Healing, Growth, and Nature Theme Analysis

The Secret Garden tells the story of ten-year-olds Mary, an ugly and spoiled girl from India, and Colin, a sickly and spoiled hypochondriac. When Mary’s parents and their servants die suddenly of cholera, Mary is shipped to live with her uncle Mr. Archibald Craven at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire, England, where she lives for an entire month before discovering Colin’s existence. During Mary’s time at the manor, her days spent outside in the gardens begins to put color in her cheeks, make her hungry for the first time, and encourage her to think about others outside herself. The healing effects of nature are even more pronounced in Colin who, for the entirety of his life, has been led to believe that he’s either going to be a hunchback or die before he reaches adulthood. The drastic transformations of both children represent a worldview that situates the natural world as something even more powerful and capable than human doctors of healing people, both mentally and physically.

The Mary whom the reader meets at the beginning of the novel is a sickly, insensitive, and cruel individual, living in Colonial India. While some of this behavior has to do with the way Mary’s parents treat her, the novel is also explicit in linking Mary’s poor state to India’s climate, specifically its heat, and the fact that Mary never has the opportunity there to spend time in nature. As Mary makes her way to England, adults around her describe her as sallow, unpleasant, and far too thin—all qualities she’s developed thanks to the way that India made her feel. Because of how poorly Mary feels, the cold moor air at Misselthwaite and the moor itself have an immediate effect on her: in the carriage from the train station to the manor, Mary begins to feel curious and ask questions for the first time in her short life. Right away, nature begins to mentally invigorate Mary.

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Besides inciting her curiosity, nature also begins to heal Mary physically. Because there are supposedly no other children at Misselthwaite, definitely no nurses or governesses, and no indoor activities for Mary to do, her maid, Martha, tells Mary that she’ll have to spend her time outside in the gardens amusing herself. While Mary is initially reticent to do so, the fresh air makes Mary feel good, continues to awaken her curiosity, and gives her such a sense of purpose that she’s happy to spend her time outside within a week of being forced out. Colin’s transformation is even more dramatic: there’s little indication that Colin has ever stood on his own feet but yet, after an hour in the garden, he’s walking, digging in the dirt, and feeling healthier than ever—all thanks to, as Martha’s twelve-year-old brother Dickon and the narrator say often, the cool and invigorating air coming off the moor. This is even more indicative of the power of nature, given that years’ worth of nurses and doctors haven’t even been able to get Colin to move himself from bed to sofa on his own.

Mary isn’t alone when she first begins to understand and appreciate the healing effects of nature; she’s helped along in major ways by the old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, the robin, and later, Dickon. While the robin is an obvious part of the natural world, Ben Weatherstaff and Dickon are described as individuals who bridge the gap between the human-constructed world and the wild natural one. Ben Weatherstaff introduces Mary first to the robin and then to basic tenets of gardening, while Dickon is described as an “animal charmer” and guides Mary towards becoming more observant of the natural world and, in some cases, shows her how act as to become a fixture in nature or in the garden by modeling slow and deliberate movements, proper eye contact, and a sense of ease in nature. Through these mediators, Mary—and later, Colin—are able to use what they see to learn how to interact with nature and, in turn, both children become kinder, healthier, and more confident in their own self worth. By continuing to center the children’s transformation around their interactions with the secret garden, the individuals who bridge the gap between humans and nature, and the natural world more broadly, the novel makes the case that a person looks outdoors with interest and learns to interact with nature, doing so will heal a person’s body and mind.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
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