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Chapter 34: A Queen’s Girl
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
Anne’s homesickness soon wears off, as she takes the train home most weekends along with the other Avonlea students. Diana and other friends meet them at the station, and they walk home as a merry group in the autumn evenings. Anne notices that Gilbert walks Ruby Gillis home and carries her bag for her. She can’t help thinking it would be pleasant to have a friend like Gilbert to walk and chat with. What’s more, she knows that she and Gilbert have ambitions in common; Ruby doesn’t seem to have any. Anne has never had trouble gathering female friends around her, and she’s not sentimental about boys. Yet she has a vague desire for a male friend to broaden her horizons, and Gilbert seems like the kind she’d enjoy.
Anne maintains her links to Green Gables and her Avonlea friends, showing that ambition hasn’t changed what’s most important to her. She’s aware of other things, too—like the fact that the idea of Gilbert’s friendship isn’t repugnant to her, and that she’s even a little envious that he’s no longer offering it. Even though her feelings aren’t exactly romantic in nature, she still feels that friendship with Gilbert would be different from what she enjoys with her female friends, and the idea is desirable.
Themes
At Queen’s, Anne makes two good friends, Stella Maynard (a fanciful, daydreaming girl) and Priscilla Grant (a fun and mischievous girl). After Christmas, however, everyone at Queen’s has to buckle down to work. Anne, Gilbert, and a boy named Lewis Wilson are acknowledged as the front-runners for the Queen’s medal. Anne continues to view Gilbert as her rival, yet she no longer feels bitter toward him; he just seems like a worthy opponent. Anne often enjoys visiting Aunt Josephine and attending church with her. Aunt Josephine finds Anne as colorful “as a rainbow” and easy to love, even though she’s no longer an “amusing” little girl.
Anne’s love for home doesn’t stop her from expanding her horizons of friendship at Queen’s, even as she focuses most of her energies on pursuit of the highest marks in competition with Gilbert. Now that she’s grown up, she values his rivalry as a useful spur to achievement and not as a reflection of her bitterness towards him.
Themes
Spring brings harried exam preparations and speculation over who will win the medal and scholarship, though Anne feels that as long as the violets and ferns are blooming at Green Gables, the exam outcome doesn’t make much difference. Anyway, the effort of trying is most satisfying of all. She’s optimistic about the future—there seem to be endless years and possibilities stretching before her.
Though academic achievement remains important to Anne, she also has a mature, balanced perspective—the beauty of the world, especially of her home, remains one of her chief joys. Not only that, but the effort of striving has become its own reward, representing a step beyond the years of competition with Gilbert.
Themes
