What happens in Chapter 36 of Anne of Green Gables?
Chapter 36 opens with Anne receiving the heartbreaking news that Matthew has died from a sudden heart attack, which was brought on by the collapse of the Abbey Bank and the loss of the Cuthberts' savings. Anne and Marilla are left to face the dual challenges of grief and financial hardship. As they come to terms with their situation, Marilla reveals that her worsening eyesight might force her to sell Green Gables—the only home Anne has ever truly known. Determined to secure their future, Anne quietly gives up her scholarship to Redmond College and takes a teaching position at the Avonlea school instead, resolving to stay and care for Marilla. When Gilbert Blythe finds out about Anne's sacrifice, he willingly gives up his claim to the Avonlea teaching job—the position he had already secured—so that Anne can take it. Touched by his gesture, Anne finally offers Gilbert the friendship she had long withheld, and the two walk home together in the warm evening light, their rivalry transformed into something more supportive and full of promise.
Analysis
Montgomery crafts this chapter as a pivotal moment between loss and transformation, skillfully intertwining the two. Matthew's death is delivered not through a dramatic scene but with the stark statement—"Matthew is dead"—a bluntness that captures the shock of unexpected grief and avoids sentimentality, even while flirting with it. The collapse of Abbey Bank links personal loss to economic instability, rooting the novel's romantic elements in tangible reality and giving Anne's sacrifice real significance instead of mere melodrama.
The chapter's key artistic choice is the reversal of Anne's journey. Montgomery has spent thirty-five chapters leading up to Redmond as Anne's ultimate goal; giving it up is portrayed not as a failure but as a moment of quiet, self-assured decision-making. Anne does not publicly struggle—she makes a choice, and the narration honors that decisiveness. This restraint in tone is Montgomery's most effective tool here.
Gilbert's resignation from the Avonlea post revitalizes the ongoing rivalry theme within the novel and transforms it. What started as hurt pride on the way to school has evolved, for both characters, into something the text chooses not to define too clearly. The closing stroll in "the dusk of the evening" is filled with the Wordsworthian tone suggested by the chapter title—the "glory and the dream" from the Intimations Ode—implying that Anne's imaginative childhood is coming to an end, giving way to a more nuanced sense of self. Montgomery concludes with possibilities rather than definitive answers, which feels entirely appropriate.
Check your understanding
Ask about this work
The reader has this chapter in front of it — the summary, the analysis, the key quotes and the vocabulary — along with the rest of the book’s chapters. Ask what happens and why it matters, or push back on a reading.
It cites the chapter or the line it is working from, and it says so plainly when the guide doesn’t cover something. It’s instructed never to write an essay, a paragraph or an answer for you to hand in, and never to grade anything — it will show you how to approach the question instead.
Sign in to ask the reader about this work — 1 credit covers three messages.
Create an accountSign in