Marilla Cuthbert and Davy Keith

Marilla Cuthbert and Davy Keith’s relationship begins as a reluctant act of family responsibility and develops into a bond shaped by everyday care, discipline, and affection. Although Marilla initially sees Davy’s energy as a formidable burden, she accepts him because his mother is gravely ill and his available alternatives seem unsafe. Her care does not mean indulging his misbehavior: she insists that he must learn, while recognizing that a six-year-old cannot be expected to know right from wrong without being taught.

Kinship and the decision to take Davy in

Davy is the son of Mary Keith, Marilla’s distant relative; their connection is described as third-cousinship. When Mary becomes too ill to care for her children, she receives word from their uncle that he cannot take them until spring, when he expects to have a home for them. In the meantime, Mary is to ask neighbors to keep the twins. She finds this unbearable, and Marilla concludes from her manner, though Mary has not directly asked, that she wants Marilla to take them.

Marilla does not treat kinship alone as an automatic obligation. She calls the claim of a third cousin slight and anticipates the responsibility of caring for two six-year-olds. She expects Dora to be quiet, but already regards Davy as especially difficult. Anne Shirley argues that Davy’s naughtiness makes good training more necessary, not less, and asks Marilla to consider the twins’ prospects elsewhere. Her examples of other households make the decision a question of protection and upbringing: the children might encounter bad habits or neglect if no one more suitable took them in. Marilla is persuaded by duty, but she also makes clear that accepting the twins entails practical work for Anne, including sewing and mending because Marilla’s eyesight prevents her from sewing herself.

First journey: resistance and an unexpected embrace

The new relationship takes physical shape after Mary’s funeral, when Marilla brings the twins home from East Grafton. Rachel Lynde watches their buggy descend the hill: Davy leans over the dashboard and grabs at the pony’s tail, while Marilla repeatedly pulls him back. Dora sits primly beside them. The contrast makes visible the very problem Marilla had feared, but the journey also gives Davy and Marilla their first revealing encounter.

The drive is ten miles, and Davy seems unable to keep still. Marilla spends much of it afraid he will fall from the wagon or tumble beneath the pony’s hooves. At last, exasperated, she threatens to whip him when they get home. Instead of shrinking from her, Davy climbs into her lap, disregarding the reins, throws his arms around her neck, and hugs her. He tells her he does not believe she means the threat, judging from her appearance, and asks whether she too found it hard to sit still when she was his age. Marilla answers that she always sat still when told, trying to retain a stern manner even as his caresses soften her. The exchange does not erase the strain of the journey, but it sets the pattern of their early bond: his impulsive physical affection meets her effort to maintain authority, and her firmness is already accompanied by tenderness.

Discipline as teaching, not condemnation

Marilla’s approach becomes clearer when Davy is found to have shut Dora up and lied about it. She does not excuse what he has done, but resists treating the falsehood as proof of an essentially bad character. Mary was too sick to train him properly, and Marilla doubts that a child of six could know the rules without being taught. She proposes beginning at the beginning, as though Davy must learn right conduct systematically rather than be assumed to possess it by instinct. At the same time, she believes he must be punished for shutting Dora away.

Marilla asks Anne for a punishment other than sending Davy to bed without supper, a measure they have used so often that it has become familiar. The request shows her trying to find a response that will correct him without simply repeating an established penalty. Anne objects to punishment and comforts Davy, but Marilla’s concern remains that his actions require a consequence. In the end he is sent to bed and kept there until noon the next day. The episode therefore holds two parts of Marilla’s care together: she recognizes Davy’s lack of prior instruction and the poor influence of his former companions, while also setting a limit when he harms or frightens his sister and lies about it. Her responsibility is not merely to shelter him; it is to teach him conduct he has not yet learned.

A continuing home and shared responsibility

The arrangement is not presented as a brief winter favor. Later, when Anne considers leaving for Redmond College, she worries that she cannot leave Marilla alone with the twins, who need substantial looking after. Marilla answers by proposing that Rachel Lynde come to live with her; with that additional household support, Anne can continue her education. The discussion confirms that caring for Davy remains part of the structure of Marilla’s home, even as the family considers how its responsibilities can be shared.

Marilla’s decision also echoes her earlier acceptance of Anne, though the circumstances differ: she is again taking in a child who needs a home, and once again the prospect challenges her expectations of what her life will require. Davy’s restlessness initially seems to promise worry and extra work; his embrace on the journey reveals a capacity for affection that Marilla cannot meet with sternness alone. Their relationship rests on neither indulgence nor rejection. Marilla accepts the work of raising him, acknowledges that he needs instruction, and maintains rules while her feelings grow warmer. The family tie gives her a reason to act, but her continuing care turns that obligation into a home.