Anne Shirley and Davy Keith

Anne Shirley and Davy Keith develop a close, distinctly practical bond: Anne welcomes him into a new home after his mother’s death, corrects his mischief, and makes him feel loved even when he fears he has forfeited her affection. Their relationship is not founded on Davy’s easy obedience. It grows through the harder work of understanding his childish reasoning, setting limits, and reassuring him that correction does not mean rejection.

A Bereaved Child Finds a Welcome

When Anne meets the twins at the gate, Davy answers her welcome with a hearty hug and introduces himself as Mr. Davy Keith. The exuberance sits beside the grief that has brought him to Green Gables: his mother has died that very day. He tells Marilla Cuthbert that his mother had spoken with him the night before, explaining that Marilla would take him and Dora Keith for the winter and asking him to be good. She had also charged him to be kind to Dora and stand up for her. Davy insists that he intends to keep that promise, although his idea of defending his sister can include tugging her curls himself so that nobody else will do it.

Anne’s welcome does not make Davy instantly mannerly. At supper he says he is too hungry to eat politely, then takes Dora’s cake from her fingers after Marilla has refused him more. Anne corrects him in her schoolmistress manner by appealing to the kind of gentleman he might become; Davy replies that he is not one. Their exchange establishes a pattern that continues throughout the relationship: Anne addresses his conduct without treating his present shortcomings as the whole of his character.

Misconduct, Correction, and Reassurance

A more serious test comes after Davy persuades Dora to walk along the pigpen fence. Dora falls in, and the attempt to wash her dress at the pump only leaves her soaked, with her sash and shoes spoiled. Marilla takes Dora upstairs to change; Davy is sent to bed without supper. Anne then goes to speak with him, not merely to punish him again but to ask him to consider what he has done. Davy admits that remorse often comes only after the act. He recognizes that Paul Irving would not have made his sister take the same risk, and Anne confirms the contrast by calling Paul a perfect little gentleman.

That comparison brings Davy’s deeper worry into view. He crawls to Anne, puts his arms around her neck, and asks whether she likes him at all, even though he is not good like Paul. Anne answers sincerely that she does, while also telling him she would like him better if he were less naughty. The moment makes her affection neither indulgent nor conditional on flawless behavior: she can name the harm and still assure him that he is loved. Davy’s need for that assurance is part of the bond, not an interruption of it.

When Davy confesses another wrong, Anne’s tears give him a new measure of its consequence. He is aghast that he has made her cry, rushes into her lap, and breaks down in remorse. He explains that he did not know falsehood was wrong because he had seen other children tell lies; he fears Anne may never love him again, apologizes for hurting her, and promises not to lie once he understands the rule. Anne holds him and asks Marilla to forgive the part he did not know, on condition that Davy promise not to say what is untrue. His repentance is expressed in the extravagant threat that Anne may skin him alive if he lies again, but the important change is that he now connects truthfulness with a clearly explained moral expectation. Anne’s tears have made her feelings legible to him, and his response is not merely fear of punishment but distress at having hurt someone he loves.

Teaching Through His Own Questions

Anne’s guidance also makes room for Davy’s unusual interpretations of what adults teach him. After a catechism lesson with Marilla, he confidently tells Anne that the text says God makes preserves as well as redeems people, because he has understood a comma to divide the phrase differently. Anne has to explain how that punctuation changes the meaning. Davy is disappointed when the promise of heavenly jam dissolves, and wonders whether heaven will have Saturdays. The episode turns instruction into conversation: Anne corrects his reading without dismissing the imaginative logic that produced it.

Davy also trusts Anne with questions that touch his sense of himself. After overhearing Mary Joe describe him as queer and suggest that something might be wrong in his upper story, he cannot sleep and asks Anne whether she thinks he is mentally wrong. She answers in astonishment that he is not, and asks what gave him the idea. His appeal to Anne shows how important her judgment has become: he brings her a fear he cannot comfortably raise with his grandmother and needs her to tell him that his difference does not mean he is defective.

The contrast with Paul recurs in Davy’s efforts to understand goodness. Paul is a standard against which Davy measures his own behavior, but Anne does not use that comparison to write Davy off. She sees that he has no other boys to play with, that Dora is too prim to serve as his playmate, and that his mischief partly reflects an unmet need for occupation. Although Marilla insists that the twins will not attend school until they are seven, Anne accepts the task of trying to reform him at home. Her approach combines limits with attention to the child’s circumstances.

The Child Who Needs Her

Anne admits that, despite Davy’s faults, she likes him better than the exceptionally well-behaved Dora. She and Marilla recognize the unfairness of preferring the child who causes more trouble, but Anne gives the preference a relational explanation: Dora seems already brought up, while Davy needs them badly. Her affection is thus tied not simply to his charm or comedy but to the care he requires and the dependence he shows. Davy’s repeated bids for Anne’s approval give that care an answering shape: he turns to her after wrongdoing, tests whether she still likes him, and trusts her to explain rules he has not understood.

That care also belongs to the larger arrangement of Anne’s life at Green Gables. Anne tells Marilla that she cannot leave her alone with the twins to attend Redmond College. Marilla proposes asking Rachel Lynde to live with her, making it possible for Anne to continue her education while the household’s needs are addressed. Anne says she has been happy during the two years at home, yet she also wants college to teach her how to live well and help other people. The relationship with Davy therefore involves real responsibility, but it does not become a reason that Anne must abandon her ambitions. Its defining balance is the one Anne practices with Davy himself: care that takes another person’s needs seriously while still making room for growth.