Origin

Peter Pan first appeared as a personality in Barrie’s The Little White Hen (1902), an grownup novel. In chapters 13–18, titled “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens”, Peter is a seven-day-old child and has flown from his nursery to Kensington Gardens in London, the place the fairies and birds taught him to fly. He’s described as “betwixt-and-between” a boy and a chicken. Barrie returned to the character of Peter Pan, placing him on the centre of his stage play entitled Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would not Develop Up, which premiered on 27 December 1904 on the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.^[1] Following the success of the 1904 play, Barrie’s publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, extracted the Peter Pan chapters of The Little White Hen and printed them in 1906 beneath the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with the addition of illustrations by Arthur Rackham.^[2] Barrie later tailored and expanded the 1904 play’s storyline as a novel, which was printed in 1911 as Peter and Wendy.

J. M. Barrie might have primarily based the character of Peter Pan on his older brother, David, who died in an ice-skating accident the day earlier than his 14th birthday. His mom and brother considered him as perpetually a boy.^[3]

Bodily look

1907 illustration of Peter Pan by Oliver Herford

Barrie by no means described Peter’s look intimately, even in his novel, leaving it to the creativeness of the reader and the interpretation of anybody adapting the character. Within the play, Peter’s outfit is made from autumn leaves and cobwebs.^[4] His identify and taking part in the flute or pipes counsel the Greek god and mythological character Pan. Barrie mentions in Peter and Wendy that Peter Pan nonetheless had all his “first enamel”.^[5] He describes him as a “pretty boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of bushes”.^[5]

Historically, the character has been performed on stage by a petite grownup lady.^[6] Within the unique productions within the UK, Peter Pan’s costume was a reddish tunic and darkish inexperienced tights, resembling that worn by Nina Boucicault in 1904. This costume is exhibited at Barrie’s Birthplace.^[7] The same costume worn by Pauline Chase (who performed the position from 1906 to 1913) is displayed within the Museum of London. Early editions of variations of the story additionally depict a purple costume^[8][9] however a inexperienced costume (whether or not or not made from leaves) turns into extra typical from the Nineteen Twenties,^[10] and extra so later after the discharge of Disney’s animated film.

Within the Disney movies, Peter wears an outfit that consists of a short-sleeved inexperienced tunic and tights apparently made of material, and a cap with a purple feather in it. He has pointed elf-like ears, brown eyes and his hair is purple.

In Hook (1991), the character is performed as an grownup by Robin Williams, with blue eyes and darkish brown hair; in flashbacks to him in his youth, his hair is gentle brown. His ears seem pointed solely when he’s Peter Pan, not as Peter Banning. His Pan apparel resembles the Disney outfit (minus the cap).

Within the live-action 2003 Peter Pan movie, he’s portrayed by Jeremy Sumpter, with blond hair, blue eyes, naked ft and a dressing up made from leaves and vines.

Age

In The Little White Hen (1902) and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), he was solely seven days previous.

Though his age shouldn’t be acknowledged in Barrie’s play (1904) or novel (1911), the novel mentions that he nonetheless had all his child enamel. In different methods, the character seems to be about 12–13 years previous.

Character

Peter is an exaggerated stereotype of a boastful and careless boy. He claims greatness, even when such claims are questionable (resembling congratulating himself when Wendy re-attaches his shadow). Within the play and guide, Peter symbolises the selfishness of childhood, and is portrayed as being forgetful and self-centred.

Peter has a nonchalant, devil-may-care angle, and is fearlessly cocky on the subject of placing himself in peril. Barrie writes that when Peter thought he was going to die on Marooners’ Rock, he felt scared, but he felt just one shudder. With this blithe angle, he says, “To die might be an awfully huge journey”. Within the play, the unseen and unnamed narrator ponders what may need been if Peter had stayed with Wendy, in order that his cry may need develop into, “To reside can be an awfully huge journey!”, “however he can by no means fairly get the cling of it”.^[11]

Talents

Peter’s archetypal high quality is his never-ending youth. In Peter and Wendy, it’s defined that Peter should overlook his personal adventures and what he learns concerning the world with a view to keep childlike.

Peter’s means to fly is defined, however inconsistently. In The Little White Hen, he is ready to fly as a result of he’s stated to be half chicken, like all infants. Within the play and novel, he teaches the Darling youngsters to fly utilizing a mixture of “pretty great ideas” and fairy mud. In Barrie’s Dedication to the play Peter Pan, The Boy Who Would not Develop up,^[12] the writer attributes the concept of fairy mud being crucial for flight to sensible wants:

…after the primary manufacturing I had so as to add one thing to the play on the request of fogeys (who thus confirmed that they thought me the accountable individual) about nobody having the ability to fly till the fairy mud had been blown on him; so many youngsters having gone residence and tried it from their beds and wanted surgical consideration. – J. M. Barrie

Peter has an impact on the entire of Neverland and its inhabitants when he’s there. Barrie states that though Neverland seems totally different to each little one, the island “wakes up” when Peter returns from his journey to London. Within the chapter “The Mermaids’ Lagoon” within the guide Peter and Wendy, Barrie writes that there’s virtually nothing that Peter can not do. He’s a talented swordsman, rivalling even Captain Hook, whose hand he minimize off in a duel. He has remarkably eager imaginative and prescient and listening to. He’s expert in mimicry, copying the voice of Hook and the ticking of the clock within the crocodile.

Peter has the flexibility to think about issues into existence and he is ready to really feel hazard when it’s close to.

In Peter and Wendy, Barrie states that the Peter Pan legend Mrs Darling heard as a baby, was that when youngsters died, he accompanied them a part of the way in which to their vacation spot so they’d not be frightened.

Within the unique play, Peter states that nobody should ever contact him (although he doesn’t know why). The stage instructions specify that nobody does so all through the play. Wendy approaches Peter to present him a “kiss” (thimble), however is prevented by Tinker Bell. Nevertheless, John Caird and Trevor Nunn’s introduction to the script for the 1997 Royal Nationwide Theatre manufacturing, states that this was by no means Barrie’s unique intention, and was solely added for a manufacturing in 1927, the place Jean Forbes-Robertson took the title position, and performed the half with a lighter, extra fairy-like, physicality. Robertson was to play the half virtually yearly till 1939.

Cultural allusions

The character’s identify comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn Davies, one of many 5 Llewelyn Davies boys who impressed the story, and Pan, a minor deity of Greek mythology who performs pipes to nymphs and is an element human and half goat. That is referenced in Barrie’s works (significantly Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens) the place Peter Pan performs pipes to the fairies and rides a goat. The god Pan represents Nature or Man’s pure state in distinction to Civilisation and the consequences of upbringing on human behaviour. Peter Pan is a free spirit, being too younger to be burdened with the consequences of schooling or to have an grownup appreciation of ethical duty. As a ‘betwixt-and-between’, who can fly and converse the language of fairies and birds, Peter is an element animal and half human. In accordance with psychologist Rosalind Ridley, by evaluating Peter’s behaviour to adults and to different animals, Barrie raises many post-Darwinian questions concerning the origins of human nature and behavior. As ‘the boy who would not develop up’, Peter reveals many elements of the levels of cognitive growth seen in youngsters and might be considered Barrie’s reminiscence of himself as a baby, being each charmingly childlike and childishly solipsistic.^[13]

Relationships

Household

Peter Pan ran away from his mother and father when he was a child as informed in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. Discovering the window closed and seeing a brand new child boy in the home when he returned a while later, he believed his mother and father now not needed him and by no means got here again. This youthful sibling is referred to within the chapter “Lock-Out Time” in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens however shouldn’t be talked about once more.

Buddies

Maimie Mannering

Whereas in Kensington Gardens, Peter meets a misplaced woman named Maimie Mannering and the 2 rapidly develop into associates. Peter proposes marriage to Maimie. Whereas Maimie desires to remain within the Gardens with Peter, she comes to grasp that her mom is so fearful that she should return to her. Maimie guarantees to at all times bear in mind Peter and goes again to her mom. When Maimie grows up, she continues to think about Peter, dedicating presents and letters to him. To recollect Maimie, Peter rides the imaginary goat that Maimie created for him. She is taken into account to be the literary predecessor of Wendy Darling.^[14]

The Darlings

Wendy Darling

It’s hinted that Wendy might have romantic emotions for Peter, however unrequited due to his incapability to like. Within the 2003 movie Peter Pan, the sensation is mutual. Captain Hook can solely take away Peter’s means to fly by ideas of Wendy leaving him, rising up, and changing him with a husband. Wendy saves Peter by giving him her hidden kiss which provides him the desire to reside, signifying she is his real love. Within the film Hook, an older Wendy implies that she used to (and maybe, nonetheless does) have emotions for Peter, saying that she was shocked that he didn’t stop her marriage ceremony day. Within the sequel to the 1953 Disney movie, Return to Neverland, Peter and a grown-up Wendy are briefly, however fortunately, reunited after a few years and proceed to indicate emotions for one another.

Within the unique novel, Peter later befriends Wendy’s daughter Jane (and her subsequent daughter Margaret), and it’s implied that this sample will go on perpetually. Every so often Peter visits the actual world, and befriends youngsters. Wendy Darling, whom he recruited to be his “mom”, is essentially the most vital of them; he additionally brings her brothers John and Michael to Neverland at her request. It’s talked about that Wendy was the one woman who captured his consideration.

John Darling and Michael Darling

John is Wendy’s youthful brother. He’s fascinated with piracy and imitates Captain Hook whereas taking part in at residence together with his siblings. He’s additionally brave and sensible. Michael, the youngest of the Darlings, is satisfied that Peter Pan is an actual individual after listening to Wendy’s vivid narratives about him. Throughout nursery video games, it’s Michael who performs the position of Peter Pan.

Mary and George Darling

The mother and father of Wendy, John and Michael. Mr. Darling works as a clerk within the Metropolis, and is called after George Llewelyn Davies. Mrs. Darling is called after Mary Ansell, Barrie’s spouse.

Neverland inhabitants

Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily is the daughter of Nice Large Little Panther, the chief of the Piccaninny Native American tribe resident in Neverland. Barrie refers to her as “a princess in her personal proper”, and he or she is usually described as such. She is kidnapped by the pirates and left to die on Marooners’ Rock, however is rescued by Peter. It’s hinted later that she might have romantic emotions for Peter however he doesn’t return them, as he’s utterly oblivious of different individuals’s emotions. Within the Disney movie, Tiger Lily reveals her gratitude by performing a dance for Peter and kissing him. The kiss makes him flip shiny purple, and makes Wendy jealous of Tiger Lily.

Tinker Bell

Tinker Bell is a standard fairy who’s Peter Pan’s greatest pal and infrequently jealously protecting of him. He nicknames her “Tink.” She is the pal who helps him in his escapades. Tink’s malicious actions are normally brought on by her jealousy; these result in the Misplaced Boys capturing arrows at Wendy (or almost stoning her to dying within the Disney movie), and ultimately to revealing Peter’s hideout to Captain Hook, within the hope that Wendy might be captured somewhat than Peter. When Tink realises her severe mistake, she dangers her personal life by consuming the poison Hook has left for Peter (or pushing Hook’s bomb away in Disney’s film). Her excessive loyalty and dedication to Peter is eternal.

The Misplaced Boys

Peter is the chief of the Misplaced Boys, which embody Tootles, Nibs, Barely, Curly, and The Twins. The Misplaced Boys is a band of boys who had been misplaced by their mother and father after they “fall out of their perambulators” and got here to reside in Neverland. In Barrie’s novel Peter and Wendy (however not the unique play Peter Pan), it’s acknowledged that Peter “thins them out” after they begin to develop up. That is by no means absolutely defined, however it’s implied that he both kills them or banishes them.

Within the track “I Will not Develop Up” from the 1954 musical, the boys sing “I’ll keep a boy perpetually”, to which Peter replies “and be banished if I do not”.

In Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006), the official sequel to Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, what occurs to the Misplaced Boys after they start to develop up is revealed when Barely begins to get older, as Peter banishes him to Nowhereland (which principally signifies that he and all his allies will ignore the banished individual’s existence), the house of all of the Lengthy Misplaced Boys whom Peter has banished in instances previous.

The Crocodile

The crocodile (Tick-Tock within the Disney movie) is Captain Hook’s nemesis. After Peter Pan minimize off Captain Hook’s hand in a battle and threw it into the ocean, the crocodile swallowed it and obtained a style for Hook, so it now seeks to devour him entire. It additionally swallowed a ticking clock, which alerts Hook of its presence.

Adversaries

Captain Hook

Captain Hook, whose proper hand was minimize off in a duel, is Peter Pan’s arch-enemy who leads a big group of pirates. Hook’s crew, together with Smee and Starkey, additionally contemplate him a foe. Captain Hook’s two principal fears are the sight of his personal blood (which is supposedly an unnatural color) and one saltwater crocodile. His identify performs on the iron hook that changed his hand minimize off by Peter Pan and eaten by the aforementioned crocodile, which continues to pursue Hook.

Within the 1953 animated movie, Hook seeks revenge on Peter Pan for having fed the crocodile his hand, and refuses to go away Neverland with out satisfaction.^[15] Hook is supported by Mr. Smee. After promising Tinker Bell ‘to not lay a finger (or a hook) on Peter Pan’, he lays a bomb in Peter’s hideout. On the conclusion of the movie, Hook is chased by the crocodile into the space. Walt Disney insisted on maintaining Hook alive, as he stated: “The viewers will get to liking Hook, they usually do not need to see him killed.”^[16] Within the sequel Return to By no means Land, Hook errors Wendy’s daughter Jane for Wendy, and makes use of her as bait to lure Peter Pan to his dying.

Mr. Smee

Mr Smee is Captain Hook’s boatswain (“bo’solar”) and right-hand man in J. M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan and the novel Peter and Wendy. Mr Smee is Captain Hook’s direct confidant. Not like the opposite pirates, Smee is usually clumsy and incapable of capturing any of the Misplaced Boys. Reasonably than partaking in Hook’s evil schemes, Smee finds pleasure in bagging loot and treasures.

Publications

Cowl of 1915 version of J. M. Barrie’s novel, first printed in 1911, illustrated by F. D. Bedford^[17]

Unique works

• Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would not Develop Up (1904 play), a play by which Peter brings Wendy and her brothers to Neverland, the place he has a showdown together with his nemesis, Captain Hook. Barrie tailored this play as a novel; quite a few variations and different variations have been produced in numerous media.
• Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), an origin story whereby the toddler Peter flies away from his residence, takes up residence in Kensington Gardens, and befriends the fairies. It’s a “book-within-a-book” that was first printed in Barrie’s The Little White Hen (1902).
• When Wendy Grew Up – An Afterthought (1908), Barrie’s sequel play.
• Peter and Wendy (1911), a novel Barrie tailored from the 1904 play, later republished as Peter Pan and Wendy; it additionally incorporates occasions of Barrie’s sequel play, When Wendy Grew Up – An Afterthought (1908).

Movement footage and tv

• Peter Pan appeared for the primary time on display within the 1924 American silent journey movie Peter Pan launched by Paramount Footage as an adaptation of the unique stage play.
• Since their 1953 animated movie, Walt Disney Animation Studios has continued to make use of Peter Pan as a personality. The studio featured him within the sequel movie Return to Neverland, of their parks as a meetable character primarily based in Fantasyland and because the protagonist of the darkish journey, Peter Pan’s Flight additionally situated in Fantasyland inside most parks. He additionally seems in Home of Mouse, Mickey’s Magical Christmas, and the Kingdom Hearts video video games.

The Paradise of Peter Pan by Edward Mason Eggleston, 1934.

• Within the anime-styled internet sequence RWBY, the character Scarlet David relies on Peter Pan.
• The 1987 teen horror movie The Misplaced Boys is loosely primarily based on the story of Peter Pan and the title of the movie is a direct reference to Peter’s gang within the guide.^[18]
• In 1991, Robin Williams portrayed Peter Pan within the live-action movie Hook, directed by Steven Spielberg, additionally starring Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell.
• Within the animated movie Shrek (2001), Peter Pan is seen in a line able to promote Tinker Bell to Duloc authorities. His solely line within the movie is “He can fly!”, as a response to seeing Donkey flying because of Tinker Bell’s fairy mud.
• In 2003, Jeremy Sumpter portrayed Peter within the live-action movie directed by P J Hogan.
• Within the tv sequence As soon as Upon a Time, a malevolent model of Peter Pan, portrayed by Robbie Kay, seems as the primary villain within the first half of the present’s third season. and within the second half of the fifth season. On this sequence, he was initially a person named Malcolm and was father to Rumpelstiltskin, whom he despatched away so he may very well be younger once more and took the identify Peter Pan from Rumpelstiltskin’s doll.
• In 2012, “Les Nouvelles Aventures de Peter Pan” are a french animation in “France 3” product by “DQ Enternainement” and “Methodology Animation”.

Manga/anime, video games, and comics

• Within the early Thirties, Edward Mason Eggleston painted a sequence of photos for calendars that included Peter Pan, Indian princesses and pirates.
• J. R. R. Tolkien’s biographer Humphrey Carpenter has speculated that Tolkien’s impressions of a 1910 manufacturing of Barrie’s Peter Pan in Birmingham “might have had a bit to do with” his unique conception of the Elves of Center Earth.^[19]
• He seems within the Italian comedian sequence Martin Mystère.
• Japanese manga artist Mayu Sakai appropriated the English time period for her sequence Peter Pan Syndrome.^[20]
• Sport writer Diana Gaeta developed a Dungeons & Dragons marketing campaign setting named Neverland – The Unimaginable Island that enables gamers to work together with Peter Pan in an surroundings primarily based on Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie.^[21]
• Fiction author Jonathan Inexperienced printed a role-playing gamebook titled Right here Be Monsters! by which Peter Pan seems as a playable character. This model’s background story attributes his flight means and everlasting youth to cybernetic implants put in by his genius father after Peter was severely injured by one of many dinosaurs roaming Neverland.^[22]

Music

• Singer-songwriter Ruth B launched the piano ballad “Misplaced Boy” in 2015, that includes Peter Pan and Neverland.
• Italian songwriter Edoardo Bennato launched an idea album “Sono solo canzonette” in 1980 primarily based on Peter Pan and different characters created by Barrie.
• Swiss singer Paola del Medico carried out a track themed on the Peter Pan story in 1982.
• Pop-rock musicians The Jonas Brothers’ track “Fly With Me” makes direct references to Peter Pan and Wendy within the lyrics.
• Nation singer-songwriter Kelsea Ballerini launched a top-charting nation single and track titled “Peter Pan”, in 2016.
• South Korean boy-band BTS launched a music video referred to as “Grownup Baby”, the track makes reference to the Peter Pan story.
• British musician Kate Bush included her track “In Search of Peter Pan” on her second album Lionheart (1978).
• Korean boy-band EXO launched a monitor referred to as “Peter Pan” on each the Mandarin and Korean variations of the album XOXO (2013).
• Serbian and Yugoslav rock band Petar Pan was named after the character.
• Peterpan is the previous identify for an Indonesian pop-rock band, now referred to as Noah.
• The eleventh monitor of singer-songwriter Troye Sivan’s debut studio album Blue Neighbourhood (2015) is entitled “Misplaced Boy”, impressed by Peter Pan.
• In Likelihood The Rapper’s track ‘Identical Medication’, featured within the album Coloring Ebook (2015), he makes a number of references to Peter Pan and Wendy, one other main character within the novel.
• Taylor Swift’s single “Cardigan” contains a number of references to the Peter Pan story.
• Blues/psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker included the monitor “Peter Pan RIP” featured of their fourth album Pilgrims Progress.

Different makes use of in common tradition

The identify Peter Pan has been adopted for numerous functions over time:

• A number of companies have adopted the identify, together with Peter Pan Bus Traces, Peter Pan peanut butter, Peter Pan Data, and Peter Pan Seafoods.
• Three Thoroughbred racehorses have been given the identify, the primary, Peter Pan I, was born in 1904.
• Within the early Nineteen Sixties, some Cuban households despatched their youngsters to resettle in Miami in an emergency effort calculated to avoid wasting the youngsters from perceived potential mistreatment beneath the Castro socialist regime; this system was referred to as Operation Peter Pan (or Operación Pedro Pan).
• American psychologist Dr. Dan Kiley popularised the Peter Pan syndrome (puer aeternus) in his guide The Peter Pan Syndrome: Males Who Have By no means Grown Up (1983).^[23] He described people (normally male) with underdeveloped maturity.^[24] His subsequent guide, The Wendy Dilemma (1984), advises ladies romantically concerned with “Peter Pans” the way to enhance their relationships.^[25]

Public sculptures

Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London, England, 1912, by George Frampton

Barrie commissioned a statue of Peter Pan by the sculptor George Frampton, which was erected in a single day in Kensington Gardens on 30 April 1912 as a Could Day shock to the youngsters of London. Seven statues have been forged from the unique mould.^[26] The opposite six are situated in:

• Egmont Park [fr], Brussels, Belgium,^[27] 1924
• Bowring Park, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, 1925
• Johnson Park, Camden, New Jersey, United States,^[28] 1926
• Queens Gardens, Perth, Western Australia,^[29] 1927
• Sefton Park, Liverpool, England,^[30] 1928
• Glenn Gould Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,^[31] 1929

Different statues are:

• In 1925, the city council of Melbourne, Australia, commissioned a statue of Peter Pan by Paul Montfort;^[32] it’s now situated in Melbourne Zoo.^[33]
• In 1928, Charles Andrew Hafner created a bronze statue for a fountain within the foyer of the previous Paramount Theater in Occasions Sq., however it’s now located in Carl Schurz Park, New York.^[34]
• In 1949, a statue of Peter Pan by Alex Proudfoot RSA, Principal of Glasgow Faculty of Artwork, was erected on the Mearnskirk Hospital for kids in Glasgow, commissioned by Alfred Ellsworth in reminiscence of his pal Dr John A Wilson, first superintendent of Mearnskirk Hospital. Wilson had additionally been a college pal of J.M. Barrie’s.^[35]
• A statue by Ivan Mitford-Barberton was commissioned by Vyvyan and Gwen Watson in remembrance of their son Peter and given in 1959 to the Purple Cross Warfare Memorial Youngsters’s Hospital in Western Cape, South Africa.^[36]
• A pair of statues by Cecil Thomas, one exhibiting Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, and the opposite Wendy and the Darling youngsters, have been situated in Dunedin Botanic Gardens in Dunedin, New Zealand because the Nineteen Sixties.^[37]
• Two bronze casts of a statue by Alistair Good, initially commissioned by the Angus Milling Firm in 1972, are in Kirriemuir, Scotland, one in the primary city sq. and the opposite within the Peter Pan Backyard by Barrie’s Birthplace, now owned by the Nationwide Belief of Scotland.^[38]
• In 1976, Ronald Thomason sculpted a bronze statue in entrance of the Weatherford, Texas public library honouring Weatherford native Mary Martin, who had portrayed Peter Pan within the 1954 Broadway musical manufacturing and a number of other subsequent telecasts.
• A bronze statue by Diarmuid Byron O’Connor was commissioned by Nice Ormond Road Hospital in London and unveiled in 2000, exhibiting Peter blowing fairy mud, with Tinker Bell added in 2005.^[39]

• Statues of Peter Pan
• 

  Statue in Kirriemuir, Scotland

• 

  Statue in Dunedin, New Zealand

• 

  Peter Pan statue at Nice Ormond Road Hospital, London

• 

  Peter Pan statue at Carl Schurz Park, New York, NYC

See additionally

• Peter and Wendy Copyright Standing
• Peter Pan syndrome
• Puer aeternus
• Works primarily based on Peter Pan