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zoe360568 · 4 years

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LADIES GUIDE TO CELIASTAL MECHANICES BY OlIVIA WAITE

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She was a complete confection, a richly, roundly luscious, perfectly domestic delicacy. Like the Renaissance Madonna Stephen had once copied from an Italian gallery.

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You could never mistake the sound of true grief, once you had felt it yourself. It made the mettle of the soul ring in sympathy, like one bell softly chiming whenever its neighbor was struck.

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You could take a robin, put it in a cage, and carry it with you around the world—but if you never opened the cage door, how much of a difference would you have made to the robin’s life? All it would know was the view through the bars.

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Catherine’s eye traced anew the vines and flowers of the bodice, and an envious ember flared briefly in her belly.

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“My father was also a musician, sir, before astronomy diverted him. He always said music and mathematics were two sides of a single tongue.” Mr. Frampton’s smile was slight, but sincere. “I would agree, but my father would turn up his nose and insist that music is an art, not a science.” Miss Muchelney laughed in recognition.

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Words like embers danced on her tongue and she feared the lightest breath would kindle them into flame.

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Catherine lifted one hand and brushed the tears away. “I wish you had fewer reasons for it.” Lucy’s eyes were star-bright. Her lips parted on a breath that was far too soft for a sigh. Catherine’s whole body went tight and liquid—how easy would it be to just lean forward, and press her mouth to Lucy’s, and taste that sound on her own tongue?

Chapter Four

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Catherine and Lucy passed the next two weeks orbiting one another like a double star: ever moving, never touching, never truly separating. Between breakfast and luncheon they worked

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companionably in the library. After luncheon Lucy

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Catherine was not an outside observer, no more than a sailor clinging to a spar in a wreck was an outside observer of storms. She felt lightning-struck. Every conversation, every joke, every blush and averted glance sent another bolt through her. Whole territories were beginning to burn in parts of her soul that she’d always kept carefully darkened.

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propriety.

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ubiquitous

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Lucy’s shoulders relaxed in visible relief. “It’s a little unusual, I admit.” Catherine’s lips quirked. “Most beautiful ideas are.”

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It was as though someone had taken the case off the universe, and let the reader peer at the naked machinery that powered the stars.

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Falling in love with a genius was a daunting thought.

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decrypt

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As she watched, the light flickered and shifted, the blurred lens of a young girl’s notice sharpening into the more precise view of mature adulthood.

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“They don’t let you have anything whole, you know. If you don’t follow the pattern. You have to find your happiness in bits and pieces instead. But it can still add up to something beautiful.”

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bemoaning

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Aunt Kelmarsh snorted genially. “The ways of the world aren’t so permanent as they say, my dear. It was quite different in the last century. There were times and places one could be open and free about such things.” Lucy’s smile was knowing. “And there aren’t now?” Aunt Kelmarsh pursed her lips, amused. “If you know where to look for them.” “Or who to ask, apparently.” Aunt Kelmarsh put on her most mysterious air, humming innocently. Lucy laughed.

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but she had never openly acknowledged that the reverse must be true as well: love could exist—could even thrive—quite apart from the paper forms of marriage and classifications of sex. It was all at once appalling that she and George had been bitterly bound to one another in the sight of the world, while these devoted souls had had to cloak their joy and hide it behind walls and walks and secret gardens.

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Catherine made herself comfortable in the opposite seat and finally opened up the box with the thoughts she’d been hiding away for most of her existence. The inescapable truth: women could fall in love with other women.

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Strange indeed that an idea could change your life so completely, and yet fit in so perfectly with all that came before. She felt the force of it in her very bones. It was less as if her biography were being rewritten, and more as though Catherine were suddenly able to read the other set of lines that lay crosswise on the familiar page.

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was desire, the same as she’d felt for the attractive men she’d known, and some sly part of her must have recognized this all along because she had put a great deal of effort into keeping these thoughts and impulses from seeing the light of day.

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She’d believed she could bear a widow’s loneliness more peacefully than the misery of a bad marriage. But that was like choosing whether hemlock or belladonna was the better poison. In the end, they both sapped the life from you.

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But that kind of restrained flirtation was one thing. A seduction was quite another.

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Catherine was going to have to go about this carefully. One step at a time. Inviting, rather than pursuing. Always leaving Lucy the chance to retreat, or reject. It would sting, but that was nothing. Catherine valued Lucy’s freedom in this as much as her own. I want more; I understand if you don’t.

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Turning someone into a project was a terrible way to woo them.

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and inspiration slipped in like a breath and exploded in her body like a lightning bolt.

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Catherine wanted Lucy, but more than that, Catherine wanted Lucy to want her back. And Lucy wouldn’t, if she were still pining for the girl she’d lost. So Catherine let the days flow by like water while she put in stitch after stitch after stitch, as though each one were mending a small rent in Lucy Muchelney’s heart.

Chapter Five

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Let Future Lucy make the ultimate decision during revisions to the text. Future Lucy was always so much more decisive, somehow. Maybe because she was ever-so-slightly closer to death than Present Lucy?

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It ought to have been agonizing, living and working in close quarters alongside a woman so beautiful and yet so unattainable. But Lucy’s heart, newly mended, was prepared to bask in any

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sensation that was not the sharp pain of loss—so unrequited fascination for her benefactress came not as a trial, but rather as a pleasurable seasoning to any day’s difficult work. And if the feeling occasionally stole her breath and her wits and kept her awake into the small hours of the night, well, nobody had to know. Really, it was much safer and more convenient than any actual love affair would have been.

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Perhaps this was how her future could best be managed: devoting her days to scientific work and spending her nights silently, secretly pining for a woman with golden hair and clever hands.

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“I’d be delighted to show you.” Then the countess smiled. A new smile, shy and hopeful. A smile like the first ray of dawn. Lucy was enchanted.

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And now Lady Moth had made her a shawl as a gift. With her own hands. If Lucy was right, every stitch might as well be a caress.

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“I don’t think love works like that. You might as well ask the earth whether the sun or the moon is more important.”

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“You can’t always judge by what came before. Sometimes, there is a revolution.”

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“May I kiss you?” Lady Moth held her breath, then let out a sigh that formed a single word: “Please.” Lucy leaned down, as the countess leaned forward, and the kiss exploded where they met.

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Just a simple brush of one mouth against another, but it sent heat and light and stars through every inch of Lucy’s frame. She pulled in a breath and tried it again, the same way, repeating the experiment. The same result: sparkling fire.

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When the kiss broke, the countess laughed a little, sounding surprised, and Lucy couldn’t blame her. She was beyond words herself. She wanted to sink her hands into the lady’s hair and hold her in place and kiss her until the sun went dark and the moon

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went dim and the stars blew out like spent wax candles.

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A new knowledge hummed between them, taut and arresting as the note of a violin.

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Then Lucy smiled, and for a moment her gaze darted down to Catherine’s lips. It was all the countess could do not to put her fingers up to feel the heat that gaze had left there.

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The afternoon’s tender delicacy was gone, replaced by a kiss that tasted lush as wine and scorched like fire. Catherine drank pleasure from Lucy’s ready mouth, the girl’s encouraging gasps firing her newly bold impulses. She hadn’t been dizzy from the wine at dinner, but she was giddy now, the room spinning around her and the only solid thing the skin and heat and feel of the woman in her arms. The kiss went

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But Lucy’s hands were careful and soft as they unlaced the back of Catherine’s gown, loosened her

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stays, and pulled all the pins from her tousled hair. It was closer to how Narayan would have undressed her—though Narayan would never have dropped a kiss on the back of Catherine’s neck, or combed fingers through Catherine’s tumbling hair in that luxurious way. It was—it was like every touch of Lucy’s hand was a silken thread, painting a sunrise one skein of warm light at a time. At the end, Lucy wrapped Catherine’s favorite velvet bed jacket around her shoulders and kissed her once more, sweetly. Catherine couldn’t help melting a little. “Good night,” she whispered. Lucy chuckled. “Good night, my lady.” “Catherine,” she corrected the girl. Lucy paused. “Catherine.” Her tongue lingered over the name, and her smile widened with pleasure. “Good night, Catherine.” She slipped out the door, leaving the countess feeling equally comforted and abandoned and thoroughly, thoroughly perplexed.

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coruscani · 6 years

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The Secret Garden: What it Means to Mother

In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, motherhood is undoubtedly a central theme throughout, but scholars frequently overlook the male characters that display motherly qualities within the story. The garden itself, I would argue, is typically considered the main source of motherly and feminine energy. Other prominent motherly figures include Mrs. Sowerby, Martha, and Mary herself. Each of these characters display traditional qualities of a mother: healing or soothing energy, and a caring demeanor to name a few. It is here, however, that many scholars end their delve into what is considered “motherly.” I, on the other hand, will explain the ways in which motherly energies either displayed or withheld by male characters play a role in the development of both Mary and Colin and also in the story as a whole.

In order to understand the ways in which some male characters fit within the role of the mother, we must first examine a few of the cases in which female characters exhibit motherly qualities. Some may argue that the story of The Secret Garden is a deeply feminine tale in both the tone of narration and in the characterization of many of the main themes and characters. Deborah Nielson states within her work that “Burnett frames motherhood as a form of positive agency connecting it to the metaphor of the garden” (1). Anna Krugovoy Silver also delves into the feminine nature of the story: “[The Secret Garden] is at heart a novel about mothering” (193). It is true that the garden in the story is the picture of “nurturant energy” and femininity: blossoming, fragrant flowers and thick, lush ivy climbing through the groves of trees and hanging heavy from limbs like curtains (Bixler 288). The garden itself could, in fact, be interpreted as holding the spirit of Colin’s deceased mother or another otherworldly source of healing and magic. It is well known that Colin’s mother cherished her garden and spent much of her time tending to the flowers and plants, and the fall which eventually led to her early death was also sustained within the garden’s walls. The secret garden is meant to symbolize the ultimate motherly power and energy and can be interpreted as a stimulant for healing and growth within the story. For Colin, the miraculous physical effects are seen almost immediately (Clark 1). It is here that Colin gains the strength to stand, walk, and run, and here that his old, harmful ways of thinking begin to change. Mary is similarly affected by the garden’s magic; as she spends time within the garden planting her flowers and pulling weeds, she is also simultaneously becoming a more thoughtful and generally pleasant child. While the garden is blooming back to life at Mary’s hand, it is also providing a certain motherly magic to aid in Mary’s journey towards becoming an agreeable and charming little girl.

Another idealized mother figure lies within the character of Mrs. Sowerby; she is frequently shown to be wise, caring, and kind. After the death of Mary’s biological mother, Mrs. Sowerby is among the first to show her genuine kindness and nurture. This can be seen when she scrapes together her family’s meager income to purchase a skipping rope for Mary (43). This present, perhaps Mary’s first genuine gift, was greatly touching to Mary. She even went as far as to thank Martha, which shows the beginning of Mary’s change of character as she was “not used to thanking people” (44). The skipping rope bought by Mrs. Sowerby is an important tool for Mary; it brings her outside more often and gives her exercise and fresh air, leading to her generally improved health. Ben Weatherstaff takes notice of this change: "Tha's a bit fatter than tha' was an' tha's not quite so yeller” (54). A later example of Mrs. Sowerby’s motherly nature comes when she sends a meal of milk and buns along with Dickon to share in the garden (148). While the children are drinking the frothy cream from the milk pail, Colin exclaims of Mrs. Sowerby, “What a kind, clever woman she must be!” and “she has been most bounteous” (148). It can thus be said that her genuinely caring nature, similar to that of the garden, promoted significant character growth in both Mary and Colin.

It is clear, then, that the feminine power of care and nurture is an essential aspect of the growth of both Mary and Colin, but we have yet to entertain the idea that male characters can have similar effects. This idea must be prefaced with the explanation that motherly energy does not come solely from women; men can be “motherly” in nature as well. Phyllis Bixler expands on this notion by claiming that “effective motherhood [within The Secret Garden] means giving children tools to help themselves rather than making them tools for satisfying one’s own egotistical desires” (292). She insists that “effective motherhood is not limited by gender” (292). Anna Krugovoy Silver, while discussing Burnett’s own concept of motherhood, states that “Her conception of maternity is non-gendered; both women and men can mother” (Silver 193). Deborah Nielsen, in addition, argues in her text that the motherhood representations within The Secret Garden cross gendered boundaries as well as class-related and spatial boundaries. Now that the issue of gender in relation to motherhood has been addressed, we can begin to further examine the ways in which motherly energy can be shown by male characters throughout the story.

Shortly after Mary arrives at Misselthwaite, while she is exploring the gardens for the first time, Mary discovers the male robin. The robin immediately takes a liking to her and quickly becomes her first real friend in England, providing her her first real dose of companionship. Mary is so surprised to learn that she has made her first true friend that she questions it out loud: “To me?”, “Would you make friends with me?” (26). If we refer to Bixler’s definition of motherhood within The Secret Garden, we can see that the robin, indeed, provides the tools necessary for Mary to help herself. He is the one to lead her to the garden’s hidden key and thus supply her with the healing sanctuary within the garden’s walls. Without the robin, it is unlikely that Mary would have unlocked the garden or its healing power, and thus the robin serves as a gateway to Mary’s growth of character.

Ben Weatherstaff can be seen as another example of a male character that displays the qualities of a mother. Although we may think of a motherly nature as being gentle and kind, Bixler’s standard of motherhood within the story states otherwise. Weatherstaff does not show particular kindness or pity towards the newly-orphaned Mary, but he does provide her with what she needs. Instead of the typical behavior expected of a mother, Ben Weatherstaff remains his coarse and blunt self; he asks if she is “that little wench from India” and tells her that her loneliness will only grow if she doesn’t learn to entertain herself (Burnett 25). This type of attitude is precisely what Mary needs in order to begin her transformation. She has never been questioned, talked down to, or belittled in any way before and it makes her begin to reconsider her disagreeable nature. Another way in which Weatherstaff provides Mary with necessary tools is in the case of the robin. It is Ben Weatherstaff that first summons the robin and introduces him to Mary (Burnett 24). From here Mary’s relationship with the robin blossoms and he is able to lead her to the garden key, thus presenting her with the motherly magic found within.

Colin employs a similar method of “motherhood” to Ben Weatherstaff. Like Weatherstaff, Colin provides resistance to Mary’s spoiled and entitled ways. During Colin’s final major tantrum Mary scolds and yells at him, exclaiming that “Everybody hates you!” (103) and “I wish everybody would run out of the house and let you scream yourself to death!” (103). It is stated within the book that “She was not used to any one’s tempers but her own” (102) and thus Colin’s tantrums give her a glimpse into her own life and show her that her own disagreeable behavior is wrong and negatively affects everyone around her.

Dickon is a striking example of the ways in which a male character can show motherly qualities. His character thoroughly reflects the idea that gardens and nature correlate with motherly and nurturing energies, so in this case he is a character that displays both traditional motherly and feminine qualities as well as the qualities that Bixler claims to define a mother. Immediately upon the introduction of his character, we are shown his connection with animals and with nature. When Mary first comes across Dickon, he is sitting underneath a tree and playing a tune on his flute. Surrounding him are animals of all varieties: a little brown squirrel, a cock pheasant, and two rabbits with twitching noses (57). It is later revealed that Dickon spends almost all of his time out on the moors playing with and charming animals and enjoying nature. In addition to this typical feminine and motherly characterization, Dickon also offers Mary essential tools to aid her in her transformation. When Mary finally decides to bring Dickon into the garden, he delights her with his knowledge of plants and flowers; he peels back a portion of tree bark to reveal the moist, green life within, and shows Mary the delicate plants and flowers struggling to push through the earth. It is also he that brings Mary her first seeds and garden tools and he that becomes her guide of the outdoors. Dickon provides Mary with the companionship of a peer and with the knowledge of gardening and nature that is necessary to both her revival and to the restoration of the garden.

Dickon is not hesitant to work with Mary in the garden even though in Victorian literature gardens were seen as a highly feminine space. Michael Waters claims that “it is virtually impossible to say anything about the garden in Victorian fiction without reference to the concept of home and the place of women within it” (Waters 227). Sarah Bilston comments on this fact in her work and explains that during the Victorian era an influx of female gardeners began to appear, and even goes so far as to refer to these gardeners as “Queens of the Gardens” (Bilston 1). Dickon’s willingness –and even enthusiasm– about being in the garden with Mary further likens his character to that of a mother.

One might argue that outdoor work is not typically seen as feminine and even bring to light the examples of the male gardeners Weatherstaff and Roach, but I will argue that these examples have more to do with class. The servants at Misselthwaite typically perform tasks that fall into traditional gender roles such as Martha with household duties and Weatherstaff with groundskeeping. Only with the higher classes do we see any deviation: Mr. and Mrs. Craven gardened for pleasure and not for the sake of tending to the grounds. Dickon, belonging to the same class as both Martha and the gardeners while also being male, should thus be expected to perform tasks similar to groundskeeping. Instead, he is shown leisurely planting flowers and enjoying simply being inside the garden.

Although many male characters within The Secret Garden do show motherly qualities, nearly all of the actual fathers within the story do not. In fact, some of these characters can even go as far as to be described as both neglectful and abusive, the very opposite of the motherly powers discussed earlier. It is here that we must discuss the ways in which the withholding of motherly nurturing has a negative impact on both Colin and Mary. Finally, towards the end of the story, the mysterious Mr. Craven comes to light. He is portrayed as an indifferent father who cares naught for his only son, and this neglect can be assumed to add to Colin’s despair and perceived ill-health. It is well known that Colin feels neglect and even hatred from his father as he explicitly states this within the text: “He doesn’t want to see me”, “He almost hates me” (75). It can be concluded, then, that this neglect in some way directly influences Colin’s belief that he will either die or become a hunchback. It is in this way that the influence of Mr. Craven is quite the opposite of the other “motherly” characters we have seen. His impact on Colin only serves as a source of despair, indifference, and fear. It is only when Mr. Craven sees Colin active and well in the garden that he begins to take up the more supportive and restorative role of a mother, and even this is within the last portion of the novel.

Mary’s own father is briefly portrayed within the story but his influence is not dissimilar to that of Mr. Craven’s. In fact, I would argue that his presence in Mary’s life is even less than that of Mr. Craven and Colin. Mary’s father is only mentioned on the first page where he is described as a “busy and ill” man. Within this first chapter, it is made abundantly clear that although Mary has both a mother and father, neither show any caring qualities of a mother. When discussing Mary’s mother within the text of The Secret Garden, the narrator describes her as “a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself” (1). It is revealed that she had never wanted children in the first place and thus when Mary was born she was handed over to a servant to be kept out of sight and tended to. Without the power of true motherly influence —and in this case, essentially neglect— Mary and Colin simply cannot grow to become kind or caring individuals. So, because of the lack of motherly influence from either sex, Mary and Colin’s similar childhoods of neglect and pampering directly leads to their spoiled and entitled nature.

The sole outliers of this rule are the robin and Mrs. Sowerby. The robin, it can be argued, is simply following his animal instincts to have the qualities of a good parent: caring guidance. Mrs. Sowerby, on the other hand, deviates from this rule for different reasons. Sowerbys character is frequently thought to be the perfect mother of the story due to her kindness, large family, and connection to feminine nature. Mrs. Sowerby has twelve children, much more than either the Lennoxes or the Cravens who both have but a single child each. Sowerby, thus, is drawing on a considerable amount of experience as a parent and as a mother. The Sowerbys are also a highly impoverished family, while both other families have a great deal of wealth. This distinction of class, I feel, is made clear to show that the wealthy do not always show motherly qualities and the opposite of the impoverished.

While The Secret Garden is undoubtedly a tale of motherly magic and power provided by women and feminine spaces, it also contains many male characters that display the qualities of a mother. In scholars focusing on the topic of motherhood within the story, this distinction is frequently overlooked. For further clarification, while many male characters within Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden show the elements of a mother, it is necessary to remember that some –importantly– do not. The motherly aspects either displayed or withheld by these male characters are essential to the understanding of both the character development of Mary and Colin and of motherhood as a theme within The Secret Garden.

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