MAIN CHARACTERS
PETER PAN
WENDY DARLING
JOHN DARLING
MICHAEL DARLING
MR. AND MRS. DARLING
NANA
THE LOST BOYS
TINKER BELL
CAPTAIN HOOK
MR. SMEE
PLOT SUMMARY
• Neverland is home to Peter Pan, a young boy who has
never grown up. On one of his visits to London, Peter
makes the acquaintance of young Wendy Darling, whom he
invites to travel with him to Neverland and become the
mother of his gang of Lost Boys. Flying through the night
sky to Neverland, Wendy and her brothers John and
Michael are soon caught up in marvelous adventures with
the Indian Princess Tiger Lily, the loyal fairy Tinker Bell and
Peter's nemesis, a sinister hook-handed pirate known as
Captain Hook.
MAJOR THEMES/CENTRAL CONFLICTS
• Overcoming “evil”
• Questioning growing up
• Acquiring love
• Conflict between innocence and responsibility
CONTEXT
• Originally a stage production (1904)
• Adapted later into Peter and Wendy (1911)
• David Barrie- the boy who never grew up
• J.M. Barrie and friendships with children
CRITICISM
“PETER PAN AND THE FLIGHT FROM REALITY: NARCISSISM, NOSTALGIA, AND
NARRATIVE TRESPASS”
It is argued that J. M. Barrie’s ‘Neverland’ represents a latency phantasy of flight to a
world apart from that of adults, in which there is scope for both a denial of, and a
tentative exploration of, the coming realities of adolescence. Celebrated for his
ability to stay a boy forever, Peter Pan can be understood as a character who
embodies the narcissistic need of some individuals to retreat from the realities of
the adult world. Reactions to Peter Pan have been curiously divided, and it is
suggested that this split can be understood in terms of Barrie’s highly ambivalent
attitude towards childhood – in which sentimental nostalgia quickly turns to
bitterness and a sense of exclusion from the maternal object.
ADDITIONAL ADAPTATIONS
List of adaptations
Notable Adaptations:
 Peter and the Starcatchers
 Peter Pan in Scarlet
 Disney’s Peter Pan
 Hook
 Finding Neverland
 Disney Fairies
ABOUT TIGER LILY
• Tinkerbell narrates the magical, bittersweet love story
between Tiger Lily and Peter Pan. Tiger Lily has never been
truly accepted by her tribe, and now the elders have
decreed marriage to a man she doesn’t love. She spends
more and more time alone in the woods, where she meets
wild, fearless Peter Pan, leader of the Lost Boys. Tiger Lily
is intoxicated by the freedom she feels with Peter, and falls
under his spell. Their love is all-consuming, and she risks
everything to be with him. Then Wendy Darling arrives in
Neverland.
• Tink’s love and helplessness (faeries read thoughts but
cannot speak) become a source of tension and metaphor
in this post-colonial fable that covers a lot of ground:
wilderness and civilization, gender and power, time and
change.
• Working with the darker threads of Barrie’s bittersweet
classic, Anderson weaves an enchanting tale.
(The Kirkus Review)