Summary Of The Othering Of Wendy Darling By Peter Pan

The Othering of Wendy Darling by the Boys’ Club of Neverland
Boys and girls throughout generations have heard the story about a boy who never grows up. Peter Pan (1911), the beloved tale created by J. M. Barrie, tells the story of Peter Pan, his Lost Boys, the Darling children – Wendy, John, and Michael. Peter in his determination to stay away from the responsibilities of adulthood brings the Darlings to Neverland where the oldest, Wendy, can tell her stories of Peter to the lands habitants. Peter, Captain Hook, and the Lost Boys live in are the kings and ruler-makers of Neverland. The male characters have the freedom to do as they wish separate from constraints formed by proper society, where the Darlings come from. Instead, a new society

Shipley’s article, “Fairies, Mermaids, Mothers, and Princesses: Sexual Difference and Gender Roles in Peter Pan,” presents Luce Irigaray’s psychoanalytic research and touches on this idea of “other”: “She [Irigaray] analyzes and articulates the ethics of sexual difference as being typified by male as normative, female as other,” (qtd. Shipley 149). Shipley says that due to the difference in sex, women are often times seen as other, because of the dominance of males within a society, in the case of Peter Pan, the society is Neverland. While Shipley doesn’t go into details about how these women are othered within the context of this particular story, the importance of understanding this phenomenon of “female as other” adds to the understanding of how femininity is portrayed within fiction and film. By focusing on the novel, Peter Pan, published in 1911 and P. J. Hogan’s film adaptation of the same name (Peter Pan, 2003), we see how female characters in Neverland, in particular Wendy, are othered. By looking at Wendy’s characterization as the story moves from Barrie to Hogan, we can see the transformation of how she is othered. In Barrie, the focus is on Wendy as a mother, while Hogan’s more modern adaptation cast Wendy as Peter’s potential lover. One thing remains consistent: the reason for Wendy’s othering is her

Peter is the dominant authority in Neverland, so much so, that the island falls to the wayside when he leaves: “…things are usually quit on the island…But with the coming of Peter, who hates lethargy, they are under way again: if you put your ear to the ground now, you would hear the whole island seething with life,” (Barrie 28). In the film we see Neverland covered with snow and ice before Peter flies in like the sun, bringing with him warmth and life (Hogan). Peter uses this dominance and authority in Neverland to confine his female counterparts – Tinker Bell, Tiger Lily, Wendy – into roles he designates appropriate, in effect othering them by his own design. Tinker Bell becomes his companion, Tiger Lily is merely another person on the island, and Wendy is the mother. Peter, by providing roles for women, strengthens the patriarchy established in Neverland. Shipley explains: “In Neverland, females are allowed in to the world in socially acceptable roles – roles that do not interfere with the order of men,” (Shipley 156). When Wendy pushes against the patriarch, in both the novel and film, Peter’s response is negative and results in the same thing: Peter refusing to leave Neverland. Through this creation of Peter’s influence over Wendy, her actions – and the other females’ – are put in to jeopardy. If they cannot fulfill the