The Importance Of Dresses In Anne Of Green Gables

A bildungsroman is defined as “ the development of the protagonist’s mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences into maturity, which usually involves recognition of one’s identity and role in the world” (193). In Lucy Montgomery’s first novel Anne of Green Gables, clothes, especially dresses, are inarguably one of the most abundantly illustrated subjects. On the surface, most of this elaboration may seem like a mere superficial, materialistic wish of an eleven-year-old little girl to own fancy dresses. By reading through the novel, however, the readers can notice that Lucy Montgomery intended pretty dresses, with puffed sleeves, flounces and other decorations, to symbolize a serious abstract concept: Anne’s fitting in to the Avonlea community. Through the symbolism of dresses, the readers witness how Anne grows from a little girl who yearns for acceptance from an …show more content…
When Anne Shirley comes to Green Gables for the first time, she appears wearing a “very ugly dress of yellowish-gray wincey.” In all honesty, Anne also confesses that she has never had “a pretty dress” in her life that she could remember, which symbolically tells the readers that Anne had never been loved. This ugly dress is an evident proof of her “starved, unloved life” at the asylum and two foster homes that “had not wanted her.” By her own standard, Marilla sews three “sensible” dresses for Anne, but the latter finds them “not pretty,” for they were too plain and with regular sleeves. Consequently, Anne felt “very miserable” at the Sunday school, because all the girls’ dresses had puffed sleeves except hers. Even from the appearance Anne didn’t fit in among the other girls, let alone her “odd” behaviors. Nevertheless, with the help of Matthew’s “putting in his oar,” Anne receives her first fashionable dress with puffed