Outline
This paper analyses the play The Secret Garden directed by Agnieszka Holland, and which was based on the book with the same story written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The play is about a girl whose past is not desirable and especially in losing her two parents. However, she recollects herself and sets out to help others who are in problems. This novel has been appreciated a lot in the past and the present, and there it is described as one of the films which have been successful in getting the right theme and a well crafted plot.
Play: The Secret Garden (1993) film
This is a film which was shot and released in the United States in the year 1993; and which was based on a novel with the same name. The book was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett while the film was directed by Agnieszka Holland while the screen play was done by Caroline Thompson. This film is about the girl Mary Lennox; ten year old and born to British parents in India. The focus of the story is the discovery of the secret garden and Lord Archibald Craven place, and this discovery restores the mysteries inherent in the family like the failure of his son Collin to walk and Mary’s failure to cry. This discovery also restores the senses of Lord Archibald Craven like humor and laughter, and therefore, is a rich story that develops slowly in a way that the audiences understand every step towards the theme.
Relevance, Themes and Drama of the Film
The work of Frances Hodgson Burnett in writing the book and the directing of the film by Agnieszka Holland can only be termed as well thought about. The book and the film bring about a lot of relevance to today’s living and some themes which are outstanding. Ebert (684) writes that unlike other books that are written and focuses on particular age groups like children, teenagers and the parents, this book and the film is for all the groups. He adds that it is a work of deep mystery, poetry and beauty, and while watching it, one is taken into a really closed world where the destiny is then discovered. One of the things that pleases in this film is how the situations are made to be familiar in every day living and virtually to all generations in the present world.
Mary Lennox is at the end of the story given a heroic celebration for discovering so many things, and one of it is in the way she goes about discovering the hidden secrets in some of these places. The places described in the film and how Mary goes about discovering the hidden truths places the film as one of the best in recent times. The main focus on this film is about the missing child, and by doing this, Holland makes it an intelligent film, with a lesson, a fable and a quite entrancing entertainment. There is harmony in the way the theme is brought about, and with the introduction of good photography by Roger Deakins, the secret garden is more elevated.
The two most outstanding themes in this film is the near destruction of a place and combined with the regeneration of a family, while the second theme is the healing power. Misselthwaite Manor represents the near destruction and the resurgent of a family as well as how the garden is described as secret. The secret to living well again for all the actors in the play is hidden in the garden. For example, Collin could not walk, but by the discovery of the garden, he is seen walking. Lord Craven was in constant miseries after the death of his wife; the aunt to the main actor Mary Lennox, and when Mary discovered the mystery of the garden, his sense of humor and laughing is restored. Mary herself could not cry, but by her discovery, she could be seen crying in the film. Therefore, the film is explicit on this theme, and what it portrays is that at the very end of a hanging rope is hope. However, there are other themes like the omnipresence of magic, the relationship between the landscapes and the human well being, the relationship between the outlook and the health, and the kind of necessity of the human companionship that is them. Symbolism is like the Redbreast, the Roses, and the portrait of the mistress Craven.
The garden is also the place to locate the theme of healing power, where, it seems that the power to restore the lost happiness was confined in the secrets of this garden. The problems inherent in the characters are as a result of one thing or another that is happening to them. Mary lost her parents, while her uncle Lord Craven is seen in unending miseries since his wife died. The theme is described well by Burnett (56-60) when he analyses how the garden can make Collin stop thinking about his dying. He quotes Dickon saying of Collin, “If he was out here, he wouldn’t be thinking of dying, he would be watching for buds to break on bushes, and likely he would be healthier.”
The dramatization of the characters and the events/places is one that helps bring out the message in a most clear way. The most interesting of all kind of dramatization of characters in this film is the investigations of the character Mary of Colin’s back so as to locate the mysteries that are inherent in him; especially the mysterious hump that he is reported to be having. There is also the dramatizing of the sick role in the family members and other household staff. More so, the film shows how the Colin’s power as quite invalid combines with the power he possesses as upper class boy.
The use of flashback in this film is also rich in how the audiences are taken back in what was happening in the past. For example, Burnett (7) gives a flashback of how Mary; the main character was looking and how no one could think of her as the last savior of the whole family. It is here we see the narrator quoting, “…she was the most disagreeable looking child ever seen…she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another.” With such kind of flashback, the audience and the reader of the book are taken back and appreciate the present works of Mary as the savior. In the flashback, and if it was to be taken to be true, one may not appreciate her general outlook, but with the results at the end of the film, it comes out clearly that she was meant to save the whole situation and restore everything in how they are supposed to be.
The Conflict, Protagonists, Antagonists and Climax
The play has major conflict of having the characters in conflict with their own thoughts. Most of these thoughts are the negative thoughts about themselves; for example, Collin in conflict with his perennial problem of crying and how he wishes that he was dead, Lord Craven with his unending miseries of losing his wife and Mary in her problems of crying. The major protagonists in this play are Mary Lennox and Collin Craven while there are no actual antagonists in the play. The narrator is portrayed as a- know- it all kind of person and is highly subjective as she often offers the opinions of the characters and what motivates them. She is always aware of the things concerning them while the characters are presented as people who do not know themselves and therefore, the work of the narrator is to access the thoughts of the characters to relay them to the readers and the audiences.
The climax stages are shown in the Mary’s discovery of the garden kept as secret, Mary’s discovery of Collin, Colin’s standing on his feet for the first time ever, Mary’s decision to share with Dickon the secret of the garden, and the reawakening of the garden regarded as secret. There is no foreshadowing in this movie, and the kind of tone set here is romantic like the growing beauty in the characters, the glorious effects of the springtime and how the narrator rhapsodize the landscape. All these features like climax help in coming up with a strong sense of what the author and the director of the movie intended to capture the interest of the audiences and hold them until the reading or the viewing ends.
Language Use in the Play and the Minor Characters
While the main characters of the likes of Mary and Colin are used to bring out the themes and the plot of the play, the minor characters also are important for analysis of this play in particular. Lindskoog (100) notes that the likes of Susan Sowerby as minor character too enters to fulfill the larger importance of the whole play. For example, she is seen as a wonderful, wise and a woman who is caring and nurturing living in humble cottage on moor. She can only be described as the earth mother per excellence.
The language used is also striking and of high resemblance in the whole play The Secret Garden. The development of this language is intentional and shows some uniformity in this whole story and play. We note that virtually all the characters use some formal language and incomplete English. For example Burnett (66) quotes Dickon saying: “It’s the gorse on th’ moor that’s openin’ out. Eh! The’ bees are at it wonderful today.” We also note Colin saying, “Does tha’ think as happen it was made loike this ‘ere all o’ purpose for me? However, this kind of language only exists in those characters that are viewed as children as others who can be regarded as adult are used to formal English language. The importance attached to this is in showing some commonality in various age groups.
This play depicts the society where the play was acted or visualized by both Holland and Frances Burnett as deeply affected for the things that they are clobbered with. However, in the same line of thinking, we see the girl Mary trying to go about these conventions and adopt an attitude of discovering the way of rescuing people from these perennial miseries of the people. It is with this that we appreciate her past and her present and especially how she goes about discovering the secrets hidden such as the garden fearlessly.
There are falling and rising actions in this movie where, some characters have differing traits as they grow up. This is important in the changing of the perceptions about them and their roles in the showing out of the climax. For example, when Mary started living in Lord Craven’s home, she was a bad girl, and afterwards, she becomes the savior of the whole situation. Collin has different characters in the play where he starts as a person feeling like to kill himself and this change later as the play progresses, thanks to Mary.
The approach given to Lord Craven’s wife is criticized in the sense that the audiences have a wide thought about her in first instances as somebody who would curtail the whole processes from happening. However, she is not seen much afterwards as the main barrier, and even though she resents Mary, not much is shown of her as would be expected by the audience. The play comes with a lot of challenges to the values we hold in the society especially in the dramatization of some characters. Our main character is Mary, and in many societies including where I come from, ladies have a place confined in the home rather than look like venturing lot. It is however seen in the movie that such kind of values and negative thinking of the female characters is challenged by the play.
There is so much of the symbolism in this play, and this tries to bring out some messages to be absorbed by the audiences. The garden is the greatest of the symbols while Mary, Collin and Lord Craven comes second to the garden. The garden from the play reflects a mystery and a magic, while the characters mentioned above as the objects of the magic where, by resolving this mystery, the group to benefit is the characters. The characters too are symbolic and dramatize some traits which can be picked in the societies. For example, Mary Lennox is an aggressive young girl who stops at nothing until she achieves what she wants. Lord Craven is a kind of person who does not fight a lot to have his freedom and there has to be somebody else to get him from the confines of sorrow and grief from the past experiences.
Part 2
The name of this play is The Secret Garden shot in the year 1993 in the United States. The playwright is Agnieszka Holland, but it is based on a book with a similar title by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Therefore, it is proper to note that it took the efforts and the collaboration of the two to come up with such a wonderful kind of presentation for all audiences and the readers to appreciate. The choice of this play is important because it gives a kind of chronological happening and the audiences are taken into the play and there are stage formations. Each and every other person who views this film can appreciate the formations of the main actor; Mary from her character in the early stages until she becomes a major savior in the play.
This film is arranged by genre and some informative and concise editorial content and it is important for the general understanding. According to Morris (95), the film the Secret Garden is developed in a way it makes a lot of sense and its narrative kind of features are of a typical genre. It exhibits a structural feature that is common of the exploratory fictions and the ending that goes on as though there is something else the reader or the audience should continue with. The story of Mary closes with the rehabilitation of the garden, and if one is to analyze how she was before coming to this garden, it only helps to appreciate the kind of development she underwent. The film has a wide reception that is positive and the focus has been on how the people who are thought to be down and cannot help are the same people who rescue those who were thought to be high, and this is from the story of Mary Lennox. It is quite interesting to notice how she commits herself until all the persons in the play are saved.
From this play, Mary Lennox and Colin are presented as a really perfect for each other even though in the initial stages of Mary finding Colin, there were conflicts. Both of them are presented as difficult characters that do not have the concern of the others. In the words of the nurse, Mary is a “spoiled as (Colin) himself, later, we see these two main characters finding their way to solving the mysteries which have been hovering around the family. Mary in the words of the audience of the play and the readers of the text can only term her as an angel with divine power. The hysterics of Colin are removed by the girl until he could stand as a healed person, and it only serves well in their romantic activities.
Thesis: Human development and companionship as well as the devotedness of a person is always key to the restoration of the lost hope and this is in the way Mary Lennox; the main actor in the play goes about discovering the hidden secrets such as the garden and eventually seeks to uncover what has been earthed.
Works Cited
Burnett, Frances. The Secret Garden. Washington, D.CP: The Dramatic Publishing, 1991.
Ebert, Roger. Roger Elbert’s Four-Star Review 1967-2001. Kansas City: Andrew McMeel Publishing, 2008.
Lindskoog, Ann. Surprised by CS. Lewis, George MacDonald and Dante: An Array of Original Discoveries. Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2001.
Morris, Timothy. You Are Only Young Twice: Children’s Literature and Film. USA: University of Illinois, 2000.
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