Characters / Anne of Green Gables

This is a character page for Anne of Green Gables. Spoilers up to the end of Rilla of Ingleside abound.

See here for characters from the anime.

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Introduced in Anne of Green Gables

Anne Shirley

• Abusive Parents: Anne's guardians prior to Matthew and Marilla used Anne to look after their own children, neglected her education, and did not always provide her (and possibly their own children) with enough to eat. One of these guardians, Mr. Thomas, was frequently intoxicated and Anne was exposed to his violent behaviour.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Some modernized adaptations of the books, such as Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (sort of) and Anne of West Philly, depict her as having feelings for her female best friend Diana instead of her original male love interest Gilbert.
• Berserk Button: Anne is initially very sensitive about her red hair, and retains a certain grudge against fate for giving it to her well into adulthood.
• Betty and Veronica: Gilbert Blythe and Roy Gardner, with Anne as the Archie. Played with in that although Anne is attracted to Roy because he seems like the embodiment of her brooding and dramatic romantic ideal, he turns out to be incredibly boring. Even his loving sister admits that Anne would have found being married to him dreadfully tedious.
• Blithe Spirit: Free-spirited and cheerful, in contrast to the traditionalist people of Avonlea.
• Book Smart: Though she struggles with geometry, Anne Shirley generally excels at school, in spite of having never gone before the age of 11, and competes with Gilbert Blythe out of spite for the top spot in the class. Anne later wins the Avery Scholarship at Queen's Academy, awarded to the top student in English.
• Bookworm: Very fond of books. In the first book, she even starts a book club.
• Chekhov's Skill: Early on in the first book, Anne mentions that she's good at taking care of children since her previous guardians mainly took her in to be a live-in babysitter, and she often looked after younger children while she was at the orphanage. This later comes in handy when Diana's little sister Minnie May falls ill with croup and Anne knows how to treat her, which convinces Mrs. Barry to let Diana be friends with Anne again after the incident with the cordial.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Sometimes comes across as this, due to being extremely moody as a child. Her Friendless Background also caused her to create imaginary friends.
• Clueless Dude Magnet: She is clueless about how many men are infatuated with her.
• Daddy's Girl: She was very close to Matthew.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Downplayed, but it takes most of the first book for her to stop giving Gilbert the cold shoulder after the disastrous first impression he made, and two more books before she comes to realize her feelings for him.
• Drama Queen: Especially in the first book, where she goes through a fiery preteen angst phase about wanting to float down the river a la Lady Elaine, and imagining she had dark hair and was named Cordelia Fitzgerald.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Downplayed since she generally doesn't mind doing math, but she really doesn't like geometry and struggles a lot with the subject in school. Her very first line in Anne's House of Dreams has her expressing relief that she no longer has to study or teach it.
• Fiery Redhead: Justified since her temper was at its fieriest when she was teased about her red hair (being one of the few characters whose fire is connected to their coloring). She chewed out the neighborhood busybody (big mistake...) and also responded to Gilbert calling her "Carrots" by breaking her slate over his head.
• First Love: To Gilbert, he might have dated other girls but in the end always ended up loving (and marrying!) his first crush.
• Friendless Background: Anne had one prior to coming to Green Gables, leading her to create two imaginary friends.
• Genki Girl: Very cheerful and energetic when she's not being a Drama Queen.
• Giant Poofy Sleeves: She desperately wants them in the first book — understandably, given the fashion was then at its height. Being able to get your shoulders through a door without turning sideways marked a woman as hopelessly dowdy. In later books, after the fashion has changed, she admits a lingering fondness.
• Girlish Pigtails: As a child, she typically wears her hair in two braided pigtails. She's forced to give up this hairstyle after she accidentally dyes her hair green and there's no other solution but to cut it. In the 1979 anime, she still wears her hair this way after the incident and even as a teenager, likely because the hairstyle is so well associated with her.
• Happily Adopted: She instantly takes to Matthew and Marilla, and loves them as if they were her real parents.
• Heartwarming Orphan: She's been orphaned since she was only a few months old, and she's lived with two foster families and in an orphanage. Though she winds up with Matthew and Marilla by accident since they initially wanted to adopt a boy, she wins both of them over with her vivacious spirit.
• Held Gaze: With Gilbert in the TV productions, and two instances of the Held Gaze appear in Anne of Green Gables and then a passionate one happens between them both during Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel during Gilbert's proposal.
• I Am Not Pretty: In the first book she's justified in thinking so since, as a gawky youngster, she really is homely by the standards of her day. Her later belief that she's still not pretty, even when she's grown more attractive with age, mostly stems from how teased she was as a child. (In fact, L.M. Montgomery unknowingly used a found picture of Evelyn Nesbit — the supermodel "it girl" of her time — as her inspiration for Anne's appearance as a young adult.)
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Anne's reason for rejecting Gilbert's first proposal.
• Imaginary Friend: Anne had two growing up, much to Marilla's disapproval.
• Improbable Age: Maybe, but Anne becomes a high school principal straight out of college at 22. This partially explains why Katherine Brooke, who is older and has taught at the school for much longer, is so resentful of Anne. The movie flipped the roles around and made Brooke the principal and Anne the rank-and-file teacher.
• In Harmony with Nature: Anne has elements of this — she asserts she would never be happy in a place without trees.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Anne becomes friends with her best friend Diana's Great-Aunt Josephine, Mrs. Allan (the minister's wife), and her teacher Miss Stacy in the first book. In Anne of Avonlea, as a teacher she befriends her pupil Paul Irving, and Miss Lavender, who becomes Paul's stepmother. In Anne of Windy Poplars, she becomes friends with a young girl named Elizabeth, and in Anne's House of Dreams, she becomes friends with Captain Jim (who is in his seventies) and Miss Cornelia, who is fifty.
• I Will Wait for You: After finally accepting Gilbert's second proposal, Anne has to wait three years until Gilbert finished his medical course before they can marry.
• Just Friends: Anne and Gilbert have this type of relationship after they grow beyond the one-sided Slap-Slap-Kiss of their younger days, the two tropes succeeding each other in Anne and Gilbert's love story.
• Large Ham: In the film, her acting is very loud.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Anne and Gilbert's engagement is mostly conducted at long distance; he is at Redmond for medical school while she is teaching high school miles away. They can only see each other during the summers and at Christmas.
• Love Epiphany: Has a jarring one when she learns that Gilbert is dying of typhoid fever.
• Love Letter: She and Gilbert write a lot of love letters to each other during their three-year engagement.
• Mad Dreamer: According to some Avonlea folk but she had to create her own imaginary friends growing up.
• The McCoy: Utterly dreamy and impulsive.
• Motor Mouth: Anne is very talkative, though this later becomes downplayed as she grows older and learns not to constantly talk people's ears off.
• Ms. Imagination: A defining trait of hers, since she has a big imagination and loves to talk about the things she imagines. She renames an ugly lake "the Lake of Shining Waters" and fantasizes about having a different name and hair color. While she eventually learns not to let her imagination run away with her, she never completely grows out of this trope, even as an adult.
• My Hair Came Out Green: Buys a bottle of dye from a traveling peddler in the first book in hopes of turning her hair black. It was actually green, much to her dismay, and she's forced to cut it short.
• Oblivious to Love: Doesn't realize that Gilbert likes her at first.
• Plucky Girl: She was orphaned since she was a baby, grew up in households where she was abused and neglected, was passed from home to home to orphanage, she's teased for her red hair and freckles, and a number of accidents happen to her. This doesn't affect her cheerful outlook on life.
• Public Domain Character: Domain of Prince Edward Island, the books attract a lot of tourists to the island every year.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Anne definitely believes this. Her relationships with Rachel Lynde and Gilbert Blythe are openly hostile at first because they teased her about her red hair, which she hopes will some day darken into "a real handsome auburn" (which it eventually does). Still, though at times she can get very careless and cause mishaps, Anne is popular with her peers and rarely considered "uncool" by other people.
• School Marm: She works for two years as the sole teacher at the Avonlea schoolhouse in Anne Of Avonlea, and takes a more demanding position at the high school in Summerside for three years in Anne Of Windy Poplars. She works hard for the respect of her students and solves their problems.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: With more fashionable clothing and with her maturing, she is noted to be breathtaking.
• She Is All Grown Up: She's considered rather homely as a child, but she becomes more attractive as she grows older, with several characters noting that she's gotten prettier with age.
• Spirited Young Lady: Imagines new names, is impulsive, dreamy, and bold. While she gets into a lot of mishaps as a child, she eventually matures into a graceful young lady while never completely losing her spirited and imaginative nature. She fits the trope aside from not being an explicit Tomboy.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Especially in the first book, but also as a young adult, when her ideals of what romantic love should be like almost make her lose her chance with Gilbert.
• Unknowingly in Love: Transitions from insisting that Gilbert is her mortal enemy (because he mocked her red hair when they were young), to seeing him as a good friend and rejecting his marriage proposal for I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship reasons, to finally realizing she is in love with him when he is on the brink of death from typhoid. Heretofore she had been completely unaware of it, due to her unrealistic ideas of what being in love was supposed to be like.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: She is noted to have very beautiful gray eyes, especially when Gilbert views her in the moonlight.
• When She Smiles:
  "How perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Anne, her gray eyes lighting up until they looked like evening stars, causing Mrs. Lynde to wonder anew if she would ever get it settled to her satisfaction whether Anne Shirley were really a pretty girl or not.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In the first book, she's a well-read, precocious child who appears to see herself as the heroine of a romantic drama. She's actually the heroine of a small-town story, and her attempts at invoking romantic drama tropes often fail.
• Youthful Freckles: She has them in the first book; it's one of the reasons she doesn't like her appearance. She loses them as she gets older.

Marilla Cuthbert

• Brother–Sister Team: She runs Green Gables with her brother Matthew.
• Deadpan Snarker: Snarks about the behaviors of her peers and Anne. This is even more emphasized in the mini-series
  I wonder if Humble Pie will be on the menu?
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's very cold to Anne at first, but later warms up to her.
• Good Parents: One major subplot in the first book is Marilla becoming this. In fact, when Anne nearly gets herself killed late in the first book, it's made clear that Marilla has truly come to love the girl.
• Honorary Aunt: At first she is reluctant to be called "Aunt Marilla" but defrosts towards the end of the 1st book.
  • She does let Anne's children call her "Aunt Marilla".
• Letting Her Hair Down: More in attitude than appearance. She softens a bit more thanks to Anne's influence.
• Maiden Aunt: She's an Honorary Aunt to Anne and she's an Old Maid.
• My Way or the Highway: She's very matter-of-fact in laying down the rules on taking Anne into Green Gables. After listening to Anne's explanation of why she is not in the habit of folding her clothes before going to bed, she plainly retorts: "You'll have to remember a little better if you stay here"; then, when Anne tells her she does not say her prayers before going to bed and gives a thorough explanation of why, Marilla tells her "You must say your prayers while you are under my roof, Anne" without further justification.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: She doesn't like Italians or French people.
• Prim and Proper Bun: This Proper Lady wears her hair in a tight bun.
• The Spock: She's often the voice of reason to contrast with Anne's blithe imagination.

Matthew Cuthbert

• Brother–Sister Team: He runs Green Gables with his sister Marilla.
• Bumbling Dad: At first, he has no idea how to approach being a father figure to an outspoken eleven-year-old girl, and often makes endearing embarrassments... yet he has more of a clue than Marilla on how important fashion is.
• Cannot Talk to Women: At first, Matthew tends to stay at home because any time he tries to interact with girls or women, he tends to stutter and act very shy. One attempt by him to do so resulted in buying twenty pounds of brown sugar and a rake in the middle of winter (he'd wanted to buy a dress, for Anne). He does find it easier to talk to Anne, probably due to the combination of being around her a lot and the fact that Anne has no difficulty filling in conversational gaps.
• The Kirk: He mediates between the free-spirited Anne and the prim Marilla.
• Shrinking Violet: Very shy and afraid to talk to women that aren't Marilla (his sister) or Rachel Lynde (their long-time friend). Anne directly and indirectly helps him get over it.
• Verbal Tic: Tends to stutter when trying to talk. He also tends to begin his sentences with "Well, now..."

Diana Barry

• The Confidant: She and Anne talk about everything under the sun.
• The Fashionista: By the second book, Anne says Diana made herself a reputation as "a woman of good taste", and that all of the girls of Avonlea come to her for fashion advice.
• Proper Lady: She grows into this trope, yet doesn't lose her light-hearted personality.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Diana has raven-black hair and a pale complexion, which is considered to be extremely beautiful.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: Anne mistakenly serves her currant wine, believing it to be harmless raspberry cordial; Diana drinks too much of it and ends up in this trope.

Gilbert Blythe

• Affectionate Nickname: Among the many nicknames he calls Anne are 'Anne-girl' (something he probably learnt from Josephine Barry) and 'Anne-o-mine'.
• Babies Ever After: Has six living children with Anne.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Anne. Doesn't help he tugged at her braids and yelled "carrots!" It takes her a while to warm up to him even though he keeps trying.
• Chocolate of Romance: More like candy. In the first book, Anne is forced to share a desk with Gilbert after coming in late from recess. Trying to be nice, Gilbert slips her a candy heart that says "You're Sweet." Since this is shortly after the Carrots incident, Anne is not in the mood to accept. She drops it to the floor and crushes it under her foot. There is a nice Call-Back to this incident when the two get older; Gilbert gives Anne a pendant necklace in the shape of a pink candy heart.
• Dance of Romance: Gilbert and Anne share one in the 1987 film adaptation of Anne of Avonlea. It's one of the first signs that Anne may have feelings for Gilbert; they dance for a few moments before she gets flustered and pulls away, apologizing and blaming it on her "two left feet".
• Dogged Nice Guy: He doesn't give up on Anne, even when she shoots him down.
• Everyone Can See It: His affections for Anne is obvious to everyone in Avonlea, but it takes HER a long while to catch on to it.
• First Love: Anne Shirley is Gilbert Blythe's from that moment she cracks a slate over his head, and he faithfully waits for years for her even to acknowledge him as a friend.
• Forgotten Anniversary: Subverted in Anne Of Ingleside. Anne thinks Gilbert has forgotten their anniversary because he doesn't mention it at all during the day and he doesn't give her a gift. It turns out that he did remember and had sent away for a diamond pendant to give her. The pendant didn't get delivered until the evening, and Gilbert didn't say anything about the anniversary because he felt guilty about not having anything to give Anne.
• Friendly War: Anne and Gilbert's academic rivalry, at least on Gilbert's side. To Anne, after her 'humiliation' at Gilbert's hands, it's almost a matter of life and death.
• Good Parents: Both Anne and Gilbert are this to their six children.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Gilbert switching schools with Anne so she can stay with Marilla, even though it means he'll have to pay for his room and board and wait to go to college.
• Happily Married: With Anne after they marry in Anne's House Of Dreams.
• He Is All Grown Up: Anne realises this about Gilbert in the concluding chapters of Anne of Avonlea, and it causes her to ponder some things...
• Held Gaze: He always looks at her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cocky and teases Anne on the first day of school, he later proves to be a very Nice Guy.
• Just Friends: For a while, he and Anne are this trope. Until he falls ill and she realizes how much she loves him. They get engaged later.
• Ladykiller in Love: Something of a 19th Century school house player who'd tease the girls and make them cry, he meets his match when Anne comes along and makes sure he knows she isn't to be messed with. The "Carrots!" incident that gets him bashed over the head with her slate is prompted by young Gilbert's growing frustration with Anne's failure to pay him any attention.
• Longing Look: Is always giving this to Anne.
• Love at First Punch: Gilbert confesses to Anne that he first fell in love with her after she had cracked the slate over his head.
• Love Hurts: A few books and then he falls ill! Anne realizes she loves him.
• Mr. Fanservice: Even as a young adolescent, he's noted to be a handsome guy.
• Previously Overlooked Paramour: Anne declines his first proposal and instead dates Roy Gardner. Anne and Gilbert eventually get together at the end of Anne of the Island.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Very sweet and affectionate; also wore some women's clothes as part of a college game.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He is very handsome and tall with brown curls.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Until the end of "Anne Of The Island" where their romantic relationship starts.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: Takes him a while to become her friend (as teenagers finally) and then they marry in their twenties.

Muriel Stacy

• Adaptational Name Change: The 1985 film changes the spelling of her surname to Stacey.
• But Now I Must Go: The first book/film isn't the last we see of her but despite being beloved only stays at the school a short time because she has troubles elsewhere to take care of.
• Cool Teacher: Replaces Mr. Phillips and everyone likes her much better.
• Friend to All Children: All her pupils seem to love her.
• Put on a Bus: After re-appearing in the second book/film at Queen's Academy she's not seen again.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Only stays at the school for two years, but during that time held classes for entrance to Queen's Academy, which Anne passed to begin a teaching career.
  • In the 1985 adaptation, she is also involved in one of the funniest scenes involving Anne, almost eating a plum-pudding sauce Anne made after a mouse drowned in it.

Introduced in Anne of Avonlea

Introduced in Anne of the Island

Philippa Gordon

• The Ditherer: Her biggest flaw is that she can never make up her mind on anything, particularly when it comes to who she wants to marry. In the end, she marries the Reverend Jonas Blake; despite his homely looks and poorer financial situation, her decision to marry him marks the first time she's ever made a decision without hesitating.
• Smarter Than You Look: She comes across as very silly and flighty at first, but she says herself she's got "heaps of brains". It turns out she's not just bragging, as the narration notes that she gets the highest marks in her year at Redmond College, aside from in English where she's behind Anne.
• Uptown Girl: She comes from a rich and prominent family in Nova Scotia, but she eventually falls in love with and marries Jonas Blake, a poor minister who lives in the slums of Kingsport. While she's warned that marrying him means she'll have to give up the luxuries she's used to, she doesn't mind at all.

Roy Gardner

• Romantic False Lead: Anne's boyfriend at Redmond College. She realises when he proposes that she only loved the idea of him as her childhood "romantic ideal"
• Wrong Guy First: Anne declines Gilbert's proposal and later dates Roy at university. However, Anne and Gilbert eventually get together and are the Official Couple for the rest of the series.

Introduced in Anne of Windy Poplars

Introduced in Anne's House of Dreams

Cornelia Bryant (later Elliott)

• Catchphrase: "Isn't that just like a man?", whenever she says something negative about a man.
• Cool Old Lady: Her age in Anne's House of Dreams is vague (later scholars have put together the clues of the Anne chronology into a cohesive history, placing her at 42 the year Anne moved to the House of Dreams), but she's definitely this by the time Anne and Gilbert's children arrive.
• Deadpan Snarker: Snarks about the men in town and about the Liberals.
• Does Not Like Men: And is not shy about saying so, though Anne eventually learns to take her criticisms about men with a grain of salt. Captain Jim is the only man she's never said a bad word about, which he claims worries him: it makes him wonder if there's something unnatural about him. This becomes downplayed in later books, as she'll occasionally complain about a man she knows but isn't nearly as critical of men in general.
• Generation Xerox: In a way, she and her adopted daughter, Mary Vance. Both are incredibly blunt, incredibly competent females who say what they think, yet take excellent care of those around them who wouldn't otherwise have anyone who would care. Mary doesn't hate men and can verge on profane (or as close as anyone gets in the books), but both make crucial contributions to the lives of those around them (and refusing gratitude for it.)
• Good Parents: To Mary Vance, in a slightly unorthodox way — necessary, since Mary is a rather unorthodox child, whose other guardians have always abused her.
• Happily Married: To everyone's surprise, she gets married to Marshall Elliott at the end of Anne's House of Dreams, and seems perfectly content.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's not so much a jerk as very, very blunt, but she's a loyal friend and is always willing to help her less fortunate neighbours in some way. As Captain Jim says, "She's got the bitterest tongue and the kindest heart in Four Winds".
• Verbal Tic: Similarly to Mrs. Lynde, she tends to punctuate her sentences with "believe me".

James "Captain Jim" Boyd

• The Captain: While he's a retired sea captain, he still fulfills many aspects of the trope.
• Cool Old Guy: Very sociable, tells stories, a Kindhearted Cat Lover, super friendly, and likes socializing with young people. He's also one of the very few men Cornelia Bryant genuinely likes.
• The Storyteller: Has a lot of fascinating stories about his time as a ship's captain, and hearing his stories inspires Owen Ford to write them down and publish them as The Life-Book of Captain Jim.

Leslie Moore (later Ford)

• Dark and Troubled Past: Leslie has had a very difficult life. When she was only twelve years old, she witnessed her younger brother getting crushed to death under a wagon wheel, and a few years later she was the first to discover her father's body hanging from the ceiling after he committed suicide. Dick Moore forced her to marry him when she was only sixteen so she and her mother wouldn't be evicted from their family home, and he was abusive towards her. Finally, Dick came home from a sea voyage after suffering brain damage; while he's no longer abusive to her, he requires constant care and this prevents Leslie from fulfilling any of her past ambitions.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Leslie is initially chilly and closed off towards Anne, but begins to soften and open up to her over time.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Anne deems Leslie the most beautiful woman she's ever seen, but being beautiful has done her no favors, and in a conversation in Anne's House of Dreams Leslie bitterly wishes that she'd been born plain and homely. Her beauty is what drew Dick Moore's attention to her and lead him to pressure her into marriage by threatening to have his father foreclose on the mortgage on Leslie's family home.

Susan Baker

An old maid who is a housemaid at Ingleside.

• Hired Help as Family: While she's officially the Blythe's housekeeper, she eventually becomes an honorary member of the family over time; Anne and Gilbert treat her more like a friend than a servant, and the Ingleside children essentially view her as a second mother figure. This is especially the case for Shirley, since Susan practically raised Shirley due to Anne being very ill after he was born.
• Old Retainer: She comes to work for Anne and Gilbert shortly before Anne gives birth to Joyce, and she continues to work for them for many years afterward.
• Parental Favoritism: While she technically isn't his mother, she loves Shirley the most out of all the Blythe children since Anne was ill for a long time after he was born, which resulted in Susan having to look after him herself for a while.

Joyce "Joy" Blythe

Oldest child of Anne and Gilbert. Died one day after birth.

• Premature Birth Drama: Doesn't survive long after her birth due to being born too early in a time before modern medicine. It's a very tragic moment that Anne never fully recovers from.

James "Jem" Blythe

Anne and Gilbert's oldest living child. He is very bold and adventurous, and utterly adores his mother. He is named after the late Captain Jim Boyd.

• Childhood Friend Romance: With Faith Meredith; after meeting as children in Rainbow Valley, it's established in Rilla of Ingleside that they're in love, and Rilla believes they may as well be engaged after seeing Faith's devotion to Jem while he's fighting in World War I.
• Dead Guy Junior: Subverted in that Captain Jim is still alive when Jem is born, but he dies when Jem is an infant and they never got to know each other. Played straight in that his middle name is Matthew, who died years before his birth.
• Like Father, Like Son: Becomes a doctor like Gilbert.
• Momma's Boy: Very much so.
• Nice Guy
• Posthumous Sibling: Is born a year or so after Joyce's death, which is bittersweet for Anne. When Marilla suggests that Jem will replace Joy, Anne rebuffs her.

Introduced in Anne of Ingleside

Diana "Di" Blythe

First (or second) surviving daughter of Anne and Gilbert. She takes after her mother in looks, but her father in personality. Her twin is Nan.

• Always Identical Twins: Subverted. She and her twin Nan are fraternal twins.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted; despite having her mother's red hair, she has her father's calmer personality.

Anne "Nan" Blythe

First (or second) surviving daughter of Anne and Gilbert. She is twin to Diana.

• Always Identical Twins: Subverted. She and her twin Di are fraternal twins.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Jerry Meredith; like Jem and Faith, they meet as children in Rainbow Valley, and in Rilla of Ingleside most people suspect that they're in love.
• Ms. Imagination: She inherited her mother's vivid imagination, and like her mother, this sometimes gets her into trouble as a young girl.

Walter Blythe

Second son of Anne and Gilbert. He is a pacifist by nature and hates the thought of violence. He has a close bond with Rilla.

• Actual Pacifist
• Berserk Button: Don't insult his friends, and definitely don't insult his mother.
• Brainy Brunette: He has dark hair and is the most intellectual of the Blythe children, having a love for reading and especially poetry.
• Dead Guy Junior: Is named after Anne's father.
• Face Death with Dignity: His last letter to Rilla was written the night before his death, and tells her he's "going over the top" the next day and knows he's going to die. He's made peace with it because he's conquered his fears and is dying for a noble cause.
• Mama's Boy: He loves his mother, and actually fought another boy because the boy in question called Anne a witch who writes lies.
• Not Afraid to Die: He's more afraid of the pain before the dying than he is of death itself. Discussed frequently before he leaves for war, and acts as foreshadowing.
• Oblivious to Love: Walter is too busy mooning over Faith Meredith to notice her younger sister, Una, is in love with him.
• Sibling Triangle: He is in love with Faith Meredith, as is his brother, Jem. Faith does not return his feelings, and it's unclear whether Jem or Faith even knew about Walter.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: A kind-hearted pacifist and poet, Walter is killed in action at Courcelette.
• Warrior Poet: He was a poet all his life, but the warrior part comes in Rilla of Ingleside, when he joins the army to fight in World War I. He publishes one of his poems, "The Piper", which quickly becomes famous the world over.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: A lot like Anne was when she was a child.

Shirley Blythe

Youngest son of Anne and Gilbert.

• Flat Character: Oddly, Shirley is the one character out of all the Blythe children who never gets a point-of-view chapter, and he doesn't have much characterization beyond "quiet", "sturdy" and "sensible." His biggest impact in the books is on Susan, not the family, to the point where he might as well be her own son instead of Gilbert and Anne's. Removing him entirely wouldn't change much of anything.
• The Quiet One: As he gets older, it's noted that he's very quiet and not much for conversation.

Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe

Youngest daughter of Anne and Gilbert.

• Affectionate Nickname: Her brother Walter calls her "Rilla-my-Rilla" out of affection, and Kenneth Ford later calls her that as well.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: It's downplayed, but in Rainbow Valley she definitely has a touch of bratty baby sister in her characterization.
• The Baby of the Bunch: She's the youngest of Anne and Gilbert's children, and the narration in Rilla of Ingelside notes that she's considered the "baby" of the family. She resents this, especially since she's almost 15 by that point.
• Big Brother Worship: She adores Walter the most out of all her older siblings, but she wishes he'd see her as someone to confide in rather than just his little sister. She and Walter eventually become closer as World War I goes on and she's forced to mature, and she's devastated when he finally enlists.
• Character Development: At the beginning of Rilla of Ingleside, she's introduced as a vain, slightly spoiled girl who only cares about having fun. The difficulties of World War I turn her into a hardworking and capable young woman.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Downplayed since Ken Ford was more Jem and Walter's friend than hers while growing up, but she and Ken did technically grow up together and eventually become a couple.
• Dead Guy Junior: Is named after Anne's mother and Marilla, respectively.
• Embarrassing Nickname: In Rilla of Ingleside, Jem and Shirley tease her by calling her "Spider," a reference to her teenage gangly limbs. She hates the nickname, but after Jem enlists to fight in World War I and leaves home, she privately notes that she'd give anything to hear him call her that again.
• Formerly Fat: She's noted to be rather plump as a child, to the point of being nicknamed "Roly-poly", but as a teenager she's much more slender.
• Growing Up Sucks: Rilla of Ingleside chronicles her growing pains from child to young woman. Doesn't exactly help she's growing up during wartime either.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: She's called more often by the nickname "Rilla" (taken from her middle name, Marilla) than her real first name (Bertha), even by her parents. She dislikes this since she considers her middle name old-fashioned and her first name more "beautiful and dignified".
• Promotion to Parent: She takes home an abandoned baby, names him Jims, and raises him for the duration of the war.
• The Slacker: Due to being the youngest child, she has no grand ambitions for her life except to have fun. Then World War I happens, and she proves herself more capable than she thought.
• Speech Impediment: Had a noticeable lisp when she was younger. She outgrew it mostly but still lapses into it when she's nervous.

Introduced in Rainbow Valley

Mary Vance

A home-girl who is adopted by Miss Cornelia and befriended by the Blythe and Meredith children. She has a reputation for being very blunt and outspoken.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Like Anne, she was adopted as a servant; unlike Anne, her guardian was a nightmare who frequently beat and, it's implied, swore at her. She became an orphan after both her parents committed suicide when they ran out of money.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The narration in Rilla of Ingleside notes that she's not particularly popular among her age group, but the Blythes and the Merediths still hang out with her. According to Di, Mary is like a bad habit—"we can't do without her even when we are furious with her".
• Happily Adopted: She's adopted by Miss Cornelia after Una convinces her to take her in, and despite Mary's troubled background, she's ultimately happy, especially since she and Miss Cornelia have very similar personalities.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's less a jerk than incredibly blunt and lacking in social skills, but she does everything she can to take care of the people in her life. While living with the Merediths, she keeps the house clean and makes sure everyone's clothing is clean and mended. The only thing she can't do is cook because their housekeeper/cousin refuses to let her in the kitchen.
• Overly Long Name: Her full name is "Mary Martha Lucilla Moore Ball Vance".
• The Runaway: She's first introduced as a runaway, having escaped from her abusive guardian. She stays with the Merediths for a little while before Miss Cornelia decides to take her in.

Reverend John Meredith

• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: He is a saintly minister, and a parent of four well-meaning but mischievous children.
• Good Shepherd: He's fairly well-respected in the community, though the scrapes his children get into do sometimes call his parenting skills into question.
• Parents as People: He really does care about his children, but the death of their mother and his preoccupation with his religious studies have left him both physically and emotionally unavailable to them much of the time. As a result, he doesn't truly give his children the attention they need, leading them to get into all kinds of mishaps.

Rosemary West

• Good Stepmother: Due to the kid's reading of fairy tales, the manse children assume all stepmothers are of the Wicked variety. By Rilla of Ingleside, it's clear she's raised them well
• Old Maid: She promised never to leave her sister after the deaths of their parents, though her relationship with John Meredith complicates things.
• Second Love: To Rev. John Meredith.

Jerry Meredith

• Big Brother Instinct
• Team Dad: Acts as this to his siblings because their father is often wrapped up in his studies.

Faith Meredith

• Genki Girl: The opposite of her younger sister, who's much more withdrawn.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A bit headstrong, but a nice girl.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the tomboy to her younger sister Una's girly girl (and is even referred to outright as a tomboy by Miss Cornelia), being more brash and outspoken than her meeker and more feminine sister.

Carl Meredith

• Beetle Maniac: Carl Meredith really enjoys catching and examining insects.
• Sick Episode: Due to his self-imposed punishment being made to stay out in the manse's graveyard until midnight, even while it rained, he became sick with pneumonia.

Una Meredith

• Delicate and Sickly: Described as very frail and weak.
• I Miss Mom: She never says it out loud, but a scene does linger as Una looks at her mother's wedding dress longingly.
• The Quiet One: She doesn't talk much, but when she does her words are profound.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the girly girl to her older sister Faith's tomboy, being much more meek than the impulsive and outspoken Faith and wanting to learn skills such as cooking and sewing so she can help out her family.
• Unrequited Love: She was in love with Walter Blythe, but he went to war and died before she could admit it to him. Walter did not seem to return her feelings. (Rilla is fairly certain she's the only one who's even aware those feelings existed in the first place.)

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