63 pages • 2 hours read
Lucy Maud MontgomeryAnne Of Green Gables
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1908A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised”
The novel opens in a small, quaint town called Avonlea on Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Mrs. Lynde, the town community leader who prides herself on “keeping a sharp eye on everything that passe[s]” (1), is shocked one crisp June afternoon to see her neighbor, old Matthew Cuthbert, driving his horse and buggy in his best suit. Mrs. Rachel cannot understand why Matthew, “the shyest man alive” (3), would be out and about instead of tending to his farm, and she promptly heads down the road to Green Gables, his family home, to ask his sister, Marilla Cuthbert, where on earth he could be going.
Upon arriving at Green Gables, Mrs. Rachel takes note of anything out of place that would justify Matthew’s departure but finds “not a stray stick nor stone” (4) in the perfect, meticulously-kept yard. She hurries inside to find Marilla, knitting calmly, with a dinner table set for three. Ever the watchful eye, Mrs. Rachel notices the third placement and is more confused than before.
Marilla, an angular and rigid woman in her mid-50s, is slightly amused at Mrs. Rachel’s consternation, knowing how curious her neighbor and friend always is about strange matters. She informs Mrs. Rachel that Matthew has gone to the Bright River train station to pick up an orphan boy from Nova Scotia who will be helping them on the farm. Mrs. Rachel is shocked to the core, feeling like she has “received a severe mental jolt” (6) at the thought of the two older Cuthberts raising a young orphan boy. When she questions Marilla’s judgment on this, Marilla responds that Matthew, whose “heart troubles him a good deal” (7), needs help running the farm. Since their acquaintance, a Mrs. Spencer, was traveling to the orphanage to get herself an orphan girl, they asked her to pick up a boy for them.
Mrs. Rachel cannot hold back her opinions on raising strange orphan children and tells Marilla horror stories about orphan children, including one about an orphan girl poisoning her entire adopted family. Marilla steadfastly tells Mrs. Rachel that she’d “never dream of taking a girl to bring up” (9). Mildly placated, Mrs. Rachel leaves Green Gables to spread the word around town about this surprising adoption, thinking to herself how much she pities the child who would be raised by the older brother and sister duo. The chapter ends with the omniscient narrator hinting that if Mrs. Rachel could see the child waiting at the Bright River train station, her pity would be “deeper and more profound” (10).
Chapter 2 Summary: “Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised”
On his eight-mile journey to the train station, Matthew enjoys the beauty of the summer day and reflects on how grateful he is that he hasn’t passed any women on the trip, for Matthew “dreaded all women” and felt they all “secretly laugh[ed] at him” (11). He is surprised to see a young girl waiting at the station and quickly moves past her, so he doesn’t have to make eye contact.
Matthew asks the station master when the five-thirty train would be along and is surprised to hear that it has come and gone, leaving behind only the young girl sitting out front. He is speechless at the possibility that there may have been a mix-up at the orphanage. The station master is no help, merely remarking that the girl “has a tongue of her own” (13) and can relay any confusion on her own. Tentatively, Matthew stares at the girl. She is dressed quite poorly, in an old tattered dress that does not fit her, but her eyes are “full of spirit and vivacity” (14). Her bright red hair pairs dutifully with her freckles and gray-green eyes. Seeing Matthew staring at her, she quickly jumps up and dives deeply into an imaginative tale of what she would have done if no one had come for her that evening. She does not tell Matthew her name. Matthew is taken aback by her talkative nature, a clear contrast to his own, and he decides to take her back to Green Gables to sort out the mix-up. The young girl continues talking non-stop, delving briefly into her life at the orphanage and how much she loves traveling through the countryside.
They begin their journey back to Green Gables, and the girl continues speaking her imagination into existence, remarking on all the beautiful signs of nature as they pass, one by one. Matthew cannot keep up with her questions and merely listens to her as if in a trance. He is surprised by how much he enjoys listening to her speak. The one thing that the girl cannot imagine away is her looks: she condemns her red hair and freckles as the reason she can never “be perfectly happy” (20). Suddenly, the girl is taken aback by the beautiful roads leading into Avonlea, and for once, she is struck speechless. Her silence extends until Matthew informs her that the neighbor has a young daughter, Diana, and the possibility of having a friend nearby brings the girl back to life.
As they approach Green Gables, the girl immediately identifies the Cuthbert home based on Matthew’s description. She swoons and remarks, “It seems as if I must be in a dream!” (25). Her rhetoric of never having a true home before this almost breaks Matthew, as he knows Marilla will want to immediately return the girl to the orphanage. He can’t bring himself to face her disappointment and feels like he is about “to assist at murdering something” (26). They disembark from the buggy with the girl holding “all of her worldly goods” (26) in her disheveled carpetbag.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Marilla Cuthbert is Surprised”
As she opens the front door, Marilla is shocked to see a young girl standing there with Matthew. She reacts with surprise and distaste at the error in judgment made by Mrs. Spencer at the orphanage. As the siblings bicker over the mistake, the girl begins to cry, saying that “nobody ever did want me” (29). Marilla’s hard and callous attempt to console the girl results in more tears, but the dramatic flair with which she conducts herself causes Marilla to smile. She agrees to let the girl spend the night until the matter can be resolved.
When Marilla asks for the girl’s name, the girl requests to be called “Cordelia,” a name which she finds to be “perfectly elegant” (30), even though it is not her real name. Marilla does not abide by this foolishness, and finally, the girl reluctantly admits that her name is Anne Shirley, “Anne spelled with an e” (30). Marilla demands to know how this mistake was made, and Anne reveals that Mrs. Spencer specifically asked the orphanage for a girl. She reproaches Matthew for not telling her the truth at the train station and erupts into a recap of the beauties of their journey home, specifically the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters. Marilla is confused by her fantastical illusions and quickly puts Anne to bed in a remote room in the east gable. After looking around the beautiful, old-fashioned room, Anne lies down and promptly begins crying.
Upon returning to the kitchen, Marilla finds Matthew smoking—a habit he only indulges in when he is upset. She matter-of-factly tells him that Anne must be returned to the orphanage, which upsets Matthew even more. Marilla is shocked by the notion that Matthew wants to keep Anne since they do not need a girl to help run the farm, but Matthew believes they could be good for Anne. Marilla makes it clear that they have no need for a girl, and she must be returned to the orphanage. Matthew and Marilla retreat to their rooms, clearly muddled by the day’s events, while Anne cries herself to sleep.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Morning at Green Gables”
Anne awakens to such a beautiful view that she initially forgets that Marilla and Matthew do not want her “because she [isn’t] a boy” (36). However, she opens the stuck window and drinks in the morning. The cherry-blossom tree, in full bloom outside her window, kick-starts her imagination as her mind takes her on a journey through all of the beautiful places she’s seen in Avonlea so far. She reflects that so much in her life has been ugly up to this point. Suddenly, Marilla arrives and tells her to get ready for breakfast. Instead, Anne falls into a reverie over the tree, and her vivid descriptions and imagination make Marilla uneasy, as she is not used to such talkative people.
When she comes downstairs for breakfast, Anne cheerfully delves into another tirade about the beauty of the morning, but Marilla chides her for speaking, saying that she “talk[s] entirely too much for a little girl” (39). The entire table falls into silence while they eat, making Marilla even more uncomfortable—she feels like there is something unnatural about Anne. However, she knows Matthew wants to keep her, and when she mentions so to Anne, Anne remarks that she “felt that he was a kindred spirit as soon as [she] saw him” (40). Marilla has no idea what the child means by this and sends her back upstairs to make her bed.
When Anne is finished, Marilla tells her to go outside and play, but Anne states “in the tone of a martyr relinquishing all earthly joys” (41) that she simply can’t go outside. She refuses to let herself fall in love with Green Gables if she is soon to leave. Instead, she recounts to Marilla all the beautiful ways she has renamed the geraniums and trees that she can see from her window, christening them with names such as “Bonny” and “Snow White.” This both perplexes and intrigues Marilla, and she finds herself “wondering what on earth [Anne] will say next” (42). Marilla pulls herself from the enigma that is Anne and tells Matthew to harness the mare and buggy to drive over to White Sands and ask Mrs. Spencer what caused the mix-up. Matthew remains silent as he hitches up the wagon and opens the gate for them. As Marilla and Anne pull through, Matthew quietly remarks that he has hired a local boy to help him for the summer, and the implication makes Marilla slightly angry. They drive away as Matthew leans over the gate and watches them.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
These opening chapters introduce readers to the three main characters of the text —Anne, Marilla, and Matthew. Through Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s nosy and invasive (but harmless) interactions in Chapter 1, readers find the Cuthbert siblings to be mostly private, unengaged by society and the rest of the world. Instead, they live in relative isolation on old family property. However, they are so predictable in their actions by this time that they are well-known by the rest of Avonlea, especially Mrs. Lynde, who has made a habit of meddling in other people’s affairs. Matthew’s briefly mentioned heart condition—which foreshadows his eventual death at the end of the novel—sets into motion the delivery of an orphan boy to help at Green Gables, and it is the ensuing confusion and mistake that develops the novel’s initial conflict.
When Anne enters the scene, she immediately captivates the quiet and reserved Matthew. She fills in the gaps that have always existed in his typical conversations, and he quickly sees that she comes from a rough and unloved background. Her clothes and carpetbag, both well-worn and ill-fitting to her, speak of a life spent as a cast-off from society. However, it is her imaginative conversations that she has about the world around her that show Matthew that Anne has never experienced anything truly beautiful in her life—instead, she must create a world of her own making as a way to cope with the realities of her day-to-day life. He is immediately transfixed by her enigmatic personality while knowing that his sister will not see things the same way.
Marilla and Anne’s initial interactions are harsh and unkind, for Marilla is unaccustomed to dealing with a child so vivacious and talkative. However, the subtle details of Marilla’s mind, provided by the omniscient narration, prove that she is not truly callous; instead, she is just a woman accustomed to her ways and unfamiliar with children who live in fantasy worlds as Anne does. As their first moments together continue, Anne has a similar effect on Marilla as she did on Matthew: she brings something out in Marilla that has lain dormant for a long time. However, Marilla’s practicality does not meld with Anne’s exorbitant imagination, and Marilla finds herself unable to decide what to do with a child so strange and unnatural.
For the most part, Anne sees the world through rose-colored glasses that she has placed on herself to avoid the harshness of her life. Though most of her dialogue speaks of beauty and the wonder of the world, the reality of her life comes through subtly, in bits and pieces. She reveals that she has lived in poverty her whole life, with nothing to call her own and no one to love her. She continues to react to setbacks by imagining her own perfect universe, a typical psychological reaction to childhood neglect and misfortune. When she opens the stuck and creaky window in the east gable, a window that seemed “as if it hadn’t been opened for a long time,” she lets a breath of fresh air in, a symbolic action that foreshadows the effect she will have on the Cuthberts, who are so set in their ways.
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