Anthony Pye

Anthony Pye is a pupil in Anne Shirley’s class at the Avonlea school whose hostility and contempt for women teachers make him a persistent test of Anne’s authority. Their difficult relationship turns on the difference between outward obedience and respect: Anthony seldom openly defies Anne, yet his scornful manner troubles her and, she fears, affects the other children.

Introduction and Character

On Anne’s first day teaching, Anthony sits alone at a corner desk, staring at her with a hostile expression. Anne immediately resolves to win his affection, making his resistance a personal challenge as well as a classroom problem. The description of him as sullen establishes the first impression she must work against; she nevertheless suspects that beneath his manner he could be a likable boy.

Conduct in the Classroom

Anthony’s mischief becomes concrete when he pours the last drops of water from his slate bottle down Aurelia Clay’s neck. Anne keeps him in at recess and explains that gentlemen do not pour water down ladies’ necks. She tells him she wants all her boys to become gentlemen, making her rebuke an appeal to conduct and character, not merely a punishment for disrupting class. Her lecture is kind, but it does not visibly affect him: he listens in silence, retains his sullen expression, and leaves whistling scornfully. Anne takes heart by treating the work of winning a Pye’s affection as something that cannot be accomplished in a day, though she privately wonders whether the family has any affections to win.

Conflict with Anne’s Authority

Anne later tells Gilbert Blythe that Anthony does not like her and, more troublingly, does not respect her. He rarely disobeys directly; instead, he obeys with what Anne reads as contemptuous tolerance, as if arguing would not be worth his effort. In her view, that attitude risks weakening her standing with the rest of the class. She also reports that Anthony has always had male teachers and believes girl teachers are no good. Anne considers whether what he hears at home might explain his view, but does not think that fully accounts for him: she regards him as independent and capable of forming his own opinions. She resolves to see what patience and kindness can accomplish, while acknowledging how much his resistance worries her.

Confrontation and Narrative Role

In a later classroom disturbance, Anne looks directly at Anthony and asks whether he was responsible. He admits that he was, insolently and without apparent shame. Anne takes a long, heavy hardwood pointer from her desk. The supplied scene ends at that action, leaving the immediate consequence unstated. The exchange nevertheless sharpens the pattern already established: Anthony’s defiance is no longer only a difficult attitude perceived by Anne but a misdeed he openly acknowledges when challenged. His role in the school episodes tests Anne’s hope that goodwill can overcome contempt, while the gap between her patient appeals and his scorn keeps that hoped-for change unresolved in these scenes.