The Struggle of Growing Up--or--Have We Been Captained by a Codfish this Whole Time?

The Struggle of Growing up

or

Have We Been Captained by a Codfish this Whole Time?

The original play Peter Pan by J.M Barrie is in many ways different from the Disney version. I didn’t only get to see the play, I was a member of the cast, playing the role of Wendy. Playing Wendy was a new experience for me as I have never played a character like her before. In many ways her character is both trivial, and extremely complex. It is very dependent on the interpretation. The way that I interpreted the play was that almost everything that happens in the play takes place in Wendy’s head. The main theme of the play is growing up and the difficulties and conflicts it holds. Wendy is a young girl in the Victorian time period. As she is starting to grow up she struggles to deal with the feelings that are new to her, while at the same time, finds it difficult to let go of her old childish self. Wendy’s parents wish for their daughter to grow up faster. Wendy tries to resist. In my opinion, all of the play except the beginning of the first Act take place in Wendy’s dream. In this dream Peter Pan represents Wendy’s childhood; he is “youth” he is “joy” he is: “a little bird that has just broken out of it’s egg”. He is the part of Wendy that forever wants to stay young. Captain Hook symbolizes Wendy’s parents who want to take her away from her young playful live, just like Hook wants to take her away from Peter. When Wendy first dreams of Peter she is still more of a child. She is excited to see a fairy and mermaids and wants to fly with Peter to a magical island. As the play goes on however more and more elements show how Wendy is growing up. The way she imagines the lost boys who want to be her children, and the way she hopes for Peter to be something other than her son. Thought Peter wins the final fight against Hook, which proves to me that parents cannot force their children to grow up, Wendy still notices that she cannot have Peter be both her childhood and her growing up. He cannot be the “little bird” and her son or children’s father. Growing up means leaving Peter, who “always wants to be a little boy and have fun”, behind. In the end Wendy leaves Neverland and Peter on her own terms as she is now ready to grow up. Even though in the in last scene there is another brief example of her holding on to the past, the illusion of the happy childhood world is disturbed. Peter’s character has started to fade away as Wendy grew older and forgets, and loses interest in the things Peter represents. No matter how much she may want to hold on to the past, growing up is inevitable, and her dreams of Neverland will never be like they used to.