Beware of Italics

Tips "tucked" into a mini wheats box I was using for a stencil, and Tips tucked into the cat tower! With his little tippy toes sticking out

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These are toeing the line of what counts as a tuck-in, but I love Tips too much to say no to him

And here comes the plot twist.

I knew something would be up with the diagnosis on my very first read (I don't remember when exactly that was, but I still lived in my home country so it's at least 23 years ago), I noticed the Sterling/Stirling difference right away--but I'd guess most of the readers did. I mean, most readers probably expected Valancy would not die.

Much like Anne of Green Gables, the catalyst of the story is a mistake (wrong letter, a girl instead of a boy), LMM likes her mishaps and accidents, in fact I am currently reading her short story collection titled A Chapter of Accidents (which is also a chapter title from AOA).

Despite everything, I can't hate Dr Trent, he has that no-nonsense manner about him that I appreciate. Why the fuck did you not ask for a second opinion. Idk, I trusted you, man.

RIP Jane Sterling of Port Lawrence, the most forgotten character in this story.

I’m really not to blame for not knowing you. You’ve changed—splendidly. And married. Well, well, it has agreed with you. You don’t look much like an invalid now, hey?

Summary of Valancy's arc. It's not just that she's got married (which has, umm, agreed with her), but also she's not suffered those colds in winter.

I don't really know anything of medicine so I pass on commenting on the pseudo-angina. One has to allow for dramatic licence.

This might, like the rosebush, be a super obvious metaphor, but I like that

Valancy's pain comes from her heart, which is her emotional center.

Valancy's problem was never something that couldn't be treated. It wasn't ever fatal, it could always have been fixed.

What fixed her was a "shock of joy," like her heart was being revived.

or

Commentary on Chapter 37 of The Blue Castle

I do love this twist. I think it is well-done.

“Dr. Trent’s letter was like himself—blunt, abrupt, concise, wasting no words. Dr. Trent never beat about the bush. “Dear Miss Sterling”—and then a page of black, positive writing. Valancy seemed to read it at a glance; she dropped it on her lap, her face ghost-white.”

(Chapter 7)

A common theme in the first eight chapters of the novel is no one caring about Valancy - the cars splash mud onto her. So when we read Dr. Trent’s letter being addressed to “Dear Miss Sterling”, we first process this as yet another instance of people not caring about Valancy enough to spell her name correctly.

But then of course Chapter 37 comes:

“This is the letter I meant for old Miss Jane Sterling. From Port Lawrence.”

I love this. This “old maid” was the true double of Valancy Jane Stirling.

“Idiot,” said Dr. Trent bluntly. “I can’t understand such folly. And poor old Miss Sterling. She must have got your letter—telling her there was nothing serious the matter. Well, well, it couldn’t have made any difference. Her case was hopeless. Nothing that she could have done or left undone could have made any difference. I was surprised she lived as long as she did—two months. She was here that day—not long before you. I hated to tell her the truth. You think I’m a blunt old curmudgeon—and my letters are blunt enough. I can’t soften things. But I’m a snivelling coward when it comes to telling a woman face to face that she’s got to die soon. I told her I’d look up some features of the case I wasn’t quite sure of and let her know next day. But you got her letter—look here, ‘Dear Miss S-t-e-r-l-i-n-g.’”

“Yes. I noticed that. But I thought it a mistake. I didn’t know there were any Sterlings in Port Lawrence.”

“She was the only one. A lonely old soul. Lived by herself with only a little home girl. She died two months after she was here—died in her sleep.”

Jane Sterling was who Valancy could be in the future if Dr. Trent had not put the wrong letters in the envelopes. This is why there are no other “old maids” in this book, this is why Montgomery made Cousin Georgiana a widow instead of a spinster. Jane Sterling is the true doppelgänger of Valancy.

Now, there is something in this that says “Being a spinster is the worst fate” - I am remembering Dona Reed’s character’s alternative fate in the film “It’s a Wonderful Life”. But Miss Sterling was not just unmarried, she also was lonely. Montgomery does not pity Marilla after Anne’s arrival.

I also like how Dr. Trent is made fun of for his sexism at the end of the chapter: