Radojcic Justine Master M1 ECMA

N° étudiant : 21229222 2021-2022

Construction identitaire dans le monde anglophone

HLABU07 – Teulié Gilles

Peter Pan is a novel created by Sir James Matthew Barrie, a Scottish novelist. Peter Pan
first appeared in The Little White Bird in 1902. In 1904, Barrie decided to put Peter Pan at the
centre of his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. The author later extended
his play’s storyline in 1911 with a novel called Peter and Wendy. J. M. Barrie did not have an
easy life and death would follow him all along. It started with one of his big brothers at a very
young age. That tragic event devastated his mother and Barrie spent a long time trying to fill
the emptiness his brother left. During his adulthood, one of his friends died of cancer and his
wife followed the next year, leaving five children behind: Peter, John, Michael, Nicholas, and
Arthur. J.M. Barrie wrote that when he discovered that he was no longer a child and that he
would have to stop playing, it was a traumatic experience for him. He would escape into an
imaginary world to avoid dealing with adult responsibilities. The sadness Barrie felt his whole
life and his refusal to grow up are felt in his work. Though the names of his characters could be
inspired by his friends’ children, the main protagonist Peter pan could be analysed through the
lens of his brother’s death, thus, his wish to stay a child forever before this tragic event happens.

Everybody knows about the edulcorated story of Peter Pan, told by Disney in 1953.
However, the real one is quite darker. As it is not the subject of my paper, I will not examine it
in detail nor as a literary analysis essay. Numerous themes can be studied in this novel such as
Peter pan himself and his Freudian ‘mother issues’. Psychoanalyst Jung’s archetypes such as
the trickster, the villain, the innocent, the eternal child, etc. are interesting to be discussed too.
Nonetheless, my essay will focus on the female stereotypes of the Victorian era as depicted in
those two illustrations. What interests me, in fact, is how it is related to the Victorian Era by
analysing and comparing the images (F. D. Bedford, 1911) above.

The first one, entitled ‘Wendy’s story’, and the second one, called ‘Summer days on the lagoon’
depict a dichotomy of the place and role of women in the Victorian Era.

In the nineteenth century, and early twentieth century, Queen Victoria was the head of
the state in England. All throughout her reign, she set up a family model to follow. Traditional
family values were promoted based on respectable homes with more than one child in them.
The Victorian house itself was divided into gendered rooms. The nursery was for children and
aimed to separate to kids’ world from the adults’ world. Although the house was considered a
private sphere, thus, belonging to women, men – who belonged to the public sphere – could
come and go as they pleased. During that historical period, women were seen either as ‘the
angel of the house’ or ‘the fallen angel’.
The angel of the house was the supposedly perfect married woman who was nurturing and
caring whereas the fallen angel was either a prostitute or an unmarried woman.

Since the Victorian era was also a period in which society started to get an interest in
children’s education through literature, naturally J. M. Barrie’s novel respects society’s
representations of his time. Children were no longer considered mini-adults even if they were
expected to take on adults’ responsibilities or work at an early age.

In Peter Pan, the upper-class family model is respected from Mr. Darling who provides
for his family to Mrs. Darling who portrays the perfect Victorian wife, helping the environment
of the house to be pacific and respectful.

The first illustration is horizontally divided into two parts. The first part, on the top,
depicts the Indians who are looking for the entry of the Lost Boys’ hut. They represent the
outside dangerous world. Moreover, the Indians are adults which signal to the children reading
the novel that perhaps, adulthood is not safe. Moreover, the Indians exude a sense of exoticism,
or rather, orientalism that Victorian society affectionate. Once again, the stereotypes of that
period are respected and can be seen in how the Indians are drawn (their outfit or their almost
monstrous faces). The lower part of the illustration portrays Wendy surrounded by the Lost
Boys who are sitting in a large bed. She seems to be telling a story, pointing a finger at the
Indians, thus, the adults which suggests that she is narrating a story about the outside world.
Wendy, by pointing her finger towards the Indians, is telling the reader that the men’s world is
dangerous or warning against the ‘monstruous Indians’. Everybody is looking at her, except
Peter Pan who looks down at his feet, sitting on a mushroom next to Wendy. The fact that Peter
is sitting next to her and not with the children could be interpreted as Wendy being the mother
figure and Peter, the father figure in the story, even if Peter is a boy who refuses to grow up.
Peter not looking at Wendy might also mean that he is bored which would confirm that men do
not belong to the private sphere nor in a nursery.

In this illustration, Wendy represents the respectful upper-class woman. Moreover, she
embodies the picture of the Victorian woman who is nurturing, caring, and whose devotion is
to the children. Wendy is depicted inside the hut which is linked to the idea that Victorian
women belong to the private sphere. Furthermore, she is in what seems to be a sort of nursery
for the Lost Boys, which confirms the Victorian stereotype that women’s role and place should
be at home caring for the children. In that sense, Wendy embodies the angel of the house, the
perfect mother and wife. Wendy’s hut and the Lost Boys’ hideout encompass the themes of
gender and domesticity. Wendy adopted the role of the “mother” of the Lost Boys and plays
the antithesis role of the mermaids. Wendy is what every woman during the Victorian Era is
supposed to be.

Looking at the dichotomy between the angel of the house and the fallen angel, one can
understand the biblical reference behind it. On one hand, the angel of the house represents the
Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus in the Christian faith who is willing to sacrifice herself to protect
her child. She is caring and described as perfect in terms of behaviour. On the other hand, the
fallen angel is linked to Eve, wife of Adam. Eve is the temptress - seduced by the Devil, carnal
in her sinfulness - who defies God’s rules and thereby causes her own fall and the fall of man,
of humanity, causing Adam and herself to be cast out of Eden, and fall on earth. The ‘fallen
angel’ expression also refers to Lucifer, God’s son who was banned from Heaven for trying to
overthrow his father and damned to become the Prince of Hell.

In the second illustration, the mermaids appear as playful and half-naked women. They
are raising their arms towards Peter who is flying above them. The mermaids in the Mermaid’s
Lagoon are polar opposites of the ideal women during the time period and occur as such when
compared to the ‘Wendy’s story’ illustration. They are depicted as sexual creatures that only
have an interest in Peter Pan. Everything about them exudes sexuality, from their half-naked
bodies to their long hair and playfully flirty personalities. They display a vanity that is untoward
for women in the Victorian Era.

However, one striking element seems to be patent here. In the first illustration, Peter is
sitting next to Wendy in the hut whilst in the second image, he is flying above the mermaids.
Once again, the difference between the angel of the house and the fallen angel appears in the
way Peter is represented. By depicting Peter above the mermaids, the illustrator shows that the
mermaids are fallen creatures who don’t belong to the category of women who are respectful
enough to be sat next to like Peter does with Wendy in the first picture. Moreover, the mermaids
are in an open space, outside, which is not the women’s place according to Victorian
stereotypes. It can also represent the patriarchal society of the time, with men behind above
women in their social status, for instance.

Furthermore, the mythical mermaid is a stock character in many adventurous stories.

To add to this image, Peter pan, from the way he is clothed, his name, and the fact that
he plays the flute, directly links him to the Greek god Pan. Because the Victorian era was
influenced by Greek myths, this connection to Pan is even more interesting since he was the
god of the wild, of rustic music, the companion of the nymphs but was also known for his erotic
aspects. Women who had had sexual relations with several men were referred to as "Pan girls".
In Peter Pan, the mermaids - who represented sexualised women, fallen angels, and prostitutes
- are always after Peter Pan as suggested by this illustration. Just as Pan had his nymphs, Peter
Pan had his mermaids, the link between Pan the Greek God and Peter Pan is once again shown
here and in this picture.
 Finally, when taking a closer look at those two illustrations, an advised reader analyses
the religious biblical interests combined with Greek mythology laid in the pictures that are
specific to the Victorian era and enhance the stereotypes associated with it.

To draw a conclusion from this short analysis of those two illustrations, they both
encompass the Victorian women stereotypes by depicting on one hand the angel of the house
in Wendy’s protagonist and on the other hand, the fallen angel in the mermaids’ character. By
respecting the traditional view of the patriarchal society of his period in his children’s novel,
J.M. Barrie also promotes the familial Victorian values, therefore, assigning the role of women
in society. Thus, the illustrations of his novel, along with the story, aimed to educate children
of that time about what was right or wrong for women.