Mr. Archibald Craven Character Analysis

Colin's father and the owner of Misselthwaite Manor. Rumor has it that he has a hunchback, though when Mary meets him, she observes that he's actually a handsome man whose only faults are slightly crooked shoulders and an angry, brooding expression. She learns later that Mr. Craven used to be full of life and in love with his wife, Mrs. Craven, but following her untimely death, he had her favorite garden locked up and refused to see the infant Colin, as he resented Colin for living. He spends the next ten years only looking in on Colin while Colin is asleep, though he spends most of his time traveling out of the country. Mr. Craven also forces his servants to not speak of Colin or the secret garden in an attempt to not have to remember his wife's death. Inexplicably, on the day that Colin stands in the secret garden and proclaims that he's going to live forever, Mr. Craven also begins to come alive. As Colin improves over the next several months, Mr. Craven follows a similar trajectory and finally decides to return home after receiving a letter from Mrs. Sowerby. There, he cries with joy when he discovers that Colin is walking and lively like any other boy, and he is happy to see that the secret garden, his wife's pride and joy, is once again growing and alive. The novel suggests that this is the work of Magic.