Did anybody like Katherine Brooke? I like her a little bit when Anne starts at KLC. I love the the scenes where she is at green gables and she gets rid of the dark cloud over her head and begins to enjoy life.
Jesse
I thought Brooke was an interesting character, and a wonderful counterpoint to Anne.
What really got me was the scene after the play, when Anne and Brooke are in her office looking at the moonlight, and Brooke tells Anne her history. Both are orphans, but the key difference is that Anne found a family and friends in Avonlea, something that Brooke never found. Makes you wonder if Anne hadn't been accidentally sent to stay with Matthew and Marilla, if she'd have been just like Brooke in 20 years or so.
I agree that the best scene between them is the one in Katherine's office in the moonlight. It is so incredibly moving. To me, it stands out as possibly the most dramatic scene in the sequel and the original combined.
shareI doubt it because Anne is a very optimistic person by nature while Katherine was more of a realist/cynic. But it kind of makes an interesting point because Anne and Katherine did grow up in the same miserable circumstances, yet they each dealt with it in very different ways.
Also if you think about Ms. Stacey, I think her life had also not been easy, yet she remained courageous, kind, and loving. Katherine complains about being a "spinster" teacher, yet Muriel Stacey is also a "spinster" teacher, yet is not bitter; unlike Katherine, Muriel enjoys her life. I think Katherine just didn't enjoy teaching; she needed something to fit her better...then maybe she wouldn't have been so bitter about her life.
I have not read the book, but I think that Rosemary Dunsmore does an excellent portrayal of the character for means of the programme. I think the best scene Katherine and Anne have is when Anne is leaving Kingsbrook (?) and Anne confronts Katherine in her office. The exchange is quite quick, only about a minute long, but shows the differences in their characters and is the beginning of showing Katherine about how Anne was changed at Green Gables though having a family, which Katherine missed out on.
shareI have read the books (all 8 of them) several times and yes, this is a very good portrayal of Katherine. Ironically, however, the original scene took place in Katherine's boarding house during the winter because Anne was asking her to visit during Christmas break.
shareI liked her. She and Anne were like opposite sides of a coin.
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"House. My room. Can't walk. My father! My medal! Father, don't!"
I think they should have make some reference to what happens to her in the book. She becomes the secretary to an important man and gets to go off and travel the world with him. She doesn't get married but lives a fulfilled independent life
shareI thought her humor was hilarious---and both women had something to learn from eachother; Katherine learned from Anne to lighten-up more and take things as they come, Anne learned to come down from the clouds once in a while, understand people's motives and not always take everything at face value.
shareI agree. Katherine just didn't want to be a teacher and was stuck in a dead-endish type job, sniping at Anne as a younger and fresher rival who was better at teaching whilst Anne was used to chalking up bullies to just natural-born malice in the mould of the Pyes and not considering their actual feelings. Katherine lightens up, Anne realises sometimes you have to take the first step instead of retreating into antagonism. She gives Katherine the gift of Green Gables as well.
shareKatherine Brooke is one of my favorite characters. She's what one calls a "round character", in opposition to a "flat character". She has a good side and a bad side to her, and it shows in the movie. That's the kind of character I like the best. She's struggling with herself, wanting to be a good person but not knowing how to get rid of the hatred that is in her. What is interesting about round characters is to see their evolution, throughout the movie. And Katherine evolved in a very interesting way, revealing her true self in the end, especially in the scene in Avonlea when she has a conversation with Anne about her dream to travel the world and when she cries because she thinks she could never be happy. I don't know if it's just me, but even in real life I've always liked people who have both sides in them, a good and a bad side, and it's interesting to see what side they will choose in the end. That's why I love Katherine. She's one of the most touching characters in the movie.
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"Take a walk in the woods. Reacquaint with the nature we have right here." James Cameron
I felt sorry for Katherine Brooke, and I thought the actress who played her was outstanding. The conflict between Brooke and Anne is very, very interesting, the scenes between them some of the best in the film -- including, of course, the scene in the moonlight. I love how Anne is in tears as Brooke is recounting her miserable childhood. One can infer that, though Anne is not bitter, the stories of childhood misery do strike a chord of familiarity within her, which is why she can empathize with Brooke in the scene.
shareI think the novel was Anne of Windy Poplars, in which Anne gives Katherine a puppy.
share[deleted]
I am a Dutch male, who became involved with Anne in 1999, trough family in Canada and some Inspiration and Optimism very much needed at that time in our families.
I was active in the old Anne3-forum, which was connected with Sullivan's own webstite.
Some forumbuddies are still on my Fb-list these days.
Just for a joke, I started a fanfic-story in the forum around 2007 based on Katherine Brooke.
A forumfriend, ( still in my FB too), from Detroit liked the idea and joined.
Communicating by e-mail, we made up the story together. Katherines says in the books she wants to travel. Well, we made her travel !
From Canada on the ship to England, to France, to Austria and to the area above Amsterdam, where I live. We had a lot of fun with that, and we really had an average of 245 readings a day !
There was a gap of 2 years, where we both were too much involved in reality to be able to write.
In the end, I was able to finish the story, making her travel to India, ( I have never been there...), and back to Canada. Married with...Morgan Harris, Gilbert's rival for Anne's heart.
It was never the LMM-level, but we learned a lot with it.
And last but not least, Katherine herself:
It started as a joke, but very soon Katherine became a real person, a lady demanding respect and to be taken serious.
And still i find her an inspirating character in the Anne-books.
( I did that again in a Dutch forum, in the closed section, with Mary Bennet from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice )