Mary Lennox

Mary Lennox begins the novel as one of the most disagreeable-looking children ever seen—a thin, sallow, sour-faced girl with yellow hair and a tyrannical disposition. Born in India to a beautiful, party-loving mother who never wanted her and a busy, ill father, she was raised by native servants who obeyed her every whim to keep her quiet. By the age of six she was "as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived," and governesses fled her company within months. When cholera sweeps through the British compound, both her parents die, and Mary is discovered entirely alone in the bungalow, having been forgotten by everyone in the panic. She is sent to England to live with her reclusive uncle, Archibald Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moor. The journey and her arrival are marked by her characteristic contrariness: she refuses to show interest, dislikes Mrs. Medlock on sight, and declares she hates the moor. Yet the new environment begins to work changes on her. The fresh, strong air from the moor stirs her appetite and her blood; she starts to run and skip, and for the first time in her life she feels genuinely hungry. Her encounter with the robin—Ben Weatherstaff's tame bird—awakens in her a capacity for curiosity and affection she never knew she possessed. She speaks to the robin "as if she was speaking to a person," and the bird's friendly response draws from her a tone "so soft and eager and coaxing" that Ben Weatherstaff is astonished. This moment marks the beginning of her emotional awakening. Mary's discovery of the key to the secret garden, hidden for ten years, and her subsequent entry into the walled garden become the central adventure of her new life. She works alone at first, digging and weeding, and finds the garden "a world all her own." Her friendship with Dickon Sowerby, Martha's brother, deepens her connection to the natural world; Dickon brings his tame fox, rook, and squirrels, and teaches her how to make things grow. Mary's character continues to evolve through her relationship with Colin Craven, her uncle's son, whom she discovers crying in a hidden room. She confronts his hysterical tantrums with a fierce, unsympathetic directness that no one else dares to use, telling him, "You stop! I hate you! Everybody hates you!" and insisting that his back has no lump. This shocking honesty proves therapeutic, and Colin begins to recover. Mary becomes his confidante and ally, sharing the secret of the garden with him and helping to plan his first visit there. By the end of the novel, Mary has been utterly transformed. She is no longer the "plain, sour-faced child" who arrived at Misselthwaite; she has filled out, her hair has grown thick and healthy, and her cheeks have color. She laughs freely with Colin and Dickon, and she has learned to care deeply about other people—the robin, Dickon, Martha, Ben Weatherstaff, and even Colin. Her journey from a lonely, unloved orphan to a beloved member of a new family is the emotional heart of the story, and it is the secret garden, with its "Magic" of growth and renewal, that makes this transformation possible.