The Blue Castle. L.M. Montgomery
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that Montgomery embeds in the arranged romantic marriage of her heroines, a discourse that “showed that marriage could pose grave dangers to a talented woman’s autonomy, happiness, and self-fulfillment.” 46 To pursue this idea, it is important to recognize that even at the end of The Blue Castle, Valancy and Barney are not equal. Therefore, while Valancy reports that she “thought they were splendidly free,” 47 that freedom is achieved by Valancy only through marrying Barney Snaith. He, in turn, has the same freedom totally independent of Valancy simply because he is male.
What makes this worse is that it is Valancy’s own feelings for Snaith that imprison her. She claims: “She knew quite well now that she loved Barney. Yesterday she had been all her own. Now she was this man’s. Yet he had done nothing — said nothing. He had not even looked at her as a woman. But that didn’t matter. Nor did it matter what he was or what he had done. She loved him without any reservations. Everything in her went out wholly to him.” 48 Not only is Valancy enslaved by her feelings, she does not wish to be free; she is subordinate to Snaith. While such subjugation might be acceptable to Valancy while she believes she has only a short time to live, it raises a strong sense of conflict in her when that belief is removed. When Dr.Trent reassures her that her heart is fine, rather than being relieved or happy, Valancy is confused and disturbed. Even “Dr.Trent thought she was odd. Anybody would have thought, from her hopeless eyes and woebegone face, that he had given her a sentence of death instead of life.” 49 In a sense, he has. In Valancy’s and in Montgomery’s minds, marriage is equivalent to death — death of the individual, independence, and freedom. While her relationship with Barney has an end in sight, it is beautiful. With that end taken away, it seems more like a prison sentence. She reports, “She must go on living, longing for it. Everything was spoiled, smirched, defaced. Even that year in the Blue Castle. Even her unashamed love for Barney. It had been beautiful because death waited. Now it was only sordid because death was gone.” 50 At this point Valancy realizes she has assumed the role of all wives — she has committed herself to a life of subjugation to her husband. As a result, the freedom in the real world that she had briefly experienced recedes, while her need for an imaginary realm to escape to once more arises. The Blue Castle ends with Valancy smiling through her tears and reclaiming that mystical space in which Montgomery continues to reside:“She was so happy that her happiness terrified her. But, despite the delights before her … she knew perfectly well that no spot or palace or home in the world could ever possess the sorcery of her Blue Castle.” 51
NOTES
1. Mary Rubio & Elizabeth Waterston, Eds. Writing a Life: L.M. Montgomery. (Toronto: ECW Press, 1995).
2. Montgomery began corresponding with Weber and MacMillan through a literary circle started by Miriam Zieber of Philadelphia. Weber’s first letter to Montgomery is dated 1902; MacMillan’s first letter was dated 1903. In both cases, the correspondence to and from Montgomery continued until her death.
3. FAQ, Montgomery Institute, University of P.E.I.
4. L.M. Montgomery, Ephraim Weber: Letters 1916-1941. July 18, 1826.
5. The New York Times Book Review, September 26, 1926, 33.
6. The Times Literary Supplement, September 30, 1926.
7. The Canadian Bookman 8, no. 10, (October 1926).
8. Colleen McCullough, The Ladies of Missalonghi. (London: Arrow Books Limited, 1987).
9. Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: L.M. Montgomery’s Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 249.
10. Mary Henley Rubio, “Subverting the Trite: L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Room of Her Own, ’” Canadian Children’s Literature 65. (1992), 32.
11. “It was printed by Warwick Bros & Rutter, Limited Printing and Bookbinders Toronto.” The second print run was done by The Hunter-Rose Co. Limited, Toronto.
12. The Blue Castle was first performed in Charlottetown, P.E.I. (Theatre P.E.I) on May 10-20, 1993. Lyrics and music were by Hank Stinson, and Ron Irving directed it. This first performance generally received poor reviews. The following year Stinson and Kelly Robinson took over the direction and the play was received favourably.
13. Mary Henley Rubio, “Subverting the Trite: L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Room of Her Own, ’” Canadian Children’s Literature 65. (1992), 33.
14. In terms of names of animals in The Blue Castle, the two crows on Barney Snaith’s island are called Nip and Tuck, which are also the names of Ephraim Weber’s two horses. Furthermore, Barney has two cats called Banjo and Good Luck; Montgomery also had a cat called Good Luck. Barney has an owl which he calls Leander; Montgomery’s uncle had the same name.
15. L.M. Montgomery, My Dear Mr. M.: Letters to G. B. MacMillan. Edited by Francis W.P. Bolger and Elizabeth R. Epperly. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1980), 108–9.
16. Sylvia Du Vernet, Theosophic Thoughts Concerning L.M. Montgomery. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), 11–12.
17. Ibid., 12.
Montgomery sent a copy of Washington Irving’s The Alhambra to MacMillan. On August 2, 1915 she writes to MacMillan stating that when she opens the covers of the book she feels as if she “stepped through an enchanted gateway … shutting me in ‘the land where dreams come true.’” Furthermore she reports that one of her greatest wishes is to visit The Alhambra. While this does not actually happen for Montgomery, Barney assures Valancy that she will see the Alhambra with him because “it’s the nearest thing to the Blue Castle of your dreams I can think of ” (Ibid., 263).
18. Elizabeth Epperly, Through Lover’s Lane: L.M. Montgomery’s Photography and Visual Imagery. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006).
19. Sylvia Du Vernet, Theosophic Thoughts Concerning L.M. Montgomery. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), 53.
20. L.M. Montgomery. The Blue Castle. (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1926), 47.
21. Ibid., 169.
22. L.M. Montgomery, The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career. (Toronto: Fitzhenry, 1975), 76.
23. L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle. (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1926), 4–5.
24. L.M. Montgomery, Ephraim Weber: Letters 1916-1941. November 16, 1927.
25. L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle. (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1926), 12–3.
26. L.M. Montgomery, The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery Volume 1: 1889–1910. Ed. Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1985), 321.
27L.M. Montgomery, The Selected Journals of L.M. Montogomery Volume 2: 1910–1921, Ed. Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1985), 368.
28. Jane Cowan Fredeman, “The Land of Lost Content: The Use of Fantasy in L.M. Montgomery’s Novels,” in L.M. Montgomery: An Assessment, edited by John Sorfleet. (Guelph: Canadian Children’s Press, 1976), 60.
29. Ibid., 61.
30. L.M. Montgomery. The Blue Castle. (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1926), 60.
31. Ibid., 97.
It is also significant at this point that as she reaches out for life Valancy throws out the glass potpourri that contains dried flowers: “It smashed gloriously against the schoolgirl complexion on the old carriage-shop. ‘I’m sick of fragrance of dead things, ’ said Valancy.” (Ibid., 55).
32. Ibid., 34.
33. Ibid., 45.
34. Ibid., 103.
35. Ibid., 104–5.
36. Ibid., 111–2.
37.