The Rajah (Metaphor)
In many moments throughout the story, Mary compares her cousin Colin to a “rajah,” a term used to describe Indian princes who wear many jewels. This ongoing metaphor serves to characterize a side of Colin other than his habitual sickly and self-defeated attitude. Colin, when feeling more positive, can command a sort of authority that even makes an angry Ben Weatherstaff pause and listen to his requests.
Mary's Transformation (Metaphor)
As Mary adjusts to her new setting at Misselthwaite Manor, she experiences a powerful transformation from the sullen little girl who lazed around all day in India to an adventurous child and lover of nature. The author illustrates this change in a metaphor likening the moor winds to the catalyst for livening Mary's spirits. The breeze is described as blowing “the cobwebs out of her young brain to waken her up a little.”
Magicians (Simile)
The transformation of the garden from its winter hibernation to springtime blossoming is attributed to magic, and each day that goes by seems “as if Magicians were passing through it drawing loveliness out of the earth and the boughs with wands.” This simile fits in with the theme of Magic as the benevolent force behind nature's splendor.
Fairies in the Garden (Simile)
When Mary and Dickon are working on planting seeds in the secret garden, the quick sprouting of new flowers is attributed to help from the mythical creatures of nature. The narrator describes how their plants “grew as if fairies had tended them.” In this, the reader gets the sense of how all life forms outside are banding together to assist the children in their effort to revitalize the garden.
Spring Water (Simile)
When Archibald Craven is sitting at a riverside, the movement of the water inspires the surfacing of a new awareness within him. Burdened by grief for the past 10 years, Archibald experiences in this moment a rare sense of peace and gratitude. The emergence of this positive feeling is “as if a sweet clear spring had begun to rise in a stagnant pool and had risen and risen until at last it swept the dark water away.”
