How to strengthen a love story
One of my favorite things about Anne with an E (and oh, there are so many things I love about it) is how Gilbert thoughtfully chooses his (unrequited) love for Anne over being with Winnie. Winnie is presented as a lovely character and an extremely good match for Gilbert.
While not as fully realized as Anne, she is an intelligent, kind, considerate, wealthy, and beautiful young woman. The writers had several opportunities to rule her out as a romantic prospect by making her seem silly, frivolous, or to make her beliefs/morals clash with Gilbert’s. But yet the audience is given zero ammo against her.
There were several moments where most shows would have ruled her out by virtue of her parents. The two places I most expected it was when her parents were introduced to Bash and in conversations about class/wealth.
In the first instance, I expected the writers to take the easy out to eliminate Winnie as a love interest, by virtue of her parents’ beliefs about race. I was so pleasantly surprised that her parents went above and beyond not just tolerance, but to genuine enthusiasm for meeting Bash.
The other obvious choice for ruling Winnie out without damaging her own character would be her parents’ disapproval, of what by all means is an inferior match for their daughter. While I love Gilbert, for someone of their social standing, it would be easy to think they would want a wealthy, city-bred gentleman for their daughter to marry. Again, not only do they tolerate Gilbert’s circumstances, they actively prioritize their daughter’s happiness and Gilbert’s virtues over society’s expectations. Her father points out that “if my daughter is happy, then so am I” before very blatantly giving Gilbert his blessing and offering generous financial backing to support Gilbert through school.
All this to say, the show could have taken the easy way out, making Winnie’s family unlikeable or unsuitable when you consider Gilbert’s own morals and beliefs. But they didn’t. They made Gilbert choose between a lovely young woman with no faults, and the spirited, freckled Anne with an E. I think it makes the choice that much more powerful, especially considering that Gilbert had no expectations that Anne would return his affections. With no hope of a future with Anne, Gilbert chose to be true to his heart, without any of the cheap, usual story-telling devices writers fall back on when a love triangle is shown on screen. I can’t say that everyone involved did their absolute best at all times, but it was incredibly refreshing to see a love story play out this way.
I’m sure there are plenty of posts of similar length talking about how amazing Gilbert was in wanting Winnie to not settle for someone who couldn’t give her their unwavering affection. While I loved that speech and can’t applaud it enough, I wanted to draw some attention to a few quieter moments in the show that also highlight how thoughtful and well-conceived this show is!
tl;dr Anne with an E managed to take one of the oldest tropes in the book and tell a love triangle story in a refreshing, thoughtful, and powerful way.
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