Women are crucial to society. They are our voices, and they revolutionize our people. More importantly, mothers are a big part of our society. J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan is a magic-filled story about a mischievous young boy named Peter and his tribe, the Lost Boys, who explore and grow from lacking a mother to having one. This story can be studied under the lens of the Feminist Critical Theory, which focuses on women empowerment and their outstanding role in society. Literature allows society to explore this role, which J.M Barrie displays impeccably in his book. Barrie’s book definitively presents Wendy’s journey from childhood to motherhood, her role in the development of Peter and the Lost Boys, and the idealization of women. Peter Pan shows …show more content…
When she begins to care for Peter and the Lost Boys in Neverland, she is quite young, in fact, she is still a child herself. Peter tells her they “are rather lonely,” and “have no female companionship” (Barrie 31), therefore, she makes the decision of helping Peter. Wendy helps Peter and the Lost Boys by giving them the attention and care for which they yearn. From age two, Mrs. Darling solemnly tells Wendy that she will not stay a child forever. Wendy willingly accepts this and is eager to grow up. According to Odyssey, in his novel, Barrie takes childhood and adulthood as two separate entities and allow them to unite at a certain point (). This relates to Wendy, who starts as a child, and when she is given an opportunity to grow, she takes it. This, in turn helps her become more socially and cognitively developed. As the story proceeds, she proves herself to be a wonderful, caring person, and she proves to be an excellent mother to these children. Soon, Wendy realizes she must return home and to her old life and that her parents must her and her brother immensely. Although she still wants to look after Peter, whom she is fond of, Wendy needs to be taken care of still as well. Moreover, …show more content…
She looks after them in Neverland and keeps them safe, and she always says, “If you knew how great is a mother’s love” (Barrie 109). Wendy ensures that she raises them in the best way she can although she is not really their mother. Yet like a real mother she stays restless so the boys can have fun, and she always tells stories gives them great advice. According to FamilyShare, children often look up to their mother and imitate them, whether it be through their actions or their etiquette. Therefore, a mother’s role is imperative to children and she must be the best role model she can. In addition, by the end of the story, Wendy gives the Lost Boys the opportunity to live normal lives when she brings them home for her parents to adopt them. She does this without disuniting them and displays her continual care for them, except Peter, whom Wendy told that her parents “had adopted all the other boys, and would like to adopt him also.” (Barrie 162). This opportunity she gives th boys allows them to reform and live normal lives. This also helps them be to be lead to a successful future as they can go to school and turn into fine young men who marry and get good jobs, while Peter remains young and free. Therefore, Wendy guides and mentors Peter and the Lost Boys throughout the story when she is with them in Neverland as well as when she brings them home to give
Pete is a boy who lives within his own shadow. He wants to get his sister and himself out of the orphanage, a deadly place full of rascal and thieves, where survival is resolved by skills and bareknuckle bravery. Captain Hook hunts for children because he believes that the children can cure the disease. The Marauders and Captain Hook spy the streets and snatch kids, only to use them for experimentation. Gwen Darling and her siblings survived from the disease. They spend their days and nights hiding from the Marauders. However, Gwen’s sister, Joanna, was kidnapped by the
It is not often that a strong and significant female character is introduced in a movie and/or book as the main character. Pan’s Labyrinth, though not the typical fairy tale, introduces the viewer to three females that prove controversial and necessary to the plot, which passes the Bechdel Test, designed to identify gender bias in the media. There is Carmen, the loving mother, Ofelia, the supposed princess/innocent girl, and then there is Mercedes, Captain Vidal’s maid and rebel spy. These three women show different portrayals, different characterizations, of how women should defy the gender bias in films.
signifies to evade the realities of her life and the life of Janie. When Nanny
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie is a classic tale of the adventures of the three young Darling siblings and Peter Pan, a magical boy from Neverland. Although this story originated as a novel, eventually several adaptations were created based on the story, which include Broadway plays, animated movies, television productions and more. Within the epic story of Peter Pan, there is Wendy Darling, the eldest child of three, the only daughter of the Darling family and the leading lady in this tale. Wendy’s character begins the story dealing with a confrontation between her parents about growing up and acting her age, which shows that Wendy is not only childish but also restrictive to change, as she is already defensive to growing up. Wendy’s demands to remain with her brothers, and her parents refuse and ignore her demands, showing that Wendy has “no voice” or control over her situation.
Throughout the story, the different roles and expectations placed on men and women are given the spotlight, and the coming-of-age of two children is depicted in a way that can be related to by many women looking back on their own childhood. The narrator leaves behind her title of “child” and begins to take on a new role as a young, adolescent woman.
Although Peter negates to play father to Wendy’s maternal role he fulfills the conventional Victorian era male part by serving as the leader, protector, and breadwinner, much like Mr. Darling. Mr. Darling and Peter are both set in their customary ways and are extremely certain of themselves: “Peter not coming! They gazed blankly at him, their sticks over their backs, and on each stick a bundle. Their first thought was that if Peter was not going he had probably changed his mind about letting them go. But he was far too proud for that.
In the famous story that we all were read as children, Mary Poppins, the author P.L. Travers depicts a story of an astonishing nanny who arrives at the Banks household to look after the four children, Michael, Jane, and the twins. Jane and Michael live pretty boring lives before Mary Poppins, the nanny, arrives. These two children are very critical thinkers, and it is apparent that they receive these traits from their parents, so because of this Poppins challenges their beliefs when she arrives. Through many adventures and the character of Poppins, Jane and Michael come to learn that there is not always an answer for all of their questions. To their displeasing, the nanny tells them that they have to use their imagination to come up with answers to all of their questions. Eventually, the children are able to discover their childhood, that seemed to be lost, once the nanny leaves. Throughout the book Poppins takes the children on journeys to help them discover what they are missing out on and help them regain that ability to make believe just as every other kid in the world does.
Barrie presents Mr. Darling as the worker of the family, a proud businessman. He persistently demands respect and obedience from his wife, children, and Nana the dog. As well as this, he boasts to Wendy that Mrs. Darling not only loves him, but respects him. This outlook is linked to the stereotypical view of the male gender as the main source of income, with a resilient disposition and a necessity for order. When Mrs. Darling talks to him about Peter Pan, he dismisses her concerns, suggesting indifference and a lack of concern for others’ views.
One of the Lost Boys, Omnes, directly tells Wendy that the Lost Boys and Peter need “a nice motherly person” (31).
Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’
In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that females are supposed to be docile, dependent on the male persona and willing to sacrifice themselves. In many cases, when strong female characters are presented they are always contradicting in these characteristics, thus labeled as villainous. Such is the case of the Cinderella’s stepsisters in Perrault’s “Cinderella” and the stepmother in the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” These female characters face judgment and disapproval when they commit the same acts as male characters. With such messages rooted in our beloved fairy tales it is no wonder that society is rampant with these ideals about women and disapprove of women when they try to break free of this mold.
M Barrie in 1911. Peter Pan is the protagonist in Barrie’s fiction novel. To explain Peter Pan’s life in the novel, let’s begin with the setting known as Neverland which is where Peter Pan lived. In Neverland, kids who never want to grow up live there, and Peter Pan as well as a group of kids known as the “lost boys” lived there happily. That being said, we will derive some characteristics Barrie illustrates in his original text to describe Peter Pan. Peter Pan is portrayed as a young boy, according to Barrie’s text, Peter Pan replies to Wendy’s question regarding his age as “I don’t know… I’m quite young… I ran away the day I was born” (Barrie, Chapter 3), therefore it can be assumed Peter Pan is a young boy, with no parents in Neverland. Peter’s intention is to never grow up and have fun. In Neverland, Peter is the captain of the lost boys, and they only look forward to having a great time together in the forests of Neverland. Peter’s description by Barrie implies that he is nice and an innocent young child that does not believe in aging or becoming an adult. Thus he encourages other young children to pertain a childhood perception. The author gives the audience enough detail about Peter’s character and ideology, although, the author does not mention much physical composition. This is to give the reader the liberty to picture Peter Pan’s physical persona in our imagination, therefore letting our imagination create
Many characters do not recognize that Wendy also needs to grow and has a life of her own. Rather, Smee suggests to Captain Hook that they “kidnap these boys’ mother and make her our mother” (Barrie 86). Throughout the story, although mothers are highly praised by a clear majority of the characters for differing reasons, it seems that women are only portrayed as mothers who stay home to complete household chores, clean up, and look after children. This, in fact, does not display the true capacity of women and what they do for societies today. The pirates, who are the villains in this story, merely see Wendy as a mother and nothing else, and selfishly wish to have her against her will. It is crucial to understand that the pirates are not entitled to Wendy and cannot force her to do what they please. She is still young and must learn skills to live as well as be brought up by her parents rather than look after others at her young age. Although she matures more rapidly than the other children, she still requires guidance and words of advice from her parents. Often, parents give their children a sense of emotional stability and teach them to be the best person they can, therefore, if one lacks this, it can negatively affect them in the future. The pirates also do not consider Wendy’s personal choice in the matter, whereas Peter does when he says he
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.
Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.