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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Anne of Green Gables, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Home and Family
Beauty and Imagination
Friendship
Mishaps, Milestones, and Growing Up
Boys and Romance
God, Prayer, and Church
Summary
Analysis
Mrs. Rachel Lynde lives just off Avonlea’s main road and keeps a careful eye on all the town’s comings and goings. One afternoon in early June, she is sitting by her window when she sees Matthew Cuthbert driving his buggy through the hollow, dressed in his best outfit. Matthew is such a shy man that he seldom goes anywhere without good reason. Mrs. Lynde decides she must visit Matthew’s sister Marilla, who lives with him, in order to satisfy her curiosity.
Montgomery begins her story through the eyes of the town gossip, allowing the reader to get an outside perspective on brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who will occupy the center of the novel. Matthew’s unusual errand establishes an air of mystery and hints that the Cuthberts’ lives are about to change.
Themes
Literary Devices
After tea Mrs. Rachel heads up the road to Green Gables, the big house set back from Avonlea’s main road and surrounded by orchards where the Cuthberts live. Mrs. Rachel thinks it’s no wonder Matthew and Marilla are thought to be a bit strange, living in this isolated house among the trees. She walks across the tidy backyard of Green Gables and is soon welcomed into its spotless kitchen, where Marilla sits knitting. Immediately, Mrs. Rachel observes that the table is set for three, but the dishes and dessert indicate that only ordinary company is expected.
Matthew and Marilla live an isolated life even by rural Avonlea standards. In particular, Marilla’s life seems to revolve around impeccable housekeeping, even though people seldom come to Green Gables. Mrs. Lynde’s observations suggest that the Cuthberts’ life is rather lonely. Yet the mystery of Matthew’s errand deepens, because it seems that somebody is expected for dinner.
Themes
Marilla and Rachel don’t have much in common—Marilla is tall, thin, and angular, with a stark knot in her hair and a rigid expression, yet a suggestion of humor around her mouth. Despite their differences (Mrs. Lynde is plump and laughs more readily), the two have always been friends. Mrs. Rachel sits down and gets straight to the point—where is Matthew off to? Marilla knew Rachel would show up with questions. Matthew, she explains, has gone to the train station; they’re adopting a little boy from an asylum in Nova Scotia.
Marilla and Rachel Lynde are the book’s first example of friendship. Their differences suggest that people don’t have to be very similar in order to form a genuine, enduring bond; being neighbors and learning each other’s habits, as Marilla and Mrs. Lynde have clearly done, is sometimes enough. “Asylum” is an archaic way of referring to an orphanage.
Themes
Mrs. Rachel is briefly dumbstruck, but Marilla is serious. Rachel doesn’t approve of Matthew and Marilla adopting a boy—especially without asking her advice. Marilla explains that Mrs. Alexander Spencer told them about the asylum, and they figured that Matthew, who’s now 60 and suffers from heart trouble, could use a little boy’s help. So they’ve asked Mrs. Spencer to pick out a boy of 10 or 11 for them.
In Canada in the late 1800s, it wasn’t uncommon to adopt a child from an orphanage in hopes of getting help around one’s house or farm. Situations varied, but in this case, the Cuthberts aren’t primarily interested in offering a child a home and family—they really need someone to help Matthew with daily chores.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Mrs. Rachel tells Marilla she’s being foolish—they don’t know anything about this little boy or his background. What if he sets Green Gables on fire or poisons the well? She read in the newspaper about a little orphan girl doing that. Unfazed, Marilla points out that there are risks in everything, and anyway, she isn’t adopting a girl. Mrs. Rachel heads out to share the news with her other neighbors, feeling sorry for any orphan who’s going to be raised by the Cuthberts.
Mrs. Lynde is afraid the Cuthberts don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. Newspaper stories sensationalize orphans’ crimes, suggesting that these children were sometimes stigmatized. Marilla’s dry humor comes through in her response to Rachel, as well as her sensible nature. At the same time, Mrs. Lynde isn’t wrong—the Cuthberts don’t know what, or who, is waiting for them.
Themes
