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The Secret Garden
By Frances Hodgson Burnett: a short textual analysis
The essay below explores a short extract from
The Secret Garden
by Frances
Hodgson Burnett. A critical analysis will demonstrate aspects of historical
context, ideology of the author, concepts of childhood, stylistic devices used,
narrative voice, devices conveying mood and character, themes and how the
scene moves the story forward.
The historical context of
The Secret Garden,
set in the Edwardian Era, shows
the importance of the British Colony of the time.
„I didn‟t know about them in India‟
Commonly highly regarded in this period, Hodgson Burnett reinforces the
importance of the British Empire. Mary Lennox had recently moved back from
India after the death of her parents. India was a part of the British Empire
and „was woven into the fabric of British life and hence into the fabric of
British children‟s fiction‟ (Kutzer, 2000, pp.11). Like Mary Lennox had moved
from India to England, the author had moved to America when she was just
14 years old (Carpenter & Shirley, 1990, pp.6).
From another perspective the author pushes the reader to see India as a
negative place for a child to grow up in. This can be seen with Mary‟s
innocent tone of not knowing about flowers in India – something Hodgson
Burnett believes childhood should contain.
The author‟s ideology as expressed in
The Secret Garden
shows a life close to
her own experiences.
„When you see a bit of earth you want,‟ with something like a smile, „take it,
child, and make it come alive.‟
Her childhood was a struggle from being a wealthy middle class family, to a
poorer family after the death of her father. Mr Craven‟s ideology of bringing
the earth back to life, closely links to the author‟s ideology, alike to many of
her stories which represented the theme of „rags to riches, and so did her real
life‟ (Carpenter & Shirley, 1990, pp.10). The slight pauses within the sentence
reinforce the solidity of making something flourish again. The ideology of the
garden is also represented here, as a personal link , her days as a young girl
in America spending time learning the names of trees and bushes and birds;
in the words of Hodgson Burnett herself described as the „Dryad Days‟
(Carpenter & Shirley, 1990, pp.22). Mary Lennox‟s personality echoes the
author‟s desire to explore nature and the earth.
The author‟s explicit concepts of childhood are represented through Mary
Lennox as a whole. Mr Craven reinforces how a childhood should be.
