One of the many joys of "AWANE" is the sheer genius of much of the dialogue. The following is a key episode in the whole saga. Anne has been skipping school because she feels rejected by all the other girls except Diana. Marilla finds out and thinks that heavy ecclesiastical armour must be brought in to put Anne in her place. What is brilliant about this is that on the one hand it is deadly serious: they all sit there with solemn and occasionally angry faces, with lots of stern and meaningful looks floating about (though you can almost detect a hint of a smirk on Matthew's face ...) And yet simultaneously the whole dialogue is absolutely hilarious because:

  • The Minister has not yet crossed verbal swords with Anne, and does not know that almost everybody who does so retires wounded and bloodied from the battlefield and .....
  • What he has to say is so hilariously male chauvinist and indeed insane as to render him absurd. Marilla had never before associated the word 'minister' with 'absurd', 'chauvinist' and 'insane' - but is now forced to do so.

The reason it is key is that Marilla realizes clearly for the first time something that has been gradually wakening in her since Anne first arrived, namely that Anne will never fit the mould that polite society has designed for her - as it has for Diane and all the other posh girls in their circle. Marilla realizes that for people like the Minister, she is supposed to groom Anne only to be an obedient, submissive, housework-managing housewife. But the Minister's words are so crass as to penetrate the veneer of social norms she has been used to for decades and never had to challenge until now, but then she has never had to deal with someone like Anne before. The latter is, of course another astonishing phenomenon, because she is simultaneously young, innocent, naive and ineperience and yet possesses fearsome insight into morality and justice - allied with unchallengeable logic. Marilla is shaken in her core beliefs (the importance of social norms, the validity of the Church) to the point where as she says to Mrs Lynde:

"I have no idea what's like me - none at all."

Marilla:
 "And  she lied, and then lied some more - right to our faces.I have been doing my best to teach her right from wrong, but well, this matter is so grave that we knew we had to bring it to you."
Minister:
 "Indeed, indeed - you did right. It's a very good thing I'm here. God frowns on fibbing, young lady."
Anne:

"I imagine he does. I see now how truly wrong I was."

Minister:

"Wrong and disrespectful."

Anne:
 "I assure you, Minister, I am full of woe ....."
Minister:
 "Yes ...."
Anne:
 "... and also dismay, with a good measure of chagrin. I can only hope that it pleases God to know how truly unhappy I am. Does it?"
Minister:
 "That is something you must pray on. Now Anne, you must always remember; honesty is the best policy."
Anne:
 "Honesty isn't actually a policy though, is it?"
Minister:
 "I beg your pardon?"
Marilla:
 "Anne!"
Anne:
 "I believe that ...."
Minister
 "I see now what you're up against. It doesn't matter what you think."
Anne:
 "About anything, or ....?"
Minister:
 "Do you agree never to lie again?"
Anne:
 "Is a lie of omission really a lie?"
Marilla:
 "You see? She's not sorry!"
Anne:
 "I am sorry, Marilla. I am truly sorry for vexing you, and for ...."
Marilla:
 "You said you were going to school."
Anne:
 "I went, in a fashion." (She was actually 'teaching' a bunch of pine-cones in her den in the woods ...)
Marilla:
 "Do you take us for fools?"
Anne:
 "But they hate me there!"
Marilla:
 "Enough!"
Minister:
 "You must learn to harness yourself. I see what the problem is here. Oh yes, I do indeed. And I have divined an answer. This problem is easily solved. If the girl doesn't want to go to school then she shouldn't go. She should stay home and learn proper housekeeping until she marries. And thebn the Lord God said 'It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. There's noneed for her to bother with an education. Every young woman should learn how to be a good wife."
Nobody present feels there is anything to follow that, and the Minister takes his leave. A little while later,
Mrs Lynde pays a visit and finds Marilla in a brown study, slumped back in her chair, the stove gone out ...
Mrs Lynde:
 "My, my. This is unlike you."
Marilla:
 "I have no idea what's like me - none at all."

PS It is a brilliant scene, and I break out in stitches every time Anne utters the beautiful old word "woe" - one of her favourites, but somehow just hilarious in her lips.