Person of the Day: J.M.Barrie
Word of the Day: immortality
Quote of the Day: Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
Word of the Day: immortality
Quote of the Day: Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
Last night I was asked by a friend to simply answer a question about the meaning of Neverland. So after pondering over this for a little while I decided to find out what Barrie intended Neverland to be.
From the information I have gathered within a few hours there is no explicit statement that says J.M.Barrie meant Neverland as a place where dead children go. It may, however, be implicit in how he presents it.
Neverland is portrayed as a place where people may cease to age. People in this respect are children as we witness in Peter Pan. It is often thought of as a metaphor for eternal childhood, immortality and escapism - things which the first generation Romantics, particularly Wordsworth, were concerned with.
One of Barrie's novels explains that Neverlands are found in the minds of children. He emphasises the importance of the imagination. Barrie suggests that a map of a child's mind would be virtually the same as a map of Neverland. Neither Neverland nor a child's mind has boundaries.
The nature of Neverland might stem back to Barrie's youth. His brother died at the age of fourteen and this tragic death had a profound effect on the children's mother. Barrie was a witness to his mother's deep sadness. Perhaps we might take from this that Neverland provided an imaginary world where children could be immortal; Barrie, it appears, wished he could bring his brother back to make his mother happy again.
A further occurance which very likely contributed to Barrie's Neverland is his meeting with the Llewelyn Davies family: a mother and her boys. Barrie became close to the family and helped looked after the boys when they became orphaned. His relation with the family provided much of his inspiration for Peter Pan.
J.M.Barrie's witnessing of death in childhood and the effect the death of a loved one has on a child clearly influence his work to a great extent, with the theme of immortality running on through Peter Pan.
The information I've found on J.M.Barrie and Neverland is very little, so if anyone knows more please do leave a comment
The nature of Neverland might stem back to Barrie's youth. His brother died at the age of fourteen and this tragic death had a profound effect on the children's mother. Barrie was a witness to his mother's deep sadness. Perhaps we might take from this that Neverland provided an imaginary world where children could be immortal; Barrie, it appears, wished he could bring his brother back to make his mother happy again.
A further occurance which very likely contributed to Barrie's Neverland is his meeting with the Llewelyn Davies family: a mother and her boys. Barrie became close to the family and helped looked after the boys when they became orphaned. His relation with the family provided much of his inspiration for Peter Pan.
J.M.Barrie's witnessing of death in childhood and the effect the death of a loved one has on a child clearly influence his work to a great extent, with the theme of immortality running on through Peter Pan.
The information I've found on J.M.Barrie and Neverland is very little, so if anyone knows more please do leave a comment
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