What happens in Chapter 4 of Anne of Green Gables?
Anne wakes at Green Gables for the first time, having spent the night in the east gable room she admired the evening before. Rising before anyone else, she slips outside into the early morning, captivated by the beauty of the blossoming cherry trees, the dewy orchard, and the bright June sunshine flooding the farm. When Marilla finds her, Anne is leaning out the window, soaking in the landscape with her usual enthusiasm. Marilla, unimpressed by sentiment, reminds Anne that her staying is still uncertain—Matthew's fondness aside. During breakfast, Anne chatters endlessly, sharing her habit of naming things and revealing that she has already dubbed the white cherry tree outside her window "Snow Queen." Marilla listens with a mix of exasperation and reluctant curiosity, struggling to quiet the girl. The chapter ends with Marilla deciding to take Anne to Mrs. Spencer's to sort out the adoption mix-up while Anne, undeterred, continues to marvel at every detail of the farm and the morning light.
Analysis
Montgomery begins the chapter by contrasting Marilla's cool, grey practicality with Anne's vibrant, sunrise-inspired thoughts. The east gable window serves as a recurring motif—Anne is always caught between the inside and outside, between belonging and exclusion, and the window makes that tension tangible. When Anne speaks, Montgomery's writing style changes dramatically; sentences grow longer, stacking clauses like Anne's breathless thoughts. This is a clever way of showing character.
The cherry tree's name, "Snow Queen," stands out as the chapter's most striking detail. Anne's urge to rename it goes beyond mere playfulness; it's a way for her to claim a sense of ownership. Since she can't truly possess Green Gables, she imagines her own version of it. Montgomery subtly conveys this—Anne names the tree before she even knows if she'll stay, making a small yet defiant assertion in a world that often rejects her.
Throughout the chapter, Marilla's dialogue remains concise and straightforward, creating a formal counterbalance to Anne's lyrical outpouring. However, Montgomery allows for one slight breach: Marilla doesn’t interrupt Anne when she names the tree. That moment of silence becomes the chapter’s most delicate point, hinting at future changes without explicitly stating them.
The morning light itself serves as a central image—encapsulating hope, impermanence, and the fragility of Anne's circumstances all within a single June morning that won't last. Montgomery relies on the reader to grasp the irony that Anne's happiest chapter begins on the very day she is set to leave.
Key quotes from Chapter 4
“I'm not a bit afraid of it. It's so white and shining and beautiful, just like a bride. I shall call it Snow Queen.”
Anne names the blossoming cherry tree outside her window, performing her signature act of imaginative ownership over a place she has no legal claim to.
“It's a million times nicer to be Anne of Green Gables than Anne of nowhere in particular, isn't it?”
Anne articulates, with disarming directness, the stakes of belonging—transforming a farm's name into an identity before Marilla has agreed to keep her.
“I don't know what to do with her, that's what.”
Marilla's muttered admission to herself captures her genuine bewilderment and marks the first moment her certainty about sending Anne away begins, almost imperceptibly, to waver.
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