The spring equinox on March 20 is mere days away, yet the weather in Ithaca feels stubbornly wintry. Still, despite the bare trees, there are signs of life. Here and there, small green shoots emerge from the ground and robins chirp from tree branches. This moment, suspended between winter and spring, is the perfect time of year to revisit Frances Hodgson Burnett’s springtime classic The Secret Garden. In this children’s novel, 10-year-old Mary Lennox is sent to live with her distant uncle after the deaths of her parents. At the beginning of the story Mary is apathetic, cold and often described as “disagreeable,” but with the companionship of a friendly robin and a boy named Dickon Sowerby, Mary’s coldness melts away and she becomes healthier, happier and kinder in the process of caring for a long-abandoned garden. On my recent reread, I particularly appreciated the recurring idea of ‘coming alive’ in connection with springtime. As spring brings Yorkshire moors and gardens to life, Mary herself comes alive with them.
Mary arrives at Misselthwaite Manor in the middle of a cold, gray winter all too reminiscent of ours in Ithaca. She finds her surroundings dull, bare and ugly, and this negative opinion both reflects and reinforces her perpetual sour mood. However, the housemaid Martha Sowerby begins to chip away at Mary’s cold exterior by sparking her curiosity: first about locked rooms in the house, next about Martha’s brother Dickon and then about the mysterious locked garden. Mary’s unexpected interest in Martha’s stories is an early hint of her personal growth. Similarly, though there is not yet any stirring of life on the moor, Martha’s description of how the scenery will look in spring creates a sense of anticipation.
As Mary spends more time outdoors, she becomes healthier and more energetic, even before the season shows signs of changing. To her surprise, she finds herself truly caring about Martha, the robin and Dickon. In one scene, she calls out after the robin, “I like you! I like you!” with enthusiasm that demonstrates a major shift since her arrival. Spring is still a long way off, but being outdoors is no longer unpleasant, and Mary is already beginning to appreciate and enjoy the world around her.
When Mary sees the brown grass and dead tree branches of the secret garden for the first time, she is not disdainful, as she might have been if she had found the garden earlier. Instead, desperately hoping that the garden still has some life in it, she envisions how beautiful it could become. This perspective parallels the season we see now in Ithaca; the air is cold and the trees remain bare, but patches of green and occasional sunshine remind us that warmer days are coming. Mary, while searching for signs of life in the garden, is delighted to see a few small green shoots emerging from the Earth and quickly sets herself to work clearing weeds and grass away so the plants can breathe.
Before too long, true spring begins to arrive. Mary observes that “the world [seems] to be changing and getting nicer.” This is literally true, given the gentler weather and brighter colors that come with spring. However, this line reveals a change in Mary herself more than any change in the landscape. As the world gets “nicer” with the arrival of spring, so too does Mary’s outlook.
It is at this point in the novel, after a great change has already occurred in Mary, that she meets Colin, her cousin who lives in the same house but remains hidden away in his bedroom because of his constant illness. Mary finds striking parallels to her own former self in Colin, who is self-centered, sickly, pessimistic and lonely. Having spent nearly all her time over the past several weeks in the garden, Mary has been growing stronger and happier, and she is convinced that the garden is exactly what Colin needs as well.
Upon seeing the secret garden in the full bloom of spring, Colin exclaims, “I shall get well! And I shall live for ever and ever and ever!” This declaration is the exact opposite of his earlier stubborn, hopeless certainty that he would not even live to grow up. In the fresh springtime air, he quickly gains health and good spirits, eventually building enough strength to walk and run around the garden with Mary and Dickon. By the end of the book, all three children are strong, healthy and happy. The change from winter to spring over the course of the novel both symbolizes and plays a key role in the change both Mary and Colin experience from bad-tempered illness to laughing, glowing health.
Spring is coming in Ithaca, too. As I write this, it is snowing, but yesterday I counted 13 robins on the slope, and the day before that I was amazed by the fresh, bright green of the grass. Once the weather permits, take some time to enjoy the arrival of spring. The simple yet magnificent beauty of the growing, vibrant outdoors helped Mary and Colin come alive, and, before we know it, it will bring us, too, to life.
Raina Lockwood is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a contributor for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at rl978@cornell.edu.
