Gilbert Blythe

Gilbert Blythe’s importance lies in a love that persists without turning into a claim on Anne Shirley: when she rejects his first proposal, he releases her gently, and when they find their way back to one another, their shared history has become part of what makes a future together possible. A capable student, ambitious young man, and steadfast friend, he is shaped as much by restraint and loyalty as by romantic feeling.

Identity and Early Relationship

Gilbert and Anne’s connection begins in the schoolroom, where Anne once broke her slate over his head. He later remembers that incident as the beginning of his love for her. For a long time, however, their bond belongs to the familiar world of Avonlea friendship, and Anne is not ready to understand it as anything more.

A moment on the bridge over the Lake of Shining Waters reveals the change Gilbert hopes for. As evening falls, he places his hand over Anne’s on the rail and is about to speak. Anne pulls her hand away and turns aside, abruptly ending the intimacy of the moment. She fills the walk home with ceaseless chatter, while Gilbert scarcely gets a chance to speak. Anne senses that a secret self-consciousness has entered their old school-day companionship, but she treats the possibility of romance as a threat to a friendship she values.

That early retreat establishes a pattern: Gilbert risks making his feelings known, while Anne’s response is shaped by her own ideas of romance and by her fear of losing what they already share. His later patience does not erase the hurt of rejection, but it allows their relationship to endure its changing forms.

College Ambition and Courtship

At Redmond College, Gilbert proves himself a resourceful leader. When the Freshmen win the annual Arts Rush against the Sophomores, ending three years of Sophomore victories, the success is attributed to his strategic command and new tactics. His classmates elect him president of the Freshman Class, and he is invited to join Lamba Theta, an honor rarely given to a Freshman. The initiation requires him to parade through Kingsport wearing a sunbonnet and a brightly flowered kitchen apron; he performs the absurd ordeal cheerfully, greeting familiar women with a courtly doff of his bonnet. The episode shows an ease with public embarrassment and a good-humored willingness to take part in college life.

His ambition is not confined to student honors. During his second year, he pursues a scholarship, as Anne pursues the Thorburn Scholarship in English to avoid drawing on Marilla Cuthbert’s small savings. Gilbert also finds time to call frequently at Thirty-eight, St. John’s, and accompanies Anne to nearly all the college affairs. He knows that Redmond gossip couples their names, but Anne cannot bring herself to cast aside an old friend. Gilbert, for his part, is careful not to reveal his feelings in a way that would give Anne reason to withdraw; he holds his place beside her as the familiar companion from Avonlea.

Other young men visit Anne, including a Freshman, a Sophomore, and a Junior who talk with her about academic subjects as well as lighter matters. Gilbert dislikes their presence, though he does not openly compete for Anne or make a display of jealousy. Anne tells herself that he has abandoned his former romantic hopes, even as she privately wonders why. Their closeness is thus real, but its meaning is not shared equally: Gilbert remains in love, while Anne accepts his companionship without recognizing what it costs him.

When Gilbert learns that he has been offered a job at the Daily News office for the summer, he tells Anne he will not be returning to Avonlea then and that the work will help him the following year. Anne’s immediate response is subdued; the prospect of a summer without him troubles her more than she expects. In the same conversation, he takes her hand and insists on speaking. Anne pleads with him not to, but Gilbert tells her that their situation cannot continue as it is and asks if she will promise to become his wife someday.

Anne cannot return his love. She apologizes, and Gilbert releases her hand gently. He says he had sometimes thought she cared for him, but acknowledges that he deceived himself, then says goodbye. Anne is left weeping in her room, convinced that she has lost not simply a suitor but Gilbert’s friendship. His response gives the refusal its full consequence: he neither blames nor pressures her, but the old ease between them does not immediately survive.

Estrangement and Signs of Return

After the refusal, Gilbert continues to attend Friday evenings at Patty’s Place. He is sociable and in good spirits, but neither seeks Anne out nor avoids her; when they meet, he speaks courteously, as he would to a new acquaintance. The change in their manner is sharp against the former intimacy. Anne feels the loss, although she reassures herself that Gilbert has recovered from his disappointment and is thriving in his ambitions. His composed public manner conceals more than she can know at the time.

At Diana Barry’s wedding to Fred Wright, Anne and Gilbert meet face to face for the first time since leaving Kingsport. Gilbert arrives looking well but thin. Anne wears a soft white dress, with lilies-of-the-valley in her hair, and the pair enter the crowded parlor together on his arm. During the evening’s informal merrymaking, some of their old comradeship returns. Afterwards, Gilbert walks Anne to Green Gables. The renewed ease is slight but consequential: the relationship is no longer only an absence to be mourned, though it has not yet become a courtship again.

At Convocation, the flowers make Anne’s divided expectations visible. She has Roy Gardner’s violets and expects that an engagement to Roy may soon be announced. Yet she sets Gilbert’s lilies-of-the-valley beside them, remembering the graduation they had once imagined together while still friends in Avonlea. In the end, she carries Gilbert’s flowers instead of Roy’s. The gesture does not yet settle her feelings in words, but it connects the achievement of her long-held ambitions to the friend who had shared the dream of that day.

Illness and Recognition

After Anne leaves for Echo Lodge, Gilbert falls ill with typhoid fever. Anne does not know of it until she returns to Green Gables and hears from Davy Keith that Gilbert is dying. The news makes her go white and motionless. Rachel Lynde explains that the illness began soon after Anne left, that Gilbert was badly run down, and that the case has been severe. The disclosure transforms Anne’s understanding of her attachment: the possibility of losing him exposes a depth of feeling she had not admitted while he was simply present in her life.

The suspense continues until Pacifique Buote brings news that Gilbert has taken a turn for the better and is expected to recover. Anne’s relief is overwhelming. She remembers the messenger not for his appearance but for the moment of hope he brings, and she stands in Lover’s Lane as the anguish of the night gives way to joy. Gilbert’s illness is not presented as a consequence of Anne’s rejection; rather, it creates the crisis through which she recognizes what his continued presence means to her.

Renewed Proposal and Future

When Gilbert comes to invite Anne on one of their old rambles through the September woods, she cannot go because she must finish a dress for Alice Penhallow’s wedding. Their conversation turns instead toward the future he still hopes for. Gilbert describes his dream of a home with a hearth-fire, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends, and Anne. He asks again the question he first put to her more than two years earlier, this time with reason to hope for a different answer.

Anne admits that she had thought Gilbert loved Christine Stuart. Gilbert explains that Christine was already engaged in her home town and that he had looked after her in Kingsport as a kindness to her brother. He liked Christine in her own right, and he knew college gossip had mistaken their friendship for love. After Anne rejected him, he says, little seemed to matter; there was never anyone else for him in the way Anne was. He had tried to stop loving her when he believed there was no chance, especially once Roy Gardner became part of her life, but could not.

Gilbert also reveals how painful Anne’s apparent courtship with Roy had been. For two years, he believed she might marry Roy, and repeatedly heard that their engagement was about to be announced. During his recovery from typhoid, a letter from Philippa Gordon, now Philippa Blake, told him there was really nothing between Anne and Roy and urged him to try again. Gilbert recalls that the news coincided with his rapid recovery, linking the prospect of a second chance with his return to health.

Anne tells him she understood her love when she thought he was dying, and believed then that she had realized it too late. It was not too late: she accepts his renewed proposal, and they regard the day as the beginning of their happiness. Gilbert’s medical course will keep him from finishing for three years, and he warns Anne that their future will not bring great wealth or luxury. His vision is instead the home he has described: a life made of companionship, friends, and an affection that has survived the long interval between his first question and her answer.