Anne & Esau

As children raised in Calvinist families would know, the grandchildren of Abraham, Esau and Jacob, were twins who inevitably founded two separate nations. The story goes that Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, gave birth to two sons. Firstborn was Esau, described as hairy and reddish; literally clasping onto Esau’s heels was Jacob, whose name, we find later in Genesis, means ‘he who supplants.’ Esau would grow into a hunter, and would prefer to remain in the open, with nature. Jacob, on the other hand, stayed indoors, living an easier life. Isaac loved Esau as Rebekah loved Jacob: preferentially. Because Rebekah favoured Jacob over Esau, she wished Jacob to obtain the blessing that was Esau’s right, as he, not Jacob, was firstborn. Spectacular circumstances arose when Isaac, feeling that he was soon to die, sent Esau out to the wild to gather animals for Isaac’s most-desired dinner. Rebekah seized the opportunity for her favourite son; she had Jacob kill two sheep, and after skinning them and sewing their fleece into garments for Jacob to wear, made Isaac’s beloved meal. Jacob presented Isaac, who was by this time nearly blind, with Isaac’s favourite meal. Isaac, feeling the fleece and mistaking it for hair, gave Jacob the blessing intended for a firstborn. To Esau, who returned after the fact and was furious that his birth-right had been stolen, Isaac gave a lesser blessing, proclaiming, albeit sadly, that Esau would dwell “far from the fertile earth,” and “far from the dew of the heavens above.” (Genesis 25:24-28) There would be no beautiful fields where Esau settled, nor pleasurable weather. It would be dry and hard to work, and his successive generations would suffer.

Jacob, although he stole Esau’s birth-right, is regarded by Judeo-Christian scholars as the rightful victor. Jacob, they maintain, was chosen by God to become the primogenitor of the nation that would be known as Israel. Academics put forth Jacob as he who was clever and deserving, a proper, civilised man; Esau is presented by these scholars as impulsive and wild, someone who slept outdoors rather than under a tent. He is someone who was more animal than human, someone uncivilised. Esau is not a proper grandfather for the Jewish nor Christian peoples. He is the grandfather of the infidel, and must be cast out. He is the Other. It is this last aspect of Esau that terrifies Anne of Green Gables, who was born with red hair and was impulsive and wild, whose love of nature in her youth was boundless, and who was sent from her parents’ graves, through two sets of callous guardians, and into an asylum, from which the Cuthberts, albeit unintentionally, saved her. Anne has no choice in her youth but to identify herself with Esau, one defined by his red hair and his impulsivity, one who would rather be outdoors than within, one who would not live where there was beauty and ease, but struggle.

The first thing we hear of Anne is that she prefers to be outside. The stationmaster tells Matthew that he “asked [Anne] to go into the ladies’ waiting room, but [Anne] informed [the stationmaster] gravely that she preferred to stay outside. ‘There was more scope for the imagination,’ she said.” (Montgomery 15) As Anne is brought to Green Gables, she names bodies of nature as if they were great friends; she falls in love with Avonlea not through its people, but through its scenery. At this point, Anne is but eleven years old, with “two braids of very thick, decidedly red hair” that trail down her back. (Montgomery 16) Matthew perceives Anne to be a “freckled witch,” who was “very different;” Anne is explicitly regarded as something Other (Montgomery 21) She uses big words (“if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?”) and floral, romantic language rather than speaking plainly; she speaks often, most times without even being spoken to (Montgomery 21).

But already we see evidence that Anne is not pleased with her appearance, physically and, as Montgomery conflates the two, socially. She holds her appearance in high regard, a trait that may be understood as vanity, but, knowing that Anne had a penchant for memorising stories, and had been taught “the whole catechism” whilst at the asylum, it is not impossible that Anne associated her physique with that of Esau, both being notably red, impulsive and maltreated or unwanted by mothers. (Montgomery 65) As such, Montgomery provides us with someone who is not only an orphan, someone who has no real familial background, someone who comes from nowhere and could – unless otherwise redirected – end up there as well; she gives us an orphan who is only a stone’s toss from being Other.

In Anne, we have a paradigm of someone not raised with Calvinist ideology, someone who is wild and dangerous; we have an Esau. Montgomery validates Calvinist doctrine by having the untamed and socially unacceptable Anne grow into someone who fits the Calvinist ideal young woman, someone who is clever and capable, but humble and can keep her tongue in check. Montgomery gives us Marilla as not only Anne’s personal social corrections officer, but as the compelling force that guides Anne away from her potentially heathen ways. It is partially the evidence of broken training that convinces Marilla to keep Anne; Anne can be made into someone good and noble; Anne can, and – more importantly – is quite willing to be led to the ways of Jacob, rather than of Esau.

Montgomery, in Anne of Green Gables, presents a bildungsroman that shows not only the transformation a girl experiences from youthful lass to young woman, but the concurrent and, for the members of Avonlea, necessary transformation from a vaguely religious, pray-in-the-fields Other (Esau) to a full-fledged, practising Protestant (Jacob). By conflating Anne’s physical and mental growth, and marking Anne’s growth with Anne’s understanding and encapsulation of Calvinist values, embodies in her novel the mores and ideals late nineteenth and early twentieth century Prince Edward Island wish to promote. Anne’s distaste for her red hair and “homely” presence is not merely a case of vanity. It is evidence of the internal struggle Anne faces as she matures into a young woman. She strives to earn Marilla’s love, and those of the women of Avonlea. Anne does not want to lose the beautiful life Rebekah, the encapsulation of the Mother, assures her favoured son. Anne wishes to earn from the women of Avonlea the love Rebekah shows Jacob. She wants more than anything to be a part of Avonlea society, and to remain in the good graces of her guardians, so that she may remain in Green Gables, which Anne holds to be her version of the lands promised Jacob by Isaac.

As Anne grows, we see that she carries less characteristics that could remind her of Esau. First, we see that she is capable of conceptualising herself beyond her red hair (“yes, in spite of my red hair. Just at present I have a soul above red hair.”), although we see a temporary lapse in judgement and self-worth when she attempts to dye it black. (Montgomery 185) But this scrape is vital in Anne’s growth. It galvanises her to take her Protestant lifestyle more seriously, as she learns that, although Jacob may have used a little wickedness to further himself, it was not through vanity that he did so, but through humility. Jacob tricked Esau with the guidance of his mother; Anne bought the dye against her mother’s (Marilla’s), and thus society’s guidance. Thus, the gambit cannot be fruitful.

From that predicament on, Anne presents herself in a manner that aligns with Calvinist values, and earns an appearance that matches her progress. She loses freckles and thus her reddish tint (“’I know I’m not so freckled as I used to be, so I’ve much to be thankful for, but I really hadn’t dared to hope there was any other improvement. I’m so glad you think there is, Miss Barry’” [294]); her hair turns more auburn than red (“people are nice enough to tell me my hair is auburn now” [378]). Additionally, when Anne mentions her physique, she does so not to complain, nor out of exuberant pride. She expresses humility and gratitude. Anne no longer holds the herself to be kin to Esau by the end of the novel. And whilst her fierce love of Avonlea has not changed, she finds herself to be like Jacob, having earned the love of her mother and the ability to remain in fertile, beautiful lands.