Character Clues
Character Analysis
Speech and Dialogue
The Secret Garden is like Gossip Girl in only one respect: A lot of what we find out about the characters, we hear in dialogue between other people. In other words, what the other characters say about each other indicates a lot about who these characters actually are. So, for example, Mary hears from Martha all about Colin's bad health. Martha tells her:
Mother says there's no reason why any child should live that gets no fresh air an' doesn't do nothin' but lie on his back an' read picture-books an' take medicine. He's weak and hates th' trouble o' bein' taken out o' doors, an' he gets cold so easy he says it makes him ill. (14.33)
All of this turns out to be absolutely true—Mrs. Sowerby is right that, while Colin is doing nothing but sit around and worry about himself, he keeps getting sick. Once he starts getting fresh air and doing things, his health improves hugely.
Of course, Mrs. Sowerby, Martha, and Dickon are all good sources for information on the other characters. Generic gossip isn't so helpful: obviously Ben Weatherstaff is totally wrong when he thinks that Colin is "cripple an' half-witted" (22.23). As Ben Weatherstaff concludes, "Th' world's full o' jackasses brayin' an' they never bray nowt but lies" (22.25). For those still figuring out Yorkshire, in other words, the world's full of idiots who talk nothing but lies. In this case, Ben reveals more about himself than the world he's talking about.
Family Life
Family provides the direct cause-and-effect that makes kids good or bad in The Secret Garden. The Sowerbys are a friendly and united family, so all of the Sowerbys that we meet—Dickon, Martha, and Mrs. Sowerby—are down-to-earth, happy, and wholesome.
One the other hand, the Craven family is absolutely divided. Archibald can't face the ghostly memory of his wife in the Secret Garden or the living presence of his son Colin, so he spends as much time as possible abroad. And as a result of his damaged family life, Colin is an absolute fiend when Mary first meets him.
And as for Mary, well, her parents were once terrible, and now they're dead. So early on, this means she's a brat and an orphan.
Location
Frances Hodgson Burnett loves writing out the Yorkshire accent literally; whenever Ben Weatherstaff or Dickon speaks, she uses a metric ton of apostrophes to convey their particular way of speaking.
But aside from their distinctive accents, being from Yorkshire also appears to give the Sowerbys and Ben Weatherstaff a certain direct access to the land and to a sense of home. They all feel that they belong to Yorkshire, with its moors and its wild beauty, in a way that May and Colin don't feel at all.
In fact, it's only once Colin starts speaking Yorkshire in Chapter 21 to show his appreciation for the beauties of The Secret Garden that we realize that he is starting to feel more genuinely comfortable and at home in Misselthwaite Manor. For more on characterization and location, head on over to the "Themes" section.
Names
Pop quiz: What does craven mean?
If you have a hunch that it doesn't mean something good, then go ahead and grab yourself the nearest gold star sticker you can find. For the record, craven means "contemptibly lacking in courage." So it's not just cowardly, it's cowardly that leaves a particularly bad taste in your mouth. Enter: Colin, Archibald, and the doctor. So long as you know what craven means, you just know these three are going to be various shades of cowardly—and indeed they are.
Pop quiz, take two: Who's Mary?
Okay, there've been a ton of Marys over the years, but for our purposes, lets think of the original one, the biblical queen bee. You know what she did? She gave birth to Jesus who, word on the street is, grew an entire religion known that spread the world over. Our Mary birthed (to use the term loosely) the Secret Garden, a place of spiritual and life-altering importance, not only for herself, but for Colin, too. So though she starts out a terrible brat, her name is a little shout-out to just how much potential this girl has.