What happens in Chapter 17 of The Secret Garden?
Chapter 17 opens in the dead of night as Mary is jolted awake by a sound she recognizes but has never faced: a child's raw, hysterical crying echoing through the corridors of Misselthwaite Manor. This time, determined, Mary follows the wailing through the dark passageways until she pushes open a door to find Colin Craven—Archibald Craven's invalid son—thrashing in his bed, caught in a full-blown tantrum. He believes a lump is forming on his back and that he is destined to become a hunchback and die young. Instead of offering him soothing adult reassurances, Mary completely loses her temper. She shouts back at him, insisting there is no lump, demanding he stop screaming, and physically turns him over to prove her point. Her confrontation shocks Colin into silence. Outside, Mrs. Medlock and the servants linger uselessly; it is Mary's unvarnished fury—not their careful deference—that pierces through Colin's hysteria. The chapter concludes with the two children in an uneasy, exhausted truce, Colin quieted and Mary standing her ground, both altered by their encounter.
Analysis
Burnett engineers Chapter 17 as a purposeful twist on the typical Victorian sickroom scene. While conventions call for soft voices and gentle care around the sick, Mary brings something entirely different: loudness, anger, and physical confrontation. This tonal shift is jarring—the chapter starts with a gothic tone (dark hallways, distant cries) and then turns into a near farce as the two children try to outdo each other in tantrums. This comedic element serves a purpose; it undermines the melodrama Colin has created around his illness and, in doing so, challenges the entire household's role in perpetuating it.
The motif of mirrors subtly weaves through the scene. Mary sees in Colin's self-pity a distorted reflection of her own past selfishness, and Burnett uses this mirroring to imply that healing happens in connection with others, not in solitude—neither child can heal alone. Colin's fixation on the imagined lump on his back brings to life the novel's larger theme of distinguishing between real and imagined suffering; the body becomes a canvas where fear crafts its own diagnosis.
Burnett also shifts who holds power in this scenario. The servants and Mrs. Medlock, who represent institutional care, are rendered ineffective by Colin's hysteria, while Mary—a child with no qualifications beyond her sheer determination—manages to make a difference. This creates a subtle structural argument: authentic attention, even if clumsy, surpasses feigned concern. The chapter's final silence carries more significance than any concluding speech; Burnett relies on the image of two exhausted children to convey the deeper themes.
Key quotes from Chapter 17
“'You stop!' she almost shouted. 'I'll stop you! Everybody has always thought you were going to die, but I don't believe it. You just say that to make people sorry for you.'”
Mary confronts Colin mid-tantrum, matching his hysteria with her own fury and becoming the first person in his life to refuse the narrative of his inevitable death.
“'There's not a lump as big as a pin,' said Mary. 'If you ever say there is again, I shall laugh.'”
After physically examining Colin's back, Mary delivers her verdict with blunt certainty, weaponising laughter—the thing Colin fears most—against his hypochondria.
“She had been as tyrannical and selfish as he had been, and she had never thought of it before.”
In the aftermath of the confrontation, Mary experiences a rare moment of self-recognition, seeing her own past behaviour reflected in Colin's performance of suffering.
Check your understanding
Ask about this work
The reader has this chapter in front of it — the summary, the analysis, the key quotes and the vocabulary — along with the rest of the book’s chapters. Ask what happens and why it matters, or push back on a reading.
It cites the chapter or the line it is working from, and it says so plainly when the guide doesn’t cover something. It’s instructed never to write an essay, a paragraph or an answer for you to hand in, and never to grade anything — it will show you how to approach the question instead.
Sign in to ask the reader about this work — 1 credit covers three messages.
Create an accountSign in