Anne deciding to stay at Green Gables and teach

Anne Shirley's decision to stay at Green Gables and teach instead of taking up the Avery scholarship at Redmond College is the novel's culminating act of moral maturity, transforming her from a dream-haunted orphan into a young woman who chooses duty, love, and the preservation of home over personal ambition. The choice is not a renunciation of her aspirations but a redirection of them: she will study at home, teach at the local school, and become the companion Marilla needs. It is the bend in the road she has long anticipated, and she meets it with a courage that redefines her entire future.

The Crisis That Demands a Choice

The decision is forced by a double catastrophe. Marilla returns from her appointment with the oculist in Charlottetown with devastating news: if she does not give up all reading, sewing, and any work that strains her eyes, she will be stone-blind within six months. Even with the prescribed glasses, she can no longer manage Green Gables alone. At the same time, the Abbey Bank has failed, taking with it every penny the Cuthberts had saved. Matthew Cuthbert, already dead from the shock of that news, had left notes to pay from the previous fall. Marilla, sitting limply at the kitchen table with her head in her hand, tells Anne that she sees no choice but to sell Green Gables and board somewhere—perhaps with Mrs. Lynde. Anne, who has just come back from Orchard Slope, finds her in this dejected attitude and learns the full weight of the situation.

Anne's Counter-Proposal

Anne does not hesitate. She tells Marilla resolutely that Green Gables must not be sold. She has already thought out a plan during the week since Marilla came home from town. Mr. Barry will rent the farm for the next year, so there will be no trouble over that. Anne herself will teach. She has applied for the Avonlea school, though she expects it has been promised to Gilbert Blythe; but she can take the Carmody school instead, boarding at home and driving herself over in warm weather, coming home on Fridays even in winter. They will keep a horse for that purpose. She will read to Marilla, keep her cheered up, and make the old house cozy and happy for both of them. When Marilla protests that she cannot let Anne sacrifice herself, Anne laughs and insists there is no sacrifice: nothing could be worse than giving up Green Gables, nothing could hurt her more. Her mind is quite made up.

The Transformation of Ambition

Anne's explanation to Marilla reveals how thoroughly she has reframed her life's purpose. She is just as ambitious as ever, she says, but she has changed the object of her ambitions. She will be a good teacher, she will save Marilla's eyesight, and she will study at home, taking a little college course all by herself. The image she uses is the novel's most famous metaphor: when she left Queen's, her future stretched out before her like a straight road, with many milestones visible. Now there is a bend in it. She does not know what lies around the bend, but she is going to believe that the best does. The bend has a fascination of its own—green glory, soft checkered light and shadows, new landscapes, new beauties, curves and hills and valleys further on. Marilla, yielding, calls her a blessed girl and says she feels as if Anne has given her new life.

The Community's Response

When the news spreads through Avonlea that Anne has given up college to stay home and teach, most of the good folks think she is foolish, not knowing about Marilla's eyes. But Mrs. Allan approves, telling Anne words that bring tears of pleasure. Mrs. Lynde, too, is glad, declaring that Anne has as much education as a woman can be comfortable with. She also brings the news that the Avonlea school trustees have decided to give Anne the school after all: Gilbert Blythe, upon hearing that Anne had applied, withdrew his own application and suggested they accept hers, signing instead to teach at White Sands, where he will have to pay his own board. Anne, blushing, feels she ought not to let Gilbert make such a sacrifice for her, but Mrs. Lynde points out that he has already signed papers, so refusing would do no good. Anne takes the school.

The Reconciliation and the New Beginning

That same evening, walking down the hill past the Blythe homestead, Anne meets Gilbert and stops him to thank him for giving up the school. He takes her offered hand eagerly, and she confesses that she forgave him that day by the pond landing, though she did not know it at the time. She has been sorry ever since. Gilbert declares they are going to be the best of friends, born to be good friends, and that they can help each other in many ways. He walks her home, and they stand at the gate for half an hour, catching up on five years of lost conversations. That night, sitting at her window, Anne feels a glad content. The wind purrs in the cherry boughs, the mint breaths come up to her, and Diana's light gleams through the old gap. Her horizons have closed in since the night she sat there after coming home from Queen's, but she knows that flowers of quiet happiness will bloom along the narrow path set before her. The joy of sincere work, worthy aspiration, and congenial friendship are to be hers. Nothing can rob her of her birthright of fancy or her ideal world of dreams. And there is always the bend in the road. She whispers softly, "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."