Anne of Green Gables characters

Also known as Anne with an E

First appears in chapter 2

An eleven-year-old orphan girl sent by mistake to Green Gables, a farm on Prince Edward Island, when the elderly brother and sister who live there had asked for a boy. Thin, freckled, and red-haired, she talks almost without pause, renames the places she loves, and takes refuge in an imagination that turns an ordinary lane into something splendid. She has been passed between households and an asylum since her parents died of fever in her infancy, and has never had a home of her own. She is quick-tempered about her looks, especially her hair, and just as quick to be sorry afterwards.

Appears from the start

The shy, elderly bachelor who farms Green Gables with his sister Marilla. He dreads speaking to anyone outside his own household, particularly women, and says very little even at home. He drives to the station to collect the orphan boy the pair had arranged for and finds a talkative red-haired girl waiting instead. Kind by instinct rather than by argument, he is won over almost at once.

Appears from the start

Matthew's sister and the mistress of Green Gables, a spare, practical woman of rigid habits and firm opinions who has never had much use for sentiment or for imagination. She intends to send the mistaken orphan straight back. Beneath the sharpness she has a conscience that will not let her hand a child to an unsuitable home, and a dry humour she rarely admits to.

Appears from the start

The Cuthberts' nearest neighbour, who sits at her window watching everything that passes on the Avonlea road and considers the affairs of the village her rightful business. Capable, energetic, and famously outspoken, she quilts, runs church societies, and offers her opinion of the new arrival without softening it.

First appears in chapter 12

The pretty, black-haired daughter of the Barrys at Orchard Slope, close to Anne in age and the only girl nearby. Good-natured and comfortable rather than imaginative, she becomes the bosom friend Anne has longed for, and the two swear lifelong faithfulness to each other.

First appears in chapter 15

A clever, good-looking boy at the Avonlea school, older than his classmates because illness kept him out for a time, and much admired by the girls. He teases Anne about her hair on her first day and is astonished by how she takes it.

First appears in chapter 15

The schoolmaster at Avonlea when Anne begins, a young man more interested in courting one of the older pupils than in keeping order, and inclined to punish whoever happens to catch his eye.

First appears in chapter 15

A schoolmate of Anne's, a Pye, and the least friendly of the Avonlea girls: sly, boastful, and fond of setting other children challenges she has no intention of taking up herself.

First appears in chapter 15

One of Anne's schoolfellows, a fair, plump, giggling girl chiefly interested in her own good looks and in the attention of boys, and a faithful if not very deep friend.

First appears in chapter 15

A sensible, plain-spoken Avonlea girl of Anne's own age, one of the steady friends of her school years, with an eye on teaching as a career.

First appears in chapter 16

Diana's mother, a strict and unbending woman who keeps a careful watch over her daughter's company and is not easily persuaded that she has judged a matter wrongly.

First appears in chapter 18

Diana's three-year-old sister, a small child of the Barry household whose sudden illness one winter night brings out an unexpected competence in Anne.

First appears in chapter 19

Diana's wealthy, elderly great-aunt from Charlottetown, a formidable and easily offended lady of decided tastes who is visiting Orchard Slope. She is used to being treated with great care and is unaccustomed to being answered frankly.

First appears in chapter 21

The young wife of Avonlea's new minister, warm, cheerful, and genuinely fond of children, who becomes the first grown woman outside Green Gables that Anne takes wholly to heart.

First appears in chapter 24

The new teacher at Avonlea school, a bright, sympathetic young woman who encourages her pupils rather than drilling them, takes them out of doors, and sees what Anne might make of herself with proper study.