Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Chapter 17: Life goes on

Okay, I jumped the gun a bit in Chapter 16. This is where Anne and Diana make their meldramatic farewells.
"Ten minutes isn't very long to say an eternal farewell in"
Anne is devastated, though Marilla reminds her she's still got her wits:
"'I don't think there is much fear of your dying of grief as long as you can talk, Anne,' said Marilla unsympathetically."
Now that she's forcibly lost her best friend, Anne decides she might as well go back to school, where she can at least see Diana, even if they're not allowed to speak. And she's determined to be at the top of her class -- especially since that means she'll get to beat Gilbert Blythe.
"it was entirely good natured on Gilbert's side; but it is much to be feared that the same thing cannot be said of Anne, who had certainly an unpraiseworthy tenacity for holding grudges"
Also, one noteworthy allusion in this chapter:
"The Caesar's pageant shorn of Brutus' bust
Did but of Rome's best son remind her more."
That would be Anne (or at least the narrator) quoting from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" to describe her post-Diana emotions. Thematically appropriate, if perhaps a little implausible for an 11-year-old girl.

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