Frequently Asked Questions About The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Name: The Secret Garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Question 1

What is The Secret Garden about?

Accepted Answer

The Secret Garden is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett about a spoiled, unloved ten-year-old girl named Mary Lennox who is sent from colonial India to live at her uncle's remote Yorkshire manor after her parents die in a cholera outbreak. At Misselthwaite Manor, Mary discovers a garden that has been locked and abandoned for ten years, and she sets about secretly restoring it. Through the physical work of tending the garden and the friendships she forms with a local boy named Dickon and her bedridden cousin Colin, Mary and those around her are transformed — both physically and emotionally. Published in 1911, the novel is a story about the restorative power of nature, the danger of neglect, and the surprising speed at which children can change when given the right conditions to grow.

Question 2

What are the main themes in The Secret Garden?

Accepted Answer

The dominant theme of The Secret Garden is nature as healer — the idea that contact with living, growing things restores physical and emotional health. Burnett reinforces this through the seasonal structure of the novel: the garden is discovered in winter, tended through spring, and fully alive by summer, mirroring the children's own transformation. A second major theme is the power of positive thinking: Colin has been told he is dying, and his body obliges; once he redirects his mind toward life and growth, his health follows. Burnett was influenced by the New Thought movement, and the children's concept of garden "Magic" reflects this philosophy. The novel also explores neglect versus care — the garden, Mary, and Colin are all casualties of adult grief and withdrawal — and friendship as a catalyst for change, since neither Mary nor Colin could have healed alone.

Question 3

Who are the main characters in The Secret Garden?

Accepted Answer

The four central characters are Mary Lennox, the protagonist — a sour, self-absorbed English girl orphaned in India who discovers and restores the secret garden; Colin Craven, her cousin, an invalid boy who has spent his life in a dark bedroom convinced he will die young; Dickon Sowerby, a warm-hearted Yorkshire boy with a gift for animals and growing things who becomes the children's closest ally; and Archibald Craven, Mary and Colin's uncle and father respectively, a grief-stricken widower who avoided both his son and the garden since his wife's death. Susan Sowerby, Dickon's mother, plays a quieter but important role as a wise, nurturing presence who watches over all three children from a distance.

Question 4

What does the secret garden symbolize?

Accepted Answer

The secret garden is one of the richest symbols in children's literature. At its most straightforward level, it represents neglect and the possibility of renewal — it has been locked away and left to go wild for ten years, just as Colin has been shut in his room and Mary has been left without real care. When the children restore the garden, they restore themselves. More broadly, the garden functions as a symbol of the unconscious mind and hidden potential: it exists, it is alive under the surface, but it needs to be found and tended before it can flourish. Scholars have also read it as an Eden figure, a pastoral retreat from a world shaped by grief and empire, and as a feminine space — the original garden belonged to Archibald's wife, Lilias, and reclaiming it is partly an act of reclaiming her legacy.

Question 5

How does Mary Lennox change throughout the story?

Accepted Answer

Mary Lennox undergoes one of the most dramatic transformations in children's fiction. She begins the novel described as "the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen" — thin, yellow-faced, sour, and accustomed to having servants do everything for her. Her first instinct at Misselthwaite Manor is to be imperious and bored. But as she begins digging in the secret garden, something shifts: caring for the plants requires attention outside herself, and that outward focus gradually softens her. She grows physically stronger from working outdoors, and emotionally more generous as her friendships with Dickon and Colin deepen. By the novel's end, Mary is energetic, curious, capable, and kind — a transformation Burnett presents not as magic but as the natural result of engagement, fresh air, and purposeful work.

Question 6

What is wrong with Colin in The Secret Garden?

Accepted Answer

Colin Craven believes he is gravely ill and will die young — but The Secret Garden gradually reveals that there is nothing physically wrong with him. His father, paralyzed by grief over his wife's death, could not bear to look at his son, and the household servants — afraid of upsetting their employer — told Colin whatever kept him quiet, including that his spine was deformed and that he would probably become a hunchback. Colin internalized these beliefs so completely that they became, in a functional sense, true: he refused to leave his room, refused to walk, and spent his days in fear of dying. When Mary arrives and flatly refuses to believe in his illness, and when the garden gives him a reason to get up and go outside, Colin discovers that his body is perfectly capable of growing strong. Burnett uses Colin's recovery to illustrate the New Thought idea that mental conviction profoundly shapes physical health.

Question 7

What age group is The Secret Garden written for?

Accepted Answer

The Secret Garden is traditionally aimed at readers aged 8 to 12, though it is widely read and studied by older students and adults. The novel contains some mild thematic darkness — parental death, childhood illness, adult depression — but handles these subjects with warmth and ultimately resolves them in a life-affirming direction. The language reflects its 1911 publication date and includes Victorian phrasing and Yorkshire dialect that younger readers may find challenging, but this is generally considered part of its charm. It is a staple of upper elementary and middle school reading lists and appears frequently in school curricula as a text for exploring themes of transformation, nature, and emotional growth. The full text, all 27 chapters, is available to read free online at American Literature.

Question 8

How does The Secret Garden compare to Burnett's other books?

Accepted Answer

The Secret Garden is widely considered Frances Hodgson Burnett's finest novel, though her other two celebrated children's books each have their devoted readers. A Little Princess (1905) shares the theme of a child who loses her privileged position and must find inner resources to survive, while Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) is a more sentimental portrait of a naturally good-hearted boy who transforms a grumpy aristocrat. What sets The Secret Garden apart is the psychological realism of its characters: Mary and Colin are genuinely unpleasant at the start, and their growth feels earned rather than given. Critics have called it a landmark in children's literature for this reason — it helped prepare the way for more honest, complex depictions of children in fiction.

The Secret Garden

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