The Secret Garden (1993)

Kate Maberly: Mary Lennox

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [voiceover; last lines] 

  Mary : The spell was broken. My uncle learned to laugh, and I learned to cry. The secret garden is *always* open now. Open, and awake, and alive. If you look the right way, you can see that the *whole* world is a garden.

• [first lines; voiceover] 

  Mary : My name is Mary Lennox. I was born in India. It was hot, and strange, and lonely in India. I didn't like it. Nobody by my servant, my ayah, looked after me. My parents didn't want me. My mother cared only to go to parties. And my father was busy with his military duties. I was never allowed to go to the parties. I watched them from my mother's bedroom window. I was angry, but I never cried. I didn't know how to cry.

• Dickon : The animals tell me all their secrets.

  Mary : [pointing to the robin]  He wouldn't tell you my secret, would he?

  Dickon : About what, Miss Mary?

  Mary : A garden. I've stolen a garden. Maybe it's dead anyhow, I don't know.

  Dickon : I'll know.

  Mary : Promise you won't tell anyone?

  Dickon : Promise.

  Mary : No one?

  Dickon : Not a soul.

• Colin : Are you making this magic?

  Mary : No, you are.

  Colin : Just like in the story.

  [indicates his chest] 

  Colin : It's like the whole universe is in here.

  Mary : I'm certain it is.

  Colin : I wish I could marry you.

  Mary : What? But we're cousins!

  Colin : I don't care. I want us always to be together.

  Mary : We *are* together.

• Mary : [voiceover, while exploring her aunt's room]  It looked just like my mother's room. This must have been my aunt's. The dressing tables looked the same. They even had twin ivory elephants.

• Colin : Hair is dead.

  Mary : If hair is dead, why does it keep growing all the time, even after you're dead? Well, maybe not your hair. You'll probably be bald.

  Colin : Don't be daft. I'll die before I'm ever old enough to go bald.

  Mary : I hate the way you talk about dying.

  Colin : Everyone thinks I'll die.

  Mary : If everyone thought that about me, I wouldn't do it.

• Colin : What do you say in India when you want people to go?

  Mary : You say, I have spoken, all depart.

• Mary : Can I have a bit of earth?

  Lord Craven : A bit of earth?

  Mary : To plant seeds in. To make things grow.

• Mary : It's a secret garden.

  Dickon : Secrets are safe with me.

• Mary : [after seeing Colin and Mr. Craven hugging]  Nobody wants me!

• Mary : You are strange.

  Martha : Hey, I know that!

• Martha : I don't know when exactly your uncle will call for you.

  Mary : My uncle? Mrs. Medlock said he wouldn't want to see me.

  Martha : [smiling]  Ahhh, but he does!

• Mrs. Medlock : Here's your breakfast.

  Mary : But I'm still in my nightgown.

  Mrs. Medlock : You can change after you've eaten. There are new clothes in the wardrobe.

  Mary : Who's going to dress me?

  Mrs. Medlock : You don't dress yourself?

  Mary : Of course not; my ayah dressed me.

  Mrs. Medlock : Nonsense! As old as you are, what do they do with children in India? Carry you around in a basket?

  Mary : How dare you speak to me with such disrespect?

• Martha : Now, what would you like to wear? Black, black, or black?

  Mary : Are you blind? They're all black. And I *won't* be laughed at, servant.

  Martha : My name's Martha.

  [she begins to start slipping a black dress on Mary, but she backs away] 

  Martha : I won't tickle you. I promise.

  [pause as Martha dresses Mary] 

  Martha : What do they wear in India? When I heard you was coming from there, I thought you'd be a native.

  Mary : [furious]  A what? You thought I was a what?

  [repeatedly shoves Martha] 

  Mary : You - you - you daughter of a pig!

  [starts throwing a tantrum by grunting and hitting her hands flat against the walls] 

  Martha : You needn't be like that. I've nothing against natives. As mother says, all of us are family. I've never seen a native. I was pleased to think I was.

  Mary : You don't know anything about anything; none of you know nothing!

• Ben Weatherstaff : Well, he's in breast. Cheeky little beggar.

  [pointing to a robin] 

  Ben Weatherstaff : Look at him!

  Mary : What about him?

  Ben Weatherstaff : I can't think why, but he's decided to make friends with thee.

  Mary : [looks surprised]  He has? I've never had any friends.

  Ben Weatherstaff : That I believe.

• Martha : I've got a present for you. Me mother sent it over.

  [She hands Mary a skipping rope] 

  Mary : What's it for?

  Martha : You've got tigers and elephants in India, but have you not got skipping ropes?

• Colin : [after Mary pulls a pair of curtain open to reveal a picture of Colin's mother, her aunt]  That's my mother. My father never wants to see me. Because--I don't look *anything* like her. But *you*, you look like her.

  Mary : Why do you keep a curtain over her?

  Colin : She smiles too much.

  Mary : Smiles too much? How can anybody smile too much?

  Colin : Sometimes I hate her. She died when I was born.

  Mary : But I thought she died in her garden.

  Colin : Her garden? What garden?

  Mary : Oh, just a garden. There are so many of them here.

• Dickon : Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

  Dickon , Mary : With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row.

  Mary : On the boat coming here, the other children used to sing that at me, but I wasn't as contrary as they were.

• Mary : [shouting for Colin to stop throwing a tantrum over possible spores in the air]  Stop it you, stop! I hate you! Everybody hates you! You're so selfish. You the most selfish boy there ever was!

  Colin : I'm not as selfish as you are! Just because I'm always ill!

  Mary : Nobody ill could scream like that!

  Colin : I'm going to die!

  Mary : What would you know about dying?

  Colin : My mother died!

  Mary : Both my parents died!

  Colin : I'll get a lump on a back; I'll get a lump like my father!

• Mary : [voiceover]  My parents *always* thought about themselves. They never thought about me. And if only I could have known that in a few moments I would lose them forever.

• Mary : Please don't send me away, I won't do any harm.

  Lord Craven : Harm? What harm can a child do?

• Mary : Are you my servant?

  Martha : I'm Mrs. Medlock's servant, and she's Lord Craven's, but I will be doing some upstairs housekeeping and waiting on you a bit.

  Mary : Waiting on me makes you my servant, then.

• Mary : [pointing to a swing]  Look, there's a picture of my mother and my aunt sitting here.

  Dickon : They say that's how she died.

  Mary : My aunt? How?

  Dickon : Falling off it.

• Colin : I'm master of this house while my father is away.

  Mary : Your father? He's my uncle. Nobody told me he had a son.

  Colin : Come here. What's your name?

  Mary : Mary Lennox.

  Colin : I'm Colin Craven.

  Mary : Our mothers were sisters. Twins.

  Colin : Twins? Nobody told me she had a twin. Fluff the pillows for me, Cousin Mary.

  Mary : What?

  Colin : The covers on this bed are all twisted.

  Mary : Well, I don't know what to do about it. I'll call Mrs. Medlock.

  Colin : No! She'll be mad if she finds you in here.

• Ben Weatherstaff : But aren't your legs all crooked?

  Colin : Who says my legs are crooked?

  Mary : Nobody says that.

• Colin : I'm going to die.

  Mary : From what?

  Colin : [Shrugs]  Everything. I've spent my whole life in this bed.

• Mary : [voiceover, as her uncle leaves for the spring]  That was the night the rain stopped, the night spring came to Misselthwaite. My poor uncle fled from it, as if he were escaping the spring.

• Mary : [voiceover]  For the first time since coming from India, I dreamed about my mother. She was here, in the garden, and the garden was a jungle.

• Colin : How old are you?

  Mary : Ten.

  Mary : [with an excited gasp]  We're the same age!

• Mary : Where's the door to that other garden?

  Ben Weatherstaff : What?

  Mary : The one with all the ivy. I didn't see a door.

  Ben Weatherstaff : There isn't one.

  Mary : There has to be a door somewhere.

  Ben Weatherstaff : No one's been inside that place for ten years.

  Mary : Why?

  Ben Weatherstaff : Because, when she died, the master gave orders to shut it up forever.