The Secret Garden — Chapter 18

About This Passage

This is the chapter's therapeutic climax. Burnett deploys three precision-tooled adverbs and participles in quick succession — 'indignantly,' 'un-hysterical,' 'enraptured' — to chart Colin's recovery arc in the space of a single paragraph. Mary's indignant refusal to agree with his fear is the antidote to years of sympathetic agreement. Her being 'so un-hysterical' (the hyphenated negation is a Burnett signature) is not merely a description of Mary's temperament but a diagnosis of what has been missing in Colin's environment. The passage ends in 'enraptured' — a word reserved in the novel for characters who have forgotten themselves, which is precisely what Colin needs.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 18 as a sequence of three escalating disclosures. First, Mary's 'sudden inspiration' to see Colin before Dickon. Second, Mary's Yorkshire speech that makes Colin laugh until Mrs. Medlock stops in the corridor amazed. Third, Mary's decision to risk her deepest secret — that there is a door into the garden — and then, moments later, to admit the still-larger secret that she has been inside it for weeks. Explain how each disclosure costs Mary something and gives Colin something in return.

Discussion Questions

1. Burnett writes that Mary decided to see Colin first 'with a sudden inspiration.' What does the chapter reveal about WHAT that inspiration actually was, and why does Burnett withhold the content of it from the reader for several paragraphs before letting us see Mary deploy it?
2. When Colin says 'I wish I was friends with things, but I'm not. I never had anything to be friends with, and I can't bear people,' what does the sequence of those three sentences tell us about how Colin has constructed the story of himself, and which of the three does Mary actually attack first?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide