Anne of Green Gables – Enneagram and Encaustic

MARILLA CUTHBERT, EIGHT

Family usually have some kind of relationship between their Enneagram numbers. Because Matthew is a Five, Marilla’s Enneagram will either be in the strength-weakness number relationship, or in a Head Type adjacent number.

A Five in strength moves to Eight, and an Eight in weakness moves to Five. These siblings have a great dynamic, a great partnership even, because Marilla is an Eight.

No matter how genteel Marilla plays it, you know she wants to take Rachel Lynde’s head off sometimes. Very Eight. Her firmness in disciplining Anne is Eight-ish. Pleas for mercy are not effective on an Eight, and they don’t move Marilla. She’s a hard nut to crack, and when I read the novel as a child her character was very unsympathetic to me. Only later did I appreciate her no-nonsense pragmatism.

Marilla enters very reluctantly into a relationship with Anne, but once she’s in she will defend Anne to the death.

MATTHEW CUTHBERT, FIVE

Matthew is a drop-dead classic Man Five.

His gentleness, his shyness, his observational attention to Anne, and his abhorrence of socializing, are all Five traits. He is steady, quiet, and loyal. Five.

He’s also awkward, boring, and invisible. Five.

In one version of Anne of Green Gables Richard Farnsworth plays Matthew’s Five-ness perfectly. He is the exact lovable mix of qualities. However, the actor is built nothing like Men Fives, who are tall and sometimes gangly, lean, or rangy. Physically, a Man Five is quite similar to a Man Four. The personalities are diametrically opposed, of course, but on first glance they are hard to differentiate.

It just goes to show that an actor’s Enneagram number will not restrict their ability to convincingly play a character’s Enneagram number. I like that.

ANNE SHIRLEY, FOUR

Maybe I’m being too hasty, but doesn’t Anne of Green Gables seem like she must be an Enneagram Four?

She feels everything so very deeply. Drama, glory, beauty, vengeance — they’re all peak emotions for her. Gilbert teases her, and she’ll never forgive him. Diana is her friend, but they must be inseparable bosom buddies. If Marilla and Matthew don’t keep her, she’ll absolutely die. The color of her hair is a lifelong sorrow.

Also, she has the resigned Four way of dealing with pain. Her prior foster family is abusive and cruel. Anne knows this, yet when she talks about them she speaks matter-of-factly. While most of us cherish the highs and disdain the lows, Fours know life is a 50/50 prospect. Tragedy happens. Don’t make more of it than it deserves.

Anne is actually a great Four. Her envy-driven competitiveness at school leads her to outstanding accomplishments. Her stubborn attachment to feelings leads to Matthew’s loyalty and Marilla’s agreement to keep Anne, even though it goes against everything she’d planned. And Anne’s mishaps, which make for engaging storytelling, arise from weaknesses that can become her strengths.

Makes me want to re-read something I haven’t visited in decades.