Post on 24-Feb-2016
description
“His Terrible Masterpiece”
J.M. Barrie & Peter Pan
Sir James Matthew Barrie9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937Father a weaverMother assumed household
responsibilities at age 8 after death of own mother
9th out of 10 childrenOnly grew to 5’3”
Asexual?Impotent?Psychogenic Dwarfism?
Childhood
At 6 years, next-older brother David died two days before his 14th birthday in an ice-skating accidentMother devastated, Dave had been the favorite Barrie tried to fill David's place
wearing David's clothes whistling in the same manner
Mother thought ghost of dead son had come to visit her, she asked, “is that you”. Barrie replied “No, it's no' him, it's just me.”
Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her
Later Barrie and his mother entertained each other with stories of her brief childhood and books such as Robinson Crusoe.
Successful before and after Peter Pan, many plays and novels (Finding Neverland misdirects on this point)
Possibly of interest:Sentimental Tommy, The Story of His Boyhood
(1896)Margaret Ogilvy (1896)Tommy and Grizel (1900)
The Tommy plays are about a boy and young man who clings to childish fantasy, Barrie’s own sexual issues may be hinted at
Margret Ogilvy is about mom
Career
Met actress Mary Ansell in 1891 he asked friend for a pretty
actress to play a role The two became friends she joined his family in
caring for him when ill in 1893 and 1894
Married on 9 July 1894, shortly after Barrie recovered
Mary retired from the stage
The relationship was reportedly sexless no children
Marriage
Barrie possibly eluded to his own troubles in his story "Tommy and Grizel" tells of a devastated
marriage. published six years into
marriage to Ansell. "Grizel, I seem to be
different from all other men; there seems to be some curse upon me. . . . You are the only woman I ever wanted to love, but apparently I can't."
Beginning mid 1908, Mary had an affair with Gilbert Cannan (an associate of Barrie‘s) Visited together to Black Lake
Cottage, known to the house staff Barrie learned of the affair in July
1909 Demanded that she end it, she
refused To avoid scandal, he offered legal
separation if she agreed not to see Cannan again, she still refused.
Barrie sued for divorce on the grounds of infidelity, which was granted in October 1909. Most historians sympathize with
Mary Her marriage to Barrie had been an
unhappy one partly because Barrie gave much of his attention to another family
The Arthur Llewelyn Davies family played an important part in Barrie's literary and personal life. parents:
Arthur (1863–1907) Sylvia (1866–1910)
five sons: George (1893–1915)John (1894-1959) Peter (1897–1960) Michael (1900–1921) Nicholas (1903–1980).
Grizel of the Crooked Smile
Barrie became acquainted with the family in 1897, meeting George and Jack (and baby Peter) with their nurse (nanny) Mary Hodgson in London's Kensington Gardens.
He lived nearby and often walked his Newfoundland dog Porthos in the park, and entertained the boys regularly with his ability to wiggle his ears and eyebrows, and with his stories.
He did not meet Sylvia until a chance encounter at a dinner party
Barrie did not first meet Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (portrayed by Kate Winslet in Finding Neverland) in the park at Kensington Gardens. He met her in 1897 at a dinner party
Barrie was seated next to Sylvia he would later refer to as "the most
beautiful creature he had ever seen," with "a tip-tilted nose, wide, grey eyes....and a crooked smile."
Barrie began a conversation with Sylvia after he noticed her tuck a few desserts under her coat.
She explained that they were for her son Peter.
The two began talking and eventually realized a common connection, Sylvia's son George whom Barrie had entertained several times in the park.
Barrie became a regular visitor at the Davies household and a common companion to the woman and her boys, despite the fact that they were each married.
Unlike in the movie Finding Neverland, Sylvia's husband Arthur was still alive when J.M. Barrie befriended the family. Imagine you’re in the hospital
and Michael Jackson starts moving in on your family.
Arthur Llewellyn Davies observed Barrie's affection for Sylvia and the children for nearly ten years, until he died from cancer of the jaw in 1907.
Arthur often resented Barrie's interference with his family.
In 1901, Barrie invited the Davies family to Black Lake Cottage, where he produced an album of captioned photographs of the boys acting out a pirate adventure, entitled The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island. Barrie had two copies made, one of which he gave to
Arthur, who “misplaced it” on a train. Hey, check out this photo album I made of your half naked
waterlogged kids!Barrie included Arthur in the dedication at the start of
"Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens", which read, "To Sylvia and Arthur Llewellyn Davies and their boys (my boys).”You’re hospitalized, deformed, dying of cancer, and
Barrie sends you this as a gift?
After her husbands death, Sylvia welcomed Barrie's financial and emotional support, both for herself and for her boys.
Following Barrie's divorce, he and Sylvia remained close, but did not marry.
She became ill with an inoperable cancer in her chest, and died in 1910.
Shortly before her death, she wrote that she wanted her boys' nurse Mary Hodgson to continue caring for her children, and that she wanted Barrie, along with her mother, brother, and Arthur's brother as their guardians. She wanted all of Barrie’s letters to her burned and buried
with her and her husband.Following Sylvia's death in 1910, Barrie claimed that
they had been engaged to be married.Her will indicated nothing to that effect Jack and Peter later expressed skepticism of this report.
In the years that followed, several tragedies befell the Davies boys
On March 15, 1915, 21-year-old George Llewelyn Davies was killed in battle during a WWI advance on the Germans at St. Eloi Gunshot to the head
in 1921, the second youngest Davies boy Michael drowned with a friend, Rupert Errol Victor Buxton, while he was away at Oxford University as an undergraduate. The two inseparable friends
were found clinging together it was speculated that they
had been lovers who had made a suicide pact.
Barrie died of pneumonia on June 19, 1937 He left the bulk of his estate (excluding the Peter Pan
works, which he had previously given to Great Ormond Street Hospital) to his secretary Cynthia Asquith.
On April 5, 1960 63-year-old Peter committed suicide by throwing himself under a train as it was pulling into the station at Sloan Square, London. It is not known why Peter Llewelyn Davies took his own
life. A coroner's jury ruled that he had killed himself "while
the balance of his mind was disturbed".Nico, the youngest of the brothers, flatly denied that
Barrie ever behaved inappropriately. 'I don't believe that Uncle Jim ever experienced what one might call "a stirring in the undergrowth" for anyone — man, woman, or child,’
The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island (1901)http://
beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/castaways.html
It’s CreepyThe Little White Bird (1902)
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)
Peter Pan (Play) (1904)Peter and Wendy (Novel)
(1911)
Peter Pan
The Little White BirdThe book attained prominence and
longevity due to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, in which it introduced the character and mythology of Peter Pan.
Those chapters were later published separately as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens as a children's book.
The Peter Pan story began as one chapter of a longer work and during the four years that Barrie worked on the book prior to publication, grew to an "elaborate book-within-a-book" of over one hundred pages.
At first, the play was a Harlequinade
It eventually evolved into the play we’re familiar with today, of which the novel you’re reading is an adaptation
Finding Neverland presents the play much more like the finished product it would eventually become and less like it likely was at the time
Harlequin comedian and romantic male lead. love interest of Columbine. everlasting high spirits
Columbine Female lead, wore cap and apron, girl next door type
Pantaloon devious, greedy He is taken in readily by the various tricks and schemes of Harlequin. costume usually includes red tight-fitting vest and breeches, slippers,
a skullcap, an over-sized hooked nose, and a grubby grey goatee. Pierrot
comic servant character, often Pantaloon's servant. His face was whitened with flour. stupid and awkward, a country bumpkin with oversized clothes.
Harlequinade Stock Characters
Transformed WorldAudience ParticipationBell and stage light fairiesElaborate stage machinerySkin PartsCross Gendered CastingDouble Casting
Harlequinade Influences
Peter Pan: or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
Poster by Charles Buchel, advertising the first production of Peter Pan in December 1904.
Pauline Chase as one of the twins in the pillow dance
Nina Boucicault as Peter Pan in the first London production
The final Napoleonic tableaux from the first production of Peter Pan in December 1904. Peter - dressed as Napoleon and played by Nina Boucicault, poses after the celebrated painting by Orchardson.
Critical TheoryA Preview
The focus on author biography and historical context is left over from 19th century approaches to literature.
The Formalist movement of the early 20th century is a response to this. A focus on the text itself instead of outside material
SymbolismAmbiguityIronyTensionParadox
The above ideas all come from Formalism
Humanism and Formalism
StructuralismFocus not on individual texts but
systems of texts and the rules (poetics) that govern them.Could Lucy of I Love Lucy ever
have an abortion on the show?Binaries – we tend to think of
the world in terms of opposite pairs
DeconstructionNone of those binaries are realAll meaning is slippery
Structuralism and Deconstruction
Psychosexual DevelopmentOedipal Complex
The Subconscious MindIdEgoSuperego
Psychoanalytic Criticism
England was a major imperialist power in the 19th century
Any text generated during this period is going to bear traces of its influence
As colonialism faded, people began to study the falloutMimicryHybridity“the other”WorldingOvercharging
Peter Pan can show us a great deal about English imperialist attitudes during the time and the consequences of them
Post Colonialism