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Copywork
About This Passage
The opening of Anne's Idlewild monologue — chosen because it is the chapter's most concentrated demonstration of imagination as a habit of life. Anne describes patchwork as 'no scope for imagination,' then constructs, in a single breath, an entire cosmology of named places (Idlewild, Willowmere) and consecrated objects (broken plates, fairy glass). Six Tier 2 words gather inside Anne's argument for the imagination (dolefully, scope, elegant, romantic, poetical, enraptured), and the prose itself models how Romantic discourse can co-exist with — and quietly out-bid — Marilla's domestic realism.
“I do not like patchwork,” said Anne dolefully, hunting out her workbasket and sitting down before little heap of red and white diamonds with a sigh. “I think some kinds of sewing would be nice; but t...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 13 on two levels. First, summarize what happens: Marilla's call to come in, the picnic announcement and basket promise, Anne's first kiss, the patchwork dialogue, the Idlewild monologue, the wet Saturday and Sunday minister's announcement, and the closing description of Marilla's amethyst brooch. Second, describe what does not happen on the page but is happening between Marilla and Anne — the slow conversion of duty into love, expressed sideways through baked baskets, amethyst brooches, and a kiss that Marilla cannot quite acknowledge.
Discussion Questions
- Marilla is 'secretly vastly pleased' by Anne's first kiss but answers brusquely with 'never mind your kissing nonsense.' Examine the chapter's portrait of Marilla — her brooch, her brusqueness, her quiet baking of the basket. What working theory of Marilla's emotional life does the chapter offer, and how does the narrator's word 'probably' function in that portrait?
- Anne and Mrs. Lynde stand for two opposing dispositions toward hope. Is Anne's claim that 'looking forward is half the pleasure' a defensible philosophy of life — or does Mrs. Lynde's stoic 'expect nothing' carry the deeper wisdom? Argue from the chapter and from your own moral framework, paying attention to how each saying might function differently for a child and an adult.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
in a manner expressing sadness or sorrow
Item 2
the range or breadth of an activity, subject, or opportunity
Item 3
pleasingly graceful and stylish in manner, design, or appearance
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Critical Thinking
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