Anne of Green Gables
Marilla Cuthbert
Anne's guardian
A stern, practical woman who runs Green Gables with her brother Matthew and learns, slowly, how much room she has in her heart for Anne.
Marilla is tall, angular, and upright, with graying hair pulled tight and a gaze that misses very little. She is moral and practical and keeps her feelings under close guard. Her humor is dry and mostly hidden. She believes in neat, sensible dresses, proper prayers, and plain hard work, and she is a lifelong neighbor and friend of Rachel Lynde.
Marilla and Matthew meant to adopt a boy to help on the farm, so Anne's arrival is a shock. She does not know how to raise a child, and she is afraid of spoiling one. Her discipline is firm, but she is fair, and she is willing to admit when she is wrong. Anne sees her as a stern figure at first and only later learns how deeply Marilla cares.
“We've decided to keep you, Anne, provided you try to be a good girl.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Marilla decides to keep Anne after a day of hesitation, including a near miss with the unkind Mrs. Blewett. She scolds, sews plain dresses, and punishes Anne unfairly over a missing brooch, then finds it caught in her own lace shawl and says plainly that she was wrong. Little by little her strictness softens.
When Anne breaks her ankle, Marilla realizes in a rush how much she loves her. After Matthew's death the two grieve together, and Marilla finally says aloud that she loves Anne as dear as her own flesh and blood. When a specialist warns that she may go blind and she plans to sell Green Gables, Anne chooses to stay, and Marilla keeps her home and her girl.
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