Control and Protect your Child!: The Nursery in Peter and Wendy

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The space of the nursery in Peter and Wendy is an area of safety and control in the Darling children’s lives. When the children are inside of it their parents or their nurse, Nana can have the children under their domain. It is not until the children are left unguarded that they can leave with Peter and enter to a world of greater freedom and danger. Although they experience much greater freedom, the children submit to their parent’s wishes to keep them inside their realm. The nursery acts as a place of safety for the Darling children. They do not encounter real danger until they leave the nursery’s space and enter the outside world and the Neverland. As they fly to Neverland the children and Peter go on for so long that they get too sleepy and when any one of them starts to fall, they rely on Peter to catch them, but “there was always the possibility that the next time you fell he would let you go” (Barrie, 103). There is a chance that any one of the children could plummet to their death if Peter “let you go.” There is no longer the security of their parents constantly trying to keep them safe. As soon as they enter the Neverland, the children are attacked by pirates, “The pirates…fired Long Tom,” their cannon, “at them” (110). Though the cannonball does not hit them, they are the intended targets of the blast. This outside space that the children enter is one where they must fear for their lives. “Thus sharply did the terrified three learn the difference between an island of make-believe and the same island come true” (110). Before they left their home there were no real pirates to threaten the children’s lives, they were only alive in their imagination where all danger was made up. Now in this new environment, harm is possibl... ... middle of paper ... ...n she acrs as their mother. When the Darling children’s return to the nursery they accept the rules imposed on them, in effect trading freedom for security. They will have to accept the dominance of Mr. and Mrs. Darling and leave behind their pirates, redskins, and mermaids and in turn grow up. “Soon they settled down to being as ordinary as you or me” (218). They give up their world of wonderment for an average life where they must enter into a society with certain expectations for them. The Darling children leave their nursery to experience their imaginations come true with Peter Pan. Instead of staying forever children, they return to the safety of the nursery and bring the Lost Boys home with them. In turn, they submit to the dominance of their parents. The nursery is the place where they have the least amount of freedom, but are also the safest from any danger.

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