Comparison In The Secret Garden By Frances Hodgson Burnett

I remember growing up watching The Secret Garden (1993) over and over again falling in love with the magic that seemed to be there. Taking two miserably selfish children and seeing them transform into laughing loving children and a father finally coming home to his son touched my soul again and again. It would leave me in tears each time and still does today. This adaptation follows closely to the original story The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It only changed in a couple ways that made it a better movie than if it followed the book line for line. It is my belief that the changes in the adaptation made the story more adequate for children.
Looking at the physical book, it is around 260 pages which is pretty thick for a children’s …show more content…
Craven’s wife was related to Mary’s father and in the movie Mary and Colin’s mothers were both twins. Though this may not seem like a huge change it I feel has a very large importance in the movie. In the novel there is not a lot of discussion of Mary’s parents after they died, most of they parental discussion is about Colin’s mom as well as Martha’s and Dickon’s mom. In the movie, because Colin and Mary’s mothers were related and twins Mary is given a bit more emotional humanity. She carries around a small ivory elephant that has a pair that belonged to Colin’s mom. She exclaims to her self about the similar vanity that her mother had in India that she found in an abandoned room where the garden key was kept. There are pictures of them together where Mary points out her mother, giving her a sense of emotion. That she may have actually loved them because they were her parents though, mad at them because of their lack of attention and love. Colin’s father, is able to see his wife in Mary’s looks which also pushes him away from her creating an emotional barrier that makes him set off away from the manor. While in the novel he runs away from his son, like he had been doing for the past 10 years. I believe the emotional connection and the emotional distancing was influential on creating a deeper connection of the viewer to the story than in the actual novel because of the relation of the two …show more content…
This is because it was significantly shorter, the story being played out in an hour and a half length rather than over 260 pages. With the changes to how Mary’s parents die there is created more drama and it captures the viewer’s hearts. The changes of relation from Mary’s father and Colin’s mother being siblings to the mothers being twin sisters that had a strong bond, also having children at the same time, and sharing ivory elephants and similar vanities though they were far apart physically. Also causing Mary to look similar to Colin’s mom creating a deeper barrier between her and her uncle which caused sympathy. The difference in character of Mrs. Medlock being harsher and meaner creates more verity of characters in the movie compared to the book. Creating a sense of dislike which brings the viewer closer to the main character who is suffering because of her harshness. And the small visual differences that create visual symbolism as well as easing the blow of death and enhancing the magical feeling to create a touching, dramatic story that one will watch over and over again. This is not to say that I dislike the novel, the novel is away to find out more about their world and create a deeper understanding of the characters in the book as you have more time with them, but understanding that the novel would not be as impactful as the movie would be for