Fairies

Fairies are imagined beings in the woodland conversation of Anne Shirley and her friends, not creatures the narrative confirms as real. Anne assigns them a place in the landscape and a contrast with malicious wood elves, while Jane Andrews’s wish that fairies existed opens a playful exchange about wishes and personal ambitions.

Imagined Fairies and Their Realm

As the girls explore a lane that darkens into a thick spruce wood, Anne interprets its shadowy features through folklore. She imagines malicious wood elves lurking among the trees, but says they cannot do evil in spring; she places good fairies instead in sunlit spots. Her account gives the creatures a vivid geography, dividing the woods’ gloom from the brighter places where benevolent beings might dwell. The scene presents this as Anne’s imaginative interpretation, not as evidence that supernatural beings are actually present.

Wishes and the Girls’ Responses

Jane says she wishes fairies really existed because they might grant three wishes, or even one. She would choose to be rich, beautiful, and clever. Diana Barry wishes to be tall and slender, while Priscilla Grant wishes to be famous. Anne considers her hair, then dismisses that thought as unworthy. The exchange shifts the Fairies from inhabitants of an imagined woodland to possible wish-granters: their importance in the scene lies in the hopes the girls attach to them, rather than in any demonstrated magical action.