The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
“A sour, neglected child finds a locked garden — and in tending it back to life, discovers she can do the same for herself.”
Characters in The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett · 1911 · 7 characters analyzed
Cast: Mary Lennox, Dickon Sowerby, Colin Craven, Archibald Craven, Ben Weatherstaff, Martha Sowerby, Susan Sowerby.
Character Analysis
Introduced as the most disagreeable child in fiction; ends as someone capable of sustained care and genuine friendship. Burnett never makes Mary fully soft — her transformation is toward directness and openness, not sweetness. She remains willful; she simply acquires a will that reaches outward rather than inward. The key to the garden is hers, and the novel never lets us forget it.
Opens with colonial authority ('the most disagreeable child') — imperious, abbreviated commands. Shifts toward curiosity and directness as the novel progresses.