Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 9: Mrs. Rachel Lynde Is Properly Horrified Summary & Analysis

After Anne has been at Green Gables for two weeks, Mrs. Rachel Lynde visits her, having been prevented by the grippe from coming sooner. She’s heard many rumors about Anne and is eager to see the girl for herself. Though kept busy around the house, Anne has spent the past weeks becoming intimately familiar with Green Gables’ orchards, hollows, and woods and happily talking to Matthew and Marilla about her discoveries—prompting smiles from Matthew and occasional scolding from Marilla, who secretly finds her interesting, too.

While Anne plays in the orchard, Rachel visits with Marilla, detailing her illness and questioning Marilla on her surprising decision to keep Anne. Marilla admits that Anne’s presence has already made the house “a different place.” Mrs. Rachel looks skeptical—there’s no telling how such a child might turn out, she warns Marilla.

Marilla calls Anne inside to meet Rachel. Fresh from her wanderings, Anne looks awkward—she’s still wearing her ill-fitting orphanage dress, her freckles stand out, and her red hair is ruffled. Mrs. Rachel greets her with the comment, “they didn’t pick you for your looks, that’s sure.” Furthermore, she’s “skinny and homely,” and Mrs. Rachel has never seen such freckles before—or hair as red as carrots! She tells Anne to come closer.

In response, Anne leaps across the room and stamps her foot, crying, “I hate you!” with each stamp. She tells Mrs. Rachel that she’s a “rude, impolite, unfeeling woman” for speaking to her this way. How would Mrs. Rachel like to be told that she’s fat, clumsy, and without imagination? Anne says she will never forgive Rachel for hurting her feelings like this. Shocked, Marilla orders Anne to her room, and Anne goes, crying and slamming her door.

Mrs. Rachel, collecting herself, tells Marilla she doesn’t envy her bringing up such a child. To Marilla’s own surprise, she tells Rachel that she shouldn’t have made fun of Anne’s looks. She doesn’t excuse Anne’s behavior, she continues, but Rachel should remember that Anne has never been taught what’s right. As Mrs. Rachel angrily leaves, she sarcastically says that she’ll be more mindful of “the fine feelings of orphans” from now on, and she advises Marilla to give Anne a “talking to” with “a fair-sized birch switch,” the only language she thinks Anne will understand. It worked on her own 10 children, after all.

Marilla slowly goes to Anne’s room, wondering what to do; she doesn’t believe she could follow Mrs. Rachel’s advice to hit Anne. Finally she faces a tear-stained Anne and tells her she’s ashamed of her behavior, which Mrs. Rachel will soon repeat everywhere. Anne miserably tells Marilla that Mrs. Rachel’s criticisms enraged her—imagine being told to your face that you’re ugly. This suddenly reminds Marilla of being a small child, called “a dark, homely little thing” by an aunt. Marilla sympathizes, admitting that Rachel was too outspoken. But Anne must go to Mrs. Rachel and apologize for her temper and ask for forgiveness. Until she does that, Anne will have to stay in her room. In that case, Anne says, she’ll have to stay in her room forever. Marilla leaves Anne to think about it overnight, but as she goes downstairs, she pictures Mrs. Rachel’s face and has a terrible urge to laugh.