Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Anne of Green Gables, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Home and Family
Beauty and Imagination
Friendship
Mishaps, Milestones, and Growing Up
Boys and Romance
God, Prayer, and Church
Summary
Analysis
Diana is in Anne’s room, helping her get dressed up. The gable room has changed a lot over the past four years: there’s no gold or silver to be seen, but there are pretty curtains, apple-blossom wallpaper, and a few pictures, including a photograph of Miss Stacy, before which Anne keeps fresh flowers. Anne is getting ready to recite at an amateur concert at the White Sands Hotel. Diana has developed a reputation for fashion, and she makes sure that Anne’s dress, hair, and necklace are just right. She admires Anne’s natural style and grace—she feels like “just a dumpling” next to her friend, though Anne envies Diana’s dimples.
As Anne has grown up, her tastes have matured beyond the rather fantastical ones of her girlhood. Before moving on from Avonlea for college, she gets to recite publicly at a concert like the ones she used to love attending. Like her talents and aspirations, her beauty has also matured and blossomed.
Themes
Marilla gives grudging approval to Anne’s look, though she thinks organdy is “unserviceable”—Matthew just buys anything pretty for Anne nowadays, no matter what Marilla advises. Anne says she’s not at all nervous to recite “The Maiden’s Vow” that night. She and Diana ride to White Sands in a wagon with some other girls; Billy Andrews, a reticent 20-year-old, insists that Anne sit up front with him because he admires her, although he's too shy to say much.
Anne and Matthew have completely won over Marilla when it comes to beautiful dresses. Anne also gets to go on the grown-up outings that Marilla never would have allowed just a couple of years ago, and Anne is admired wherever she goes.
Themes
At the hotel, Anne suddenly feels like a country girl among the other performers; some of the other women are dressed in silks and diamonds. Out in the concert hall, the electric lights and buzz of the crowd unnerve her. Onstage, she sits between a stout lady in a pink dress and a tall, scornful girl in a white dress. The stout lady scrutinizes Anne, and the tall girl keeps commenting on the “country bumpkins” in the show.
The White Sands concert is, nevertheless, a more highbrow affair than Avonlea concerts, and Anne stands out as a country schoolgirl among the more seasoned, self-assured performers.
Themes
A professional elocutionist is slated to recite, and she brings the house down. Anne covers her face as the audience applauds—she can’t bear to follow that performance. Unfortunately, it’s her turn. She suffers an attack of stage fright for the first time; the Debating Club concerts were always attended by friendly neighbors. She stands paralyzed for a few moments, until she spots Gilbert Blythe smiling near the back. Anne thinks he looks taunting, but he’s really just admiring Anne. In any case, she refuses to fail in front of Gilbert. Her mind clears, and she recites confidently. She even gets an encore.
Under the pressure of a fancier setting, Anne almost fails to recite her poem, but her old rivalry with Gilbert comes to the rescue—she can’t humiliate herself in front of him. Though the tactic is effective, she still doesn’t recognize the real nature of his feelings for her; she thinks he’s disdainful the way she once was.
Themes
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It turns out that the lady in the pink dress is a millionaire’s wife. After the concert, she takes Anne backstage and introduces her to everyone, including the professional elocutionist. The night is a triumph, and she and her friends happily relive the event during the ride home. Diana overheard someone in the audience say that Anne has “Titian hair.” Anne explains that it refers to her red hair.
Titian was an Italian Renaissance painter whose works sometimes featured vividly redheaded subjects. Now that she’s nearly grown up, Anne has learned to recognize admiration for her hair when she encounters it and to hate the color less herself.
Themes
Anne tells her friends she feels as rich as the diamond-clad ladies they saw that night. They’re all 16-year-old girls with imaginations and beautiful Avonlea to live in. Anne doesn’t need diamonds; she’d rather be “Anne of Green Gables, with a string of pearl beads.”
Anne has a hopeful future ahead of her and, what’s even more important, a home she loves, whereas a few years ago she was still a rootless orphan. That’s more important to her than any riches could be.
Themes
