Redmond College

Redmond College is the Charlottetown institution where Anne Shirley plans to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree after winning the Avery scholarship, a goal that represents the culmination of her academic ambitions and the promise of a broader intellectual life beyond Avonlea.

The Avery Scholarship and the Path to Redmond

The Avery scholarship, a prize of two hundred and fifty dollars a year for four years at Redmond College, was endowed by a wealthy New Brunswick manufacturer and awarded to the Queen's Academy graduate who made the highest mark in English and English Literature. When Josie Pye brought the news that Queen's would receive one of these scholarships, Anne felt her heart beat more quickly and her ambitions shift and broaden as if by magic. Before that moment, her highest aspiration had been a teacher's provincial license, First Class, and perhaps the medal; now she saw herself winning the Avery, taking an Arts course at Redmond, and graduating in a gown and mortar board. She resolved that night to win that scholarship if hard work could do it, thinking of how proud Matthew would be if she got to be a B.A.

Anne's Decision to Forgo Redmond

After Matthew Cuthbert's sudden death from heart failure, brought on by the news of the Abbey Bank's failure, Marilla learned from an oculist that she would go stone-blind in six months unless she gave up all reading, sewing, and any work that strained her eyes. Faced with the prospect of losing Green Gables, Anne decided not to take the scholarship. She told Marilla that she was not going to Redmond, that she would stay home and teach at the Carmody school instead. Marilla protested that she could not let Anne sacrifice herself, but Anne insisted there was no sacrifice, that nothing could be worse than giving up Green Gables. She planned to study at home and take a little college course by herself, saying that her future now had a bend in the road and she was going to believe that the best lay around it.

Gilbert Blythe's Role and the New Teacher

Gilbert Blythe, who had also planned to attend Redmond but had to earn his own way through college because his father could not afford to send him, withdrew his application for the Avonlea school when he heard Anne had applied, and suggested the trustees accept hers. He signed papers to teach at White Sands instead, a self-sacrificing act since he would have to pay his board there. Anne, learning of this from Mrs. Rachel Lynde, felt she ought not to let Gilbert make such a sacrifice for her, but Mrs. Lynde told her she could not prevent him now. That evening Anne met Gilbert on the hill and thanked him, and they agreed to become good friends, with Gilbert saying they were born to be good friends and could help each other in many ways, as he too planned to keep up his studies.

Redmond as a Symbol of Unchosen Possibility

Though Anne never attends Redmond, the college remains a powerful symbol of the intellectual and social world she chooses to set aside. Her decision to stay at Green Gables is not a rejection of ambition but a redirection of it: she will be a good teacher, save Marilla's eyesight, and study at home. The bend in the road, as she calls it, has a fascination of its own, and she wonders what lies beyond it—what green glory, what new landscapes, what curves and hills and valleys further on. Redmond College, in this light, represents the road not taken, but also the proof that Anne's capacities and aspirations are large enough to encompass both the life she chooses and the life she might have lived.