As I said in the podcast I recently spoke in, there has been an emerging trend in Peter Pan retellings to focus on female perspoectives and interpretations of the female characters.
For example, in Hook (1991) we see a Tinkerbell that departs from the mid-century pin-up girl image. Julia Roberts' portrayal of the pixie includes reddish brown hair in a shaggy pixie cut (obviously), a brown ensemble that looks to be made from leaves, and bare feet, rather than the blonde bun, skimpy green mini-dress and delicate slippers that the animated Tink donned:
Then Peter Pan (2003) gave us a Wendy who was a little more adventurous and precocious than her predecessors. When she's in her room with her brothers, she is not waltzing and playing the Mother, she's sword fighting in armor. This Wendy was not content to stand on a rock, applauding Peter Pan; she wanted to fight along side him. She dreams of being a novelist, writing adventure stories, and even dabbles in the idea of piracy, thinking that she'd call herself Red-Handed Jill.
The 2020 film Wendy builds on this feminist interpretation of Wendy even more; now the character has the title as her own! She wears an old t-shirt that says Prison Rodeo on it, and rather than having Peter Pan appear at her window to usher her off to Neverland, she climbs out her window, then jumps on a passing train in order to join the mystrerious boy. She seeks him out, and shows agency to achieve her dreams of adventure, rather than just hoping for them.
I'm not going to write too much about that film now, because I did a blog on it last year.
I am now reading the book Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales, which is a collection of classic tales that have been reimagined, and they have darker tones than many of the versions we already know.
There is a Peter Pan inspired retelling, from Wendy's perspective again which I greatly enjoyed. It illustrates many of the themes in tyhe text that I enjoy discussing.
- - - - - SPOILERS AHEAD- - - - -
It begins "Dear you, sing a song of love."
Wendy narrates, and she confesses to the reader that intially she was charmed by Peter Pan, and she wanted him to love her. But as she began to grow up, he lost interest in her, and in turn she lost interest in him. After being kidnapped by pirates during one of her Spring Cleaning visits, she waits several days for Peter to realize she's missing and come to 'rescue' her, and she ends up falling in love with a pirate. Even though she is in love with him, she knows that she cannot stay in Neverland with him, so she returns to the real world, but uses her Spring Cleaning trips to see him, rather than Peter Pan.
In the real world, she married an ordinary man, and settles into a life of medicority; she is comfortable, but not in love with him. Eventually, she becomes pregnant, and when she gives birth, she is told by the doctor that her son has a weak heart, and will not survive long. She has no choice except to hold him, and wait for him to die. Death has always been a theme in the Peter Pan mythos.*
Her pirate love appears at the window to take THEIR son away to Neverland (having a child out of wedlock!), he pleads with her to come with them.
Wendy tries to fly, but even with the help of pixie dust she is unable to make herself lift off. She laments "My son's birth was the last bit of magic my body could take. I'd grown up once and for all. I couldn't live between worlds anymore."
The minute you become Mother, you become Other.
This is one of the bittersweet truths contained in Barrie's text;parenthood, specifically motherhood, changes us. It has the greatest joys, and the biggest heartbreaks all at once. But through it all, sing a song of love.
*Peter Pan is first introduced in Barrie's book The Little White Bird as a boy who is also part bird, and lives in Kensington Gardens with the fairies. When he is not playing, he takes care of the children who've become lost, meaning he buries them in the Gardens and gives them little headstones.
And in the novelization of Peter Pan, originally titled Peter and Wendy (1911) Mrs. Barrie states that his name sounds familiar. The legend she'd heard is that when children died, peter Pan would fly halfway to the afterlife with them, so they would not be scared.
And of course, there is also Peter Pan's famous quotation "To die will be a great adventure."
