Emily of New Moon Episode 10 - People Who Weave Dreams

The new teacher of Blair Water School by the name of Francis Carpenter arrives, who quickly gains the hearts of the students with his unconventional yet fun way of teaching, except Emily, who feels mortified by the remark he gave about her works, thinking that he made a mockery of it without having read them even. Emily felt as though her dreams were crushed with what Carpenter told her, while Teddy feels the same sentiment as her mother still hasn’t completely approved of him drawing. Will both these young artists still aspire and pursue their dreams despite all this, and what role will Carpenter play in making this possible?

Summary

This episode introduces yet another character in the person of Francis Carpenter, the new teacher in Blair Water School whose way of teaching is unconventional yet makes all the students learn things naturally, as they’re given the freedom to express themselves and aspire in their dreams. The first activity this teacher gives them is to spend time outside the classroom, believing that it’s best that they don’t simply confine themselves within its boundaries to reach great heights. All the students including Ilse and Teddy get awed by how great a teacher Carpenter and came to like him except Emily, who was furious at how he ridiculed her works and called it useless without even having read them, despite the fact that she was a little moved by his words “Your dream extends like a white road right in front of your eyes”.

Carpenter is impressed by Teddy’s skill in drawing, seeing how his work is able to convey to his ‘audience’ the very message he wants to convey, just like the caricature he made of him. With this, he went to Teddy’s house one rainy night to give the book ‘Rembrandt’ containing works of famous artists which he believes will be useful for Teddy, and tells his mother how Teddy could go as far as study in Toronto, Montreal and even Paris with his skills. Teddy’s mother however vehemently refuses against this idea since having Teddy draw is already much for her to bear, more so to have him leave her side for this.

Emily shares with Elizabeth about Francis Carpenter, who she finds out to be an acquaintance of her aunt. Elizabeth says that there’s no one in their town who doesn’t know about him since he was known to be a genius kid who went out of their town to pursue his studies and his dream, and stops the conversation about Francis Carpenter with that, leaving Emily unsatisfied as her aunt already sparked much of her curiosity but didn’t finish the ‘entire story’.

The next day, the students once again spend time outside for their class, as they perform this play about Napoleon, with Teddy playing the part of Napoleon while Ilse plays as Wellington. Perry sees them doing this activity on his way to finish some errands and gets drawn to it, then immediately runs towards them to volunteer himself for the part of the General. Perry who just jumped out of nowhere surprised all the students and even Carpenter himself, but seeing how enthusiastic he is, Carpenter agreed to make him play the role.

With this play, the students were able to have a good grasp of the history of Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo, where Carpenter says that what’s more important is that they’re able to understand the feelings of these people of history. He also tells them that this story of Napoleon isn’t just about history, it’s a matter of having courage and strength to open the doors to their future, where spring probably awaits them at the other side of it. These words of Carpenter reminds Emily of what her father said that springtime will come no matter where she goes. After that, Carpenter asks Emily to show him her works, but she refuses to show this to someone like him who makes a mockery of her work. Carpenter however tells her that she can’t simply choose her audience if she intends to become a professional writer, and that with not wanting him to read her works, it’s as though she even wants him to look down on her and doesn’t do something to prove him wrong.

Emily hands her notebook to Carpenter but immediately runs away crying, mortified by how he treats Ilse, Teddy and even Perry with warmth except her, as she thinks of how harsh he is towards her. Emily reaches an abandoned house which Teddy knows to be “The House of Broken Dreams” where a young married couple filled with hope for a new life they’re going to have intended to live in, but eventually went someplace without living in this house, hence it was called as such, and Emily says that it’s just like she is now. Teddy then talks about how Carpenter went to their house the other night with the book Rembrandt but his mother just threw it away, making him realize that her mother still doesn’t completely approve of him drawing. But Teddy isn’t giving up, believing that the time when he’ll be able to live the town to pursue his studies will certainly come, knowing well that drawing makes up a portion of his heart, as what Emily also told him.

Teddy gives Emily the drawing she made of her just as he promised but asks Emily to keep it from Ilse first since he hasn’t drawn Ilse’s portrait yet, then asks her if she’s going to give up writing even before opening up the door to her dreams. That night, Emily thinks about Teddy’s words and gains the resolve to open this door to her dreams, no matter what lock holds it. The next day, Carpenter returns Emily’s notebook to her, giving his remark that only ten out of about four hundred sentences that she wrote are good, the rest are nonsense. Emily gets teary eyed as she feels once again insulted by his words, but retorts that she’s never going to give up writing because she loves it. Carpenter then tells her to open the door to her dreams, no matter how hard or impossible it might seem to be, and Emily finds it strange that he’ll be saying these things when he just ridiculed her works to be nonsense. Emily was too focused on the negative remark Carpenter gave that she wasn’t able to hear that he actually praised him for the “ten good sentences / lines” she wrote, with which she’ll be able to write about a hundred good lines by the time she reaches the age of 20. “The road you chose it steep, Emily”, says Carpenter, as he motivates Emily to study well and do her best to reach her dreams, and asks if she still intends to write despite the possibility that her works won’t be published, to which Emily nods in agreement.

Emily was filled with joy as she finally understood what Carpenter’s words meant, realizing that he thought about her welfare after all. She runs off to tell Teddy about this, and decides to enter the “House of Broken Dreams” as both she and Teddy reiterates what Carpenter told them, “I will continue to pursue my dream no matter what difficulty comes my way. I won’t lose to anything I face. I’ll open the door [to my dream] no matter how impossible it might be, knowing that spring awaits me at the other end”. Emily and Teddy becomes in awe by how wonderful the place is, and settles on making this the place where they’re going to work. Words start flowing out of both Emily and Teddy as they compose this poem about allowing the springtime to come into the house as they open its windows for all eternity, making both of them feel the gust of wind from Mrs. Wind, and decides to fill the house with dreams again, as they fulfill their dreams and happiness with each time they spend in this house.

Thoughts

Every episode of Emily never fails to move me, and this episode especially filled me with the very dreams it imparted to the characters in the show, with the help of Carpenter and the wonderful characters of Emily of New Moon. Just how Carpenter described how Teddy’s drawing conveys the message he wants to impart to his audience, I felt that this could also be the very description I can give to Emily of New Moon itself, where it successfully delivers all these emotions and message it wants to impart to us audience, about pursuing one’s dreams and being filled with hope with each new day.

With Carpenter, Ilse has been given the chance to express herself just as she is, and Perry was also given the chance to fulfill his desire of being able to study together with Emily and the other students. Emily was able to learn much from her encounter with Carpenter, especially seeing how she became narrow-minded after he gave those comments about her work and became disheartened because of it. Carpenter seems to be the first person who ridiculed Emily’s works and greatly affected her, and it was great to see how Emily was able to gain the resolve to not give up on her dream despite this ‘mockery’ she thought.

Teddy also became determined to fulfill his dreams with the help of both Emily and Carpenter, where he’s filled with hope that his mother will someday be able to understand his love for drawing and allow him to leave their town to pursue his studies. It’s going to be difficult for Teddy, seeing how close-minded his mother still is, but it’ll be great to see what events will lead to his mother changing.

Emily and Teddy became the highlight for this episode, where we see both these young and aspiring ‘artists’ filled with hope for the future, as they work hand in hand to inspire each other to fulfill their dreams. I still don’t know what path this show is going to take, but I can’t help but smell the scent of romance blooming between these two, especially with how they looked like a married couple in the last scene who are imagining how their house will look like. Seeing how they were able to compose poems together can’t help but make me feel a tingle of romance as I witness how they become a source of inspiration for each other.

I was a little intrigued by Elizabeth in this episode, specifically the way she was somewhat affected by the mention of Francis Carpenter. I’m thinking she’s keeping some ‘juicy stuff’ about what she knows about Carpenter, and it’s the reason why she refused to say anymore about it to Emily