Peter Pan
Peter Pan is no doubt one of the most appealing subjects for "deep" psychological analysis. Interpretations of this character run from the pop-psychology term the "Peter Pan Syndrome" coined by Dr. Dan Kiley (1983) to refer to adult males who refuse to grow up and face their responsibilities, through Kenneth Kidd's (2004) sociocultural study of boys and the feral tale which questions Peter's masculinity and sexuality, to his alleged homosexuality which, according to Dore Ripley (2006), reflects Victorian longings for Hellenistic homosexual culture. In our opinion, however, these interpretations are too narrow and do not do justice to the story as whole. Focusing on Peter Pan per se offers no understanding of the narrative itself or of the psychological structure and motivation of the other characters. In contrast, analyzing the story from Wendy's point of view reveals a whole new mosaic of emotional and psychological dynamics.
At the beginning of the story, we meet Wendy at a time of upheaval in her life. She has been informed by her parents (representing, for our purposes, the adult world) that she is too old to remain in the nursery and must move into a room of her own. The move is associated with a range of developmental and psychological changes (both internal and external) which Wendy must now face, and which serve as the motivational foundation of the story. Wendy does not receive the news enthusiastically, to put it mildly, but at the same time she can not ignore the first signs that she is becoming a woman. This stage in her development is reflected not only in her maternal feelings toward her younger brothers, but even more so in her semi-romantic/sexual fantasies about Peter Pan.
As we delved deeper into the character and journey of Wendy Darling, we were struck by the parallels between this story and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865). In both cases, prepubescent girls set out on an adventurous quest in a world that
At the beginning of the story, we meet Wendy at a time of upheaval in her life. She has been informed by her parents (representing, for our purposes, the adult world) that she is too old to remain in the nursery and must move into a room of her own. The move is associated with a range of developmental and psychological changes (both internal and external) which Wendy must now face, and which serve as the motivational foundation of the story. Wendy does not receive the news enthusiastically, to put it mildly, but at the same time she can not ignore the first signs that she is becoming a woman. This stage in her development is reflected not only in her maternal feelings toward her younger brothers, but even more so in her semi-romantic/sexual fantasies about Peter Pan.
As we delved deeper into the character and journey of Wendy Darling, we were struck by the parallels between this story and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865). In both cases, prepubescent girls set out on an adventurous quest in a world that