User blog:SusannahWithAnH/A Closer Look at Nan and Di Blythe

We always knew Nan and Di, Anne and Gilbert's twin daughters, are different. But how different? And in which ways are they still similar? In this article, I take a closer look at the Ingleside twins, the third named set of twins (and the first ones of the same gender) to be introduced in the Anne of Green Gables series. Nan is often described as being like her mother, while Di is her father's favourite. But is this true of the way they are characterised?

Each twin has several stories in Anne of Ingleside devoted to her. Nan's (Chapters 25-26, Chapters 30-31 and Chapters 35-36) are tales of making bargains with God, being fooled into thinking she was swapped at birth and her fairytale idea of the GLOOMY HOUSE. Di's (Chapters 28-29 and Chapters 37-38) deal with her short-lived friendships with Jenny Penny and Delilah Green.

Once I had realised this, it was easy to see the main difference between Nan and Di. Nan is like her mother in that she falls in love with stories. Di is like her father in that she falls in love with people. Let me give you a more in-depth explanation by going over the many mentions of Nan and Di. I'm going to ignore all references to looks, because I'm looking for differences in character, not appearance.

Let's start with Anne of Ingleside. It is Nan, not Di, who brings a red candy lion to Jem when he is sitting resentfully on the Ingleside steps (but when he is rude to her, she calls him a 'cross-patch'). Nan calls Aunt Mary Maria 'Mrs Mefusaleh', 'having heard that imp of a Ken Ford saying it'. And when Aunt Mary Maria tells Nan a story about a child who was naughty and died in its sleep, Nan becomes afraid to go to sleep. When Amy Taylor tells Nan that Anne would make 'a sweet-looking corpse', Nan is frightened that Anne might be going to die. While Di is caught up in Jenny Penny, Nan has 'no use' for Jenny. Like Walter, people don't scare Nan as much as a story does. She seems to be less aware of how she acts towards other people and has often been dubbed 'stuck-up' because of it.

But it is Di, not Nan, who sings 'Mummy's coming home today, home today, home today' to the tune of 'Merrily We Roll Along' all day when Anne is about to return to Ingleside. It is Di who feels that her life has practically ended when her chum, Elsie Palmer, walks home from school with another girl. And it is Di who is Walter's closest confidante ('We think and feel the same about everything,' Di was wont to explain earnestly). Di asks Susan if she would like a baby because 'they have a new one at Amy's'. Anxious to like and be liked, Di craves personal relationships much more than Nan.

Moving on to Rainbow Valley ...

Nan declares that 'none of the Avonlea places are quite as nice as Rainbow Valley'. Note that instead of comparing people, she chooses to compare places. 'She was a very blithe and dainty little maiden ... Blythe by name and blithe by nature.' When Faith tells a mistaken version of the story of Leslie Ford, Nan jumps in with 'Nonsense' and says she 'knows the whole story'. Nan eavesdrops on Anne and Miss Cornelia talking and discovers that Miss Wiley is dead, whereupon she rushes off to Rainbow Valley to tell the story. Mary tells Una that she doesn't like Nan because she thinks Nan is 'a proud one' from the way she holds her head. Nan and Mary quarrel because Mary calls Anne a witch. Even though they make up, Nan is 'prone to hold grudges' and never quite forgives Mary. But then, she is the one to talk dreamily with Walter about woods in Heaven. Nan is less focused on people than stories. It is, after all, Nan who suggests they have a praying competition, of all things, in the graveyard.

Di keeps all Walter's secrets, even from Nan, and tells him all hers. It is Di who notices that someone is 'coming down from the manse hill'. It is Di who greets the Merediths with 'a comrade's smile' and invites them to eat with the Blythes. When Nan mentions that she and Di are going to have music lessons, Di brings the conversation back to people by talking about how Miss Rosemary 'is so sweet and she always dresses so pretty'. Nan responds less enthusiastically ('I like Miss Ellen') and adds almost tactlessly that 'Di is afraid of her'. Di also tells Faith and Una about the Wests and the Fords. When Walter reads the story of the Pied Piper out loud in Rainbow Valley, Di feels sorry for 'the poor little lame boy who couldn't keep up with the others and got shut out of the mountain'. It is interesting to note that even though the narrator says Mary Vance gets on better with the boys than the girls, the only Rainbow Valley girl she does not fall out with is Di. Indeed, there isn't any part in the series (as far as I know) where Di is mentioned as falling out with anybody.

Nan and Di, who are eighteen at the start of Rilla of Ingleside, do not appear very much apart from passing mentions. However, it is said that Nan and Jerry's preferred method of sweethearting is to argue on profound subjects. Nan and Di both join the Red Cross and seem to have grown closer (they are barely mentioned seperately from each other), and when Nan becomes upset when she hears that Jerry is going off to war, Di immediately goes to comfort her. Out of all the people at the station, Di is the one to kneel down, kiss Little Dog Monday and ask him to come home 'just for the evening'.

Out of the two, Nan is quicker to voice her opinion and more likely to be scornful and outright contradict somebody. She is not afraid to argue (in fact, she often actively pursues arguments). Like her namesake, she has a vivid imagination and has a habit (at least in Anne of Ingleside) of making her world more interesting by using her imagination. However, she can get too caught up in her fantasies and is prone to tactlessness. Di, like her namesake, is the embodiment of a good friend. More of a 'people person' than Nan, she is quick to welcome, easygoing, practical and empathtic, but good at keeping secrets. Like Walter, she seems to avoid arguments as they can threaten friendships. Initially, her eagerness to make friends was her downfall, but she learned better after the Jenny Penny and Delilah Green incidents. Both girls were very impressionable when they were younger (aren't we all?), but in very different ways.

There are exceptions to these generalisations, of course, but overall they appear quite sound (at least to me). What were your impressions of Nan and Di when you first read the series? What did you think of their characters as individuals? Do you agree or disagree with the way I have interpreted their actions? Let me know in the comments!