Peter Pan.
PETER PAN written by J.M.
Barrie is the story of a boy who never wants to grow up. It is a children's
fantasy about a magical world of adventure where everything is possible just by
believing it to be true. PETER PAN functions as a typical fairytale of the late
nineteenth century. Not unlike ALICE IN WONDERLAND, or THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS,
the story offers an escape from the overly industrialized, alienating world of
London into an enchanting world of pirates, indians, and mystical creatures
such as fairies and mermaids, while at the same time reinforcing the societal norms
that shaped the Victorian era. Peter and his lost boys inhabit the utopian
island of Neverland. In their fantasy retreat, the carefree children have
countless adventures---similar to those they would make believe in their own
rooms at night. Barrie's novel is a masterpiece of escapist fantasy that
attracts young readers, literary scholars, and psychoanalysts alike. Each in
their own way search for the Neverland by journeying to the "second star
to the right and straight on 'til morning."(743) Although J.M. Barrie
created the character of Peter Pan over one hundred years ago, the immortal Imp
remains to this day a romanticized icon of children's literature. He embodies
the very essence of youth in a character that remains forever young.
J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan is
a unique character in children's literature. He is a boy who refuses to accept
the world of grownups and the responsibilities of adulthood. Like a small
child, he is easily distracted and lives most entirely in the present. He
forgets the past rapidly and has little understanding of the future. For him,
real life and make-believe are almost the same thing. At the beginning of the
novel, "Peter breaks through” the glass window separating fantasy and
reality to visit the Darling family children. The first sentence of the story
introduces the reader to the plot by stating, "All children, except one,
grow up." Barrie's Peter Pan is a complex character with all the charm and
majesty of an epic hero, and all the frailty of an innocent boy still in
possession of his baby teeth. Peter is a metaphor for what children cannot be:
eternally young, naive, and innocent. He is the lost boy who craves a mother's
love but is unable to return to her, and the emotions that stem from that
longing. "...she thought she had seen him before in the faces of many
women who have no children."(731) In essence, he is a contradiction. His
unwillingness to mature and grow into adulthood makes him a tragic character.
However, his involvement with the main characters in the novel allow those same
characters to mature and evolve. Meanwhile, Peter remains the same little boy
“that ran away the day he was born."(738)
Peter's ambiguous
relationship with Wendy is one of the most important themes of the novel. To
Peter, Wendy is a story teller, a mother figure, and a potential playmate for
eternity; if she were willing to stay with him in Neverland. The maturation of
Wendy is important to the stories plot. "She was one of a kind that liked
to grow up. In the end, she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than
other girls." The young Darling embraces her role as a strong mother
figure throughout the story. The personal growth and psychological changes that
Wendy undergoes is the main subject of the novel. She goes to the Neverland for
a very specific purpose---to "grow up," as requested by her father.
This transformation is in contrast to the equally unchangeable Peter. She longs
to be a mother with him, and continually offers Peter the chance to respond to
her in a mature way when she asks, "What am I to you, Peter ?" He
cannot love her, but he can be jealous of her. "...close the window and
bar it. That's right. Now you and I must get away by the door; and when Wendy
comes she will think her mother has barred her out; and she will have to go
back with me."(797) Wendy on the other hand does love Peter as a mother.
She seeks to bond with him in far more meaningful and intimate ways. She offers
Peter a kiss, but he doesn't know what it means, and holds out his hand to
receive it. The thimble she gives him is symbolic of her Victorian upbringing
and the household duties inherent in motherhood.
Captain James Hook
represents the opposite qualities embodied in Peter Pan. While Pan is a "proud
and insolent youth," the pirate Hook is a "dark and sinister
man." Hook is "never more sinister than when he was polite." His
extraordinary obsession with the destruction of Peter contrasts Pan's inability
to focus on one specific task. The ticking crocodile sends Hook into a state of
panic and subsequent paralysis at the thought of death. Peter considers death
to "be an awfully big adventure." Hook is the "codfish"
whereas "there never was a cockier boy than Peter." In the end, Hook
the pirate is defeated by Peter because he accepts his fate and leaps into the
jaws of death (the crocodile). Pan is able to defeats Captain Hook because he
doesn't know he can't win. His inability to face the reality of his own
mortality makes him invincible. Their conflict is not so much about good
against evil. Instead, Hook is an adult trapped in a child's fantasy world.
"While Peter lived, the tormented man felt that he was a lion in a cage
into which a sparrow had come."(780) His dilemma deals with the important
aspects of life, such as mothers, growing up, growing old, dying, and (the
ticking crocodile) time.
The confrontation between
fantasy and reality plays an important role in Barrie's novel. The Neverland is
a dream world with "splashes of color here and there..." It is a
children's sanctuary through which the characters in the novel, and the reader
can escape the inevitable struggle and disappointment that adulthood brings.
Peter takes up permanent residence in the Neverland and dreams about reality,
and the real children of the world live in reality and dream about the
Neverland. "Thus sharply did the terrified three learn the difference
between an island of make believe and the same island come true."(750) The irony of PETER PAN is that the Neverland
explores the limits and boundaries of eternal childhood but can only be visited
by the innocent and immature. As an
adult, the rules and regulations that govern the Neverland can be daunting when
one considers the consequences of Peter's humorous but dangerous behavior on
his island paradise. "Peter breathed intentionally quick breaths...he did
this because there is a saying in the Neverland that every time you breath, a
grown up dies; and Peter was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible."
And so he should, for he is "...the blue one that is just a little silly
and not sure what he is."(801)
However, if Peter even does learn his true identity, he'll quickly
forget it; just as easily as he forgets the names of the pirates he has slain.
In conclusion, let us never
forget the splendor of innocence---when time stands still for a "spring-cleaning."
That annual event when little boys need a mother, and egg shells litter the
nest. Try to remember the sound of a "new born babies first laugh."
For it is then that Peter Pan comes knocking at the bedroom window...
"I came back for my
mother," he explained," to take her to the Neverland."
"Yes, I know,"
Jane said, "I've been waiting for you."(805)
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