The dare
The dare was the fashionable amusement among the Avonlea small fry during the summer of Anne's first year at Green Gables. It had begun among the boys, but soon spread to the girls, and all the silly things that were done in Avonlea that summer because the doers thereof were "dared" to do them would fill a book by themselves. The rule was simple: one child challenged another to perform an act, and refusal meant public humiliation and the loss of social standing. The dare operated as a binding social contract among the children, creating obligations that could override personal safety, parental authority, and even common sense.
The Mechanics of the Dare
The dare followed a strict protocol. A child would issue a challenge, typically beginning with "I dare you to..." The challenged child could not refuse without losing face. When Josie Pye dared Anne Shirley to walk the ridgepole of Mr. Barry's kitchen roof, Anne turned pale but declared, "I must do it. My honor is at stake." She added, "I shall walk that ridgepole, Diana, or perish in the attempt." The dare was a test of courage that could not be declined, even when the act was clearly dangerous. Anne's earlier experience with Josie Pye's taunts had taught her that backing down meant enduring scorn for life: "I just felt that I couldn't bear Josie Pye's scorn. She would have crowed over me all my life." The dare thus functioned as a mechanism of social control among peers, enforcing conformity to a code of bravery that often contradicted adult values of safety and obedience.
The Ridgepole Dare and Its Consequences
The most dramatic instance of the dare in the novel occurred at Diana Barry's party. After a series of lesser dares—Ruby Gillis climbing a willow tree, Jane Andrews hopping on one leg around the garden—Josie Pye, triumphant from her own successful dare to walk the board fence, challenged Anne to walk the ridgepole of Mr. Barry's kitchen roof. Anne climbed the ladder, balanced herself on the precarious footing, and managed several steps before she swayed, lost her balance, and fell. She slid down the sun-baked roof and crashed off it through the tangle of Virginia creeper. The fall broke her ankle, confining her to bed for six or seven weeks and causing her to miss the arrival of the new lady teacher, Miss Stacy. The injury was serious enough that Marilla, seeing Mr. Barry carry Anne home, realized with a sudden stab of fear "what Anne had come to mean to her"—that Anne was "dearer to her than anything else on earth." The dare thus had consequences that rippled beyond Anne's personal suffering, deepening the emotional bonds at Green Gables.
The Dare as a Social and Moral Test
The dare was not merely a childish game but a serious test of character and social standing. Anne's response to the dare revealed her intense concern with honor and her vulnerability to peer pressure. When Marilla later asked what she would have done if dared to walk a ridgepole, Marilla replied, "I'd have stayed on good firm ground and let them dare away. Such absurdity!" Anne sighed and admitted, "But you have such strength of mind, Marilla. I haven't." The dare exposed the gap between adult prudence and childish codes of honor, and Anne's fall became a lesson she later incorporated into her moral education. She told Marilla, "Today's mistake is going to cure me of being too romantic. I have come to the conclusion that it is no use trying to be romantic in Avonlea." Yet Matthew, with his characteristic gentleness, whispered to her, "Don't give up all your romance, Anne... a little of it is a good thing—not too much, of course—but keep a little of it, Anne, keep a little of it." The dare thus became a vehicle for Anne's growth, teaching her the limits of romantic impulsiveness while preserving the imaginative spirit that defined her.
The Dare and Other Forms of Binding Promises
The dare was part of a broader pattern in Anne's world of solemn vows and binding promises. When Anne first met Diana Barry, she demanded, "Will you swear to be my friend forever and ever?" and when Diana looked shocked, Anne explained, "It just means vowing and promising solemnly." They joined hands over running water—or rather, over a path they imagined as running water—and Anne repeated the oath: "I solemnly swear to be faithful to my bosom friend, Diana Barry, as long as the sun and moon shall endure." Similarly, when Anne confessed to taking the amethyst brooch—a false confession made solely to secure permission to attend the picnic—she treated the act of confession itself as a kind of dare, a performance designed to meet Marilla's demand. The dare, like the vow, was a speech act that created real obligations and consequences, binding the speaker to a course of action regardless of personal cost. Anne's world was governed by such informal but powerful rules, where words spoken in earnest or in play could shape the course of events with the force of law.
