Anne of Green Gables — Chapter 6

About This Passage

Montgomery's quietest, most damning kind of characterization: not a scene, not dialogue, but the residue of testimony. The passage carries five chapter vocabulary words and shows how a writer can build a person almost entirely out of secondhand evidence — body, reputation, the speech of those who have escaped her — and still arrive at a moral verdict the reader will trust.

Narration Prompt

Recount the events of Chapter 6 from arrival at Mrs. Spencer's through the milking-yard conversation at Green Gables, attending to the order in which Marilla's mind changes about keeping Anne.

Discussion Questions

1. In Mrs. Spencer's parlour Anne sits mutely with her hands clasped, while later — alone with Marilla in the buggy — she calls Mrs. Blewett 'a gimlet' and declares she would rather return to the asylum. What does this contrast between Anne's silence and her sudden eloquence reveal about how Anne understands her own situation?
2. When Marilla finally yields, Montgomery describes Anne's face as one on which 'a sunrise had been dawning,' and the child as 'quite transfigured.' Why does Montgomery reach for the language of dawn and transfiguration here rather than simply telling us Anne was glad?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide