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Chapter 16: Diana Is Invited to Tea, with Tragic Results
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
The next day, Anne glances outside and sees Diana beckoning to her from afar. She rushes down to the hollow and listens in dismay as Diana explains that her mother is unrelenting—the two girls are never to play together again. Weeping, they promise to remain one another’s “bosom friend” no matter what. When Diana says she could never love anybody as much as Anne, Anne is overcome—she thought Diana merely liked her. She never believed that anyone could love her. With her patchwork scissors, she cuts off a lock of Diana’s hair to remember her by.
As Marilla had predicted, Mrs. Barry is strict with her children and thinks Anne is a bad influence on Diana—a hard blow for both of them, especially for Anne, who believed she’d found her bosom friend at last. Anne’s childhood was so lonely that she isn’t used to hearing that she is loved, so Diana’s words come as a genuine surprise.
Themes
The following week, to Marilla’s surprise, Anne appears with an armload of books and announces she is returning to school—at least she can see Diana there. Anne is warmly welcomed by her other friends, receiving fruit, flowers, and fond notes from the other girls. After the dinner hour, she returns to her seat to find a beautiful apple. Just before taking a bite, she remembers that this type of apple only grows in the Blythe orchard. She drops the apple instantly. In pointed contrast, she graciously accepts a decorated pencil from Charlie Sloane.
The forced estrangement from Diana leads Anne to return to school. But her faithfulness to Diana is matched by her stubborn hatred of Gilbert—even her willingness to provoke him by pointedly accepting the attentions of a boy she doesn’t especially like instead.
Themes
Diana is silent at school. But the next morning Anne receives a note from her, explaining that her mother has forbidden her to speak to or play with Anne at school. But she encloses a handmade bookmark and promises her faithful friendship. Anne sends back a note of thanks, understanding that Diana has to obey her mother and adding that their “spirits can commune.”
Anne and Diana don’t try to resist Diana’s obligation to obey her mother (an example of Montgomery’s upholding of virtues like obedience and “being good” throughout the novel). From Anne’s perspective, “bosom friends” are so joined in spirit that they can remain connected even when circumstances prevent them from connecting in life.
Themes
Marilla expects Anne to get into further trouble at school, but to her surprise, Anne begins to thrive. She gets along better with Mr. Phillips and, motivated by the desire to beat Gilbert Blythe, throws herself into her studies. A rivalry develops. Though Gilbert sees the rivalry as friendly, Anne sees it as an extension of her grudge. She won’t even admit that he’s her rival, because she’s still determined to ignore his existence. But the class honors alternate between the two of them—including one day, mortifying to Anne, when their names appear together in a tie.
When Anne returns to school on her own terms, she does better there. She also copes with her dislike of Gilbert by seeing him primarily as an academic rival instead of simply as a hated enemy. Still, there’s no question that the rivalry is motivated by resentment, at least on her side.
Themes
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By the end of the term, both Anne and Gilbert are promoted into the next class, and Anne begins struggling with geometry, lamenting to Marilla that “Gil—I mean some of the others” are so good at it. And she continues to be grieve the distance from Diana. Yet the world is so interesting that she can’t stay sad for long.
Anne thrives academically despite her earlier disadvantages, showing that in addition to her stubbornness, she has grit and determination. She also copes with the difficulties in life, like her estrangement from Diana, by finding new interests, not simply by escaping into imagination.
Themes
