Nostalgia in the Peter Pan - Essay Example

?‘Let them doze among their playmates yet a while! For who knows what a rough wayfaring existence lies before them in future?’ (Stevenson, 1879). To what extent do you think either Peter Pan or 100 best poems for children suffers from this sort of nostalgia for the state of childhood? ‘Peter Pan’ is undoubtedly a story that puts forth a wish to stay child forever in order to escape the responsibilities and grieves of being adult. Nostalgia is the hallmark of the play as many of the characters keep talking about their past days, the time they had spent with their parents before coming to Neverland which reminds them of the worldly worries and enhances the beauty of the magical life they are enjoying in the Neverland. So, we see the carefree magical life goes above the real life where one has to follow societal norms to attain respect and live selfishly to prosper. A deep study of Peter Pan also reveals that even on Neverland, the anxiety of living a carefree runs through the characters and they have to go through deadly adventures to live a healthy life. Neverland is a place cherished as a fairy land where lost children live a magical life having superhuman qualities and are assisted by their personal fairies. Peter Pan, though lives a carefree and adventurous life in Neverland, the fascination of the children’s carefree life under the guidance of their parents in the real world brings him there to watch the children being cared by their mothers and being told bedtime stories. At the same time, the fear of being old and living a natural life, where he is suppose to get old and die, horrifies him enough to take him back to the magic land where he enjoys immortality. Peter Pan’s nostalgia brings him to the earth often where he visits London at night and listens to the stories which Mrs. Darling tells to the children. His try to escape from Mrs. Darlings notice make him loose his shadow which paves his way to an introduction to Wendy Darling. Peter Pan’s efforts to find his shadow in children’s room wake Wendy up. The awaking of Wendy portrays Peter Pan a real figure and Neverland a real place where they will soon fly. Wendy helps Peter Pan to get his shadow back and attach it with him. Peter Pan attracts Wendy for his innocent charm and nonchalant behaviour. Along with his brothers, she gets ready to fly with him. The act of flying is fascinating to Wendy and Peter defines it while teaching it by saying, “You just think lovely wonderful thoughts and they lift up in the air.” So the earthly worries are burdensome and hinder the magical flight. In other words, these thoughts hinder a peaceful living. Now, with these ‘wonderful thoughts’ they are going to fly to the magical realm of mermaids, fairies and redskins. The nostalgia of carefree childhood is so powerful that it subsides Wendy and her brother’s concern about the sorrow of their parents for being left alone. Their desire to experience and explore the unknown realm overpowers their worry about their loving and caring parents. Peter Pan’s description of Neverland also fascinates them and they decide to pay this heavy price for a magical and promising childhood. Wendy’s journey to Neverland reminds us of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where she encounters many surprising things. We are also introduced with other Lost Boys who are busy recalling their mothers which presents a sense of deprivation in their magical life. The arrival of new characters at Neverland is in spring season which denotes the rebirth or the new beginning of the life of Wendy and her brothers as here they are going to enjoy a fun-filled and ever-lasing childhood. Their leaving behind the conventional ways of living and entering a new life can be finely related to the spring season. Captain Hook, the arch nemesis of Peter Pan, assumes the new spring as a new turn in Peter Pan’s life. The arrival of Wendy at Neverland is not presented as carefree and fun-filled as it was shown to her by Peter Pan at Mrs. Darling’s house. The Lost Boys attack on her assuming her to be one of the pirates and she is nearly dead. Later, she is protected and provided a wonderful shelter. The irony is that, soon, she has to behave as an adult. The motherly love and care is unconsciously but desperately desired by Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, make them nostalgic of the little time span they had spent with their parents. The arrival of Wendy makes them forget those days as she appears to them as a motherly figure like Mrs. Darling who nourished and nurtured her children. Wendy, who loves Peter Pan, becomes aware of his selfish approach of staying immortal at any cost, and never growing up to marry Wendy. This realization makes Wendy fall back to the old memories of her mother and she tries to follow her ways in order to behave like a mother. According to Waston, Peter’s refusal to Wendy’s enquiry for sexual relationship rules him out of the normal living standards as an adult because he wants to cherish the everlasting childhood. Peter Pan feels that all three females around her i.e., Wendy, Tiger Lily and TinkerBell have the same expectation from him which he cannot fulfil as he does not want to lose his innocence and eventually attain adulthood. So ‘Peter Pan’ draws a line between childhood and adulthood. These boundaries are not strict and keep changing within national and cultural boundaries. The main line that distinguishes adulthood from childhood is sexuality. Waston says that Peter Pan is a ‘tragic boy’ as he refuses maturity but the play technically presents an optimistic view of life for both young and adult readers. There is a playful harmony of the living of different characters as adults and as children (Waston, Reader 2). We do not experience a perfect happiness in the Neverland as we observe a sudden attack of pirates and the Lost Boys often think of pirates’ arrival and feel unsecured. Peter Pan appears as a heroic figure, protecting his mates, and going through different bloody adventure, for example, saving redskin princess from Hook’s men. Captain Hook keeps trying to overpower Peter Pan and once captures all the children except Peter Pan. Here, Peter Pan comes forth to rescue them all and endangers his own life but he keeps struggling to enjoy immortality. So, even in Neverland there are worries and danger which they fear and keep fighting for their secure and healthy lives. According to Waston, these pirates are working in the story as villains did in the ‘Treasure Island’. The bloody adventures of Peter Pan remind of the penny dreadful. The presence of the mermaids in the story relate to the ‘Little Mermaid’ written by Hans Christian Andersen (Waston, Reader 2). In the Neverland, we observe the same selfishness as found in the real world which Wendy had left in order to enjoy a wonderful and magical life. Hook’s liking for Wendy is purely selfish. Hook wants Wendy to be his mother as he is interested in listening to different stories Wendy knows. Wendy’s bitterness for Peter Pan for not marrying her and showing lack of maturity overpowers her love for him and she decides to accompany Hook as a mother pirate. But the affection awakes when she finds Peter Pan in danger and helps him attain victory against Hook. Hook has been shown as a strong pirate but we do see fear residing in him for a crocodile as he tells Smee, “The brute liked my arm so much, Smee, that he has followed me ever since, from sea to sea, and from land to land, licking his lips for the rest of me.” Hook feels unsecured and wants to take revenge on Peter Pan who made the crocodile taste Hook. Peter Pan’s bloody adventure, where he takes the Darling kids to Mermaid Lagoon, makes them encounter pirates to save Tiger Lily and all his followers are captured by Hook. Peter Pan saves them all but he is severely injured during this battle and is left on the rock in the middle of the sea to die. Here, his immortality is at stack and he is scared of death but a bird’s nest helps him swim to the seashore. Peter Pan’s adventurous spirit makes him experience death as an adventure. But the hope of life changes his view and he regains confidence in his immortality and he says, “To live will be an awfully big adventure.” Here we can see that Wendy’s wish to stay with him carries no importance and he will prefer living the way he has already done. Wendy’s getting back to Mr. and Mrs. Darling is not strange as she knows her limitation of enjoying immortality and her passion and will to get married and have children already makes her an adult and she accepts justly the responsibility of being a mother. Her treatment with children in their house seems so natural and reminds us of Mrs. Darling who used to care for them, give them food, keep them clean and provide them medicine when ill. When Peter Pan is left alone to fight against death, Wendy takes good care of the boys and provides them fatherly protection along with being a caring and loving mother. The two worlds, the magical world- Neverland and the real world where Mr. and Mrs. Darling reside, may be different for Peter Pan as he is enjoying immortality and is never going grow into an adult. But the bitter fact for Wendy is that she has grown into a woman holding the responsibilities of a family. Wendy’s reason of leaving Mrs. Darling’s house was to cherish a carefree childhood is left behind. When Tinker Ball, Peter Pan’s fairy, informs Wendy about the condition of her broken hearted parents, she feels no fascination in the magical world and decides to go back to the place where she actually belongs. We observe an acute difference in Wendy’s approach as a child and as an adult. Now, being an adult, Wendy feels herself a responsible woman who cannot go back carelessly abandoning her children as she once abandoned her parents as a child. She cares for her mother’s ‘half-mourning’ and asks Peter to make arrangements for the journey and the Lost Boys are going to live with her in Mr. and Mrs. Darling’s house. The character development occurs as the story proceeds and we see that main characters show a mature approach according to their nature. Both Peter and Wendy inspire their readers and they show determination in their aims and persecute their plans accordingly after facing all hurdles. They belong to two different worlds and cannot stay in both worlds at the same time. Peter Pan goes for immortality as he fears death and wants to live an adventurous life being a child. Wendy’s will and passion of being a mother do not hinder her decision of living an ordinary human life and die. Hook, though belongs to the magical world but prepares the young readers for the odd circumstances in real life and invokes in them an adventurous spirit. So, these characters take their readers to the realm of imagination and reality at the same time. To conclude, ‘Peter Pan’ presents two worlds: a real world and a magical world and the characters belonging to both worlds wish and struggle to attain a carefree childhood which they spend joyously. Peter Pan, the protagonist of the play lives a life of immortality and refuses to abandon it at any cost. Wendy, after acknowledging her limitation, submits her dedication to a life of adulthood and responsibility. Other characters live a life of their own choice. The noteworthy thing is that in both real and magical worlds, we find a struggle to live a happy life which makes both of the worlds the real worlds. Reference Waston, N. J. Reader 2 Read More