives!
"We are going to be the best of friends," said Gilbert, jubilantly. "We were born to be good friends, Anne. You've thwarted destiny enough.”
Should have led with this instead of ‘Carrots’
But seriously, after this, how did Anne not realize they were soul mates?
mollywog reblogged
ok besties have some gilbert blythe/peeta mellark parallels
- …she saw Gilbert Blythe away at the back of the room, bending forward with a smile on his face—a smile which seemed to Anne at once triumphant and taunting. In reality it was nothing of the kind. Gilbert was merely smiling with appreciation of the whole affair in general.
- I hear Peeta’s voice in my head. She has no idea. The effect she can have. Obviously meant to demean me. Right? but a tiny part of me wonders if this was a compliment. That he meant I was appealing in some way.
- But as soon as Gilbert heard … he went to them and told them that he withdrew his application, and suggested that they accept yours. He said he was going to teach at White Sands. …I think it was real kind and thoughtful in him, that’s what. Real self-sacrificing, too
- Peeta’s not hard to predict. While I was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking only of myself, he was here, thinking only of me. Shame isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel.
- “I’m sorry. Forgive me, Gilbert,” was all Anne could say. Gilbert released her hand gently. “There isn’t anything to forgive. There have been times when I thought you did care. I’ve deceived myself, that’s all. Goodbye, Anne.”
- Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peeta extend his hand. I look at him, unsure. “One more time? For the audience?” he says. His voice isn’t angry. It’s hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.
- Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather “fast” set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne’s friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it.
- “So, since we were five, you never even noticed any other girls?” I ask him. “No, I noticed just about every girl, but none of them made a lasting impression but you,” he says.
- “Precious little,” sniffed Mrs. Rachel. “However, I think Anne will. She never was flirtatious. But she doesn’t appreciate Gilbert at his full value, that’s what.
- “You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know,” Haymitch says.
- A world without any Gilbert in it! Anne repeated the words drearily. Would it not be a very lonely, forlorn place?
- And while I was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit me again and I realized how much I don’t want him to die. And it’s not about the sponsors. And it’s not about what will happen back home. And it’s not just that I don’t want to be alone. It’s him. I do not want to lose the boy with the bread.
mollywog reblogged
the first Anne of Green Gables book is all about Anne being given a home and a family, people who love her and aren’t merely using her, someplace she belongs. and Gilbert is on the outside of that for the whole story, just this funny little rivalry that Anne hangs onto, someone who wants the privilege of belonging with Anne in some way, but whom she ignores, and ignores pretty easily. but at the very end he places himself at the center of the main story, no longer avoidable, by trading schools with her, so that she can keep everything that she’s grown to love—he claims his place in her heart by giving her Green Gables again, as a gift.
mollywog reblogged
all this talk of Gilbert and Anne has me revisiting their first scene together because from the beginning Gilbert, while immature, demonstrates the sense of integrity that makes him so appealing (also included is the passage that shows how this boy is gone from start)
and then LATER in one of my FAVORITE SCENES:
with the knowledge that these two GET MARRIED, it's just too delightful.
mollywog reblogged
Gilbert Blythe
If I didn’t love him before, these musings cement it for me
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
The reverence!
What I love about this is that our boy was committed what feels like DAY ONE. Like how old is he here? in his late teens? and he's already like "time to hold myself to a standard worthy of Anne not only in terms of a romantic relationship but even just as a friend because I know what she is deserving of and also I want to marry her one day so i'm going to be careful how I act and oh I'm going to be careful what I say and oh you know WHAT i'm going to be careful what I think," this boy was gone. He's literally thinking of Anne as a goddess lmao.
This also lends to theory that if Gilbert had not met Anne, he would have turned out very differently. Here we see mentions of a rather unsavory "fast set," and what I'm saying here is I need that fanfic where Gilbert doesn't meet Anne until later in life.
And the only person that Gilbert Blythe is more devoted to than Anne Shirley? Anne Blythe. On the day of their wedding, he’s still as reverent.
‘Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, won after years of patient waiting. It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her—if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood—then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other's keeping and both were unafraid.’ — Anne’s House of Dreams, by LM Montgomery.
This man is pure angel cake. There’s a lot of wonderful romances in the literature world, but when you look at Anne and Gilbert, you know they’re ‘made and meant’ for each other in the truest and sincerest ways. That those two will find each other in every lifetime, and want for no one else, despite having plenty of options. One of my all time favorite Ingleside chapters is the one where it’s alleged that some lady calls Doctor Blythe to her house for the sole reason of feigning illness and showing off her ‘very attractive’ new nightgown. SENDS ME every time. Evidently he never leaves off being “popular” wherever he goes, indeed. (Far from the last time we hear of community crushes on both Doctor and Anne Blythe, throughout the series.)
"My, but you're cosy here, Anne dearie. It's a real keen night and starting to snow. Is the doctor out?"
"Yes. I hated to see him go...but they telephoned from the Harbour Head that Mrs. Brooker Shaw insisted on seeing him," said Anne, while Susan swiftly and stealthily removed from the hearth-rug a huge fishbone the Shrimp had brought in, praying that Miss Cornelia had not noticed it.
"She's no more sick than I am," said Susan bitterly. "But I hear she has got a new lace nightgown and no doubt she wants her doctor to see her in it. Lace nightgowns!"
(...)
As Gilbert came in, a little flurry of snow blew in with him. He threw off his coat and sat gladly down to his own fireside.
"I'm later than I expected to be..."
"No doubt the new lace nightgown was very attractive," said Anne, with an impish grin at Miss Cornelia.
"What are you talking about? Some feminine joke beyond my coarse masculine perception, I suppose. I went on to the Upper Glen to see Walter Cooper." — Anne of Ingleside, LM Montgomery.
@mollywog FOUND IT.
Susan stealthily stealing the fishbone made me crack up
My OG ship. Every ship after is compared to this one.
I think I learned heartbreak from the description of the look on his face when he proposes the first time and she refuses him. And Katniss reminds me so much of Anne and her inability to recognize her feelings.
"Never mind Phil and the violets just now, Anne," said Gilbert quietly, taking her hand in a clasp from which she could not free it. "There is something I want to say to you."
"Oh, don't say it," cried Anne, pleadingly. "Don't -- PLEASE, Gilbert."
"I must. Things can't go on like this any longer. Anne, I love you. You know I do. I -- I can't tell you how much. Will you promise me that some day you'll be my wife?"
"I -- I can't," said Anne miserably. "Oh, Gilbert -- you -- you've spoiled everything."
"Don't you care for me at all?" Gilbert asked after a very dreadful pause, during which Anne had not dared to look up.
"Not -- not in that way. I do care a great deal for you as a friend. But I don't love you, Gilbert."
"But can't you give me some hope that you will -- yet?"
"No, I can't," exclaimed Anne desperately. "I never, never can love you -- in that way -- Gilbert. You must never speak of this to me again."
There was another pause -- so long and so dreadful that Anne was driven at last to look up. Gilbert's face was white to the lips. And his eyes -- but Anne shuddered and looked away. There was nothing romantic about this. Must proposals be either grotesque or -- horrible? Could she ever forget Gilbert's face?
"Is there anybody else?" he asked at last in a low voice.
"No -- no," said Anne eagerly. "I don't care for any one like THAT -- and I LIKE you better than anybody else in the world, Gilbert. And we must -- we must go on being friends, Gilbert."
Gilbert gave a bitter little laugh.
"Friends! Your friendship can't satisfy me, Anne. I want your love -- and you tell me I can never have that."
"I'm sorry. Forgive me, Gilbert," was all Anne could say. Where, oh, where were all the gracious and graceful speeches wherewith, in imagination, she had been wont to dismiss rejected suitors?
Gilbert released her hand gently.
"There isn't anything to forgive. There have been times when I thought you did care. I've deceived myself, that's all. Goodbye, Anne."
Anne got herself to her room, sat down on her window seat behind the pines, and cried bitterly. She felt as if something incalculably precious had gone out of her life. It was Gilbert's friendship, of course. Oh, why must she lose it after this fashion?
"What is the matter, honey?" asked Phil, coming in through the moonlit gloom.
Anne did not answer. At that moment she wished Phil were a thousand miles away.
"I suppose you've gone and refused Gilbert Blythe. You are an idiot, Anne Shirley!"
"Do you call it idiotic to refuse to marry a man I don't love?" said Anne coldly, goaded to reply.
"You don't know love when you see it. You've tricked something out with your imagination that you think love, and you expect the real thing to look like that. There, that's the first sensible thing I've ever said in my life. I wonder how I managed it?"
"Phil," pleaded Anne, "please go away and leave me alone for a little while. My world has tumbled into pieces. I want to reconstruct it."
I can’t believe you made me relive that agony @wistfulweaverwoman !
Thank God Phil is there to make the general consensus known:
"I suppose you've gone and refused Gilbert Blythe. You are an idiot, Anne Shirley!"
@mollywog well really this bit might be more heartbreaking:
"I've growed a whole inch since you left," said Davy proudly. "I'm as tall as Milty Boulter now. Ain't I glad. He'll have to stop crowing about being bigger. Say, Anne, did you know that Gilbert Blythe is dying?" Anne stood quite silent and motionless, looking at Davy. Her face had gone so white that Marilla thought she was going to faint.
"Davy, hold your tongue," said Mrs. Rachel angrily. "Anne, don't look like that -- DON'T LOOK LIKE THAT! We didn't mean to tell you so suddenly."
"Is -- it -- true?" asked Anne in a voice that was not hers.
"Gilbert is very ill," said Mrs. Lynde gravely. "He took down with typhoid fever just after you left for Echo Lodge. Did you never hear of it?"
"No," said that unknown voice.
"It was a very bad case from the start. The doctor said he'd been terribly run down. They've a trained nurse and everything's been done. DON'T look like that, Anne. While there's life there's hope."
"Mr. Harrison was here this evening and he said they had no hope of him," reiterated Davy.
Marilla, looking old and worn and tired, got up and marched Davy grimly out of the kitchen.
"Oh, DON'T look so, dear," said Mrs. Rachel, putting her kind old arms about the pallid girl. "I haven't given up hope, indeed I haven't. He's got the Blythe constitution in his favor, that's what."
Anne gently put Mrs. Lynde's arms away from her, walked blindly across the kitchen, through the hall, up the stairs to her old room. At its window she knelt down, staring out unseeingly. It was very dark. The rain was beating down over the shivering fields. The Haunted Woods was full of the groans of mighty trees wrung in the tempest, and the air throbbed with the thunderous crash of billows on the distant shore. And Gilbert was dying!
There is a book of Revelation in every one's life, as there is in the Bible. Anne read hers that bitter night, as she kept her agonized vigil through the hours of storm and darkness. She loved Gilbert -- had always loved him! She knew that now. She knew that she could no more cast him out of her life without agony than she could have cut off her right hand and cast it from her. And the knowledge had come too late -- too late even for the bitter solace of being with him at the last. If she had not been so blind -- so foolish -- she would have had the right to go to him now. But he would never know that she loved him -- he would go away from this life thinking that she did not care. Oh, the black years of emptiness stretching before her! She could not live through them -- she could not! She cowered down by her window and wished, for the first time in her gay young life, that she could die, too. If Gilbert went away from her, without one word or sign or message, she could not live. Nothing was of any value without him. She belonged to him and he to her. In her hour of supreme agony she had no doubt of that. He did not love Christine Stuart -- never had loved Christine Stuart. Oh, what a fool she had been not to realize what the bond was that had held her to Gilbert -- to think that the flattered fancy she had felt for Roy Gardner had been love. And now she must pay for her folly as for a crime.
I read all the Anne books at 12, and I can’t decide who’s proposal I prefer, Gilbert’s to Anne or Kennith Ford’s to Rilla.
@wistfulweaverwoman gah! I should probably reread, I’ve forgotten so much
Ugh I can just picture it based on all the ‘Don’t look like that!’s alone
mollywog reblogged
Gilbert Blythe
If I didn’t love him before, these musings cement it for me
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
The reverence!
What I love about this is that our boy was committed what feels like DAY ONE. Like how old is he here? in his late teens? and he's already like "time to hold myself to a standard worthy of Anne not only in terms of a romantic relationship but even just as a friend because I know what she is deserving of and also I want to marry her one day so i'm going to be careful how I act and oh I'm going to be careful what I say and oh you know WHAT i'm going to be careful what I think," this boy was gone. He's literally thinking of Anne as a goddess lmao.
This also lends to theory that if Gilbert had not met Anne, he would have turned out very differently. Here we see mentions of a rather unsavory "fast set," and what I'm saying here is I need that fanfic where Gilbert doesn't meet Anne until later in life.
And the only person that Gilbert Blythe is more devoted to than Anne Shirley? Anne Blythe. On the day of their wedding, he’s still as reverent.
‘Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, won after years of patient waiting. It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her—if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood—then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other's keeping and both were unafraid.’ — Anne’s House of Dreams, by LM Montgomery.
This man is pure angel cake. There’s a lot of wonderful romances in the literature world, but when you look at Anne and Gilbert, you know they’re ‘made and meant’ for each other in the truest and sincerest ways. That those two will find each other in every lifetime, and want for no one else, despite having plenty of options. One of my all time favorite Ingleside chapters is the one where it’s alleged that some lady calls Doctor Blythe to her house for the sole reason of feigning illness and showing off her ‘very attractive’ new nightgown. SENDS ME every time. Evidently he never leaves off being “popular” wherever he goes, indeed. (Far from the last time we hear of community crushes on both Doctor and Anne Blythe, throughout the series.)
"My, but you're cosy here, Anne dearie. It's a real keen night and starting to snow. Is the doctor out?"
"Yes. I hated to see him go...but they telephoned from the Harbour Head that Mrs. Brooker Shaw insisted on seeing him," said Anne, while Susan swiftly and stealthily removed from the hearth-rug a huge fishbone the Shrimp had brought in, praying that Miss Cornelia had not noticed it.
"She's no more sick than I am," said Susan bitterly. "But I hear she has got a new lace nightgown and no doubt she wants her doctor to see her in it. Lace nightgowns!"
(...)
As Gilbert came in, a little flurry of snow blew in with him. He threw off his coat and sat gladly down to his own fireside.
"I'm later than I expected to be..."
"No doubt the new lace nightgown was very attractive," said Anne, with an impish grin at Miss Cornelia.
"What are you talking about? Some feminine joke beyond my coarse masculine perception, I suppose. I went on to the Upper Glen to see Walter Cooper." — Anne of Ingleside, LM Montgomery.
@mollywog FOUND IT.
Susan stealthily stealing the fishbone made me crack up
mollywog reblogged
Gilbert Blythe
If I didn’t love him before, these musings cement it for me
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
The reverence!
What I love about this is that our boy was committed what feels like DAY ONE. Like how old is he here? in his late teens? and he's already like "time to hold myself to a standard worthy of Anne not only in terms of a romantic relationship but even just as a friend because I know what she is deserving of and also I want to marry her one day so i'm going to be careful how I act and oh I'm going to be careful what I say and oh you know WHAT i'm going to be careful what I think," this boy was gone. He's literally thinking of Anne as a goddess lmao.
This also lends to theory that if Gilbert had not met Anne, he would have turned out very differently. Here we see mentions of a rather unsavory "fast set," and what I'm saying here is I need that fanfic where Gilbert doesn't meet Anne until later in life.
And the only person that Gilbert Blythe is more devoted to than Anne Shirley? Anne Blythe. On the day of their wedding, he’s still as reverent.
‘Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, won after years of patient waiting. It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her—if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood—then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other's keeping and both were unafraid.’ — Anne’s House of Dreams, by LM Montgomery.
This man is pure angel cake. There’s a lot of wonderful romances in the literature world, but when you look at Anne and Gilbert, you know they’re ‘made and meant’ for each other in the truest and sincerest ways. That those two will find each other in every lifetime, and want for no one else, despite having plenty of options. One of my all time favorite Ingleside chapters is the one where it’s alleged that some lady calls Doctor Blythe to her house for the sole reason of feigning illness and showing off her ‘very attractive’ new nightgown. SENDS ME every time. Evidently he never leaves off being “popular” wherever he goes, indeed. (Far from the last time we hear of community crushes on both Doctor and Anne Blythe, throughout the series.)
mollywog reblogged
Gilbert Blythe
If I didn’t love him before, these musings cement it for me
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
The reverence!
What I love about this is that our boy was committed what feels like DAY ONE. Like how old is he here? in his late teens? and he's already like "time to hold myself to a standard worthy of Anne not only in terms of a romantic relationship but even just as a friend because I know what she is deserving of and also I want to marry her one day so i'm going to be careful how I act and oh I'm going to be careful what I say and oh you know WHAT i'm going to be careful what I think," this boy was gone. He's literally thinking of Anne as a goddess lmao.
This also lends to theory that if Gilbert had not met Anne, he would have turned out very differently. Here we see mentions of a rather unsavory "fast set," and what I'm saying here is I need that fanfic where Gilbert doesn't meet Anne until later in life.
Gilbert Blythe
If I didn’t love him before, these musings cement it for me
If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.
The reverence!
mollywog reblogged
Why We Loved Gilbert Blythe
(Title and quotes taken from this article)
Discussing my love for Gilbert Blythe has brought to mind the tragedy of the actor's death a few years ago. I remember it because after it happened, many women I know and other women online came forward to talk about why they loved Jonathan Crombie, and particularly, why they loved his Gilbert Blythe. As the article states, Gilbert Blythe was many girls' first love.
As a 7th grade girl, I loved Gilbert not only because he was charming, but also because he was safe. Speaking very broadly, I think a lot of women, as they grow from middle school to teen to an adult, experience the need--or the pressure--to make themselves smaller. Essentially, we grow to learn how to become unthreatening to men and their ego. Parks and Rec has a funny ironic quote that kind of gets at what I'm saying here: "Guys love it when you can show them you're better than they are at something they love." When you're a teenage girl trying to impress a boy, a lot of the time (although not always!) it involves showing them that they impress you. You laugh at their jokes; you make them feel good about themselves. Although this can be harmless and people just peopling, it can also become a harmful relationship dynamic. There is a variety of complex reasons for this tendency to soothe over men, from actual safety to peacekeeping to sheer habit, but it begins around the age that a lot of people find Anne.
What I'm trying to say here is that a lot of the experience as a teen girl (and as a woman) is the pressure, whether societal or self imposed, to change who you are so that you can become lovable on society's terms. Sometimes, this means downplaying your abilities so that men aren't offput or irritated when, as parks and rec states, you're better at them at something they love.
Gilbert Blythe defies this. As the article states, Gilbert likes Anne for who she is.
Being a 7th grader and coming across AoGG is finding a world that suggests perhaps, the right man will like you for who you are. He'll like if you do things well or even better than him. He'll respect you.
I think that that really sums it up in the end: Gilbert respects Anne. Not just in the sense of the very low bar of not bullying her or treating her rudely, not just in the sense of following the rules of etiquette that any human being should, but he respects Anne's specific qualities and dreams. He treats Anne as an equal in a believable yet romantic way. He's specifically connotated as not being the dashing knight of Anne's dreams that's more fantasy than real (that maybe, just maybe, a lot of 7th grade girls might also dream of), but instead a real, flawed person who is charming but who makes mistakes--but who also tries to be better. In doing so, he becomes a romantic ideal; or, as said earlier: Gilbert Blythe becomes our first love.