Mary Lennox Timeline and Summary

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• We start off Chapter 1 with a description of how horrible Mary both looks and is. Clearly, a lot of work needs to get done to make her likeable as a central character.
• Mary's parents both die, leaving her in the care of her uncle, Archibald Craven.
• By Chapter 3, Mary arrives at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire, England.
• Immediately, she starts to improve: She makes friends with her maid, Martha, and with a robin on the Manor grounds.
• She finds out about a walled off, abandoned garden that has been sealed since the death of Archibald's wife Lilias ten years before.
• With the help of the robin, Mary finds the key to this garden and goes in in Chapter 8.
• As she brings the Secret Garden back to life with the help of Martha's younger brother Dickon, Mary grows healthier and healthier.
• In Chapter 13, Mary meets Colin Craven, Archibald's secret son who is sickly and nervous and bossy and generally spoiled rotten.
• But Mary will actually fight back when Colin starts to bully her—something no one else has ever done before.
• Mary tells Colin about the Secret Garden and about Dickon, and Colin decides that he wants to go outside. (This may seem simple, but it's a very dramatic moment, we promise).
• As Colin visits the Secret Garden with Mary and Dickon, he also grows healthier and healthier.
• Mary accompanies Colin as he teaches himself how to stand and walk within the walls of the Secret Garden.
• She also helps him in his experiments with the Magic—the healing force that allows plants to grow and Colin to get better.
• As Mary plays more in the garden, she is also improving day by day.
• Archibald Craven finally comes home unexpectedly to find his son running in the garden: the two of them reunite in a happy ending that Mary witnesses but doesn't exactly participate in.