Outline

!!1st person!!

• Mary Lennox’s character arc

  • The book opens with foreshadowing of Mary being sent to Misselthwaite Manor
  • Described as a sour child with a gaunt figure and yellowed features due to illness
    • This ugliness is juxtaposed against her own mother who was well known for her beauty
    • Despite her illness, she was the only survivor of the cholera outbreak which killed her family
  • Mary throws a tantrum (p 2), the same state in which she later finds Colin
  • Mary travels from India back to England to stay with her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven.
  • Martha, the housemaid, is responsible for caring for Mary, and eventually Mary begins to see her as a motherly figure
    • Mary expects to treat Martha in the same manner as Ayah, but Martha has no intention of servicing every demand of this young child.
    • Martha says pointedly that she thought Mary would be black since she was coming from India, which sends Mary into a rage
    • Use quote on p 29, “If one told them to do a thing…”
  • Mary becomes interested in someone other than herself for the first time (p 30)

• Both Mary and Colin have been abandoned by their parents, causing them great anguish and social maladies as children

• When Mary and Colin find something to call their own and care for, their own souls are healed: the secret garden is a metaphor

“The Secret Garden” places itself in the idyllic countryside of northern England, the Yorkshire Moors. Like Mary—and like Burnett herself—we are drawn into this new yet strangely familiar world as expatriates. The night is black on the carriage ride up to Misselthwaite Manor, illumined only by small rays of light cast by the headlamps. What Mary sees of the barren landscape dotted with shrubs and inert flora appears bleak. The drab depiction of the scenery reflects Mary’s uncaring heart toward people around her, and the hopelessness of her situation is amplified by the lonely setting. Even the fall season forebodes a cold and miserable winter.

Mary’s perception of the Manor begins to turn soon after meeting Martha.

Afterword

(recommend the b&n version of the secret garden found here)