The Secret Garden

“She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at last she wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth.”

Even before coming to Misselthwaite Manor, Mary sought out gardens and gardening to make herself feel better when she was troubled. Here, she is trying to make herself grow, but she doesn’t know how and has no one to show her.

“Other children seemed to belong to their fathers and mothers, but [Mary] had never seemed to really be anyone’s little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was because she was a disagreeable child; but then, of course, she did not know she was disagreeable. She often thought that other people were, but she did not know that she was so herself.”

The first part of the passage shows how Mary never felt as though she belonged to anyone; she might have sprung from the earth like a flower that no one wanted. The author takes advantage of the power of the omniscient narrator when she tells the reader that Mary doesn’t know she is disagreeable. A limited narrator can only see and know what the characters see and know.

“‘[The robin] was a knowin’ one an’ he knew he was lonely.’ Mistress Mary went a step nearer to the robin and looked at him very hard. ‘I’m lonely,’ she said. She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel sour and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she looked at the robin.”

By becoming aware of her loneliness, Mary takes a big step in realizing she is a distinct person apart from everyone else. As she learns to observe and recognize her feelings, she also develops a greater sense of self-awareness, which allows her to begin to understand how she fits into the world around her and how she can connect with others.