Why Anne of Green Gables is beloved by highly sensitive people HSP or highly sensitive person has become a more well-known term globally in the past years.
A couple of years ago when I came to realization that I myself was a highly sensitive person I started to pay notice to other highly sensitive characters in literature,
Movies,
Pop culture and of course in real life.
In my opinion the most well-known highly sensitive person in the world's literature is Lucimote Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.
Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it.
Yet for those who do not know Anne of Green Gables is a book written by Canadian author Lucimote Montgomery and the first book was published in 1908.
The books take place on the eastern coast of Canada in Prince Edward Island where the author lived most of her life and had adventures in nine books and she is the most popular character of Montgomery's large amount of written works and Shirley is a 12 year old orphan girl who by mistake ends up on Prince Edward's Island where she gets adopted by siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert.
Anne is best known for her temper freckled face and fiery red hair.
Anne is a talkative,
Social,
Sensitive girl who likes to daydream.
Quiet and shy Matthew becomes Anne's kindred spirit.
It takes a bit longer for reserved Marilla to understand her.
They both become very fond of Anne and they love her like their own daughter.
Anne has a deep emotional world.
She experiences the joys and sorrows of life with intense passion.
This makes her life both very enjoyable and painful at times.
In the first book she makes all kinds of things that are frowned upon.
She hits Gilbert's head with a slate when he teases her,
Accidentally colors her hair green instead of black and gets her best friend drunk from currant wine.
The highly sensitive person has a deep emotional world.
The majority of highly sensitive people are introverts and about 30 percent of all HSP people in the world are extroverts.
Anne belongs to this group of extroverts.
In one interview Megan Follows,
Who played Anne in the 1985 classic mini-tv series,
Described the character of Anne like this,
Quote,
Anne is eccentric because she is absolutely open and so therefore in some people's eyes she is too much.
She is too joyous or she is too in despair but there is no barrier she doesn't filter herself.
She doesn't censor herself.
Famous Anne quotes like I am in the depths of despair,
My life is a graveyard of buried hopes or plum pudding does not heal the aching of the soul to which Marilla answers at least aching of the soul hasn't hurt your tongue perfectly describes Anne's highly sensitive nature and Marilla's total lack of high sensitivity and her practical nature.
Anne's best friend is Diana Barry and their friendship is nearly perfect.
They rarely argue and Anne worships Diana.
In the first book Anne's longing to find herself a family and friends comes true very strongly and between the lines one can read about her broken childhood which has included abuse,
Bullying and mental possibly physical violence.
Dear old world,
You are very very lovely and I am glad to be alive in you.
Being highly sensitive is considered a genetic trait which passes on within the family.
Besides the HSP genes,
Anne's sensitivity has been influenced by her traumatic childhood.
When she arrives in Green Gables her soul is hungry for love and mainly because of the care and the compassion that she receives from Matthew,
Diana and later on from Marilla she tries and for the first time in her life she becomes happy and whole.
Anne's best quality is that she has the talent to become friends with anyone despite the fact that sometimes she falls into the depths of despair for most of the time Anne is an optimist.
She's not perfect and she openly admits it.
She can be very unforgiving and hold grudge for a long time.
She is very sensitive about her hair.
In the books she does not speak to Gilbert for three years when he teased her about it.
The rich inner world becoming emotionally attached to places and objects and naming them.
Creativity,
Literal talents,
Romantic nature,
Imagination and making sudden decisions are all parts of Anne's character.
In the later books she becomes famous arranging love affairs of her friends and familiars because of her strong intuition.
Being a highly sensitive person is both a gift and a curse.
In the books Anne is described to be a person that other people feel safe to open up to because Anne is not someone who judges.
Instead it is easy for her to empathize with other people's ups and downs because of her good intuition and imagination.
I read my first Anne book at the age of nine and ever since then I have pretty much reread them every single summer.
Green Gables is a beautiful place filled up with beauty for those who seek it.
Analyses about Anne's sensitive nature were made way before Elaine Aron's groundbreaking book Highly Sensitive Person appeared.
For many highly sensitive people Anne surely has been a role model for over a century.
Despite the fact that Anne is very sensitive,
Anne is never a victim.
On the contrary Anne is never ashamed of herself or her sensitivity and she never hides her emotions.
She's proud of her authentic self.
The story of Anne is somewhat of a Cinderella story.
The girl who was given the lowest starting point in life conquers the hearts of everyone in Green Gables and beyond.
She becomes a friend,
Teacher,
Writer,
Wife and a mother.
Reading Anne books as a child is different than reading Anne books as an adult.
Now the world of Anne feels slightly darker,
Especially after reading all nine books in chronological order where Anne grows from a 12 year old to an old woman.
I was not surprised when some years ago I heard that the true cause of the death of Lucy Maud Montgomery was suicide and not a heart disease.
Maud had a talent for describing the world through the eyes of a child.
Many of her heroes like Anne,
Jane Victoria and Emily of the New Moon have very rich inner worlds,
Like Maud herself who I believe was also highly sensitive.
It is delightful when your imagination comes true,
Isn't it?
I was very shy as a child and I was always afraid to be judged by others.
I admired Anne because she was so outspoken and did not care what other people thought of her.
Well,
Maybe somewhere deep inside she did.
I wish I would have been that brave at the same age,
But maybe took a character like Anne to shape my personality in that direction.
I did have friends as a child but I often felt like an outsider because of my highly sensitive nature.
The term highly sensitive person did not exist yet in Finland where I grew up during the early 90s economic depression,
So Anne became my kindred spirit,
Though she only existed in the pages of a book.
Despite the fact that high sensitivity is a scientifically proven personal trait which also exists among animals,
It is still a taboo among some people and not all highly sensitive people are nearly as open about it as I am.
It is very easy for highly sensitive person to become a target of bullying and abuse which can lead to depression,
Anxiety and other mental health issues.
In Finland and in all Scandinavian countries,
To be fair,
There is a great number of highly sensitive people,
Apparently more than anywhere else in the world,
But for a long time within Finnish culture being sensitive was more approached as a fault than a virtue,
Especially among men.
Many times highly sensitive people end up working in the creative industries.
Some of the most well-known highly sensitive people are Steven Spielberg and Winona Ryder.
Still a highly sensitive person often faces discrimination because of their highly sensitive nature and this is why we need characters like Anne.
She's a positive role model for all highly sensitive people.
She is smart,
Outspoken and apologetic and at the same time she is the most loving and caring person.
For Anne,
Being a highly sensitive person is the asset that carries her through life.
