The first time I saw Frozen, I felt as bad for Elsa and Anna as anyone. After all, their parents chose to keep Anna's erased memories of her sister's powers, separated them by moving Elsa out of Anna's room, reduced the staff and shut the gates so no one could learn about Elsa's powers, etc. The girls grew up in a dark, mostly empty castle. Elsa was kept isolated from everyone with only her parents to constantly coach her, and Anna was kept isolated without anyone at all.

Then their parents died, leaving them not knowing how to get on without them. Elsa was the heir but could not rule since a) she still had her powers that she couldn't control, b) had been so isolated and drilled with fear growing up that she was in no mental or emotional condition to break her parents' mold.

But poor Anna! At least Elsa has a REASON to keep her bedroom door and the castle gates shut! At least Elsa KNOWS why they have to stay isolated. Poor Anna is isolated without even knowing why!

Then I slowly started to realize... Why is Anna so lonely? Her parents may have reduced the castle staff, but they didn't get rid of them entirely. Even if there are less people to talk to, there are still people around. Even if Elsa shut her out and Anna's parents are too busy focusing on Elsa to spend time with her, Anna can still hang out with the servants as they dust, mop, prepare meals, wash clothes, trim the gardens, etc. In fact, when Elsa flees and Anna orders someone to fetch her horse, you already know they have stable masters, grooms and stable boys to take care of the royal horses, since Anna doesn't have to brush, saddle, or bridle the horse herself.

Then link gave even further food for thought: "Given Anna’s natural boisterousness, unless Arendelle is really classist, I find it hard to imagine she didn’t interact with and even make friends among the castle staff, whom we know exist."

I hadn't really considered classism up till that point, but it makes unfortunate sense. We know there are servants because we see them. We hear the male staff member (perhaps the chamberlain or butler?) wake Anna through the door, we see the servants bringing out "a thousand salad plates," and after Elsa flees we see Anna call for a servant to fetch her horse, and it's brought to her fully saddled and ready to go. We know the staff exists... so how come Anna doesn't seem to think they exist?

As Grace Randolph points out in her review of Frozen, link: "We [Elsa and Anna] have these servants that don't even have names or personalities."

Now, you can say that we, the audience, don't learn the servants' names or personalities because they aren't important to the story. But then, since Anna is the main character, what's important to her is what's important to the story. Her sister, opening the gates, her crush-turned-fiance, etc. If the staff aren't important enough to learn even basic names or personality traits, like we do of Maudy from Brave (the put-upon maid who's constantly tormented by the triplets), then that means they aren't important enough to Anna. And I'm sorry, but that's... classist.

When you think about it, Anna never really looks at, talks to, or acknowledges the staff. They talk to her through the door, she runs past them in her excitement for the windows and doors being opened, and she calls out for one to fetch her horse from a distance, but there is no interpersonal interaction. While Anna sings link, she runs past the servants like they're part of the furniture in the castle. In fact, Anna interacts with the furniture more than the people. She shows more interpersonal connections with the suits of armor, statues, and paintings on the wall than she does the real people walking by her.

So if Anna is lonely enough that she feels her whole life is just empty halls and closed doors and her ONLY company growing up has been paintings and suits of armor... She either had no servants to spend time with, or she's so classist they don't count. We know the former isn't true, so the latter...?

And I don't even think classism is the answer. As Anna says to the ducklings in the courtyard: "I can't wait to meet everyone!" And she's shown happily interacting with peasants with her sister after the gates have been opened at the end. So Anna is all right spending time with people below her station. So, why don't the staff count?

Honestly, I think Anna's intense loneliness is a plot hole.

As Dani Colman notes in her aforementioned link article: "Anna has to endure three years of — at worst — relative isolation, and she emerges so desperate for love that she gets engaged to literally the first young man she meets. It isn't so much ridiculous because it’s a stupid thing to do; it’s ridiculous because a girl that obsessed with finding love should already have a crush on a cute stable-boy." (Bolded by me.)

I must agree. We see that Anna is elated to interact with the peasants that come through the castle gates, and we see that she's open-minded enough to politely request things of Oaken in his spa (as opposed to haughtily demanding) and fall in love with Kristoff the ice harvester. If she's open-minded enough to like people despite their class, shouldn't she have already befriended the staff? Enough that the gates opening is a pleasant change, not The One Chance she has to interact with real people or fall in love?

Speaking of the gates: Why are their being closed so detrimental to Anna's social life? Yes, the castle is dark, mostly deserted, and boring. However, as noted by the link, Anna "spends three years of her adult life shut inside a castle... Even though she can leave at any time. *clip of Anna walking right outside the castle gates where people are gathered*"

This made me realize how even more trivial, or at least poorly explained, an obstacle the closed castle gates are. Unless the sisters are under house arrest, Anna should be able to physically leave the castle at any time. We see that it's right in the middle of a port city, filled with crowded streets and buildings. We also see that Anna has plenty of free time since she spent most of her life in the empty halls, staring at the walls, watching time tick by. (Where were her nurses, nannies, or tutors?)

If Anna has time and freedom to just sit around feeling bored, shouldn't she also be able to use that time interacting with servants or physically leaving the castle (either through walking or riding) to go hang out where the people are?

It's not like she's constantly monitored like Jasmine, who always has "people who tell you where to go and how to dress," and who is not allowed outside the palace wall because, in her father's words, "You're a princess!" And it's not like Anna's imprisoned in a castle in the middle of the forest like Belle, or locked in a tower in the middle of a ravine like Rapunzel. The former of whom is bound by her word and the latter of whom is constantly manipulated by her "mother" to stay. All three of whom go against orders and leave when the desire becomes great enough. Jasmine sneaks out in the middle of the night, Belle tries to run away but goes back to the Beast out of gratitude for saving her life, and Rapunzel only intended to see the lanterns and then go home before her "mother" tricked her into thinking the man she loves was only using her so she'd feel so crushed she'd want to retreat back.

I just find Anna's lifelong loneliness and isolation poorly explained, the more I think about it. Anna claims there's no one to spend time with after her sister shuts her out, but there's castle staff she should be able to spend time with. Based on her very friendly, boisterous, and open-minded personality, she should have already befriended them. If not them, there's literally nothing stopping her from going outside the castle gates and spending time with her people periodically. Sure, the castle itself is mostly empty and boring, but it's not like she's under house arrest or stranded in the middle of the wilderness.

And if she is classist or under house arrest, it was poorly explained.