Wendy's Story

What is it about?

This essay argues that J. M. Barrie's 'Peter & Wendy' is the character Wendy's dream. On close inspection of Barrie's text, Peter Pan and Captain Hook may be understood as Wendy's inner representations of the conflicting and confusing experiences she has of her father. These dual aspects are tenuously reconciled during her dream; part of the process, as she enters adolescence, of her coming into relationship with her father, in particular, and masculinity in general.

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Why is it important?

There are surprisingly few psychoanalytic studies of J. M. Barrie's 'Peter & Wendy', given that the themes of this tale are so clearly developmental and psychological. Of the studies to date, all bar F. L. Meisel's 'The Myth of Peter Pan' (1977) miss what I regard as the key to Barrie's enigmatic classic: that it is Wendy's unconscious phantasy attending her dawning adolescence. Meisel's insight into the tale's heart is built upon to present a thorough account of the tale's psychodynamics.