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Chapter 2: Matthew Cuthbert Is Surprised
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
When Marilla sees that Matthew has brought in a strange girl with red hair, she’s baffled. The girl listens silently as Marilla questions Matthew about the mix-up. Suddenly she drops her bag and springs toward them with clasped hands, crying, “You don’t want me because I’m not a boy! I might have expected it.” She flings herself down at the table and weeps. She adds that this is the most “tragical” thing that has ever happened to her.
Smiling a bit, Marilla tells her that she can stay for tonight. She asks the girl’s name. At this, the girl asks if she could be called Cordelia, though she reluctantly admits that it’s not her real name—she’s really Anne, which is sadly “unromantic.” Marilla retorts that Anne is a nice, sensible name. Anne agrees to give up being called “Cordelia” as long as Marilla makes sure to call her Anne instead of Ann—she thinks it looks much more distinguished.
Much as she imagines new names for places and other people, Anne even renames herself to something more “romantic”—another way of imagining herself into different circumstances. But if she must be just “Anne,” it’s important that other people know the correct spelling. Though Anne’s insistence on “Anne with an E” is one of her humorous trademarks, it’s also a way that she hangs onto ownership of her name in a world where she has little else.
Themes
Anne doesn’t know how the mix-up at the orphanage happened. When Mrs. Spencer came to get Lily Jones, the five-year-old she’s adopting, she was certain that the Cuthberts wanted a girl, too. Marilla explains that a girl “would be of no use to us” on the farm. Anne quietly sits down with the Cuthberts for dinner but only pecks at her food, explaining that she’s “in the depths of despair.”
Marilla thinks of adopting a child in terms of that child’s usefulness to her and Matthew, not primarily in terms of providing love and a home, so there’s no room for Anne in her plans. Though Anne is no doubt devastated, she uses big words and ideas to help her cope with sadness.
Themes
After dinner, Anne listlessly follows Marilla up to the east gable room where she’ll sleep. The walls and floor are painfully bare, with an old-fashioned bed and plain mirror and basin. Anne quickly changes and dives under the covers, finding the room cold and uninviting. When Marilla returns for her candle, she picks up Anne’s discarded clothes and bids her goodnight. Anne retorts that it’s the worst night she’s ever had.
The bare coldness of the gable room reflects the cold reception Anne has received from Marilla; she isn’t wanted or expected here. This is another circumstance so extreme that Anne can’t simply imagine it away. When her imagination fails, she doesn’t shrink from telling the truth baldly and confronting Marilla about the pain she has caused.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Marilla returns to the kitchen, where she finds Matthew thoughtfully smoking his pipe. She says she plans to see Mrs. Spencer tomorrow and figure things out—Anne will need to be sent back to the orphanage. When Matthew is reluctant, Marilla asks what good Anne could be to them. “We might be some good to her,” Matthew says. He finds Anne interesting, and he figures he could hire a local boy to help him instead. Marilla thinks Anne talks too much. Unsettled, the two drift off to bed. Upstairs, Anne cries herself to sleep.
Marilla remains committed to her original plan, thinking of Anne in terms of what “good” she can be to the Cuthberts. She thinks of Anne mainly as a household asset, in other words, instead of as a person to be loved. Matthew’s mindset, on the other hand, has already changed—he thinks of how the Cuthberts can help Anne. If it’s farm help he needs, he’s willing to pay for it. Anne, he senses, deserves something better.
Themes
Literary Devices
