
This new adaptation elaborates upon the “magic” associated with the healing power of thoughts, introducing a fantastic element to the story as Mary, Colin and Dickon enter a secret garden filled with otherworldly plants.ĭirector Marc Munden’s new adaptation also appears to revisit the colonialist emphasis of Burnett’s text. Yet The Secret Garden still resonates with contemporary audiences. Mary is subordinated as Colin’s healing becomes the text’s main focus Colin gains the ability to walk and – importantly – to win a race against her. Colin’s gardening suggests mastery of the space as he plants a rose – the floral emblem of England. Both gain weight and strength and lose their pallor. The children are healed by gardening in the “fresh wind from the moor”. Then the green things began to show buds and the buds began to unfurl and show colour, every shade of blue, every shade of purple, every tint and hue of crimson.ī&Bs for birds and bees: transform your garden or balcony into a wildlife haven

The stifling rooms and constricting passages of Misselthwaite Manor are contrasted to the freedom of the secret garden.Īt first it seemed that green things would never cease pushing their way through the earth, in the grass, in the beds, even in the crevices of the walls. Mary and Colin are both physically and psychically transformed through working in the garden. The garden becomes a space of rejuvenation for the children. Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), The Secret Garden also explores an English turn-of-the-century interest in paganism and the occult, expressed through the book’s fascination with the Greek god Pan.ĭickon, who shares an affinity with animals and the natural world, is first introduced as he sits under a tree “playing on a rough wooden pipe” reminiscent of Pan’s flute.


Like other Edwardian texts, such as Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1908) and J. Eventually, she manages to draw Colin out of his room with the help of Dickon, and the garden helps him to recover his strength.īurnett draws upon the cultural connection between childhood and nature, highlighting Edwardian beliefs about the importance of the garden. When she died after an accident in the garden, her husband, Archibald, locked the door and buried the key.Īfter Mary unearths the key, she begins to work in this mysterious, overgrown garden along with Martha’s brother, Dickon. This walled garden had formerly belonged to Colin’s mother, Lilias Craven.

The first edition of The Secret Garden, published in 1911.
