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Similes
Key Examples in The Secret Garden
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Irony of Cholera:
Burnett uses situational irony to make the reader aware of just how selfish the young Mary Lennox is in the time of her parents' deaths. In Chapter 1, when her family and their servants are all dying of cholera around her, and Mary is left alone in the house, the narrator tells the reader that:
She did not cry because her nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much for any one. [...] She had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive. Everyone was too panic-stricken to think of a little girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera it seemed that they remembered nothing but themselves. But if everyone had got well again, surely some one would remember and come to look for her.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Adrift on the Moors:
Burnett often uses similes that compare the moor surrounding Misselthwaite Manor to the sea, making its bareness and desolation at the beginning of the novel seem even more profound. Mary already feels stranded and isolated after the death of the life she knew in India. She is unsettled by the unfamiliar soundscape upon arriving in Yorkshire in Chapter 3, when she has to ask her caretaker Mrs. Medlock what she is hearing:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A wind was rising and making a singular, wild, low, rushing sound. “It’s—it’s not the sea, is it?” said Mary, looking round at her companion. “No, not it,” answered Mrs. Medlock. “Nor it isn’t fields nor mountains, it’s just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild ponies and sheep.” “I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it,” said Mary. “It sounds like the sea just now.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—It Was The Custom:
In the early part of the novel, when Mary has only just come to Misselthwaite, she thinks she can behave like she did in the India of her childhood. Beginning in Chapter 4, Burnett uses an idiomatic phrase from the Victorian period to denote instances when Mary expects something to be done for her. Her English servants and counterparts find this idiom baffling:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Why doesn’t tha’ put on tha’ own shoes?” she said when Mary quietly held out her foot. “My Ayah did it,” answered Mary, staring. “It was the custom.” She said that very often—“It was the custom.” The native servants were always saying it. If one told them to do a thing their ancestors had not done for a thousand years they gazed at one mildly and said, “It is not the custom” and one knew that was the end of the matter.
Related Themes:
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—A Moorland Angel:
In Chapter 18, when Mary is describing her new friend Dickon to Colin Craven, she accidentally provokes Colin's jealousy by insisting that Dickon is "like an angel!" Burnett uses situational irony to amuse the reader in this instance, but also to illustrate Mary's real and unblemished love for this charming young Yorskhireman:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“He’s nicer than any other boy that ever lived!” she said. “He’s—he’s like an angel!” It might sound rather silly to say that but she did not care. “A nice angel!” Colin sneered ferociously. “He’s a common cottage boy off the moor!” “He’s better than a common Rajah!” retorted Mary. “He’s a thousand times better!”
Related Themes:
Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—A Moorland Angel:
In Chapter 18, when Mary is describing her new friend Dickon to Colin Craven, she accidentally provokes Colin's jealousy by insisting that Dickon is "like an angel!" Burnett uses situational irony to amuse the reader in this instance, but also to illustrate Mary's real and unblemished love for this charming young Yorskhireman:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“He’s nicer than any other boy that ever lived!” she said. “He’s—he’s like an angel!” It might sound rather silly to say that but she did not care. “A nice angel!” Colin sneered ferociously. “He’s a common cottage boy off the moor!” “He’s better than a common Rajah!” retorted Mary. “He’s a thousand times better!”
Related Themes:
