Peter Pan: solo una favola?

“grande”

sono mi sento come Wendy e preferisco tenere nel mio cuore il

Isola Che Non c’è,

dolce ricordo di un'avventura sull’ la sera, quando guardo la

luna piena e le nuvole che l’attraversano, mi ritrovo a cercare con lo sguardo

un galeone che mai fluttuerà davanti a me. Quindi sorrido e penso ad altro

cercando di nascondere il fatto che ancora aspetto un qualsiasi Peter Pan che

Isola Che Non c’è.

bussi alla mia finestra e mi porti con sé sull'

Presentazione

Non sempre si riesce a comprendere come si

possa restare bambini o semplicemente

esserlo in un mondo in continuo mutamento

e che sembra coprirsi gli occhi di fronte le

contraddizioni che lo caratterizzano e

l’individualismo dilagante.

Tuttavia, c’è sempre qualcuno in grado di sognare e di immaginare nuovi mondi

felici anche durante una semplice passeggiata nel parco, come James Matthew

Barrie, autore del romanzo

“Peter Pan”.

Egli, influenzato dalle proprie vicende personali, spesso anche dolorose, è

riuscito a far volare continuamente la propria fantasia e a creare un

personaggio unico, che mostra la parte incapace di crescere presente in

ognuno di noi, che troppo spesso viene dimenticata. “fanciullino”

Lo stesso Pascoli era convinto della presenza di un nascosto

nell’animo di ognuno, che piange silenzioso nell’attesa di poter riscoprire il

mondo.

Peter Pan non è solo il personaggio che incarna l’eterna giovinezza, ma è anche

la realtà del disagio provocato dal rifiuto, l’incapacità di affrontare la vita o

semplicemente guardarla con occhi diversi dagli altri.

I musicisti vengono considerati dei geni o persone immature, ma la loro unica

capacità, o colpa, è quella di saper istaurare un legame particolare con il

proprio essere e il mondo circostante e solo attraverso le canzoni possono

continuare a divertirsi.

Un mondo a volte duro e crudele, ma che deve sempre essere vissuto, perché

con il suo accavallarsi di eventi rende la vita unica, come una “meravigliosa

avventura”.

3 Un mare irraggiungibile è, invece, quello della mente di

ogni essere umano, che spesso trova rifugio sopra la

Isola Che Non c’è,

propria che si presenta come un

intrecciarsi di sogni, speranze e timori. Freud ha cercato

di dare una spiegazione logica di un mondo solo

immaginato. I suoi studi spesso hanno permesso di

dell’Isola Che Non c’è

aiutare gli abitanti a tornare nel

mondo reale e godere a pieno di una vita che si rivela

essere unica e indivisibile.

Nella storia si sono succedute epoche diverse che con i

loro miglioramenti e le loro contraddizioni hanno portato

il mondo allo stato attuale. Isola Che Non

La guerra contro i pirati, contro gli indiani non esistono solo nell’

C’è

anche nella vita quotidiana contro questi eterni Peter Pan che sono uomini

comuni non sempre riescono a volar via dal nido materno

…giusto sarebbe riuscire a vivere e lasciar vivere…

“ALL CHILDREN GROW UP

EXCEPT ONE

PETER PAN” 1

Peter Pan: or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904) is the title of

Peter

Scottish playwright and novelist J. M. Barrie's most famous play, and

and Wendy (1911) is the title of Barrie's novelization of it. Both tell the story

of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the

Neverland

island of with Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell,

the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook. The

play and novel were both inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn

Davies family. 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.

1 Tratta dal film: “Le avventure di Peter Pan” (2006)

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The character's name comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn Davies, one of

the boys, and Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands. It has also

been suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother

David, whose death in a skating accident at the age of thirteen deeply affected

their mother.

James Matthew Barrie was born in Scotland in 1860, the ninth of ten

children. For the first six years of his life, James lived in the shadow of his

mother’s love for his older brother David. Tragically, at the age of 14 David

dead after being injured in a skating accident . While his mother derived some

consolation from the notion that David would remain a boy forever,

Barrie drew inspiration. In his desperate attempt

to be loved and to replace David in his mother’s

life, Barrie virtually became David. Trying so

hard to be his brother stunted his own

development and at 14, and only five foot

high, he stopped growing and never grew any

taller. The idea of the everlasting childhood

stayed with Barrie and became one of the

defining reasons for his lifelong love of

children, as well as the inspiration for his most

famous play, Peter Pan. Barrie married but didn’t have

any children but he had many as friends. In Kensington Gardens in 1897,

Barrie met the eldest three Llewelyn Davis boys, George (five), Jack (four) and

Peter. Barrie developed a strong friendship with the children and their parents,

Sylvia and Arthur. When Sylvia and Arthur both tragically died of cancer, when

the boys were still young, Barrie became their guardian and, decided to adopt

them and bring them up as his own. His life with the boys has been explained

as the strongest inspiration for the creation of Peter Pan in 1904. Barrie himself

once said:

"By rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks to

produce a flame, I made the spark of you that is Peter Pan."

Plot summary

The play begins in the Bloomsbury flat of the Darlings, which is visited by Peter

Pan , a boy who ran away as a baby when he realized he had to grow up. So he

escaped to Kensington garden where he met some fairies but feeling homesick

one day came back to discover his mother had got another baby. So

Neverland

disappointed he flew on the island of where got the leader of some

fairies, some lost Boys but he also has an enemy, Capitan Hook. One night

flying around London, through an open window, he could listen to Mrs. Darling

telling bedtime tales to her children. The Darlings’ dog frightened Peter, and

he flew away, leaving his shadow behind him, and some nights later Peter

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returned to catch his shadow and Wendy Darling helped him to sew it. Moved

by her kindness he would like to consider Wendy as his mother and suggested

her to follow him with little brothers on his island where he lives with all the lost

boys, protected by a tribe of Red Indians but a pirate gang led by Capitan Hook

overcame the Red Indians, and Wendy is captured along with all her “family”.

Peter arrived just in time to prevent Capitan Hook from making them walk the

plank, defeats the villainous pirate in a duel and saw him eaten by the

crocodile that has stalked him for years. He then took Wendy and her brothers

back home, declined Mrs. Darling’s offer to adopt him and is partly

compensated for the loss of his beloved Wendy when Mrs. Darling promised to

Neverland

let her return to the each year to do spring cleaning.

An Afterthought Peter Pan,

A few years after the premiere of the original production of James

An Afterthought,

Barrie wrote an additional scene entitled which is sometimes,

but usually not, included in productions of the play. It was, however, included

Peter and Wendy.

as the final chapter of In this scene, Peter returns for Wendy

years later, but Wendy is now grown, with a daughter of her own. When Peter

learns that Wendy has "betrayed" him by growing up, he is heartbroken. But

Neveland

Wendy's daughter Jane agrees to come to as Peter's new mother. In

the novel's last few sentences, Barrie mentions that Jane has grown up, and

Neverland.

that Peter now takes her daughter Margaret to Barrie says this cycle

will go on forever as long as children are "innocent and heartless".

The main characteristic of this lifelong child is his flying skill:

The Little White Bird

This is explained somewhat. In he is able to fly because

he – like all babies – is part bird. In the play and novel, he teaches the Darling

children to fly using a combination of "lovely wonderful thoughts" (which

became "happy thoughts" in Disney's film) and fairy dust; it is unclear whether

he is serious about "happy thoughts" being required (it was stated in the novel

that this was merely a silly diversion from the fairy dust being the true source),

Hook,

or whether he requires the fairy dust himself. In the adult Peter is unable

to fly until he remembers his 'happy thought'.

Major themes

The play's subtitle "The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" underscores the primary

theme: the conflict between the innocence of childhood and the responsibility

of adulthood. Peter has literally chosen not to make the transition from one to

the other, and encourages the other children to do the same. However, the

opening line, "All children, except one, grow up," and the conclusion of the

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story indicates that this wish is unrealistic, and there is an element of tragedy

in the alternative.

There is a slight romantic aspect to the story, which is sometimes played down

or omitted completely. Wendy's flirtatious desire to kiss Peter, his desire for a

mother figure, his conflicting feelings for Wendy, Tiger Lily, and Tinker Bell

(each representing different female archetypes), and the symbolism of his fight

with Captain Hook (traditionally played by the same actor as Wendy's father),

all could possibly hint at a Freudian interpretation Oedipus Complex . Most

2

"children's adaptations" of the play omit any romantic themes between Wendy

and Peter, but Barrie's 1904 original, his 1911 novelization of it, the 1954

Disney musical, and the 1924 and 2003 feature films, all at least hint at the

romantic elements. Sex Roles: Peter Pan.

Sex roles, especially motherhood, are explored in Peter convinces

Wendy to come to Never Land so she can see a mermaid, but he really wants

her to act as a mother to himself and the Lost Boys. She is to tell them stories,

like her own mother tells to her. Though Wendy admits she has no experience

playing a mother role, she imitates her own mother’s behavior and manages to

win the boys over. Duty & Responsibility:

Duty and responsibility — or their lack— drive the actions of many characters

Peter Pan.

in Peter Pan wants to avoid all adult responsibility and goes to great

lengths to achieve this goal. He refuses to play father to Wendy’s mother,

uncomfortable even when pretending the role. In the end, when Wendy and her

brothers decide to go back home, Peter will not let himself be adopted by the

Darlings as the other Lost Boys are. If he went back, he would eventually have

to grow up, assume responsibility, and become a man. This is unacceptable to

Peter so he stays alone in Never Land, and Wendy comes back annually to do

his spring cleaning. Despite his fear of adulthood, Peter does his duty as

captain of the Lost Boys and protector of Wendy (and Tiger Lily). He rescues all

of them from Captain Hook’s band of pirates. He can only be responsible in

these types of situations.

La simbologia del racconto

2 Oedipus complex, Freudian term, drawn from the myth of Oedipus, designating attraction on the part of the child

toward the parent of the opposite sex and rivalry and hostility toward the parent of its own. It occurs during the phallic

stage of the psycho-sexual development of the personality, approximately years three to five. Resolution of the

Oedipus complex is believed to occur by identification with the parent of the same sex and by the renunciation of

sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. Freud considered this complex the cornerstone of the superego and

the nucleus of all human relationships. Many psychiatrists, while acknowledging the significance of the Oedipal

relationships to personality development in our culture, ascribe love and attraction toward one parent and hatred and

antagonism toward the other not necessarily to sexual rivalry but to resentment of parental authoritarian power.

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Il personaggio di Peter Pan è il risultato della fusione di due figure. Il nome