Importance of Diana Barry

Diana Barry has been Anne's best friend since Anne first came to Avonlea four years ago. Diana is the first person to offer Anne unconditional love and friendship, and their mutual loyalty is unending even as their priorities shift. Diana does not share Anne's romantic worldview - though as a child she also had idealized fantasies about adult life - and as she settles into womanhood, she is content with what reality offers her. Diana is a pretty girl with dark hair and fair skin, but she has the self-awareness to know by the time she reaches middle age she will be as portly as her own mother. She does not seek higher education as Anne does, and she is content to marry local boy Fred Wright, even though he is not the handsome hero she and Anne fantasized about as girls. Diana recognizes she and Fred will make a frumpy middle-aged couple, and she is perfectly happy to begin that journey with him. Anne cannot understand Diana's feelings about settling down, and Diana wonders when Anne will give up on ideals and learn to appreciate the small joys of reality. Yet neither girl would ever rebuke the other for her choices and attitudes; their friendship is unconditional and a comfort and joy to them both.