Which Is A Symbol Of The Human Spirit In The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden | Symbols

Secret Garden

In Chapter 1 Mary is left to herself when the household is disrupted by a cholera outbreak. She pretends to make a flower-bed by sticking cut flowers in the dirt. While later in the novel gardening is a healing and invigorating activity, Mary's pretend garden does little to soothe her anger at her Ayah for leaving her alone. In Chapter 2 Mary, again left to her own devices in an unfamiliar situation, is planning a pretend garden. When Basil Crawford becomes interested and tries to join her in that game, Mary lashes out, telling him, "Go away!"

From these early attempts at play-gardening to the functional kitchen garden of the Sowerbys to the meticulously cared for ornamental gardens at Misselthwaite Manor, Mary is surrounded by gardens, culminating in the one that provides Mary (and then Colin) with a sanctuary: the secret garden.

The secret garden then becomes a symbol of motherhood, rejuvenation, and healing. Mary and Colin are both motherless and have to mother themselves. The garden keeps them secure, just as a nest keeps baby birds secure, and they venture out at their own pace as they explore the world and develop their growing selves. In the garden, they learn what a mother would have taught had Mary's mother not neglected her and Colin's mother not died. Mary learns how to like people and be interested in things. Colin learns how to walk, run, and not be afraid to live. Both learn how to socialize, how to think of things other than themselves. They are transformed from physically ill, immature, and self-centered children into healthy individuals.

This mothering is provided through the spiritual presence of Mrs. Craven in the garden and the mothering Mrs. Sowerby bestows on Mary and Colin through her caring son, Dickon. In Chapter 21 Dickon tells Mary and Colin that his mother believes Mrs. Craven is "about Misselthwaite many a time lookin' after Mester Colin, same as all mothers do when they're took out o' th' world." It is Mrs. Craven's spirit who "set us to work, an' told us to bring him here." In Chapter 26, Mrs. Sowerby reaffirms this when she meets Colin, telling him, "Thy own mother's in this 'ere very garden, I do believe. She couldna' keep out of it."

The presence of mothers in the garden is reinforced by the role two mothers play in Mary's gaining permission for a garden. In Chapter 12, Mrs. Sowerby intervenes on Mary's behalf when she comes across Mr. Craven while walking to Thwaite village. She speaks to him for the first time. As a result, Mr. Craven meets with Mary before he goes out of town. He explains that he sent for her "because Mrs. Sowerby said I ought to see you ... She thought you needed fresh air and freedom and running about." Encouraged, Mary asks him "might I have a bit of earth?" He agrees she can have as much earth as she wants. He tells her she reminds him of "some one else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you see a bit of earth you want ... take it, child, and make it come alive." He associates Mary with his deceased wife, who was a gardener and made things grow and "come alive," something Mary continues to do in the secret garden.

Roses

The roses in the secret garden are symbolic of children. In Chapter 10, Ben Weatherstaff tells Mary how Mrs. Craven "loved 'em like they was children" and would kiss them. After she died, the roses "was left to themselves." Like Mary, they were "orphaned." Mary excitedly asks, "Did they quite die? Do roses quite die when they are left to themselves?" Although Mary has only recently been orphaned, she never received a mother's love and, like the roses, has been neglected for 10 years.

Both Mary and the roses, however, can be tended so they will become fully alive. The same is true for her cousin, Colin, who also has been left to wither away, in his case, because of his father's grief over his mother's death. Ben Weatherstaff gets annoyed at Mary's insistent questions about how to tell if the roses are dead or alive; he asks why she is interested in roses all of a sudden. Mary tells him she wants to play and have a garden of her own because "there is nothing for me to do. I have nothing—and no one." She views the roses as fellow children, something she can be with. They become her favorite plant in the garden, and she tends them with a motherly love so they can grow. In Chapter 22, Ben Weatherstaff explains how Mrs. Craven told him before she died, "if ever I'm ill or if I go away you must take care of my roses," exacting a promise for the continued care of the flowers, as if they were children. When Weatherstaff gives Colin a rose bush to plant, it represents Colin planting himself in the garden. He becomes a child of the garden to be nurtured by his mother just as she once nurtured her beloved roses.

The roses grow like unrestrained children, with the narrator describing them in Chapter 23 as "rising out of the grass, tangled round the sun-dial, wreathing the tree trunks and hanging from their branches, climbing up the walls and spreading over them with long garlands falling in cascades—they came alive day by day, hour by hour." Mary and Colin also are all over the garden as they explore every part of it and similarly come alive. Burnett's views on raising children are exemplified in Chapter 27, in which the narrator explains how nurturing produces a healthy child: "Where, you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow."

Eggs, Seeds, and Bulbs

Eggs and seeds symbolize the creation of new life, while bulbs symbolize rejuvenation. The most vivid example of this is in Chapter 25, which tells the story of the robins and their eggs. The chapter opens with the sentence, "And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles." One of those miracles is the miracle of life. Burnett capitalizes the E in "eggs" to signify the sanctity of life and birth. The creation of new life is described as "the immense, tender, terrible, heart-breaking beauty and solemnity of Eggs." The love a parent feels for the unborn child is described by explaining that "if an Egg were taken away or hurt the whole world would whirl round and crash through space and come to an end." In this poignant description of a parent's love for a child, Burnett's love for and loss of her elder son, Lionel, resonates powerfully; the passage also foreshadows Archibald Craven's awakening to his own love for his son.

The Eggs represent the creation of new life, just like bulbs and perennial plants, which come up every year, represent life's return. In Chapter 9, Mary asks if bulbs could "live years and years if no one helped them?" Martha reassures her they do, saying, "They're things as helps themselves ... If you don't trouble 'em, most of 'em'll work away underground for a lifetime an' spread out an' have little 'uns." They do not need the careful tending of roses, showing Mary that not all living things have the same needs in order to survive and grow. Bulbs are self-contained entities and need little nourishment in order to grow and reproduce.

Seeds also represent the opportunity for new life. In Chapter 9, Mary explains why she wants to plant seeds, saying, "If I have seeds and can make flowers grow the garden won't be dead at all—it will come alive." After Dickon brings Mary several packets of seeds, in Chapter 10, he explains what flowers will grow from each. He tells her mignonettes and poppies will "grow wherever you cast" them, giving her more insight on the variety of conditions in which things come to life and grow. Just as these flowers do not need a specific type of soil or special cultivation, Mary will grow in any environment, as long as she has sunshine and fresh air.

Mary reiterates her interest in planting seeds when she meets with Mr. Craven in Chapter 12, telling him she wants to plant "to make things grow—to see them come alive." She explains how in India, she "sometimes made little beds in the sand and stuck flowers in them. But here it is different." The difference is that in India she was amusing herself with something to pass the time, while now she wants to create new life. However, the fact that Mary plays at making gardens twice in the first two chapters foreshadows Mary's instinct to create and nurture life, an instinct that needs only the right circumstances to thrive. In Chapter 24, Dickon explains how to care for seeds, telling his mother, "All a chap's got to do to make 'em thrive ... is to be friends with 'em for sure. They're just like th' 'creatures.' If they're thirsty give 'em drink and if they're hungry give 'em a bit o' food." It's a simplified recipe of what human babies need to thrive.

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