The dark fruitcake and the lighter hues of chicken, tongue, biscuits, and bread serve as counterpoints to the brighter colours. Montgomery’s love of colour garnishes the table beautifully: we can imagine the bright red of the jelly and the cherry pie against the yellow of the second jelly, the lemon pie, and the “famous yellow plum preserves,” with Anne’s layer cake blending these two colours in its golden layers and “ruby jelly” filling. We’re to have two kinds of jelly, red and yellow, and whipped cream and lemon pie, and cherry pie, and three kinds of cookies, and fruit-cake, and Marilla’s famous yellow plum preserves that she keeps especially for ministers, and pound cake and layer cake, and biscuits as aforesaid and new bread and old both. We’re going to have jellied chicken and cold tongue. What hospitality radiates from that tea table! And how lovingly Montgomery, through Anne, describes it: No wonder, then, that Marilla and Anne spend two entire days preparing for that all-important occasion - with the requisite three kinds of cake. She also wrote that in PEI, “it is safer to commit murder than to be caught without three kinds of cake when company comes for tea.” For women, housekeeping is the measure of creativity and hospitality even Marilla succumbs to the amiable wish “not to be eclipsed by any of the Avonlea housekeepers” when entertaining the new minister and his wife to tea. A minister would be one of the most highly educated people in the community and would wield great influence. Montgomery once wrote that having a minister in the family was a “feather in the cap” for Islanders. She can be “pretty,” but not “regally lovely” (that would set a “bad example”), and she must be an “influence for good.” But her worth as a “kindred spirit” is really only tested when it comes to the ordeal of the tea table. She must also not dress “too fashionably” (that would be “worldly,”), but not so badly that it would reflect on the congregation. Allan would certainly need to be economical to keep open house for parishioners on that $750 salary. Yet the ideals for wives are higher still. Allan “prayed as if he meant it,” instead of as if he was “in the habit of it.” Lynde’s sentiments, but ultimately sees that the measure of a minister is the sincerity of his belief: Mr. Anne, like a small disciple, seems to echo Mrs. Lynde from her community pulpit, firmly delineating traditional gender roles while sermonizing on dignity. “Sound doctrine in the man and good housekeeping in the woman make an ideal combination for a minister’s family,” preaches Mrs. Allan is ushered in, another “kindred spirit” for Anne to love.īut ministers and their wives must meet high standards to succeed in Avonlea. Phillips is ushered out of the story, the sincere and genuine Mrs. speech.” Anne revels in feeling “so dreadfully sad,” but not so much that she can’t notice the new minister and his wife, Mr. Anne doesn’t cry because she’s sorry he’s leaving - no, she cries because “all the others did” at his “beautiful. “The time has come for us to part,” intones teacher Teddy Phillips near the beginning, and his flowery words send every girl in the school - including Anne, who rightly despises him - into floods of tears. But the centrepiece of this comedic feast is surely that laden tea table with its tempting array of delicacies. Montgomery mixes complex undercurrents into this most delicious of chapters, deftly weighing false sentiment against genuine emotion, folding in critiques of conventions and religion, spicing it with wit, and (ironically) concocting a recipe for a minister’s wife to succeed in a rural community. Of all the scrapes that Anne Shirley got herself into, surely the episode of the liniment cake is the most hilarious, the best-known - and the most poignant. This week's Anne of Green Gables Read-a-long continues with Andrea McKenzie's interesting take on "Chapter XXI: A New Departure in Flavourings."Ĭhapter XXI: A New Departure in Flavourings
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