Anne of Green Gables: A Look into Her Past

• Extreme 'Fear of Abandonment' When she learned the Cuthberts had originally wanted a boy, she broke down crying. She lived in a constant state of extreme anxiety, terrified of being sent back to the orphanage and abandoned again. Thus, after arriving at Green Gables, she was always overly cautious, desperately trying to please Marilla to prove she was a 'useful, worthy child who deserved to stay.' • Escapist 'Overly Defensive Imagination' Anne spent her days immersed in romantic, fantastical worlds (e.g., imagining an ordinary tree-lined path as the 'White Way of Delight' and a muddy puddle as the 'Lake of Shining Waters'). Psychologically, this is a classic 'dissociation and substitution' defense mechanism. Faced with the harsh, lonely reality of her childhood with no escape, young Anne could only retreat into her mind, using her highly sensitive senses to conjure beautiful things for self-healing and salvation, otherwise, she might have completely collapsed mentally. • Pathological Craving for a 'Soulmate' and 'Sense of Belonging' Having never experienced love, she was extremely sensitive to relationships. The first time she met her neighbor Diana, she strongly demanded they make a 'solemn pact of sisterhood.' Such dramatic actions stemmed from her deep-seated insecurity about 'losing a relationship at any moment.' • Intense Inferiority Complex and Appearance Anxiety She detested her red hair and freckles to an extreme degree. Any mention of these would send her into a pathological hysterical fit. This was because such criticisms directly hit her core childhood trauma of 'I am unworthy of love; I am flawed.'