Anne Shirley—Marilla Cuthbert

Anne Shirley and Marilla Cuthbert share a family-like bond formed through years of living together and caring for others. Their relationship is marked not only by affection but by practical negotiation: Marilla gives Anne room to take responsibility, while Anne’s concern for Marilla and the twins shapes her choices. As Marilla learns to question her once-firm ideas about the right way to live, she also helps Anne imagine a future beyond Green Gables.

A Household Built on Care

When a letter explained that Richard Keith could not take Davy Keith and Dora Keith in the spring, Marilla agreed that the twins would stay until the fall. Her answer was grim, but the narration reveals her private relief; she had also come to see that the children were less trouble, or that the household had grown accustomed to them. Anne carefully credits Davy’s improved manners without claiming that every aspect of his conduct has changed. The exchange shows the pair confronting care as an ongoing household responsibility, while Anne’s tact and Marilla’s admission of relief make room for tenderness beneath their practical talk.

Anne’s instinct is to protect the people and attachments she has come to value. When she fears a letter from Richard might require the twins to leave, she admits that she would dread opening it. Her anxiety makes clear that the children’s place in the household matters to her as more than a temporary arrangement. Marilla’s role as their guardian and Anne’s growing investment in their welfare bring the two women together in a shared family life, even as the uncertainty about the twins’ future weighs on Anne.

Their care also takes ordinary, domestic forms. When Anne learns that Charlotte E. Morgan may visit, she asks to prepare the entire dinner herself as a way of doing something for the author. Marilla readily lets her take charge, welcoming the chance not to spend a July day over a hot fire. Anne receives this permission as a meaningful favor, while Marilla treats it as a natural division of work. The small scene captures their ease with one another: Anne’s enthusiasm is taken seriously, and Marilla’s support is expressed through a practical act of trust.

Disappointment and Mutual Adjustment

When Priscilla Grant’s letter cancels Charlotte E. Morgan’s visit, Anne is bitterly disappointed. Marilla tells her that life will bring further disappointments and observes that Anne still sets her heart intensely on anticipated happiness. Anne recognizes the pattern: anticipation carries her upward, and disappointment brings her abruptly down, but she also insists that the exhilaration of hoping has value in itself. Marilla does not simply dismiss this way of feeling. She contrasts it with her own preference for calm, then reflects that raising Anne and the twins has made her less certain there is only one right way to live.

That exchange reveals a reciprocal change. Marilla can still be blunt, and Anne remains susceptible to hope and hurt, but neither is reduced to the other's opposite. Anne can acknowledge her own tendency without surrendering what she values in it; Marilla can state her difference without insisting that Anne must become like her. Their familiarity permits disagreement to become a form of understanding rather than a rupture.

Education, Responsibility, and a Shared Future

Anne’s prospects for college are long constrained by her sense of duty at home. When she considers the possibility, she points to Marilla’s impaired eyesight and the twins’ need for care, and says she does not want to become discontented by dwelling on a future she cannot yet reach. She is grateful for her work, Paul Irving, the twins, and her friends, but gratitude does not erase the sacrifice involved. Marilla’s health and the children’s uncertain place in the household are concrete limits on Anne’s freedom to pursue further education.

After Anne has spent two happy years at home, Marilla makes clear that she does not want that contentment mistaken for a reason to give up education. Anne has saved enough for one year at Redmond College, and money from the stock can support another; scholarships might help as well. Anne still believes she cannot leave Marilla alone with the twins. Marilla answers not by dismissing that concern but by changing the arrangement: she has spoken with Rachel Lynde and proposes asking her to live at Green Gables. Rachel’s own circumstances—including the likely sale of the farm and her distress at the prospect of leaving Avonlea—make Marilla’s offer an act of care beyond the household, while also opening a way for Anne to go.

Marilla brings the decision to Anne before asking Rachel, treating her as a participant in a family choice rather than announcing a settled plan. Anne is dazed by the prospect and leaves the question of inviting Rachel to Marilla, asking whether Marilla herself would like it. That hesitation shows how carefully Anne weighs her own opportunity against Marilla’s wishes. Marilla’s proposal, in turn, recognizes that supporting Anne may mean reshaping their shared home rather than asking Anne to abandon her ambitions.

Parting Without Severance

When Anne decides to go to Redmond College, she is glad intellectually and sorry emotionally. Her purpose has also changed: honors matter less than learning how to live well, make the most of life, and understand and help other people. J. A. Harrison affirms that conception of education, but the choice has been made possible by Marilla’s willingness to provide for the household and let Anne leave. Their bond therefore holds together dependence and independence: Anne can move toward a wider life because Marilla has helped make departure compatible with care, and leaving does not cancel the home and affection that formed her.