Mrs. Craven Character Analysis

Colin's mother; she died about the time of his birth after a tree branch in the secret garden broke, and she fell. She and Mr. Craven were madly in love, and the garden was their sanctuary. There, Mrs. Craven was a skilled gardener and carefully tended her roses. On her deathbed, she asked Ben Weatherstaff to care for the roses in her absence. After her death, Mr. Craven was consumed with grief, and to try to bury the memory of his wife, he locked her garden and buried the key. Similarly, though Colin has a portrait of her in his bedroom, he keeps it covered with a curtain most of the time, wanting to keep his beautiful mother’s smile only for himself. As Colin and Mary grow and develop and connect with the garden, they learn to see it as a place of life and nurturing, not a place of death as Mr. Craven sees it. Susan Sowerby even remarks at one point that Mrs. Craven's spirit must be in the garden. When Colin finally shares his recovery with Mr. Craven, Mr. Craven cries with happiness to see his wife's pride and joy returned to its former glory. As Colin recovers, he also removes the curtain from Mrs. Craven's portrait and decides to think of it as smiling down on him.