One of the most ironic incidents in Anne of Green Gables is Anne's apology to Rachel Lynde. She becomes so caught up in the dreaded apology that she begins to enjoy it. In Chapter 10, Anne gives a long-winded and dramatic speech:
“Oh, Mrs. Lynde, I am so extremely sorry,” she said with a quiver in her voice. “I could never express all my sorrow, no, not if I used up a whole dictionary. You must just imagine it. I behaved terribly to you—and I’ve disgraced the dear friends, Matthew and Marilla, who have let me stay at Green Gables although I’m not a boy. I’m a dreadfully wicked and ungrateful girl, and I deserve to be punished and cast out by respectable people forever. It was very wicked of me to fly into a temper because you told me the truth."
This moment is ironic because something that Anne dreads instead becomes immensely pleasurable. When Marilla brings her out to meet Rachel, "Anne’s dejection vanished as if by enchantment" and she gets a feeling of "exhilaration" (85). Marilla questions this sudden shift in Anne's disposition, to which Anne replies she is "imagining out what [she] must say to Mrs. Lynde" (86). The mere thought of her performance catapults her out of a dejected state and into one of delight.
The passage above contains a good part of her lengthy apology. She gets so caught up in big words and dramatic gestures that she begins to appreciate her performance as a job well done rather than a punishment. Many of her phrases—"so extremely sorry" and "dreadfully wicked and ungrateful girl"—are also examples of hyperbole. This moment of irony illuminates the false idea that bad children should suffer. What truly matters to Marilla and Rachel is that Anne suffers; they want her to dread making an apology because they believe that a "method of punishment must be found to bring Anne to a proper realization of the enormity of her offense."
Thus Anne's apology becomes unacceptable. Marilla feels that she ought to scold her "for apologizing so well," yet she cannot bring herself to enact further punishment. At this moment, the reader should recognize that the adults' position is unreasonable. Their situation becomes ironic and even comical when Anne outmaneuvers them. This inspires the reader to care not only for Anne's intelligence and humor but also for her ability to take a positive view of unfair situations.
