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Peter Pan is a book written by Scottish novelist and playwright, J. M. Barrie (1860–1937). Originally titled Peter and Wendy, it was an adaptation of a stage play based on the same characters. It tells the story of a mischievous little boy who refuses to grow up. Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as leader of his gang, the Lost Boys; The twins, Slightly, Tootles, Curly and Nibs. Pan is based on a child Barrie knew.Peter comes to the Darlings house to make all their dreams come true and looking for a mother.Peter finds Wendy Moira Angela Darling and brings her and her brother Michael and Jhon to Never land.
Peter and Wendy This is the portion of J. M. Barrie's mythos of Peter Pan that is best known to most readers. In both the play and the novel, Peter goes to the "real world" and visits London. While there, he meets and invites the girl Wendy Darling to Neverland to be a mother for his gang of Lost Boys, because she is always telling stories about him to her younger brothers. Her brothers John and Michael come along. Many adventures ensue, and a climactic confrontation with Peter's nemesis, the pirate Captain Hook of the pirate ship the Jolly Roger. In the end, Wendy decides that her place is at home, and brings all the boys back to London. Peter remains in Neverland, and Wendy grows up. In the novel, Barrie includes an additional scene which was not in the play, but which he created for the stage under the title An Afterthought. In this scene, Peter returns to Wendy's house, not realizing that more than twenty years have passed since he took Wendy, John and Michael to Neverland, and that Wendy is now a married woman with a daughter, Jane. Confronted with the news, he breaks down and cries. Wendy leaves the room to try to think, and Peter's sobs awaken Jane, who asks him to take her with him to Neverland and to let her be his new mother. Peter joyfully accepts, and the two fly off together with Wendy sorrowfully looking off after them. Peter will now come for Jane once a year so that she will help him with his spring cleaning. The additional scene is almost never used in the play or film versions, but it made a poignant conclusion to a famous musical production starring Mary Martin, which was such a success on television. Background
Wendy Barrie is sometimes said to have "invented" the name Wendy with this story. He wanted to use an uncommon name for the girl, so his original name for the character of Wendy was "Mia Angela Carol Darling." The name Wendy came about because Barrie's friend, poet William Henley, called Barrie "friend." Overhearing this word, Henley's 4-year-old daughter Margaret could only pronounce it as "My Fweiendy" or "Fwendy-Wendy". In fact, the name was already in use in both the United States and the United Kingdom, but was extremely rare. The Peter Pan stories popularized the name, at first in the UK. Wendy is related to the Welsh name Gwendolyn, and was used by Barrie at a time when Welsh names were making a resurgence in England. Themes The most apparent thematic thread in the story concerns "growing up" (or not), with the character of Peter wanting to remain a child forever in order to avoid the responsibilities of adulthood. "Peter Pan syndrome" has become a psychiatric term named by Dr. Dan Kiley to describe an adult who is afraid of commitment and/or refuses to act his age. It is also sometimes used to positively describe an innocent, childlike approach to life. Along with the theme of "growing up" is the theme of death and innocence. Barrie's tale is intricately tied to the real Llewelyn-Davies boys and the deaths of both their mother and father. Peter and Wendy form a contrast between childhood and maturity. Peter Pan remains a child in mind because he cannot feel pain of death affecting him or those around him. Peter has one emotion only: gladness, and occasionally to that he adds fury. He forgets soon after the fact anything that is not happy and lighthearted: "I always forget them after I kill them". There is a slight romantic aspect to the story, which is sometimes played down, or omitted completely, in the movie adaptations. Wendy's flirtatious (by standards of the day) desire to kiss Peter, his desire for a mother figure, his conflicting feelings for Wendy, Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell (each representing different female archetypes), and the symbolism of his fight with Captain Hook (traditionally played by the same actor as Wendy's father), all could possibly hint at a Freudian interpretation (see Oedipus Complex). Most "children's adaptations" of the play omit any romantic themes between Wendy and Peter, but Barrie's 1904 original, his 1911 novelization of it, and most musicals at least hint at the romantic elements. Another theme, also mentioned in the 2004 film Finding Neverland was made about Hook and the ticking crocodile. The statement was "It is all the work of the ticking crocodile. Time is chasing after all of us." This statement and the croc itself represent how we sometimes run away from time but it ultimately will catch up. It is traditional in productions of Peter Pan, whether theatrical or on movie or TV, for Mr. Darling (the children's father) and Captain Hook to be played (or voiced) by the same actor. This highlights the similarity between the two characters as central figures in the lives of the children. It also brings a poignant juxtaposition between Mr. Darling's harmless bluster and Captain Hook's pompous vanity. This technique of tying two characters together was later used in The Wizard of Oz and Into the Woods, among others. Adaptations
Sequels and prequels There have been several additions to Peter Pan's story created, both authorised and not. Prequels In 1990, French artist Regis Loisel began a series of comic books titled Peter Pan, which constitute a bawdy, violent prequel to Barrie's work, and give Peter Pan's backstory a distinctly Dickensian flavor. The series consists of six volumes. In October 2001, R. Scott Leatherwood's Neverland: the Early Adventures of Peter Pan was released. It attempted to answer seventeen questions about Peter's life before meeting the Darling children. Hyperion Books (a subsidiary of Disney) published the 2004 book Peter and the Starcatchers by humorist Dave Barry and suspense writer Ridley Pearson. It is an unofficial prequel to the story of Peter and Wendy, set on a ship called Never Land. In 2005, the publisher announced plans by Disney to adapt the book as a digitally animated movie, and to publish a sequel, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and a series of five chapter books titled The Never Land Adventures, the first two of which—Escape from the Carnivale and Cave of the Dark Wind—were last planned to be released in Fall 2006. Escape from the Carnivale has been published, as has Peter and the Shadow Thieves. In 2004, Karen Wallace's Wendy hit the stands. Supposedly a prequel to the events in Peter Pan, it is an attempt to justify the Darling children's willingness to fly away with Peter on the grounds that their home life, up to shortly before Peter appeared, had been filled with abuse and tragedy: a cruel nanny, a criminally irresponsible father, a suggestion of insanity in the family. In 2005, James V. Hart (also the co writer of the movie Hook) published the book Capt. Hook by arrangement with Great Ormond Street Hospital. The book details the history of 15-year old James Matthew, young Oppidian Scholar and future Captain Hook. The book portrays the villainous youth in a sympathetic light. Sequels Gilbert Adair's novel Peter Pan and the Only Children was published in 1987. It has Peter living with a new gang of Lost Boys under the ocean, recruiting children who fall from passing ships as new members. Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook (Novelized by Terry Brooks) has a grown-up Peter (played by Robin Williams) lured back to Neverland by Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) who has kidnapped Peter's two young children, in an attempt to once again find meaning in his life, as his one life goal was the capture/death of Peter Pan. (Robert DeNiro had been considered for the role of Captain Hook prior to the casting of Hoffman) J.E. Somma published After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan in 2001. It is set in modern times, and tells of Peter's reaction to a world that has grown to neglect him, and his rescue by three children who teach him that it's OK to grow up. In 2002, Disney released Return to Neverland, a sequel to the 1953 Disney adaptation, in which Wendy's daughter Jane becomes involved with Peter Pan. This sequel is set during the Blitz (1940), and deals with the issue of children being forced to grow up too fast. The movie takes place during World War II. Another related series published by Disney Press was released in late 2005. The Disney Fairy series began with "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" by Newbery award winning author Gail Carson Levine. It introduces a new cast of Neverland fairies, one of whom is Tinker Bell. Peter Pan and Captain Hook are mentioned in the book, but play very minor roles. Additional books in the series are intended for younger readers, and were written by various authors, focusing on the different characters invented by Carson Levine. Also in 2005, Great Ormond Street Hospital announced that Geraldine McCaughrean had been chosen to write a hospital-authorised sequel to Barrie's novel. Her book is entitled Peter Pan in Scarlet* and was published simultaneously in 35 different editions in 31 languages, worldwide on October 5, 2006. The book is published by Oxford University Press in the UK and Margaret K McElderry (Simon & Schuster) in the US. • Copyright status The copyright status of Peter Pan varies from one jurisdiction to another, and is disputed in at least one of them. The question is complicated somewhat by the various versions in which the story has been published. For example, elements introduced in the earliest versions of the story by Barrie may be in public domain in a given jurisdiction, but elements introduced in later editions or adaptations might not. For example, Disney holds the copyright for the character designs, songs, etc. introduced in the 1953 animated film, but not for the characters themselves. European Union Great Ormond Street Hospital (to which Barrie assigned the copyright as a gift before his death) claims full copyright in the European Union until the end of 2007. In the 1990s, the term of copyrights was standardised throughout the EU (see Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection) to extend 70 years after the creator's death. Although Peter Pan was considered public domain in some jurisdictions at that time, this provision placed it back under copyright protection. United Kingdom The UK copyright for Peter Pan originally expired at the end of 1987 (50 years after Barrie's death), but was reestablished through 2007 by the European Union directive. Additionally, in 1988 the government had enacted a perpetual extension of some of the rights to the work, entitling the hospital to royalties for any performance or publication of the work (or works based on the play, such as those re-using the characters). This is not a true perpetual copyright, however, as it does not grant the hospital creative control nor the right to refuse permission. Nor does it cover the Peter Pan sections of The Little White Bird, which pre-dates the play and was not therefore an 'adaptation' of it. The exact phrasing is in section 301 of, and Schedule 6 to, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988: 301. The provisions of Schedule 6 have effect for conferring on trustees for the benefit of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, a right to a royalty in respect of the public performance, commercial publication, broadcasting or inclusion in a cable programme service of the play 'Peter Pan' by Sir James Matthew Barrie, or of any adaptation of that work, notwithstanding that copyright in the work expired on 31 December 1987. … 1.—(1) In this Schedule— "the Hospital" means The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, "the trustees" means the special trustees appointed for the Hospital under the National Health Service Act 1977; and "the work" means the play "Peter Pan" by Sir James Matthew Barrie. … 2.—(1) The trustees are entitled, subject to the following provisions of this Schedule, to a royalty in respect of any public performance, commercial publication, broadcasting or inclusion in a cable programme service of the whole or any substantial part of the work or an adaptation of it.* United States The conversion of U.S. copyright terms from a fixed number of years following publication, to an extending number of years following the creator's death, has introduced confusion over Peter Pan's copyright status. Great Ormond Street Hospital claims that U.S. legislation effective in 1978 and again in 1998 extended their copyright until 2023. Their claim is based on the copyright for the play script for Peter Pan, which was not published until 1928. By then, the character of Peter Pan had appeared in three previously published books, the copyrights of which have since expired. GOSH's claim is contested by various parties, including Disney, who had cooperated with the hospital previously, but in 2004 published Dave Barry's and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers without permission or royalty payments. The Library of Congress catalog states that the original edition of Peter and Wendy was published in 1911, and Disney asserts that that material, like any other work published before 1923, was already in the public domain at the time of these extensions, and was therefore ineligible to be extended. A dispute between the hospital and writer J.E. Somma over the U.S. publication of her sequel After the Rain, was settled out of court in March 2005. GOSH and Somma issued a joint statement which characterized her novel as "fair use" of the hospital's "U.S. intellectual property rights". Their confidential settlement does not set any legal precedent, however. * Other jurisdictions The original versions of Peter Pan are in the public domain in Australia and in Canada (where Somma's book was first published without incident). Controversy Like many other works of fiction from the era (such as the works of Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain), the Peter Pan canon contains much material which may be construed as offensive to modern audiences, though it was likely not intended to be offensive or considered inappropriate at the time. Specifically, the books have been accused of both racism and sexism. The former charge primarily concerns the portrayal of Native Americans in Peter And Wendy — the portrayal is highly stereotypical, with Native Americans being shown as warlike primitives who speak in guttural tones. Barrie's treatment of female characters has also been criticized by modern readers — most of the female characters in Peter And Wendy (Wendy, Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily, and the mermaids) fawn after Peter Pan (and Tinker Bell makes several attempts on Wendy's life, out of jealousy), yet Peter ignores all of their affections. This criticism is also leveled against several more recent adaptations of the story, most notably the 1953 animated Disney film which contains a song often criticized as offensive, "What Makes The Red Man Red?", a catalog of Native American stereotypes. Until the 2002 release of the DVD version of this film (which included all of the allegedly offensive content, uncensored), it was widely speculated that Disney's Peter Pan would meet the same fate as the film version of Song of the South, which has heretofore been withheld (by Disney) from the United States market on the grounds that it deals with too sensitive of an issue. Many authors of recent adaptations of Peter Pan (as well as virtually all of the modern 'sequels') have chosen to soften (or eliminate altogether) the harsh portrayal of Native Americans. The 2003 film version directed by P. J. Hogan has been noted for going to the opposite extreme; several reviewers have criticized it for being excessively politically correct. The Disney animated sequel, Return to Neverland, features a heroine (Wendy's daughter, Jane) who, rather than being a passive 'damsel in distress', is fully capable of defending herself (and saving Peter from the clutches of Captain Hook). It should also be noted that in this sequel, no Native Americans are actually seen, but only alluded to in a scene where, flying over Neverland, Jane sees a teepee with smoke rising out of it. Alan Moore's graphic novel Lost Girls, released in collected form in July 2006, is also controversial, setting Wendy Darling alongside (L. Frank Baum's) Dorothy Gale from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and (Lewis Carroll's) Alice Liddell from Alice In Wonderland in 1913, telling each other stories of erotica.•• See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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