Anne Shirley—David Keith

Anne Shirley’s relationship with Davy Keith is at once a caregiver’s responsibility, a child’s attachment to a trusted adult, and an education conducted through patient attention rather than punishment. Davy tests rules, misunderstands what adults take for granted, and sometimes acts badly; Anne’s response is to discover what he understands, explain what he does not, and make clear that correction does not mean the withdrawal of love.

A Bond Formed Through Bereavement

Davy enters Anne’s care amid grief and upheaval. On the day his mother is buried, he explains that she had been very tired of being sick and had spoken with him the night before she died. She had told him that Anne and Marilla Cuthbert would take him and Dora for the winter, urged him to be good, and charged him to be kind to his sister and stand up for her. His promise to follow her instruction is sincere, but his idea of defending Dora is still childish: he has tugged her curls and insists that no one else should be allowed to do so. Anne and Marilla must hold the bereaved boy’s loyalty to his mother together with the need to correct his roughness.

That exchange establishes an important quality of Anne’s care. She does not mistake Davy’s declaration of good intentions for good conduct, but neither does she treat his confusion as proof that he cannot learn. His mother’s last instructions give the children a continuing connection to her, while Anne becomes the adult who helps Davy put those instructions into practice. The relationship begins not with effortless obedience but with the daily work of interpreting love, responsibility, and limits for a child who is still learning what they mean.

Teaching Through Explanation

Davy’s misunderstandings often expose the difference between adult language and a child’s literal reasoning. When he concludes from a catechism question that God makes preserves, Anne has to explain how a comma changes the meaning. Davy’s disappointment at learning that the passage does not promise jam is genuine, and his next practical worry is whether heaven has Saturdays. Anne’s task is not simply to correct an error; she must enter the path of thought that made the error plausible and answer the questions it has produced.

She does the same when Davy repeats a story that has left him imagining heaven inside Simon Fletcher’s garret. Anne takes him on her knee and untangles the account, drawing on her own memory of childhood to understand why an idea that seems plain to grown-ups can become strange and frightening to a seven-year-old. In the same scene, Dora is described as attentive and dependable, while Davy is heedless and forgetful but has a natural knack for winning affection. The narration makes clear that Anne and Marilla love him all the more despite the contrast. Anne’s attachment is therefore not a reward for tidiness or easy compliance; it persists alongside his mischief and gives her reason to keep teaching him.

Trust, Misconduct, and Reassurance

The bond is tested when Anne, exhausted and upset, begins to cry after Davy has behaved badly. Her tears produce a response that a reprimand alone had not: aghast at having made Anne cry, Davy rushes into her lap, puts his arms around her neck, and weeps. He admits that he did not know telling whoppers was wrong. Because other children did it regularly, he had taken the behavior for granted; he had also been trying to be as good as Paul Irving. Now he fears Anne will never love him again.

Anne recognizes both the wrongdoing and the ignorance behind it. She tells Marilla that Davy did not understand that falsehood was wrong and asks that he be forgiven for that part, provided he promises not to say what is untrue again. Davy’s remorse is not treated as a convenient excuse: it becomes the opening for a promise and a clearer understanding of the rule. The scene shows how much Anne’s regard matters to him, and how she uses that regard to guide rather than humiliate him. Her feeling is strong enough to move him, but her response also gives him a way back into trust.

Affection Without Favoritism

Davy’s dependence on Anne becomes explicit when he refuses to say his prayers, declaring that he might as well be bad because she likes Paul better. Anne answers seriously that she likes Paul and Davy equally, but in different ways. She helps Davy see the distinction through his own relationship with Dora: he loves his sister as his sister, and Anne because she is Anne. He accepts the reasoning, changes his mind about prayer, and gets out of bed to kneel beside her rather than postponing his devotions until morning.

The exchange shows that Anne does not reassure Davy by pretending that every relationship is identical. Instead, she makes room for distinct attachments without turning difference into a ranking. Davy’s fear that he must compete with Paul gives way when Anne explains that affection can be particular to the person who receives it. His wish to be loved is not dismissed as childish vanity; Anne takes it seriously enough to answer in terms he can understand.

Her care also takes the form of promises and shared pleasures. After asking Davy to behave perfectly the next day, Anne refuses his proposal that he should then be allowed to be as bad as he likes the day after. She offers a row with Dora to the sandhills and a picnic instead. When Davy has tried to be good, she keeps the outing she promised, although the original bargain made it conditional on perfect behavior. Anne decides that his effort matters and does not want to disappoint him. The picnic is both a reward and an expression of the trust they are building: she notices the attempt, not only whether he has mastered every rule.

Family Responsibility and Anne’s Future

Anne’s commitment to Davy and Dora is also part of a larger household responsibility. When she considers continuing her education at Redmond College, she says she cannot leave Marilla alone with the twins, who need so much looking after. Marilla proposes asking Rachel Lynde to live with her, explaining that Rachel’s farm must be sold and that she is distressed at the prospect of leaving Avonlea. If Rachel joins the household, Anne can go to college. The possibility turns the twins’ care into a practical condition of Anne’s future: her affection for them is not merely private, because it shapes the arrangements adults must make around her education.

Anne has been happy at home, but Marilla insists that contentment is not the whole question. Anne has saved enough for one year at college, money from the stock will cover another, and scholarships may help further. Anne’s eventual aim is not simply to collect honors; she wants to learn how to live well, help others, and understand both herself and other people. That aspiration accords with the care she gives Davy: she treats understanding as something made through attention to another person, not imposed by authority alone. Their relationship does not erase the competing claims of family duty and Anne’s education. Instead, it helps make those claims visible, while Marilla’s proposed household arrangement offers a way for Anne to remain deeply attached to Davy and Dora without abandoning her own future.