From Folktales to Fiction: Orphan Characters in Children's Literature

Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Melanie A. Kimball

QUESTS

Mary and Colin both have several quests to fulfill. As in many of the folktales studied, Mary's quest begins with a journey. Hers is from India to Yorkshire and her quests are to find and renew the garden, to transform herself into a healthy, loving, and beloved child who is not isolated from the rest of the world, and to help Colin do the same. Colin's quest is similar in that he also needs to be transformed into a complete person, but he must rescue his father as well.

OBSTACLES

Just as folktale orphans encounter obstacles to the successful completion of their quest, so too do Mary and Colin. These obstacles are both external and internal. Mary's external obstacles include Mrs. Medlock, who tells her she is to keep to her rooms and not wander around the house. If Mary had obeyed this edict, she wouldn't have found Colin. Another obstacle is that the garden Mary wants to see is locked up and the key buried.

Colin's obstacles are more internal than external. His fear of deformity and the fear that he won't live to grow up so dominate his thoughts that they keep him bedridden and unwilling to interact with anyone other than his caretakers. His lack of physical health is also an obstacle. He cannot walk or even sit up without help, not because of any real physical problem but because the muscles are weak from lack of use. He has made his own home a prison. His external obstacles include Dr. Craven. While he is not actively promoting Colin's decline, the doctor does nothing to help Colin do the things that are healthy for him. Colin believes that the doctor wants him to die so he will inherit the manor, but there is no mention of that by Dr. Craven himself. Rather than an active obstacle, the doctor is a passive one, as are the other grownups. The servants, the nurse, the doctor, none of them, tries to lessen Colin's spoiled nature or see him as anything other than a tiresome duty.

SURMOUNTING OBSTACLES

The obstacles faced by Mary and Colin are overcome in two ways: first, with assistance from others, and second, by their own "virtue." As seen in the discussion of helpers, Mary and Colin are assisted by an assortment of characters. The helper characters each advance the quest a bit further by providing key bits of information or by physical and emotional assistance. Dickon, Martha, Ben, and Mrs. Sowerby are all obviously helpers.

In the folktales studied, many of the characters overcome impediments by their virtuous nature. Mary and Colin are scarcely virtuous in the same way. They are both spoiled, selfish, and stubborn. These traits would ordinarily weigh on the minus side of the ledger but in this case are turned into assets. If Mary weren't so stubborn, she would have behaved when Mrs. Medlock told her not to go exploring around the house. If she had been a "nice" child, she wouldn't have become angry with Colin when he had a temper tantrum. By shouting at him, she startles him into voicing his greatest fear, that he has a lump on his back and proving him wrong about his illness: