Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, often known simply as Peter Pan, is a work by British novelist J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel titled Peter and Wendy. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two younger brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family.
The play debuted at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 27 December 1904 with Nina Boucicault, daughter of the playwright Dion Boucicault, in the title role. A Broadway production was mounted in 1905 starring Maude Adams. It was later revived with such actresses as Marilyn Miller and Eva Le Gallienne. Barrie continued to revise the play for years after its debut until publication of the play script in 1928, under the name Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up.
Prior to the publication of Barrie's novel, the play was first adapted into the 1907 novelisation The Peter Pan Picture Book, written by Daniel O'Connor and illustrated by Alice B. Woodward. This was also the first illustrated version of the story. The novel was first published on 18 October 1911 by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, and on 21 October in the US by Charles Scribner’s Sons. The original book contains a frontispiece and 11 half-tone plates by the artist F. D. Bedford. The novel was first abridged by May Byron in 1915, with Barrie's permission, and published under the title Peter Pan and Wendy, the first time this form was used. This version was later illustrated by Mabel Lucie Attwell in 1921.
Since its original production, the story has been adapted as a pantomime, a stage musical, a television special, a live themed ice-skating show in the mid-1970s, and several films, including a 1924 silent film, a 1953 Disney animated film, and a 2003 live action film. The play is now rarely performed in its original form on stage in the UK, whereas pantomime adaptations are frequently staged around Christmas. In the U.S., the original version has also been supplanted in popularity by the 1954 musical version, which became popular on television. In 1929, Barrie gave the copyright of the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children's hospital in London.
Background
Barrie created Peter Pan in stories he told to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, with whom he had forged a special relationship. Mrs. Llewelyn Davies's death from cancer came within a few years after the death of her husband; Barrie was a co-guardian of the boys, and unofficially adopted them.
The character's name comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn Davies, one of the boys, and Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands. Andrew Birkin has suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother David, whose death in a skating accident at the age of fourteen deeply affected their mother. According to Birkin, the death was "a catastrophe beyond belief, and one from which she never fully recovered. If Margaret Ogilvy [Barrie's mother as the heroine of his 1896 novel of that title] drew a measure of comfort from the notion that David, in dying a boy, would remain a boy for ever, Barrie drew inspiration."
The Peter Pan character first appeared in print in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird, written for adults. The character was next used in the stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which premiered in London on 27 December 1904 and became an instant success. In 1906, the chapters of The Little White Bird that featured the character of Peter Pan were published as the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
Barrie then adapted the play into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, often now published simply as Peter Pan. The original draft of the play was entitled simply Anon: A Play. Barrie's working titles for it included The Great White Father and Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Hated Mothers. Producer Charles Frohman disliked the title on the manuscript, in answer to which Barrie reportedly suggested The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up; Frohman suggested changing it to Wouldn't and dropping The Great White Father as a title.
Plot summary The play and its novelisation differ in some details of the story, but have much in common. In both versions, Peter Pan makes night-time calls on the Darlings' house in Bloomsbury,Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan. Hodder & Stoughton, 1928, Act I listening in on Mrs. Mary Darling's bedtime stories by the open window. One night Peter is spotted and, while trying to escape, he loses his shadow. On returning to claim it, Peter accidentally wakes Mary's daughter, Wendy. She succeeds in re-attaching his shadow to him using thread and needle, and Peter learns that she knows many bedtime stories. He invites her to Neverland to be a mother to his gang, the Lost Boys, children who were lost when they fell out of their prams. Wendy agrees, and her younger brothers John and Michael go along.
After their magical flight to Neverland, the children are blown out of the air by a pirate cannon. Wendy is nearly shot and killed by the Lost Boy Tootles because Peter's fairy companion, Tinker Bell, is jealous of her and tricks him into thinking that she is a bird. The only reason that Wendy is spared is because she is protected by an acorn pendant she wears around her neck given to Wendy by Peter in exchange for a "kiss" (actually a thimble) she gave him. Peter and the Lost Boys build a little house for Wendy to live in while she recuperates. Soon John and Michael adopt the ways of the Lost Boys and all three of the Darling siblings begin to forget their parents and home.
Peter welcomes Wendy to his underground home, and she assumes the role of mother figure. Peter takes the Darlings on several adventures. At Mermaids' Lagoon, Peter and the Lost Boys save the Redskin Chief's daughter, Tiger Lily, from Marooner's Rock and become involved in a battle with the pirates, including Captain Hook, Peter's nemesis. He is named after the hook that replaced his right hand that Peter cut off in a fight. From thereon, Hook has been hunted by the crocodile which ate his hand after it fell into the water and now wants to eat the rest of him. The crocodile also swallowed a ticking clock, so Hook is wary of all ticking sounds. Peter is wounded when Hook claws him. He believes he will die, as the tide rises and Marooner's Rock will become submerged. However, "the Neverbird", a nearby mother bird, allows him to use her nest as a boat and Peter sails home.
In gratitude for Peter saving Tiger Lily, her tribe guards his home from the next imminent pirate attack. Meanwhile, Wendy begins to fall in love with Peter and asks him what kind of feelings he has for her. Peter says that he has "those of a devoted son", disappointing Wendy. One day, while telling stories to the Lost Boys and her brothers, Wendy recalls her parents and decides to return to England. Unbeknownst to Peter, Wendy and the boys are captured by Captain Hook, who massacres the Redskins and poisons Peter's "medicine" while the boy is asleep. When Peter awakes, he learns from Tinker Bell that Wendy has been kidnapped – in an effort to please Wendy, he goes to drink his medicine. Peter does not believe Tink about the poison (as he is confident the pirate could not have entered their secret lair without him noticing), so instead she drinks it herself, causing her near death. Tink says that she could be saved if children believed in fairies. In the play, Peter turns to the audience and begs those who believe in fairies to clap their hands. In the novel, Peter speaks to all the children currently asleep and dreaming of the Neverland.
En route to the ship, Peter encounters the crocodile, which is silent and Peter concludes the clock must have run down; Peter decides to copy the creature's tick, so any animals will recognise it and leave him unharmed. He does not realise that he is still mimicking the ticking as he boards the ship, where Hook and his crew cower, mistaking him for the crocodile. While the pirates search for the creature, Peter sneaks into the cabin to steal the keys and frees the Lost Boys. When the pirates investigate a noise in the cabin, Peter defeats them. When Peter reveals himself, he and Hook begin to battle, and Peter easily wins. He kicks Hook into the jaws of the waiting crocodile, and Hook dies with the satisfaction that Peter literally kicked him off the ship, which Hook considers "bad form". Peter takes control of the ship, and sails the seas back to London.
Before Wendy and her brothers arrive at their house, Peter flies ahead, to try and bar the window so Wendy will think her mother forgot her. However, after learning of Mrs. Darling's distress, he bitterly leaves the window open and flies away. The Darlings reunite with their parents. Wendy then presents all the lost boys to her parents, who decide to adopt them. Peter returns briefly, and meets Mrs. Darling. She offers to adopt Peter as well, but Peter refuses, afraid they will "catch him and make him a man." It is hinted that Mary knew Peter when she was a girl; she always has a kiss in the corner of her mouth no one can reach, but Peter takes it with him as he leaves.
Peter promises to return for Wendy and take her to Neverland for a week every spring. The play's final scene takes place a year later when Wendy is preparing to return there, after the spring cleaning has taken place. Tinker Bell has died during this year since fairies are short-lived creatures. However, Peter has already forgotten about Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys and even Hook when Wendy returns, and he does not understand Wendy's wistful wish that she could take him back with her.
Epilogue Four years after the premiere of the original production of Peter Pan, Barrie wrote an additional scene entitled When Wendy Grew Up, An Afterthought, later included in the final chapter of Peter and Wendy, and later still published as a separate work in 1957.Barrie, J.M. When Wendy Grew Up, Nelson (1957)
In this scene, Peter returns for Wendy years later, but she is now grown up with a daughter of her own named Jane. It is also revealed that Wendy married a Lost Boy, although this is not mentioned in the novel, and it is never revealed which one she did marry. When Peter learns that Wendy "betrayed" him by growing up, he is heartbroken until Jane agrees to come to Neverland as Peter's new mother. In the novel it is mentioned that when Jane grows up, Peter takes her daughter Margaret to Neverland. This cycle will go on forever as long as children are "gay and innocent and heartless".
Characters
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is one of the protagonists of the play and the novel. He is described in the novel as a young boy who still has all his first teeth; he wears clothes made of leaves (autumn leaves in the play, skeleton leaves in the novel) and plays the pipes. He is the only boy able to fly without the help of Tinker Bell's fairy dust. He has refused to grow up and distrusts mothers as he felt betrayed by his own; in Barrie's original production, Peter describes how he attempted to return home only to find that the nursery window is closed and his mother had given birth to a new baby boy. He cares about Wendy, but can only see her as a motherly figure, not as a sweetheart. Barrie attributes this to "the riddle of his very being". He is very cocky and forgetful; as he needs to forget what he's learned through his adventures in order to maintain his "childlike wonder".
Darling family
According to Barrie's description of the Darlings' house, the family lives in Bloomsbury, London.