Secret Garden Research
Excerpts I found useful from the annotated novel by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina.
"Magic is the bring about of unbelieveable things through an obstinate faith that nothing is too good to be true, and many things are too idiotically bad to be able to stand up on their own feet if you charge right at them laughing aloud and with your lance in rest."
"In THE SECRET GARDEN she offers three overlapping belief systems. THe first is a nod to traditional Christianity, as practiced in the CHurch of England. The second is a combination of self-healing and positive thinking, what today we would refer to as New Age. Third is a kind of paganism, drawing on nature's power over all creatures, including mankind, that hearkens back to 19th century Romanticism, as practiced by writers like .... who eschewed the artificial in favor of nature and children. Joy and healing resulted from each."
"Subconscious mind"
"As the children gather in the garden, singing the Doxology, making a magic circle, willing their minds and bodies to work as one, they draw on the innate powers of nature, science, religion, and the unconcious. This, to Burnett, was a distillation of human possibility."
"The biggest influences to THE SECRET GARDEN were for sure JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS by the Bronte sisters. The theme of orphans was omnipresent in these. Also OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS plus these were based on facts: 18,000 children in English work houses in 1844."
"Most analyses focus on the issues of motherhood, feminism, sexuality, nature, class, and illness"
"Mary drops out of the story when Archibald enters the garden. Some say 'Mary slips into the background until she disappears entirely from the final chapter' and that Burnett 'seems to be affirming male supremacy and patriarchal authority'".
"Once Martha is established as a mother, Mary becomes one herself, metaphorically. She finds Colin and performs maternal deeds of scolding, reassuring, and singing him to sleep. Like a mother she reports his physical condition. She brings him playmates like Dickon and his animals, and the SECRET. Thru this nurturing, Mary heals first herself and then her cousin, and ultimately her uncle as well."
"Mary is Anglo-Indian--born in India of English parentage. She grows up accustomed to the reality of India but attuned to the spirit of England...but India is all she knows."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NOVEL
"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow b/c she had been born in India and had always been ill."
"Mary's mother had not wanted a girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah to keep the child out of sight as much as possible."
"So if Mary had not chosen to really want to learn how to read, she would never have learned her letters at all."
"Mary had not cried b/c the nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much for anyone. The noise and hurrying about and the wailing over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry b/c no one seemed to remember she was alive. Everyone was too panic-y to think of a little girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera it seemed they remembered nothing but themselves. But if everyone had got well again, someone surely would come looking for her..."
"It is the child no one ever saw! She has actually been forgotten!" -Leiutenant
"It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found out she had neither father nor mother left; they had died."
"Mary knew very little of her mother, she could scarecely been expected to love her very much when she was gone. She did not miss her at all, and as she was a self-absorbed child she gave her entire thought to herself, as she had always done. If she had been older she would no doubt have been anxious at being left alone in the world, but she was very young and as she had always been taken care of, she supposed she always would be."
"What she thought was that she would like to know if she was going to nice people, who would be polite to her and give her her own way as her Ayah and other servants had done."
"Mary has the most unattractive ways I ever saw in a child. The children call her 'Mistress Mary quite contrary' and although it's naughty of them, one can't help understanding it."
"Many people never even knew she existed at all."
"If she were not so sallow and had a nicer expression, her features are rather good. Children alter so much." - Medlock
"She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to anyone even when her father and mother had been alive. Other children seemed to belong to their parents, but she never seemed to be anyone's little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was b/c she was a disagreeable child. She did not know she was disagreeable."
"In the railway station Mary stayed as far away from Medlock as possible. She didn't want to seem to belong to her. It would have made her very angry to think people imagined she was her little girl."
"Medlock had never seen a child who sat so still without doing anything."
"Mary frowned because she remember that her parents had never talked to her about anything in particular. Certainly they never told her things."
"England sounded so much unlike India, and anything new rather attracted her. ABut she did not intend to look interested. That was one of her disagreeable ways. So she sat still."
"As suddenly as she began to feel sorry for Mr. Archie Craven she began to cease to be sorry and to think he was unpleasant enough to deserve all that had happened to him."
"Mary was not at all a timid child ands he was not exactly frightened, but she felt there was no knowing what might happen in a house with 100 rooms all shut up--a house on a moor."
"The Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor. She had perhaps never felt so contrary in her life."
"Mary had always slapped her Ayah in the face when she was angry. She wondered a little what this girl would do if she slapped her in the face."
to Yellow skin-"She was in such a rage and felt so helpless before the girl's stare and somehow she suddenly felt so horribly lonely and far away from everything she understood and which understood her, that she threw herself face downward on the pillows and burst into passionate sobbing."
"Mary had never had an animal pet of her own and had always wanted one. So she felt a slight interest in Dickon, and as she had never before been interested in any one but herself, it was the dawning of a healthy sentiment."
"Mary didn't know what it was to be hungry"
"It was really this mention of Dickon which made Mary decide to go out, though she was not aware of it."
"Perhaps because she had nothing to do she thought of the secret garden. She was curious about it and wanted to see what it was like"
"People never like me and I never like people"
"She had never thought muc about her looks but she wondered if she was as unattractive as Ben Whetherstaff."
"She was almost as curious about Dickon as she was about the deserted garden."
"Poor little thin, sallow, ugly Mary-she actually looked almost pretty for a moment."
"Martha waited on her, but no one troubled themselves about Mary in the least."
"I like Dickon, and I've never seen him!"
"She was not a child who was trained to ask permission or consult her elders about things."
"She said her thank-you stiffly b/c she was not used to thanking people or even noticing they did things for her."
"She liked the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place."
"Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed, indeed."
About Dickon-- "She liked his scent very much and when she looked into his funny face with the red cheeks and blue eyes she forgot she felt shy."
"Mistress Mary did not mean to put her hand and clutch Dickon's sleeve but she did it."
"Mistress Mary put her hand on Dickon's arm again without knowing it."
"She had never seen such a funny boy as Dickon, or such a nice one."
"Mary could scarcely bear to leave Dickon, he seemed to be too good to be true"
"I think-- I think Dickon is beautiful!"
About Dickon- "Oh, how she did like that queer, common boy! She hoped he would come back the very next day and she fell asleep looking forward to the morning."
On Colin- "She did not want to go away. She wanted to stay in this mysterious hidden-away room and talk to the mysterious boy."
"She did not want to see Colin as much as she wanted to see Dickon, but she wanted to see him very much."
"Dickon is not like anyone else in the world"
On Archie sending a gift-"Everything was so nice that her pleasure began to crowd her anger out of her mind. She had not expected him to remember her at all and her hard little heart grew quite warm."
"There was really a sort of magic about Dickon, as Mary had privately believed."
"She was a great believer in magic. Secretly she believed that Dickon worked Magic, of course good magic, on everything near him and that was why people liked him so much and wild creatures knew he was their friend. She wondered if it were not possible that his gift had brought the robin just at the right moment when Colin asked that dangerous question. She felt that his Magic was working all the afternoon and making Colin look like an entirely different boy."
"Mary had begun to be downright pretty since she's filled out and lost her ugly sour look. Her hair's grown thick and healthy looking and she's got a bright color. The glummest, ill-natured little thing she used to be and now her and Colin laugh together like a pair of crazy young ones."
"Magic is the bring about of unbelieveable things through an obstinate faith that nothing is too good to be true, and many things are too idiotically bad to be able to stand up on their own feet if you charge right at them laughing aloud and with your lance in rest."
"In THE SECRET GARDEN she offers three overlapping belief systems. THe first is a nod to traditional Christianity, as practiced in the CHurch of England. The second is a combination of self-healing and positive thinking, what today we would refer to as New Age. Third is a kind of paganism, drawing on nature's power over all creatures, including mankind, that hearkens back to 19th century Romanticism, as practiced by writers like .... who eschewed the artificial in favor of nature and children. Joy and healing resulted from each."
"Subconscious mind"
"As the children gather in the garden, singing the Doxology, making a magic circle, willing their minds and bodies to work as one, they draw on the innate powers of nature, science, religion, and the unconcious. This, to Burnett, was a distillation of human possibility."
"The biggest influences to THE SECRET GARDEN were for sure JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS by the Bronte sisters. The theme of orphans was omnipresent in these. Also OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS plus these were based on facts: 18,000 children in English work houses in 1844."
"Most analyses focus on the issues of motherhood, feminism, sexuality, nature, class, and illness"
"Mary drops out of the story when Archibald enters the garden. Some say 'Mary slips into the background until she disappears entirely from the final chapter' and that Burnett 'seems to be affirming male supremacy and patriarchal authority'".
"Once Martha is established as a mother, Mary becomes one herself, metaphorically. She finds Colin and performs maternal deeds of scolding, reassuring, and singing him to sleep. Like a mother she reports his physical condition. She brings him playmates like Dickon and his animals, and the SECRET. Thru this nurturing, Mary heals first herself and then her cousin, and ultimately her uncle as well."
"Mary is Anglo-Indian--born in India of English parentage. She grows up accustomed to the reality of India but attuned to the spirit of England...but India is all she knows."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NOVEL
"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow b/c she had been born in India and had always been ill."
"Mary's mother had not wanted a girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah to keep the child out of sight as much as possible."
"So if Mary had not chosen to really want to learn how to read, she would never have learned her letters at all."
"Mary had not cried b/c the nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much for anyone. The noise and hurrying about and the wailing over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry b/c no one seemed to remember she was alive. Everyone was too panic-y to think of a little girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera it seemed they remembered nothing but themselves. But if everyone had got well again, someone surely would come looking for her..."
"It is the child no one ever saw! She has actually been forgotten!" -Leiutenant
"It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found out she had neither father nor mother left; they had died."
"Mary knew very little of her mother, she could scarecely been expected to love her very much when she was gone. She did not miss her at all, and as she was a self-absorbed child she gave her entire thought to herself, as she had always done. If she had been older she would no doubt have been anxious at being left alone in the world, but she was very young and as she had always been taken care of, she supposed she always would be."
"What she thought was that she would like to know if she was going to nice people, who would be polite to her and give her her own way as her Ayah and other servants had done."
"Mary has the most unattractive ways I ever saw in a child. The children call her 'Mistress Mary quite contrary' and although it's naughty of them, one can't help understanding it."
"Many people never even knew she existed at all."
"If she were not so sallow and had a nicer expression, her features are rather good. Children alter so much." - Medlock
"She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to anyone even when her father and mother had been alive. Other children seemed to belong to their parents, but she never seemed to be anyone's little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was b/c she was a disagreeable child. She did not know she was disagreeable."
"In the railway station Mary stayed as far away from Medlock as possible. She didn't want to seem to belong to her. It would have made her very angry to think people imagined she was her little girl."
"Medlock had never seen a child who sat so still without doing anything."
"Mary frowned because she remember that her parents had never talked to her about anything in particular. Certainly they never told her things."
"England sounded so much unlike India, and anything new rather attracted her. ABut she did not intend to look interested. That was one of her disagreeable ways. So she sat still."
"As suddenly as she began to feel sorry for Mr. Archie Craven she began to cease to be sorry and to think he was unpleasant enough to deserve all that had happened to him."
"Mary was not at all a timid child ands he was not exactly frightened, but she felt there was no knowing what might happen in a house with 100 rooms all shut up--a house on a moor."
"The Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor. She had perhaps never felt so contrary in her life."
"Mary had always slapped her Ayah in the face when she was angry. She wondered a little what this girl would do if she slapped her in the face."
to Yellow skin-"She was in such a rage and felt so helpless before the girl's stare and somehow she suddenly felt so horribly lonely and far away from everything she understood and which understood her, that she threw herself face downward on the pillows and burst into passionate sobbing."
"Mary had never had an animal pet of her own and had always wanted one. So she felt a slight interest in Dickon, and as she had never before been interested in any one but herself, it was the dawning of a healthy sentiment."
"Mary didn't know what it was to be hungry"
"It was really this mention of Dickon which made Mary decide to go out, though she was not aware of it."
"Perhaps because she had nothing to do she thought of the secret garden. She was curious about it and wanted to see what it was like"
"People never like me and I never like people"
"She had never thought muc about her looks but she wondered if she was as unattractive as Ben Whetherstaff."
"She was almost as curious about Dickon as she was about the deserted garden."
"Poor little thin, sallow, ugly Mary-she actually looked almost pretty for a moment."
"Martha waited on her, but no one troubled themselves about Mary in the least."
"I like Dickon, and I've never seen him!"
"She was not a child who was trained to ask permission or consult her elders about things."
"She said her thank-you stiffly b/c she was not used to thanking people or even noticing they did things for her."
"She liked the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place."
"Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed, indeed."
About Dickon-- "She liked his scent very much and when she looked into his funny face with the red cheeks and blue eyes she forgot she felt shy."
"Mistress Mary did not mean to put her hand and clutch Dickon's sleeve but she did it."
"Mistress Mary put her hand on Dickon's arm again without knowing it."
"She had never seen such a funny boy as Dickon, or such a nice one."
"Mary could scarcely bear to leave Dickon, he seemed to be too good to be true"
"I think-- I think Dickon is beautiful!"
About Dickon- "Oh, how she did like that queer, common boy! She hoped he would come back the very next day and she fell asleep looking forward to the morning."
On Colin- "She did not want to go away. She wanted to stay in this mysterious hidden-away room and talk to the mysterious boy."
"She did not want to see Colin as much as she wanted to see Dickon, but she wanted to see him very much."
"Dickon is not like anyone else in the world"
On Archie sending a gift-"Everything was so nice that her pleasure began to crowd her anger out of her mind. She had not expected him to remember her at all and her hard little heart grew quite warm."
"There was really a sort of magic about Dickon, as Mary had privately believed."
"She was a great believer in magic. Secretly she believed that Dickon worked Magic, of course good magic, on everything near him and that was why people liked him so much and wild creatures knew he was their friend. She wondered if it were not possible that his gift had brought the robin just at the right moment when Colin asked that dangerous question. She felt that his Magic was working all the afternoon and making Colin look like an entirely different boy."
"Mary had begun to be downright pretty since she's filled out and lost her ugly sour look. Her hair's grown thick and healthy looking and she's got a bright color. The glummest, ill-natured little thing she used to be and now her and Colin laugh together like a pair of crazy young ones."