# XVII: A Tantrum explained — The Secret Garden

> Chapter companion for The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

## What happens

Mary is awakened by Colin's hysterical tantrum and, at the nurse's urging, confronts him with fierce words that shock him into stopping. Afterward, Colin asks Mary if she has found a way into the secret garden, and she soothes him to sleep by softly describing the garden's imagined beauty.

## Themes in this chapter

### Healing Power of Nature

Colin's hope to live and grow up is tied to entering the secret garden, and Mary's description of the garden's spring growth calms him to sleep.

### Transformation and Growth

Colin's tantrum and subsequent gentleness, along with Mary's shift from anger to comfort, show emotional growth.

### Friendship and Connection

Mary and Colin reconcile after the tantrum, holding hands, and Colin expresses a desire to be with Mary and Dickon.

## Character check-ins

### Mary Lennox

Confronts Colin during his tantrum with anger and later comforts him with a gentle description of the secret garden.

### Colin Craven

Has a violent hysterical tantrum, is shocked into stopping by Mary, then asks about the secret garden and falls asleep to her soothing words.

### Martha Sowerby

Mentioned as slipping away with Mrs. Medlock after Colin's tantrum subsides.

### Mrs. Medlock

Slipped away with Martha after the tantrum was over.

### Dickon Sowerby

Mentioned by Colin as someone he wants to see and who might push his chair outside.

## Key lines

> You stop! I hate you! Everybody hates you! I wish everybody would run out of the house and let you scream yourself to death!

Mary angrily tells Colin to stop screaming, saying everyone hates him and she wishes he would scream until he dies.

_Mary's harsh words shock Colin out of his hysterics._

> I think it has been left alone so long—that it has grown all into a lovely tangle. I think the roses have climbed and climbed and climbed until they hang from the branches and walls and creep over the ground—almost like a strange gray mist.

Mary imagines the secret garden as a beautiful, overgrown place where roses have spread everywhere like a mist.

_Mary's description of the garden calms Colin and helps him fall asleep._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_secret_garden_se/chapters/xvii-a-tantrum
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_secret_garden_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_secret_garden_se/chapters