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Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
and marigolds all in a row.
:: Character List
For a more indepth character analysis check out SparkNotes Character List
 :: Mary Lennox
"She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another."
The story's primary character, Mary Lennox, is at first a disagreeable, spoiled, pallid-faced child who acts no more like a 10-yr-old child than a sour old woman would. But Mary is only so wretched because of the circumstances of her early childhood. Her father was a dashing army captain and was therefore nearly always away on business. Her glamorous mother was sorely disappointed at having an ugly little daughter and selfishly refused to see Mary, favouring instead to amuse herself with parties and people. Of course, it was this lack of love which caused Mary to become such a "tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived." Mary was left in the care of the native Indian servants and her ayah who obeyed her every little whim.
After a terrible outbreak of cholera in their home, both Mary�s parents died. She was taken to England to live with her father's brother in-law, Archibald Craven, in the mysterious Misselthwaite Manor perched on the edge of the desolate Yorkshire moors.
A change comes over Mary as she is exposed to vigorous exercise, Yorkshire winds and fresh air - and above all her curiosity over the hidden secret garden, locked up for ten years within Misselthwaite Manor's sprawling grounds. This change is aided by her growing affection for the upbeat and kindly maidservant Martha Sowerby, the wise mother figure of Susan Sowerby, the robin redbreast who lives in the secret garden, the Yorkshire angel' animal charmer Dickon Sowerby, the gruff estate's gardener Ben Weatherstaff and the discovery of her bed-ridden cousin Colin. With the help of the enigmatic Dickon and the secret garden's seemingly magical restorative effect, Mary becomes a normal, sweet-tempered and playful child, ultimately making it possible for her cousin and her estranged uncle to reunite.
 :: Colin Craven
"The boy had a sharp, delicate face, the colour of ivory and he seemed to have eyes too big for it. He had also a lot of hair which tumbled over his forehead in heavy locks and made his thin face seem smaller. He looked like a boy who had been ill, but he was crying more as if he were cross than as if he were in pain."
Colin Craven is the sickly, bed-ridden son of Lord Archibald Craven, born a very brief time before the death of his mother. Lord Craven could not bear to be with his son because he was a constant reminder of this painful loss. It was expected that Colin would grow to have a hump like his father and was therefore treated like an invalid since birth.
Refusing to ever leave his manor, or indeed his room, Colin resides in his bedroom, shutting out the light and life of the Yorkshire moors.
When Mary first encounters her cousin, he is certain he is going to die. Having his servants answering to his every whim caused him to grow arrogant and imperious. Colin is in every way the opposite of Dickon, often being described as a Rajah - weak, hysterical and fragile; almost feminine in contrast to the common moor boy. His encounters with Mary, who contradicts his negative thinking, Dickon and the wild secret garden strengthen him. By the end of the story, Colin is walking and positive thoughts and new ideas are forming in his head where once only a gloomy sickness dwelt. He is of course reunited with his father who happily embraces him after he finds his son strong and well.
 :: Dickon Sowerby
"A boy was sitting under a tree, with his back against it, playing on a rough wooden pipe. He was a funny-looking boy about twelve. He looked very clean and his nose turned up and his cheeks were as red as poppies, and never had Mistress Mary seen such round and such blue eyes in any boy's face."
Dickon is the high-spirited 12 year old brother of Mary's maid servant Martha Sowerby. Having lived on the moor all his life, Dickon has a deeply rooted connection with the land and the animals, often being referred to as an animal-charmer though he seems to have the unique ability to charm people as well as animals. From the moment Martha mentions Dickon and his wild animals, Mary is instantly drawn to him, later describing him as "beautiful". Physically active, thoughtful and strong, he is Colin's polar opposite. Mary often thinks of him as a magical wood-sprite, at first afraid that he is almost too good to be true and should disappear if she should turn away. His round eyes are described as being "exactly the colour of the sky over the moor".
Dickon�s ability to charm animals, along with his set of panpipes, likens him to Pan - the Greek God of creativity, music, flocks, landscapes and human nature (all of which are attributes of Dickon's personality) - who wandered the hills and mountains of Arcadia playing his panpipes. Dickon is one of the main elements responsible for the transformation in Mary and Colin.
 :: Archibald Craven
"She could see that the man in the chair was no so much a hunchback as a man with high, rather crooked shoulders, and he had black hair streaked with white....He was not ugly. His face would have been handsome if it had not been so miserable."
Lord Archibald Craven is the 'hunchbacked' master of Misselthwaite manor; father to Colin, brother to Mrs Lennox and unlce to Mary. A kind and caring man though he is, depression took hold of him after the death of his wife Lilias, ten years before the novel takes place. He therefore cannot bear to see his son, Colin, who resembles her so much. At the end of the book, Archibald's wife comes to him in a dream and he returns to Misselthwaite to find his son in perfect health and embraces him.
 :: Lilias Craven
Lilias was Archibald's wife, who died ten years before the start of the novel when she fell from a tree in her garden. She is described as being beautiful and gentle.
 :: Martha Sowerby
"She was a round, rosy, good-natured looking creature,"
Martha is Mary's kind, sweet-tempered maid-servant and another important element to Mary's change of personality and lifestyle. Only a common daughter of the moor, however, Mrs Medlock gave Martha her work at Misselthwaite Manor out of kindness to her mother, Susan Sowerby. Not coached in the proper manner of an estate maid-servant, Martha often slips back into her Yorkshire dialogue and is very frank and outspoken, often commenting on Mary's inability to look after herself.
 :: Mrs Medlock
"She was a stout woman, with very red cheeks and sharp black eyes....She thought Mrs Medlock the most disagreeable person she had ever seen, with her common highly coloured face, and her common fine bonnet."
The head housekeeper at Misselthwaite manor, Mrs Medlock patiently obeys every one of Lord Craven's orders though she tires of her young charge from India. Being a widow and having no children of her own she doesn't appear to understand them as Susan Sowerby does of whom she is very fond having been old childhood friends. Underneath her stiff demeanour, Medlock is ultimately kind.
 :: Ben Weatherstaff
Ben Weatherstaff is the gruff old gardener at Misselthwaite Manor - being a favourite of Lilias' when she was alive. Like Medlock, under his rough exterior he is kind-hearted. He introduces the curious little robin redbreast to Mary.
:: Susan Sowerby
Living in a very crowded cottage 5 miles from the estate, Susan Sowerby is the mother of no less than twelve children, including Martha and Dickon. She is the perfect symbol of motherhood. Just as Dickon knows everything there is to know about the moor and its hoarde of animals, Susan Sowerby knows all there is to know about children. She is bold and very kind and both Mary and Colin become fascinated with her simply by listening to the stories they are told about her by Dickon and Martha. It is not until near the very end of the story that Colin and Mary finally get to meet her.
:: Dr. Craven
Dr. Craven is Archibald's brother who tends to Colin.
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