Prissy Andrews

Prissy Andrews is a student at Avonlea school, distinguished from the younger girls by her age—she is sixteen—and by her status as a candidate for the entrance examination into Queen's Academy at Charlottetown. She sits in the long seat at the back of the room, and the schoolmaster, Mr. Phillips, spends most of his time there with her, ostensibly to explain her lessons. The other children notice that he writes things on her slate that make her blush and giggle, and rumor has it that he is "DEAD GONE" on her. She has a beautiful complexion, curly brown hair which she does up elegantly, and she wears a string of pearls about her smooth white throat. At the Avonlea Debating Club concert, she appears in a new pink-silk waist with real carnations in her hair—rumor whispers that Mr. Phillips sent all the way to town for them for her—and recites "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" with such effect that Anne shivers in luxurious sympathy. Mr. Phillips gives her all the Mayflowers he finds on a school outing, murmuring "sweets to the sweet," a line Anne recognizes from a book but which nonetheless proves to Anne that the master has some imagination.

Role in the School and Mr. Phillips's Favoritism

Prissy Andrews is the focus of Mr. Phillips's undisguised partiality. While he helps her with Latin and algebra in the back of the room, the rest of the scholars are left largely to their own devices, eating green apples, whispering, drawing pictures on their slates, and driving crickets harnessed to strings up and down the aisle. This favoritism is a source of gossip and observation among the students. Anne reports to Marilla that Mr. Phillips is "all the time curling his mustache and making eyes at Prissy Andrews," and Ruby Gillis claims to have seen him writing something on Prissy's slate that made her blush. The dynamic is so well known that when Mr. Phillips calls the history class out while absorbed in writing verses "To Priscilla," he fails to notice that Anne, who should have gone, does not move. Prissy's presence thus defines the moral atmosphere of the schoolroom: the master's attention is diverted, discipline is lax, and the younger pupils are left to observe and interpret adult romantic behavior.

Academic Path and Benchmark for Anne

Prissy Andrews is studying for the entrance examination into Queen's Academy, and her progress is a matter of common knowledge. Mr. Andrews, her father, reportedly spent one hundred and fifty dollars to put her through, a figure that impresses Anne when she contemplates the cost of her own education. Prissy's method of preparation—she sat up half the night every night of her Entrance week and crammed for dear life—is contrasted with Miss Stacy's advice to Anne and her classmates not to open a book at all before the examinations, but to rest and walk outdoors. Prissy's experience thus serves as a cautionary example of the older, less enlightened approach to exam preparation. Her successful passage through the Entrance, however, confirms that the path is possible, and her example is one of the models Anne has before her when she decides to join the Queen's class.

Theatrical Performance and Public Recognition

Prissy Andrews is a performer at the Avonlea Debating Club concert, where she recites "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight." Anne, watching from the audience, notes that Prissy is attired in a new pink-silk waist with a string of pearls and real carnations in her hair, and when Prissy "climbed the slimy ladder, dark without one ray of light," Anne shivers in luxurious sympathy. The recitation is a success, and Prissy is one of the older scholars who are regularly called upon to recite at such events. Her public performance places her in the category of the accomplished older girls whom the younger students admire and hope to emulate. Anne herself later recites at the White Sands Hotel concert, and the memory of Prissy's example—along with the encouragement of Matthew and Mrs. Allan—helps her find the courage to perform.

Narrative Significance

The character of Prissy Andrews is a minor but functional figure in the novel. She embodies the romanticized older girl who is the object of the teacher's affection, a role that provides the younger students with a living lesson in the mysteries of courtship and favoritism. Her academic ambition and her success in passing the Entrance examination offer a tangible goal for Anne and her classmates. And her theatrical performance at the concert is one of the early public recitations that Anne witnesses, contributing to Anne's own desire to distinguish herself on a platform. Prissy never becomes a close friend or a rival to Anne; she exists on the periphery of the story, a figure whose function is to illuminate the social and educational world of Avonlea school and to mark the stages of growing up that Anne herself will soon traverse.