Peter Pan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Peter Pan |
| Peter Pan character |
Illustration of Peter Pan playing the pipes, by F. D. Bedford from Peter and Wendy (1911) |
| First appearance |
The Little White Bird (1902) |
| Created by |
J. M. Barrie |
| Information |
| Aliases |
The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up |
| Gender |
Male |
| Nationality |
English |
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright
J. M. Barrie. A mischievous boy who can fly and who
never ages, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of
Neverland as the leader of his gang the
Lost Boys, interacting with
mermaids,
Native Americans,
fairies,
pirates,
and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside of Neverland.
In addition to two distinct works by Barrie, the character has been
featured in a variety of media and merchandise, both adapting and
expanding on Barrie's works.
History
Cover of 1915 edition of
J. M. Barrie's novel, first published in 1911, illustrated by F. D. Bedford.
Peter Pan first appeared in a section of
The Little White Bird, a 1902 novel written by Barrie for adults.
The character's best-known adventure debuted on 27 December 1904, in the
stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. The play was adapted and expanded somewhat as a
novel, published in 1911 as
Peter and Wendy (later as
Peter Pan and Wendy, and still later as
Peter Pan).
Following the highly successful debut of the 1904 play, Barrie's publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, extracted chapters 13–18 of
The Little White Bird and republished them in 1906 under the title
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with the addition of illustrations by
Arthur Rackham.
[1]
Appearance
Barrie never described Peter's appearance in detail, even in the novel
Peter and Wendy,
leaving much of it to the imagination of the reader and the
interpretation of anyone adapting the character. Barrie mentions in
Peter and Wendy
that Peter Pan still had all of his baby teeth. He describes him as a
beautiful boy with a beautiful smile, "clad in skeleton leaves and the
juices that flow from trees". In the play, Peter's outfit is made of
autumn leaves and cobwebs. His name and playing the flute suggest the
mythological character
Pan.
Traditionally, the character has been played on stage by an adult woman.
In
Peter Pan in Scarlet,
Geraldine McCaughrean
adds to the description of his appearance, mentioning his blue eyes,
and saying that his hair is light (or at least any colour lighter than
black). In this novel, Never Land has moved on to autumn, so Peter wears
a tunic of jay feathers and maple leaves. In the
Starcatcher stories written by
Dave Barry and
Ridley Pearson, Peter has carrot-orange hair and bright blue eyes.
In the Disney films, Peter wears an outfit that was easier to
animate, consisting of a short-sleeved green tunic and tights apparently
made of cloth, and a cap with a red feather in it. He has pointed
elf-like ears, and his hair is a very red
auburn. In the live-action
2003 film, he is portrayed by
Jeremy Sumpter, who has blond hair and blue eyes, and his outfit is made of leaves and vines. In
Hook, he is played as an adult by
Robin Williams
with dark brown hair, but in flashbacks to his youth his hair is light
brown. In this film his ears appear pointed only when he is Peter Pan,
not Peter Banning; his Pan clothing resembles the Disney outfit.
Age
The notion of a boy who would never grow up was based on J. M.
Barrie's older brother who died in an ice-skating accident the day
before he turned 14, and thus always stayed a young boy in his mother's
mind.
[2] The "boy who wouldn't grow up" has appeared at a variety of ages. In his original appearance in
The Little White Bird
he was only seven days old. Although his age is not stated in Barrie's
later play and novel, his characterization is clearly years older. The
book states that he has all of his
baby teeth, and Barrie's intended model for the statue of Peter that was erected in
Kensington Gardens was a set of photos of
Michael Llewelyn Davies
taken at the age of six. Early illustrations of the character generally
appeared to be that age or perhaps a few years older. In the 1953
Disney adaptation and its 2002 sequel, Peter appears to be in late
childhood, between 10 and 13 years old. (The actor who provided the
voice in 1953 was 15-year-old
Bobby Driscoll.) In the 2003 film,
Jeremy Sumpter was 13 at the time filming started; by the end of filming he was 14 and had grown several inches taller. In the movie
Hook,
Peter is said to have left Neverland many years earlier, forsaking his
eternal youth and ageing normally. When remembering his buried past,
Peter is shown as a baby, and little boy, and also a near-teenager,
suggesting that the ageing process does not entirely stop in Neverland
until puberty or just before, or that Peter aged a little bit every time
he left Neverland to come to the real world. When Peter says, "I
remember you being a lot bigger," in the final duel, Hook answers, "to a
10-year-old I'm huge." He is portrayed by
Robin Williams, who turned 40 during production of the film.
Personality
Peter is mainly an exaggerated stereotype of a boastful and careless
boy. He is quick to point out how great he is, even when such claims are
questionable (such as when he congratulates himself for Wendy's
successful reattachment of his shadow).
Peter has a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude, and is fearlessly
cocky when it comes to putting himself in danger. Barrie writes that
when Peter thought he was going to die on Marooner's Rock, he felt
scared, yet he felt only one shudder run through him when any other
person would have felt scared up until death. With his blissful
unawareness of the tragedy of death, he says, "To die will be an awfully
big adventure". He repeats this line as an adult in the film
Hook
during the battle with Hook near the film's climax. He then inverts the
phrase at the film's very end claiming "To live will be an awfully big
adventure."
In some variations of the story and some spin-offs, Peter can also be quite nasty and selfish. In
the Disney adaptation of the tale,
Peter appears very judgemental and pompous (for example, he calls the
Lost Boys "blockheads" and when the Darling children say that they
should leave for home at once, he gets the wrong message and angrily
assumes that they want to grow up). Nonetheless, he has a strong sense
of justice and is always quick to help those in danger.
In the
2003 live-action film,
Peter Pan is sensitive about the subject of "growing up". When
confronted by Hook about Wendy's growing up, marrying and eventually
"shutting the window" on Peter, he becomes very depressed and finally
gives up on Wendy.
Abilities
Peter's archetypal ability is his unending youth. In "Peter and
Wendy" it is explained that Peter must forget his own adventures and
what he learns about the world in order to stay childlike. The fact that
the other Lost Boys are growing up and able to be killed in
Peter and Wendy contradicts this idea. The unauthorized
prequels
by Barry and Pearson attribute Peter's everlasting youth to his
exposure to starstuff, a magical substance which has fallen to earth.
Peter's ability to fly is explained somewhat, but inconsistently. In
The Little White Bird
he is able to fly because he – like all babies – is part bird. In the
play and novel, he teaches the Darling children to fly using a
combination of "lovely wonderful thoughts" (which became "happy
thoughts" in Disney's film) and fairy dust; it is unclear whether he is
serious about "wonderful thoughts" being required (it was stated in the
novel that this was merely a silly diversion from the fairy dust being
the true source), or whether he requires the fairy dust himself.
However, in Barrie's Dedication to the play
Peter Pan, The boy who wouldn't grow up,
[3] the author attributes the idea of fairy dust being necessary for flight to more practical considerations:
...after the first production I had to add something to the play at
the request of parents (who thus showed that they thought me the
responsible person) about no one being able to fly until the fairy dust
had been blown on him; so many children having gone home and tried it
from their beds and needed surgical attention. - J.M. Barrie
In
Hook, the adult Peter is unable to fly until he remembers
his "happy thought". The ability to fly is also attributed to
starstuff – apparently the same thing as fairy dust – in the
Starcatchers prequels.
Peter has an effect on the whole of Never Land and its inhabitants
when he is there. Barrie states that although Never Land appears
different to every child, the island "wakes up" when he returns from his
trip to London. In the chapter "The Mermaid Lagoon" in the book
Peter and Wendy, Barrie writes that there is almost nothing that Peter cannot do. He is a skilled
swordsman,
rivalling even Captain Hook, whose hand he cut off in a duel. He has
remarkably keen vision and hearing. He is skilled in mimicry, copying
the voice of Hook, and the tick-tock of the Crocodile. In the 2003 film,
the mermaids speak by making dolphin-like noises, which Peter can both
understand and speak.
In both
Peter Pan and Wendy and
Peter Pan in Scarlet,
there are various mentions of Peter's ability to imagine things into
existence, such as food, though this ability plays a more central role
in
Peter Pan in Scarlet. He also creates imaginary windows and
doors as a kind of physical metaphor for ignoring or shunning his
companions. He is said to be able to feel danger when it is near. In
Peter Pan in Scarlet,
it says that when Curly's puppy licks Peter, it licks off a lot of
fairy dust, which may be interpreted to mean that he has become
fairy-like to the point of producing his own dust, but could also simply
mean that he spends so much time with fairies that he is coated in
their dust.
In
Peter and Wendy, Barrie states that the Peter Pan legend
Mrs Darling heard as a child was that when children died, he accompanied
them part of the way to their destination so that they would not be
scared; he thus resembles the
Greek god
Hermes in his role as a
psychopomp.
In the original play, Peter states that no one must ever touch him
(though he does not know why), and the stage instructions specify that
no one does so throughout the play. Wendy approaches Peter to give him a
"thimble" (kiss), but is prevented by Tinker Bell.
Relationships
Peter does not know his parents. In
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
Barrie wrote that he left them as an infant, and seeing the window
closed and a new baby in the house when he returned, he assumed they no
longer wanted him. In
Starcatchers he is said to be an orphan, though his friends Molly and George discover who his parents are in
Rundoon. In
Hook,
Peter remembers his parents, specifically his mother, who wanted him to
grow up and go to the best schools in London to become a judge like his
father and have a family of his own. After Peter "ran away" to
Neverland, he returned to find his parents forgot about him and had
another child (the gender of Peter's sibling is revealed to be another
boy in
Peter and Wendy).
Peter is the leader of the
Lost Boys,
a band of boys who were lost by their parents, and came to live in
Neverland; it is reported that he "thins them out" when they start to
grow up. He is best friends with
Tinker Bell, a common fairy who is often jealously protective of him. His arch-enemy is
Captain Hook, whose hand he cut off in a duel. Hook's crew, including
Smee and Starkey, also consider him a foe. The
Starcatchers books introduce additional foes: Slank, Lord Ombra, and Captain Nerezza.
From time to time Peter visits the real world, particularly around Kensington Gardens, and befriends children there.
Wendy Darling, whom he recruited to be his "mother", is the most significant of them; he also brings her brothers
John and
Michael to Neverland at her request. It is hinted that Wendy has romantic feelings for Peter. In the 2003 film
Peter Pan,
the feeling is mutual, as the only unhappy thoughts that Captain Hook
is able to use to take away Peter's ability to fly are thoughts of Wendy
leaving him, growing up, and replacing him with a husband; Wendy is
also able to save Peter by giving him her hidden kiss (signifying that
Peter is her true love), which once again gives him the will to live. He
later befriends Wendy's daughter Jane (and her subsequent daughter
Margaret), and
Peter and Wendy says that he will continue this pattern indefinitely. In
Starcatchers he previously befriends
Molly Aster and young
George Darling.
Peter appears to be known to all the residents of Neverland, including the Native American princess
Tiger Lily and her tribe, the mermaids, and the fairies.
In
Hook, Peter states that the reason he wanted to grow up was
to be a father. He married Wendy's granddaughter, Moira, and they have
two children, Maggie and Jack.
In the 1953 Disney film version it is hinted at the end that Wendy's
father George also met Peter Pan once and went to Neverland, when Mr.
Darling, seeing the Pirate Ship flying through the air, remarks that he
has a strange feeling he has seen the ship before, when he was very
young.
In the adaptation of
Peter Pan by French comic artist
Loisel,
Peter Pan is a bastard child and is kicked out of the house by his
abusive mother. He does not have a good relationship with her; he tries
to win her love by procuring gold for her from Neverland, yet she
rejects him countless times. She is later murdered, but Peter Pan
eventually forgets her death and seems to remember his mother as a
kindhearted, beautiful woman and believes she is still alive; the series
also implies that Hook is his father, as Hook has a photo of Peter's
mother, but this point is never developed in the series.
In the 2011
Neverland
TV miniseries, the origin story of Peter Pan is discussed. It is hinted
at at multiple points throughout the TV special that Peter and Tiger
Lily have romantic feelings for each other. It is also mentioned that
James "Jimmy" Hook was originally a friend of Peter's. Prior to the
film, Hook loved Peter's mother and murdered Peter's father. Feeling
guilty after Peter's mother died, Hook took care of Peter, until later
on when Peter finds out and becomes angry with Hook, sparking his hatred
towards him. The hatred became mutual when Peter (as in other
adaptations) cut off Hook's hand and fed it to a crocodile.
