Anne Of Green Gables

As Matthew returns to Green Gables one evening after working on the farm, he meets Anne and her friends practicing for their parts in the concert. Unable to ever break his shyness around young girls, he hides behind the fireplace and watches them. While doing so, he realizes that something sets Anne apart from the rest of the girls, but he can’t put his finger on it. He thinks about this for the next few hours but cannot figure it out; he cannot ask Marilla for advice because he knows she will tell him the only difference is that Anne cannot stop talking.

Eventually, he determines the difference: “Anne [is] not dressed like the other girls” (235). Now he can see that all the girls are dressed in the latest fashion except Anne. He wonders why Marilla always insists on keeping her in plain-looking clothes. Though he has agreed to stay out of Anne’s upbringing, he figures that one lovely dress couldn’t possibly do any harm and decides to buy her one for Christmas.

Matthew decides to go to a store over in Carmody to buy the dress, and he believes he has chosen one run by men so that he doesn’t have to speak to a female employee. Unfortunately, a woman is working at Lawson’s General Store, and Matthew is tongue-tied at the sight of her. Though she is friendly and helpful, Matthew cannot bring himself to ask about a dress and instead comes home with an unnecessary garden rake in the middle of winter and 20 pounds of brown sugar. At the end of his rope, Matthew turns to Mrs. Rachel to assist him.

Mrs. Rachel, secretly glad that Matthew wants to buy Anne a dress because she too thinks the way “Marilla dresses [Anne] is positively ridiculous” (239), agrees to take care of everything for him. Matthew makes it a point to ask for puffed sleeves, and Mrs. Rachel says she will sew it in the latest fashion. She brings the dress to Green Gables on Christmas Eve, and while Marilla is not offended, she thinks the dress is an unnecessary frivolity that will “pamper Anne’s vanity” (240).

On Christmas morning, Anne awakens to find the dress and is speechless with gratitude. Matthew is tickled that he was able to surprise her. Diana also brings up a special gift from Aunt Josephine—a pair of dainty slippers for Anne to wear to the concert that evening. Anne is mesmerized by all the gifts in her life.

The concert is a huge success due mainly to Anne, who “was the bright particular star of the occasion” (243). As she and Diana walk home together, Diana commends her for a wonderful performance. Then, Diana mentions Gilbert’s recitation and reveals to Anne that a rose fell out of her hair when Anne ran off stage, and Gilbert picked it up to place in his pocket. Anne continues to respond to any comments about Gilbert with disdain. Meanwhile, at Green Gables, Matthew is immensely proud of Anne and tells Marilla that they will need to think about options for Anne after she finishes Avonlea school. Marilla agrees and comments that Anne is growing up quite well.

After the concert concludes, the girls cannot go back to normal. They must find an outlet for their creative energy. Miss Stacy assigns creative writing practice for them, and Anne shares her idea with Diana—a vividly heartbreaking romance that culminates in the death of the two lovers. Diana, always overshadowed by Anne’s imagination, reveals that she cannot think of anything to write about. Anne suggests that the two of them form a story club where they can write stories as practice and give feedback to each other. Soon, a few other girls from school are invited to the story club, and they form a little peer group of admiration and constructive criticism.

Marilla thinks that “reading stories is bad enough but writing them is worse” (253), but Anne assures her that each story has a valuable moral lesson. The girls even send some stories to Aunt Josephine, who is completely amused by them. Even Mrs. Allan shares in the readings, making Anne happy, as Mrs. Allan is one of her role models. She asks Marilla if she might grow up to be like Mrs. Allan one day, and Marilla tells her that Mrs. Allan never talked so much as a child, so probably not.

One evening in April, Marilla walks home from a Ladies Aid meeting, comforted by the fact that a fire and hot tea await her arrival courtesy of Anne. Instead, she finds a cold kitchen. Angry and disappointed, she mumbles about punishing Anne while making dinner for Matthew, who has just arrived from the fields. Though Matthew tries to defend Anne, Marilla shuts him down and says, “I never found her disobedient or untrustworthy before and I’m real sorry to find her so now” (257).

The hours go on, and still no sign of Anne. After finishing the chores, Marilla goes upstairs to Anne’s room to get a candle and is surprised to find Anne lying face down on the bed. She shrieks at Anne to get up, but Anne is in the “depths of despair” (258) and asks Marilla not to look at her. Unperturbed by Anne’s dramatics, Marilla forces her up and, in the candlelight, sees that Anne’s red hair is a hideous shade of green.

Marilla takes Anne down to the kitchen, both in shock. Anne reveals that she bought a bottle of hair dye from a peddler that afternoon under the promise that it would “turn [her] hair a beautiful raven black” (259). Marilla doesn’t know whether to scold Anne for believing a peddler or being so vain as to dye her hair, but she knows there is only one option—the dye must come out. Anne washes her hair over and over, but it is no use. The hair must be cut off. Marilla takes her scissors to it, and Anne is momentarily cured of her vanity. She forces herself to look at her short hair in the mirror as penance and vows “never try to be beautiful again” (263). 

Not long after her hair fiasco, Anne finds herself in another attempt to be romantic. She, Diana, and the girls, all of whom have just read Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shallot” in class, decide to recreate the scene where Elaine floats down the river in the bottom of a rowboat, dead. After a brief argument about who will play the central role, the girls decide that Anne is the most dramatic. They place her in pretend funeral shrouds in the bottom of Mrs. Barry’s rowboat and push her into the brook, intending to meet her further down where the creek runs into Barry’s pond.

Anne lies there quietly but suddenly feels water seeping into the boat. She jumps up and finds a large gash in the bottom. She screams, but the girls are already waiting for her by the pond and cannot hear her. To save herself from drowning, Anne jumps onto a bridge piling when the rowboat passes by and clings there until someone can rescue her. Meanwhile, the boat drifts down until the girls see it as it sinks into the water. Diana and the rest all believe Anne has drowned, and they run screaming back to Orchard Grove. Anne sees them, but her voice is drowned out by their screams.

Just when Anne feels like she cannot hold on any longer, Gilbert Blythe paddles by in a dory. He is amazed to see Anne clinging to the piling and quickly pulls up alongside her. Anne begrudgingly takes his hand and falls into the boat. She explains the circumstances and asks Gilbert to take her to shore. When they arrive, Anne jumps out of the boat with a cold “I’m very much obliged to you” (270), but Gilbert grabs her hand and apologizes for their initial fight two years prior. He wants to be friends. Although “her heart gave a quick, queer little beat” (270), Anne denies him once again. Gilbert’s feelings are hurt, and he leaves.

As Anne stumbles back toward Orchard Grove, she runs into Diana and Jane, who are delighted that Anne is alive. When Anne tells them about Gilbert’s rescue, the girls find it romantic and believe that Anne will now be friends with Gilbert—a belief that Anne soon squashes. The Barrys and Cuthberts are enraged that the girls put their lives in danger for a silly game of pretend, but Anne promises Marilla that she has been cured of being romantic.