Mrs. H. B. Donnell

Mrs. H. B. Donnell is a conspicuous parent in Anne Shirley’s first teaching term at Avonlea school: she arrives to correct Anne over the pronunciation of the family name and the name used for her son, St. Clair. Her elaborate appearance and forceful insistence make the encounter comic, but it also gives Anne a practical test in how to respond to a child’s wishes without disregarding a parent’s authority. Later, Mrs. Donnell returns as a bearer of other people’s disapproval, extending her role from aggrieved mother to self-appointed messenger of criticism.

Identity and Introduction

Mrs. Donnell introduces herself formally as Mrs. H. B. Donnell and says that she has come because her daughter, Clarice Almira, reported what Anne had said at school. She is especially annoyed that Anne pronounced the surname with the stress on the first syllable. Her correction is exacting: the emphasis, she says, belongs on the final syllable. The family name becomes the immediate subject of the visit, turning a small classroom mistake into a matter of public manners and parental pride.

Her entrance reinforces the force of that complaint. She wears a heavily ornamented pale-blue summer silk, a large white chiffon hat with long ostrich feathers, a pink veil covered in black dots, and as much jewelry as she can crowd onto her small figure; a strong perfume accompanies her. Anne, already tired after the school day, recognizes her as the sort of overdressed woman recently described by J. A. Harrison. The scene sets Mrs. Donnell’s emphatic self-presentation against Anne’s weariness and gives the character a deliberately theatrical first appearance.

The Dispute over Her Son’s Name

The other correction concerns Mrs. Donnell’s son. Anne has called him Jacob because that is the name he gave her, but his mother insists that he must be called St. Clair. She explains that she originally wanted the aristocratic-sounding name when he was born, while his father preferred Jacob, after a wealthy bachelor uncle. She accepted Jacob at the time in the hope that the uncle’s fortune might benefit the boy. When that uncle later married and had three sons of his own, Mrs. Donnell regarded the change in his circumstances as a reason to abandon the name. From then on, she called her son St. Clair and demanded that others do likewise.

The family is not united in this decision. Mrs. Donnell says that her husband continues to call the boy Jacob, and that the boy himself has an inexplicable preference for that name. Her appeal to Anne therefore asks the teacher to enforce a maternal choice that conflicts with the child’s own usage. Mrs. Rachel Lynde later mocks the dispute and rejects Mrs. Donnell’s pronunciation of the family name, presenting the correction as one more instance of the woman’s eccentricity.

Anne eventually handles the matter privately rather than simply imposing the name in class. When St. Clair initially fails to respond to it, she keeps him after school and explains that his mother wants her to use that name and that she cannot go against his mother’s wishes. He accepts Anne’s explanation: she may call him St. Clair, though he threatens to beat any boys who do the same. Anne rebukes him for the threat, while the boys continue to call him Jake. The arrangement satisfies the mother’s request in Anne’s dealings with her son without erasing the name by which the other children know him.

Later Visits and Narrative Role

Mrs. Donnell appears again as a carrier of secondhand criticism. She tells Anne that it is her duty to report that Mrs. Harmon Andrew disapproves of Anne’s reading fairy tales to the children, and that Mr. Rogerson thinks Prillie is not progressing quickly enough in arithmetic. Anne answers Gilbert Blythe with a wry observation about people who claim a duty to pass on unpleasant remarks but do not seem equally compelled to share praise. Mrs. Donnell’s visit thus brings classroom judgments into Anne’s conversation beyond the school, while exposing how the language of duty can lend authority to gossip.

In these episodes, Mrs. Donnell’s certainty contrasts with Anne’s more conciliatory method. She treats pronunciation and naming as matters to be settled by emphatic instruction; Anne listens, explains the conflict to the boy, and finds a workable compromise. Mrs. Donnell’s social presence is comic, but her interventions also give Anne opportunities to practise tact: the teacher must respect a parent’s request, consider a child’s established preference, and decide how to receive criticism passed along in the name of duty.