Anne Shirley - Series Overview

Series Overview

Anne was born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia and spent the earliest years of her childhood there. She was orphaned as an infant of three months, when her parents, schoolteachers Walter and Bertha Shirley (née Willis), died of typhoid fever. Without any other relations, Anne was taken in by Mrs. Thomas, who had done housework for the Shirleys. After Mr. Thomas died, Anne went to live with the Hammond family for some years and was treated as little more than a servant until Mr. Hammond died, whereupon Mrs. Hammond divided her children amongst relatives and Anne was sent to the orphanage at Hopetown. She considered herself as "cursed" by twins — Mrs. Hammond had three sets of twins whom Anne helped raise.

She is sent from the orphanage to the neighbouring province of Prince Edward Island, which she regards as her true home ever after. Unfortunately, she was sent there by mistake — her sponsors, the siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, wanted to adopt a boy to help them on their farm, but the neighbour with whom they had sent the message was certain they had requested a girl instead. Matthew quickly becomes fascinated by the girl's good-hearted spirit, charming enthusiasm and lively imagination, and wants her to stay at Green Gables from the very first. Marilla's instinct is to send her back to the orphanage, but she is eventually won over by Anne's quirky joy in life — and by the fact that another woman, much harder than herself, was set to take Anne should Marilla decline to keep her.

Anne initially makes a poor impression on the townsfolk of Avonlea with an outburst at the Cuthberts' neighbour, the outspoken gossip Mrs. Rachel Lynde, but this is amended by an equally impassioned apology. Anne soon becomes 'bosom friends' with a girl from a neighbouring farm, Diana Barry. The friendship is disrupted by the temporary enmity of Diana's mother, after Anne mistakenly sets Diana drunk on Marilla's homemade currant wine, which Anne had mistaken for raspberry cordial. Anne is soon restored to the family's good graces by saving the life of Diana's little sister Minnie May. Minnie May had an attack of the croup, which Anne was able to cure with a bottle of ipecac and knowledge acquired while caring for the numerous Hammond twins.

Anne also forms a complex relationship with Gilbert Blythe, who is three years older than Anne but is studying at her level, having had his schooling interrupted when his father became ill. On their first meeting as schoolmates, he teases Anne with the nickname "Carrots". Anne, perceiving it as a personal insult, becomes so angry that she breaks her slate over his head. When her teacher punishes her by making her stand in front of the class, a long-lasting hatred is established. Throughout Anne of Green Gables, Gilbert repeatedly displays admiration for Anne, but she coldly rebuffs him. Her grudge persists even after he saves her from a near-disastrous reenactment of Tennyson's "Lancelot and Elaine" when her leaky boat sank into the pond. After this almost fateful accident, Gilbert pleads to Anne to become his friend but she refuses, although she comes to regret it later. For the rest of their school years in Avonlea, they compete as intellectual rivals for the top of the class, although the competition is entirely good-natured on Gilbert's side; immediately afterward, they also go to Queen's College together and split the most prestigious prizes between them. They are still "enemies" through all this.

After Matthew's death near the end of Anne of Green Gables, Marilla's failing eyesight leads Anne to defer her enrollment at Redmond College to stay at Green Gables to help her, despite the scholarship she had won. Gilbert had already been appointed as the Avonlea schoolteacher for the following term, but as an act of kindness, he moves to White Sands School and gives the Avonlea position to Anne instead. She thanks him for the sacrifice and they make amends, becoming friends at last after five years of rivalry.

In Anne of Avonlea Marilla decides to take in her cousin's twin children, Davy and Dora (continuing Anne's "curse of twins"). However, Anne takes to Davy and Dora immediately, in particular Davy, who is constantly getting into trouble. The following year, Rachel Lynde's husband Thomas dies and Rachel moves in with Marilla at Green Gables, leaving Anne free to continue her education at Redmond College. Anne is pleased because Gilbert will also be going to Redmond the following year. It is after the wedding of her friend Miss Lavender that she first realizes there is a possibility that Gilbert feels more for her than friendship, and "The page of girlhood had been turned, as by an unseen finger, and the page of womanhood was before her with all its charm and mystery, its pain and gladness."

In Anne of the Island, Anne's academic and social life blossom at Redmond. Gilbert, who has always loved Anne, proposes to her, but she rejects him ultimately because Anne's vision of love is rooted deeply in sentimental fantasies and she does not recognize her closeness to Gilbert as love. She believes that she will fall in love with her "ideal man" who would be dark and inscrutable. Feeling deeply disappointed, Gilbert distances himself from Anne. Anne later welcomes the courtship of the darkly handsome Roy Gardner, but she realizes that he does not truly belong in her life and rejects his proposal after two years of courtship.

After graduating from Redmond College with a B.A., Anne returns to Avonlea and finds that life has moved on- her childhood friend Jane has married a millionaire, and her best friend Diana Barry (now Diana Wright) has given birth to her firstborn. Anne still does not believe she is in love with Gilbert, but she is disappointed at the end of their friendship, and confused over her reaction to gossip that he is in love with Christine Stuart, a fellow Redmond student.

Upon her return to Avonlea after staying with her friends; Paul, Stephan, and Lavender Irving at Echo Lodge, Anne learns that Gilbert is deathly ill with typhoid fever. Anne is deeply shaken by the prospect of losing him and realizes that she loved Gilbert all along, in a lonely vigil she calls her "Book of Revelation". Once Gilbert recovers from his illness, he offers a second proposal to Anne, and she accepts. It is explained that Christine had been engaged to someone else all along, and Anne's friend Phil Blake had written Gilbert and told him to "try again".

Their engagement lasts for three years. Her engagement ring is noted to be a circlet of pearls rather than a diamond, a stone which Anne said always disappointed her because they weren't the lovely purple she had dreamed. Anne resumes her teaching career in the island's second-largest town, Summerside, while Gilbert completes his three-year medical school course.

Anne and Gilbert's married life largely takes place in the town of Glen St. Mary, also on Prince Edward Island. Anne and Gilbert have seven children: Joyce (or "Joy") (who dies very soon after her birth), James Matthew ("Jem"), Walter Cuthbert (who dies in World War I), Diana ("Di"), Diana's twin Anne ("Nan"), Shirley (the youngest son), and Bertha Marilla ("Rilla").