Summary—Chapter 37: The Reaper Whose Name Is Death
Marilla sees Matthew’s gray, sad face and calls to him
sharply. At that moment, Anne sees him collapse at the threshold
of Green Gables. Marilla and Anne try to revive him, but he dies
instantly of a shock-induced heart attack. The shock came from reading
a notice that Abbey Bank, where the Cuthberts keep all their money,
has failed. For the first time, Matthew becomes the center of Avonlea’s attention
as friends visit and run errands for Marilla and Anne. Marilla grieves
with impassioned sobs, but Anne cannot muster tears that first day
and suffers from a dull inner ache. Marilla hears her weeping in
the middle of the night and goes to comfort her. In a rare moment
of spoken affection, Marilla tells Anne that despite her own harsh
ways, she loves Anne and cannot imagine life without her.
When the pain of Matthew’s death becomes less immediate, Anne
finds herself enjoying her friends’ company and life at Green Gables.
Feeling guilty, she confesses to Mrs. Allan that she is thrilled by
life but feels she should not be happy because of Matthew’s death.
Mrs. Allan tells her that Matthew would want her to be happy. She
muses to Anne that in the autumn Marilla will be terribly lonely
at Green Gables. Sitting together at Green Gables, Marilla and Anne
reminisce about the ridiculous incidents of Anne’s childhood. Marilla
comments on how attractive and grown-up Gilbert Blythe looked at
church the previous Sunday. She reveals that she and Gilbert’s father,
John Blythe, courted when they were young, but after a fight she
was too stubborn to forgive him and she lost him, much to her regret.
Summary—Chapter 38: The Bend in the Road
When I left Queen’s my future seemed
to stretch out before me like a straight road. . . . Now there is
a bend in it. . . . It has a fascination of its own, that bend.
See Important Quotations Explained
Marilla goes to town to see a visiting eye doctor and
returns with bad news: she must give up reading, sewing, and crying,
or else she will go blind. That night, Anne reflects on all that
has happened since her return from Queen’s Academy. She decides
that she will stay at Green Gables to take care of Marilla rather
than accept the Avery Scholarship, and once her mind is set, she
finds comfort in her path of duty. A few days later, Anne learns
that Marilla is considering selling Green Gables, since she will
be unable to maintain it alone. Anne tells Marilla that she will
stay at Green Gables and teach at a school called Carmody, since
the Avonlea school post has already been assigned to Gilbert. Later,
Mrs. Rachel informs her that Gilbert has gone to the Avonlea trustees
and asked that the Avonlea post be given to Anne so that she can
be closer to Marilla—a sacrifice that means Gilbert must teach at
White Sands and pay for boarding. Anne is elated, knowing that she
can live at home, comfort Marilla, and see Diana often. When she
runs into Gilbert later, she breaks their tradition of silence to
thank him for his generosity. She extends her hand, which he takes
eagerly, and they begin the close friendship they have both wanted.
Analysis—Chapters 37–38
Anne struggles to understand Matthew’s death, her first
real experience with losing a loved one. She has had experiences
with death before: her biological parents died when she was a baby,
and both of her foster fathers died. But Anne does not remember
her parents or their deaths and was not close to her foster parents.
Up until now, she has romanticized death and created stories about
lovers and tragic endings; death has not been real for her, but
a topic of fantasy. Now that Matthew is gone, Anne understands what
it is to lose someone she loves, and she grieves. Although at first
Anne cannot reconcile her feelings of grief with her continued pleasure
in life, she eventually comes to accept these apparently contradictory
feelings as part of a natural response to tragedy. Coming to understand death
marks another step on Anne’s path to adulthood.
The death of Matthew and the decay of Marilla’s health
cause Anne and Marilla to reverse roles. Anne’s adulthood begins
with her decision to take care of the woman who has taken care of
her since Anne was a child. As a young girl, Anne and her friends
define adulthood as the age when a girl may have a beau or wear
her hair up. Now, Anne understands that adulthood involves not superficialities but
the assumption of responsibilities.
Anne’s willingness to begin a friendship with Gilbert
also marks her maturity. Although Marilla does not moralize to Anne,
she tells her a story that makes a clear point: she lost the man
she loved, John Blythe, because of her Anne-like stubbornness, and
years of loneliness and regret ensued. The fact that Marilla tells
Anne this story illustrates the trust Marilla places in Anne. Marilla
is a reserved, usually unemotional woman, but she manages to tell
this painful story to Anne because she loves her so much. The story
also suggests that Marilla now sees Anne not as a child but as a
woman and a confidante who will understand delicate matters. Finally,
it explains some of Marilla’s behavior. She is not sexless and cold,
as she first appears; rather, she lives in the same town with the
man she loved and lost and must bear her regrets and loneliness
with fortitude that sometimes looks like ice. Because Anne understands
the implications of the story and because she feels real gratitude
for Gilbert’s sacrifice, she finds it in herself to forgive him.
