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Articles

Volume 09, Number 2 (1984)

Montgomery's Emily: Voices and Silences

  • Judith Miller
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1984-06-06

Abstract

Lucy Maud Montgomery's Emily is highly fragmentary, as the character of Emily attempts to sort out the different aspects of her life. Notably, she is fascinated with words, and her fledgling attempts at writing are alternately criticized and praised by the people in her life. Ultimately, the suggestions have little effect, as her maturity into an artist is essentially a series of self-discoveries. Emily, like Montgomery herself, use silences -- the unspoken -- to convey meaning. the suggestion is that reading between the lines is vital to the related elements of life and of art. Emily is an artist, always standing aside and watching, unrepentant.