What happens in Chapter 14 of The Secret Garden?
Chapter 14 presents Mary Lennox's first real meeting with Colin Craven, the sickly boy she’s heard whispers about since coming to Misselthwaite Manor. After tracking down the source of crying through the hallways, Mary enters his room to find a pale boy who seems both commanding and scared. They size each other up, each feeling cautious. Colin, used to servants who cater to his every fear and desire, is taken aback to meet someone who neither pities him nor is afraid. Mary straightforwardly shares her story — her life in India, the loss of her parents, and how she arrived at the manor. In turn, Colin lists his health issues and expresses his belief that he will die young. He reveals a portrait of his father, hidden behind a curtain, and admits his resentment toward Archibald Craven. The chapter ends with the two children forming an unexpected bond, both drifting off to sleep before Mary quietly returns to her own room, the night wrapping them in a warm sense of intimacy like a shared secret.
Analysis
Burnett's craft in this chapter relies on a thoughtful structure of mirroring. Colin and Mary are parallels: both spiritually orphaned, if not literally, both isolated in a vast, uncaring house, both molded by neglect into self-centeredness. However, while Mary's transformation is subtly beginning — the moor and the garden are starting to awaken her — Colin remains trapped in his own story of illness. Burnett uses the room's physical space to manifest this: heavy curtains, a concealed portrait, a bed that serves as both a throne and a coffin. The chapter's title, "A Young Rajah," hints at Burnett's post-colonial irony; Colin exerts the authority of empire from his sickbed, a diminished reflection of the India Mary has left behind. The dialogue serves as the real driving force of the chapter. Burnett removes any sentimentality, allowing the children to discuss death and bodies with a blunt, almost clinical curiosity that would be shocking coming from adults. This tonal flatness is intentional — neither child has learned to express appropriate emotions. The moment Mary chooses not to be swayed by Colin's suffering signifies a true turning point: for the first time, someone has refused to validate his self-narrative. The curtained portrait of Archibald Craven introduces the absent father as a gothic motif, connecting Colin's psychological confinement to the locked garden, both spaces of grief that are waiting to be unlocked.
Key quotes from Chapter 14
“'I am Colin Craven. Who are you?' 'I am Mary Lennox. Mr Craven is my uncle.' 'He is my father,' said the boy.”
The children's first exchange of names establishes their unexpected kinship and the web of absence — both defined by a man who cannot bear to look at either of them.
“'Everyone thinks I shall die,' he said quite coolly. 'But I don't believe it. If I do, I don't care.'”
Colin rehearses his own mortality with a detachment that reveals how thoroughly illness has become his identity and his power over others.
“She had not known that she herself had been lonely, or that she had been gradually filling her life with new things, but she knew now that she had been, and that Colin was more lonely than she had ever been.”
Mary's moment of self-recognition, arriving quietly mid-scene, marks the chapter's emotional turn and signals how far her own awakening has already progressed.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter 14
- rajah
- An Indian prince or ruler; used here figuratively to describe a boy who behaves with the imperious, commanding manner of royalty.
- imperious
- Arrogantly domineering and expecting instant obedience, as if one has the authority of a ruler over others.
- physic
- Medicine or a medicinal remedy; in older usage, any drug or treatment given to restore health, often a purgative.