Anne and Gilbert's rivalry

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe's rivalry begins with a wound and ends with a handshake, tracing an arc from childish fury through years of silent competition to a mature friendship that neither could have predicted. It is the novel's most sustained relationship of tension, and its resolution marks Anne's final step from impulsive girlhood into thoughtful young adulthood.

Origin: The Slate and the Insult

The rivalry ignites on Anne's first day at Avonlea school, when Gilbert, newly returned from a three-year stay in Alberta, sits across the aisle from her. Diana Barry has already warned Anne that Gilbert "teases the girls something terrible" and that he is "aw'fly handsome," but Anne is initially absorbed in her own daydreams, gazing out the window at the Lake of Shining Waters. Gilbert, unused to being ignored, reaches across, picks up the end of Anne's long red braid, and whispers "Carrots! Carrots!" Anne's reaction is instantaneous and violent: she springs to her feet, calls him a "mean, hateful boy," and brings her slate down on his head, cracking it clean across. The punishment that follows—Mr. Phillips makes her stand on the platform with "Ann Shirley has a very bad temper" written above her—humiliates Anne so deeply that she declares she will never forgive Gilbert. When he apologizes at the porch door, whispering "I'm awfully sorry I made fun of your hair," she sweeps past without a word. "The iron has entered into my soul, Diana," she tells her friend.

The Years of Silent War

For two years, Anne and Gilbert maintain a state of cold war. Anne refuses to speak to him, even when Diana acts as peacemaker, and she passes him on the road or in Sunday school "with an icy contempt that was no whit thawed by his evident desire to appease her." But the rivalry finds a new channel: academic competition. When Anne returns to school after the currant wine incident, she "flung herself into her studies heart and soul, determined not to be outdone in any class by Gilbert Blythe." The contest is entirely good-natured on Gilbert's side, but Anne's hatred is "as intense in her hatreds as in her loves," and she will not admit she means to rival him. The honors fluctuate: one day Gilbert is head of the spelling class, the next Anne spells him down; one morning his name is on the roll of honor, the next hers. On one awful day they tie, and their names are written up together, which Anne finds "almost as bad as a take-notice." In the monthly written examinations, Gilbert comes out three marks ahead the first month; Anne beats him by five the second, but her triumph is "marred by the fact that Gilbert congratulated her heartily before the whole school."

The Turning Point: The Lily Maid

The rivalry's first crack appears during the Elaine incident on the pond. Anne, playing the lily maid, drifts downstream in a leaky flat and is forced to climb onto a bridge pile to avoid drowning. Gilbert rows up in a dory and rescues her. After he rows her to shore, he detains her and asks, "Can't we be good friends? I'm awfully sorry I made fun of your hair that time." For a moment Anne hesitates—she feels "an odd, newly awakened consciousness" that the "half-shy, half-eager expression in Gilbert's hazel eyes was something that was very good to see," and her heart gives "a quick, queer little beat." But the old grievance stiffens her resolve, and she refuses coldly: "I shall never be friends with you, Gilbert Blythe." Gilbert's face flushes with anger, and he vows, "I'll never ask you to be friends again, Anne Shirley." Yet Anne walks away conscious of "an odd feeling of regret," almost wishing she had answered differently.

The Queen's Year: Rivalry Transformed

When the Queen's class is organized, the rivalry enters its most productive phase. Both Anne and Gilbert take up the First Class work, aiming for a teacher's license in one year instead of two. "There was open rivalry between Gilbert and Anne now," the narrator notes, and "the other members of the class tacitly acknowledged their superiority." But the bitterness has drained out of it. Anne no longer wishes to win for the sake of defeating Gilbert, but for "the proud consciousness of a well-won victory over a worthy foeman." She realizes, to her secret dismay, that "the old resentment she had cherished against him was gone—gone just when she most needed its sustaining power." She has forgiven and forgotten without knowing it, but she determines that neither Gilbert nor anyone else shall ever suspect how sorry she is for her earlier pride. Gilbert, for his part, ignores her completely, talking and jesting with other girls but never acknowledging her existence—and Anne finds that "it is not pleasant to be ignored."

The Bend in the Road: Reconciliation

The rivalry culminates in the Entrance examinations, where Anne and Gilbert tie for first place on the pass list, their names at the very top of two hundred candidates. But the true resolution comes afterward. When Anne decides to stay at Green Gables and teach, she applies for the Avonlea school, believing the trustees have promised it to Gilbert. Gilbert, learning of her application, withdraws his own and takes a school at White Sands instead, knowing how much she wants to stay with Marilla. Anne, hearing this from Mrs. Lynde, feels she "ought not to let Gilbert make such a sacrifice." The next evening, meeting him on the hill, she stops him and thanks him, her cheeks scarlet. Gilbert takes her hand eagerly and asks, "Are we going to be friends after this? Have you really forgiven me my old fault?" Anne laughs and admits she forgave him "that day by the pond landing, although I didn't know it. What a stubborn little goose I was." Gilbert declares, "We were born to be good friends, Anne. You've thwarted destiny enough." They walk home together, and Anne later tells Marilla they have "five years' lost conversations to catch up on." The rivalry that began with a cruel nickname and a cracked slate ends with a clasped hand and the promise of a shared future.