L.M. Montgomery Polls

from the Anne of Green Gables series (1908-1939) by L. M. Montgomery

🏳️‍🌈Tournament to decide the most queer coded Montgomery Character; round 1️⃣🏳️‍🌈

So Isabel Anderson takes a lot of explaining but as briefly as is possible, she was this woman who wrote to Maud in the 1930’s, and Maud, believing because of the way she wrote, that Isabel was a young fan, wrote back. Thinking this ‘young girl’ very clever and talented, the two began to exchange regular letters. When Isabel invited her over to her house (she didn’t live far) for dinner, Maud went… and was surprised to discover that Isabel was actually a 34-35 (I can’t remember which) year old school teacher. After that dinner, things got really strange and uncomfortable for Maud. Isabel starting writing more increasingly often, calling Maud’s house phone, and sending her gifts. All in an attempt to see her again. Eventually Isabel’s intentions became clear (she wrote to Maud about loving her and wanting to “sleep with” her [to be fair, this did refer to the common practice then of girls sharing beds during extended visits]), and Maud sort of shifts in her journal entries between feeling enormous pity for Isabel and then conversely abhorring her, also thinking her a “pervert,” and a “lesbian.” (In truth, Isabel was probably bisexual btw. She ‘chased’ men too, married and unmarried alike.)

At this point there were a few ‘stages’ of Isabel’s infatuation to come, with Maud 1) trying her best to ‘help’ Isabel (who wrote to her saying she’d kill herself if she didn’t hear back from her etc.) and therefore visiting her (which Maud learned was a mistake – staying over at Isabel’s parents only earned more intense letters form her, saying things like: “I have derived some comfort from sleeping in the precise spot you occupied half hopeful that some of the dear warmth might still be found to linger. But I crave something tangible. I want to hold in my arms what is dearer than life to me—to lie “spoon fashion” all through a long long night— to cover your wee hands, your beautiful throat and every part of you with kisses. I’m just mad with love for you…”) and allowing her to likewise visit the MacDonald (Montgomery) home (under great pains to always arrange for someone else to be handy), and 2) trying different ways to free herself from Isabel’s affection (ignoring her, pleading with her to see sense, writing strongly worded letters telling her to stay away, as she only wanted to be friends). It was very stressful for Maud (who pictured a scandal if Isabel were to actually commit suicide and leave behind letters addressed to Maud or a note that said she was killing herself because Maud wouldn’t love her), and the whole ordeal was just… like yikes, it was really quite something. 😅

*this can mean anything you want it to. It might mean casual dalliances, it might mean paid companionship, and it might mean same sex relationships. There was a previous poll on another blog that speculated that Barney was queer, and a majority agreed that he was.

🗳️This is a flash poll, going for 24 hours. No one submitted this, but I did get anonymous mail on the topic and was curious to see what everyone else thinks.