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The Secret Garden
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Literary Devices
Personification
Personification is when something nonhuman is given the characteristics of a person. For example, the most obvious example of personification in the novel can be found in the garden itself. The garden is often described as having a life of its own, as if it’s a character in the story. For instance, after Colin enters the garden for the first time, he feels someone has laid a gentle hand on his face.
People often represent nature as a person or refer to “Mother Nature” because we see nature as having the qualities of a mother who gives life, food, and healing. In The Secret Garden, the garden provides nature and healing like a mother.
The robin is a different example of personification. Both Ben and Dickon speak to the robin and understand him, and he interacts with them much as a person would. In chapter 25, the author tells us that the robin knew at first glance that Dickon was a kind of bird himself without wings or feathers, and there is a passage of several pages describing what the robin and his mate think about the activities of the children in the garden. Personification is a good way to make something non-human seem more understandable.
Embodiment
Embodiment is the opposite of personification. It is when a person represents something abstract. For example, Dickon is the embodiment of the nature god Pan because the author shows him having the characteristics of Pan, such as playing a pipe and speaking to animals. Colin is the embodiment of death because he lives in a dark room, thinking about nothing but dying and not wanting to live.
Omniscient Point of View
The author of The Secret Garden writes from the omniscient point of view. Omniscient comes from Latin: Omni means “all,” and scine means “to know,” so omniscient means all-knowing. An omniscient narrator tells the story in the third person, using the pronouns he, she, or they; the omniscient narrator is different from a limited narrator in that the omniscient narrator can tell the reader things about the characters that the characters don’t know about themselves. For example, the author tells us that Mary doesn’t know she is a disagreeable person.
The omniscient author can also tell the reader what a non-human character like the robin thinks and feels. The robin, for example, feels that if an egg were harmed or stolen from the nest, the world would end. A limited narrator would have no way of knowing this. The author uses the device of the omniscient narrator particularly well in this book, adding depth, complexity, and even magic to the story.
Figurative Language
Figurative language uses colorful words or images to communicate a complex idea without directly stating it. Examples of figurative language include similes (comparing two things using “like” or “as”), metaphors (describing one thing using the words for another thing), and allusion (referring to something in an indirect way).
An example of a Simile might be: “The sun fell warm upon his face like a hand with a lovely touch” (139). The author uses the word “like” to compare the touch of the sun to the touch of a hand. In the following example—“It seemed as if [Dickon] might be a sort of wood fairy” (71)—the author uses “seemed as if” to mean the same thing as “like” or “as,” saying, “Dickon is like a wood fairy.”
A Metaphor is a literary device where one thing is meant to be seen as something else. The most important metaphor in the book is the use of the garden to represent Mary’s growth as a person. When Mary says, “They’re letting it die, all shut in by itself,” both she and the author use the garden as a metaphor for Mary herself. She has been shut in by herself and feels that she is dying.
An example of Allusion is when the author speaks as if Colin is a king (or a Rajah, which is the term for a ruler in India)—when she says that delight “reigns” in the garden when he arrives, and again when she describes the plum tree in the garden as the canopy of a fairy king. She means for the reader to think of Colin as being like a king, but she never says it outright.
Figurative language makes a story more fun to read because it presents puzzles for the reader to unravel. It makes the story more interesting because it helps the reader understand the elements of the story more deeply. When used effectively, it can make reading a more enjoyable experience.
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By Frances Hodgson Burnett
