The accuracy of Wallace's fantastical tale about the garden is less significant than its symbolism for his feelings of isolation and loneliness. Wallace's mother passed away during childbirth, and his father was strict, imposing high expectations on him. These difficult childhood experiences led Wallace to escape into a world of imagination. The only place he could find affection and attention was through the door in the wall. As a child, Wallace was compelled to suppress his imagination: "I tried to tell them, and my father gave me my first thrashing for telling lies. When afterwards I tried to tell my aunt, she punished me again for my wicked persistence. Then ... everyone was forbidden to listen to me, to hear a word about it." Forced to retreat into a private world to express his imagination, feelings of alienation and loneliness became second nature to Wallace. These emotions lingered throughout his life, making it difficult for him to connect with others.

At first, Redmond is doubtful about whether to trust his friend's astounding story. "But whether he himself saw, or only thought he saw, whether he himself was the possessor of an inestimable privilege, or the victim of a fantastic dream, I cannot pretend to guess." The reader is more inclined to trust Wallace's remarkable tale because it is delivered through the logical, "sane" perspective of the narrator. Redmond embodies the typical image of a rational individual; he seems to have a normal, healthy mind, makes sensible, logical decisions, and demonstrates good judgment. Initially, Wallace also appears sane; he does not fit the stereotype of a delusional person, given his distinguished career and apparent achievements. Wells did not intend to create an insane character but rather to show the effects of having to compartmentalize different facets of one's personality. As a child, Wallace was forced to suppress his imagination, a habit he carried into adulthood. He came to view imagination as something dreadful. As a result, Wallace began to regard his childhood experience as genuine rather than imaginary, as this was the only way he could accept that part of himself. From a Freudian perspective, he lost the ability to differentiate between reality and imagination, as the imaginative was off-limits to him. Ultimately, it may seem that Wallace has lost his sanity—confusing a door at a railway construction site with the magical door in the wall—but he is merely trying to return to that fleeting moment in the garden when he was free to embrace his true self.

Throughout his public career, Wallace has thrived as a highly accomplished Cabinet Minister in the British government, earning both trust and respect. The narrator, Redmond, holds Wallace in the utmost esteem. The morning after Wallace shares his incredible story with Redmond, Redmond reflects, "I lay in bed and recalled the things he had told me, stripped of the glamour of his earnest slow voice, denuded of the focused shaded table light, the shadowy atmosphere that wrapped about him." Wallace's skill in communication and self-presentation makes him persuasive, convincing Redmond of his sincerity. However, when Redmond is alone, he begins to question the truth of Wallace's narrative. In contrast, Wallace's private life is less confident; he longs for the enchanting garden, a place absent from his public existence. Raised by his father to be rational, unremarkable, and career-driven, Wallace is emotionally constrained. Redmond shares a remark from a woman who once loved Wallace: "Suddenly, the interest goes out of him. He forgets you. He doesn't care a rap for you—under his very nose." Like many who grew up in the restrictive atmosphere of...