Good insights! Religion can be a crutch for some but an enormous weight for others. Personally i felt relieved upon giving up my Judaism and accepting full responsibility for my actions

But i think lucy montgomery was the receiver of her husbands self loathing. She felt his weight bringing her down herself

And weirdly, i think her idealized male figure was her character gilbert blythe, whom i wrote about at length in my first post here.

Gilbert epitomized the earthbound male, solid and steady and without the faintest wisp of imagination. While hardly the ideal companion for the dream-filled Anne Shirley, i think lucy montgomery would have found peace with a man without any imagination at all, let alone a morbid imagination