Hayley Mills as the title character in the 1960 Disney film Pollyanna.
'Pollyanna is a children's novel of thirty-two chapters by the American author Eleanor H. Porter. It was first published in 1913.
The actin takes place in the fictional town of Beldingsville, Vermont. The novel's title character and protagonist is an eleven-year-old orphan girl who has been taught to always find something to be glad about, even in the worst of circumstances. The plot is set in motion when, following the death of her father, Pollyanna is sent to live with her closest living relative, her late mother's sister and a woman whom she has never met, Miss Polly Harrington. Miss Polly Harrington is a wealthy woman who has a reputation for being cold. Her servants find her to be an extremely demanding employer. She agrees to take care of Pollyanna because she prides herself on always doing what is morally right. She does not, however, take any joy in the idea of allowing a child to come into her house or her life. She initially does very little to make her niece feel welcome or comfortable in her new home. Pollyanna, however, always sees the best in everybody and cannot help loving her Aunt Polly from the start. Pollyanna's cheerfulness and her desire to make everybody around her as happy as possible have a positive impact on all of the people with whom she comes into contact. In particular, Pollyanna changes for the better the lives of Miss Polly Harrington's maid Nancy, the bedridden invalid Mrs. Snow and her daughter Milly, the sad and lonely Dr. Thomas Chilton, the orphan boy Jimmy Bean and Mr. John Pendleton, a very wealthy man who has a reputation for being a miser and a recluse. Miss Polly Harrington also gradually softens in her attitude towards Pollyanna. It is only however, when Pollyanna suffers an accident that leaves her with life changing injuries that Miss Polly Harrington realizes how much she truly loves her niece and tries to make the unhappy girl feel glad again.
A stage adaptation of Pollyanna was first performed in 1915. The first screen adaptation of the story, an American silent movie starring Mary Pickford, was released in 1920. The novel has been adapted for the screen several times since then The best known of those adaptations continues to be the 1960 live-action film from Walt Disney Productions Pollyanna starring Hayley Mills.
Eleanor H. Porter wrote a sequel to the novel, Pollyanna Grows Up, that was first published in 1915. A further fifteen sequels to Pollyanna, written by other authors, were first published between 1924 and 1997.
The word "pollyanna" has entered the English language to refer to somebody who is always cheerful or optimistic. It is often used disparagingly to refer to someone who continues to be cheerful and optimistic in situations when most people would see no good reason to be so.
See also
- Candide, featuring the character of the eternally optimistic Dr. Pangloss