The Secret Garden Summary and Complete Study Guide

The novel's conclusion focuses on Archibald Craven's return to Misselthwaite Manor after years of grief-stricken wandering through Europe. Throughout the summer while Mary and Colin have been secretly healing in the garden, Archibald has been traveling, trying to escape memories of his dead wife Lilias and the son he cannot bear to see because Colin reminds him too painfully of her. While in an Austrian valley, Archibald has a vivid dream where Lilias's voice calls to him: "Archie! Archie! In the garden!" This dream compels him to return home immediately. He's drawn back to Misselthwaite by a force he doesn't fully understand—his dead wife calling him to the garden that he locked ten years ago after her death, the garden where she fell from a tree branch while pregnant with Colin. Archibald arrives at the manor and feels compelled to visit the secret garden for the first time since Lilias's death. As he approaches the walls, he hears children's voices laughing inside—sounds of life and joy coming from the garden he believed was dead. He finds the once-hidden door standing open. Before he can enter, Colin comes running out, healthy and vibrant, and runs straight into his father without seeing him in his excitement. This collision—Colin literally running into his father—reverses Archibald's every expectation. He left a dying invalid son, barely able to sit up, expected to be deformed and probably dead by now. Instead, a strong, healthy, joyful boy crashes into him at full speed. The shock is so complete that Archibald can barely process it. He looks at Colin in wonder, hardly able to believe this is his supposedly dying son. Colin, flushed with health and happiness, looks up at his father and declares: "Father, I'm Colin. You can't believe it. I scarcely can myself. I'm Colin." He then says the words that complete his transformation: "I'm going to live forever and ever and ever!" This declaration reverses his years of belief that he was dying. Colin's certainty in his own health and future life demonstrates the complete psychological healing the garden has enabled. Mary and Dickon stand in the garden as witnesses to this reunion. The garden itself—transformed from locked, overgrown wilderness to blooming paradise—provides the physical manifestation of the children's healing. Roses climb the walls, flowers bloom everywhere, life has returned where death seemed permanent. The garden's transformation enabled the children's transformation, which enables Archibald's transformation from grief-stricken recluse to father reunited with his son. Colin tells his father the entire story: how Mary found the garden, how they began working in it secretly, how the work and the fresh air made him stronger, how he learned to walk and then to run, how the garden healed him. Archibald looks at his son—the boy he thought was dying, the child he couldn't bear to see because of grief—and sees instead a miracle: life where he expected death, health where he expected disease, joy where he expected tragedy. The novel ends with Colin and Archibald walking back to the manor side by side—Colin no longer carried or pushed in a wheelchair but walking on his own strong legs with his father beside him. The servants see them coming and are astonished: the master who has been absent for years walking with the invalid son who was believed to be dying. Mrs. Medlock can barely believe what she's seeing. The final paragraph describes them walking through the gardens toward the house: "Across the lawn came the Master of Misselthwaite and he looked as many of them had never seen him. And by his side with his head up in the air and his eyes full of laughter walked as strongly and steadily as any boy in Yorkshire—Master Colin!" This image—father and son walking together, both transformed, both healed—completes the novel's central promise: that nature, love, and connection can heal even the deepest wounds. The secret garden's magic is revealed as not magic at all but simple truth: isolation, grief, and fear make people sick (physically and spiritually), while connection, purposeful work, fresh air, and love make people well. The garden was locked by grief and opened by a child's curiosity. Its healing required work—digging, weeding, planting, caring. The transformation wasn't instant or magical but earned through daily effort and growing things. That's the novel's lesson: healing is possible but requires opening locked places, doing difficult work, and allowing new life to grow where death seemed permanent.