Anne Shirley Resigns from Teaching to Attend Redmond

Anne Shirley’s resignation from teaching marks the moment when a future she had nearly set aside becomes possible again. Marilla Cuthbert urges her to attend Redmond College, and a new household arrangement removes the practical obstacle that had kept Anne at home. Anne accepts the opportunity, but not lightly: the school, her pupils, and the modest routines she has made beautiful have become roots she knows will hurt when she leaves.

The opportunity and its conditions

The possibility emerges in a private conversation with Marilla, who asks how Anne would feel about going to college in the fall, when Gilbert Blythe is expected to go. Anne is astonished, and answers that she would want to go but does not believe it is possible. Marilla explains that she has long thought Anne ought to continue her education and has worried that Anne might be giving it up for her sake. The proposal thus recognizes a sacrifice Anne has not regarded as a sacrifice: she has been happy at home, but happiness does not settle the question of what she should do next.

Marilla makes the prospect financially concrete. Anne has saved enough for one year at Redmond College; money from the stock will cover another, and scholarships might provide further help. The plan is not presented as effortless or guaranteed beyond those resources, but it gives Anne a credible way to begin. Anne’s immediate objection is instead domestic. Marilla’s eyesight has improved, but Anne believes she cannot leave her alone with the twins, who still need substantial care.

Marilla’s answer depends on a change in the household rather than on Anne simply abandoning her responsibilities. She has discussed the situation with Rachel Lynde, whose circumstances have grown difficult. Rachel explains that the farm was mortgaged eight years earlier to help her youngest son make a start in the West; since then, the family has managed little beyond the interest. Thomas Lynde’s illness has added expenses, and the farm will have to be sold, with little likely to remain after the bills are paid. Rachel expects she may have to live with Eliza, but the thought of leaving Avonlea grieves her. Marilla proposes inviting Rachel to live at Green Gables: Rachel can keep her company and help with the twins, allowing Anne to go.

A choice made with joy and regret

Anne readily supports the invitation. She would be sorry to see Rachel leave Avonlea, and she understands that Rachel’s presence would answer the practical concern she has raised. Yet the arrangement does not make her departure emotionally simple. That night, alone at her window, Anne meditates on the turn in the road that has opened before her. College represents a field of hopes and visions, but taking that road means leaving behind pleasures and duties she has come to cherish during the preceding two years.

The school is the sharpest example. Anne loves every pupil, including those she considers stupid or naughty, and the thought of leaving them gives the choice a personal cost beyond the interruption of her own routine. Paul Irving comes to mind as well, making her wonder whether the promise of Redmond is, by itself, enough to outweigh what she values at home. The pause is not a refusal of ambition; it shows that ambition has to compete with real attachments rather than with an empty life.

Anne describes those attachments as little roots put out over two years, roots that will hurt when she is pulled up. At the same time, she concludes that going is best: Marilla has shown that there is no good reason she must stay, and Anne means to bring her ambitions back into use. The image holds both sides of her decision together. Leaving is a wound because her local life has mattered; it is also a necessary movement because that life need not consume the future she has saved and prepared for.

Resignation and a new household arrangement

Anne sends in her resignation the next day. The decision therefore passes promptly from private reflection into action: she does not wait for the imagined sadness to disappear before committing herself to college. At the same time, Rachel has a heart-to-heart talk with Marilla and gratefully accepts the offer of a home at Green Gables. The two choices answer one another. Anne’s departure becomes practical because Rachel will join the household, while Rachel’s acceptance gives her a home in Avonlea rather than requiring her to leave the place she loves.

Rachel does not move immediately. She elects to remain in her own house for the summer, since the farm will not be sold until the fall and arrangements remain to be made. Her move is therefore planned rather than abrupt, and the household transition unfolds alongside the sale and settlement of her farm. She initially finds the prospect of living so far from the road surprising, but Green Gables no longer seems as remote to her: Anne has company there, and the twins make it lively. Above all, Rachel would rather live at the bottom of a well than leave Avonlea.

Public judgment and the meaning of the decision

News of the arrangements spreads quickly and displaces the arrival of Mrs. Harrison as the subject of local gossip. Some residents regard Marilla’s offer to Rachel as rash and predict that the two women will not get along, because both are thought too fond of having their own way. The predictions do not disturb the women involved. They have discussed the respective duties and rights of the arrangement, reached a clear understanding, and intend to honor it.

The episode makes Anne’s move toward education part of a broader reorganization of care. Her choice is neither an escape from the household nor a rejection of the work and relationships that have sustained her; it depends on Marilla’s initiative, Rachel’s willingness to come, and a deliberately negotiated sharing of responsibilities. Resignation closes Anne’s role at the school, but it does not erase what that role has meant. The road ahead becomes available precisely as she recognizes the value of the roots she is leaving behind.