Peter Pan and the psychology of eternal youth

Identifying Archetypes in Peter Pan
Introduction
J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is full of a wide range of characters who embody or represent various literary types. For instance, there are archetypes of Innocent Youth, the Hero, the Doppleganger, the Villain, the Mother, and so on. This paper will identify these archetypes and show how they are used in Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Archetype 
The archetype is an example or representation of a specific type of person or thing and is sometimmes viewed as the progenitor of this type or at least as a great example or reflection of the original concept. For instance, in Peter Pan, Captain Hook serves as the archetypal pirate: he is not the first pirate to ever be described in writing, but he is so vividly imagined and depicted in the story that for many readers he becomes the symbol of what it means to be a pirate. Captain Hook joins the ranks of Long John Silver and other notable pirates of literature because of the qualities and characteristics applied to him, which bring him to life for the reader.
Scapegoat
A scapegoat is someone who is blamed (usually unfairly) for the wrongs that befall a group. Typically, the scapegoat is not the real cause of the problem and sometimes the scapegoat serves as a kind of sacrifice used by the group or by society to atone for a wrong, a crime or a sin. In Peter Pan, Wendy serves as a scapegoat for Captain Hook in chapter 15 when he cannot explain what is happening on the ship to the crew. They are a superstitious lot and are fearful that there is a “Jonah aboard”—a reference to the Biblical character of Jonah who was being targeted by God for not following His orders and had to be thrown off the ship by the sailors in order to get the target off their vessel (Barrie 79). Peter is really the one behind the mischief, but the pirates don’t know it. So Captain Hook decides to use Wendy (who is tied to the mast) as the scapegoat: “No, lads, no, it’s the girl. Never was luck on a pirate ship wi' a woman on board. We'll right the ship when she's gone,” says Hook (Barrie 79). And indeed Captain Hook orders the crew to dispense with Wendy, Jonah-style: “Fling her overboard!” he commands (Barrie 79). Of course, that is when Peter reveals himself to pirates and shows that he is true cause of their trouble—but for a moment, Captain Hook is bent on using Wendy as a scapegoat for his own inefficiency in dealing with his arch-nemesis, Peter.
Innocent Youth
Nearly all the children of Peter Pan serve as archetypes of Innocent Youth—but none more so than the Lost Boys: these are children who fell out of their baby carriages or abandoned by their parents. In other words, they are orphans, saved by Peter Pan and brought to Neverland. Tootles is perhaps the most innocent of the Lost Boys, as he is always away when the adventures happen but this never bothers him (he constantly keeps his happy nature), and he is easily deceived (for example, when he is tricked into shooting Wendy with an arrow) but quick to defend the pure of heart (as when he defends Wendy’s desire to return home). In fact, all of the Lost Boys want to return home because in their innocence they realize or recognize that a home is their place and that life is really about growing up.
With that said, it could also be argued that Peter Pan himself is the ultimate archetype of Innocent Youth, as he refuses to grow up and is described as still having his baby teeth. He exhibits all the common signs of adolescence and childhood—a desire that no one should know more than he does, a desire to stay a boy forever, a desire for adventure and, secretly, to have a mother. Peter Pan is rambunctious, spirited, with a heart of gold though that has a mischievous sparkle about it. He tells Wendy: “I don’t want ever to be a man…I want always to be a little boy and to have fun” (Barrie 16-17). He may not be everyone’s idea of innocence personified—but he is every bit as innocent and childlike in his desire to have fun perpetually as Twain’s Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. What causes Peter to finally be caught by Wendy is that he loses his shadow after listening to the stories Wendy’s mother tells. Few things could be more innocent than losing one’s shadow—and the fact that he is determined to get it back shows that Peter is the truest emblem of Innocent Youth in the whole story.
In Peter Pan, however, Innocent Youth is embodied by all the children, even in their not-so-innocent attitudes at times (for example, Slightly displays a great deal of conceitedness and thinks he knows more than he actually does about his true identity—after all, he takes his name from a tag in his hat that says, “Slightly Soiled,” and thinks this is his given name). Even Smee, the adult pirate (who is the least pirate-like of the group) has a touch of Innocent Youth about him. Smee is so kind to the children and couldn’t bear to do harm to them—and as a result he is a survivor of the war between the boys and the pirates at the end. While Smee may not be young, he has innocence at heart and this allows him to serve as a kind of adult-child or innocent adult.
Villain
A villain is one who operates out of malice towards other characters and typically serves as the enemy or foil of the hero (who is just as typically a main target of the villain’s malice). The villain desires a bad end where good should exist. There is only one real villain in Peter Pan and that is Captain Hook. What motivates Hook is revenge: he wants to get back at Peter Pan for cutting off his hand, which was then eaten by the crocodile that Hook is now so fearful of. Hook and Peter do not get along: Peter has goodness at heart, though he wants to remain a boy. Hook has malignance at heart by virtue of his being a pirate.
However, Hook is not actually completely malignant. His role as the villain is mostly defined stereotypically: he is a pirate, therefore he must be bad. But he is not terrible in his treatment of Smee. For instance, he wants to chastise Smee for having good form—for it is bad form for a pirate to have good form. Hook lets off because he recognizes that it is also bad form to criticize someone for having good form—so there is this side of Hook that is actually quite appealing. Yet, just because a villain has an appealing side does not mean he is to be considered anything less than a villain still. Iago is the apex of all villainy—deceptive, cunning, malicious, and murderous—but he still has plenty of charm for all that and gets more than a few laughs out of the audience. Captain Hook is the same—a villain through and through because he is inherently opposed to Peter Pan and his band of boys. In other words, by setting himself in opposition to Peter, Hook asserts his own villainy and thus is rightly recognized as the archetypal villain in Peter Pan—the man who would like to destroy Innocence.
Doppleganger
A doppelganger is someone who has a double or twin. Sometimes the doppelganger is the same on the outside but different on the inside—i.e., more evil. In Peter Pan, the twins among the group of Lost Boys are literal doppelgangers to one another. However, neither is any more or less evil than the other and in fact both are quite innocent. They are introduced in chapter 5: “Last come the Twins, who cannot be described because we should be sure to be describing the wrong one. Peter never quite knew what twins were, and his band were not allowed to know anything he did not know, so these two were always vague about themselves, and did their best to give satisfaction by keeping close together in an apologetic sort of way” (Barrie 29). But these two twins are minor characters—and there is another possible better representative of a doppelganger and this is Peter’s shadow.
Peter’s shadow is a reflection of Peter (and even though it is just a shadow it can still be considered a loose doppelganger): it wants to do what it wants to do—and is just as willful as Peter. Peter, for instance, is set to leave the Darlings—but his shadow has other ideas, which is why Peter has to return later on—and which is what leads to whole story unfolding. If a doppelganger is someone or something that resembles another but has its own will and desires (which are usually opposed to the thing’s it resembles) then Peter’s shadow could surely be the best example of a doppelganger in the story.
Mother
A mother is someone who tenderly cares for her children. Usually she is older—an adult at least—and looks after her own boys and girls. But in Peter Pan, there Lost Boys and Peter have no mother and they need one, and that is where Wendy comes into play. Wendy is still but a child herself, but as a mature little girl, she has all the natural instincts to be a good mother. She cares for Peter and all the Lost Boys and goes off to Neverland with Peter and ends up serving in that capacity—as a stand-in for their mothers. Indeed, when Peter is away, all the Lost Boys want to talk about is their missing mothers: “They talked of Cinderella, and Tootles was confident that his mother must have been very like her.   It was only in Peter's absence that they could speak of mothers, the subject being forbidden by him as silly. ‘All I remember about my mother,’ Nibs told them, ‘is that she often said to my father, `Oh, how I wish I had a cheque-book of my own!' I don't know what a cheque-book is, but I should just love to give my mother one’” (Barrie 31). Mother is actually very important to the Lost Boys—they know they are missing their own and they see in Wendy the mother they never had. She becomes for them, in this sense, their way back to reality—the reality they never really knew, the reality where they can grow up and become adults and get married and have children of their own.
From this perspective, Wendy truly represents their Mother because through her the Lost Boys are able to get back to the real world, grow up and have families and futures of their own. They do not have to be children forever. Wendy is their gateway back because she alone has Peter’s heart and he will return her to her home if that is what she really wants. And since a good boy will do anything for his mother, Peter is just as surely a good boy as Wendy is a good mother to him and to the other Lost Boys. In Barries’ Afterthought to the story, Wendy herself is a real, grown mother, with a child of her own—which completes the circle and brings the story back around to the concept of real motherhood, life, and childhood and what it all means to go together.
Hero
If there is one hero in the story, it is surely Peter Pan himself. A hero of a story is also called the protagonist—the character who is at the center of the action, or around whom the action revolves. The hero is the individual the reader roots for and identifies with. He is the character who typically has some redeeming character or represents the good side of human nature. The hero typically opposes the bad (which in this case would be the villain represented by Captain Hook). A hero has an adventure (or adventures), demonstrates courage and bravery, is self-sacrificing, and wants to see everyone have a happy ending. A hero also commonly has a code or a rule that he follows and lives according to. These are all common aspects or qualities of the archetypal hero in literature. And while many heroes may differ, with some resembling more or less the heroic traits of the archetype, Peter Pan stands as an archetypal hero in that he loves to have adventures, has a good heart, and is always will to save the day. His attack on the pirates in order to save Wendy, and his guiding the ship home so that Wendy can grow up and be a real person—all of this shows that he is a heroic character. Indeed, the story is named after him, so it must be assumed that he is the hero, after all. It is his story and he is the one who makes it all happen: he has saved the Lost Boys from their abandonment, and he is the one who opposes the villain.
However, he is not the only hero. Tinker Bell is also a hero: she is certainly heroic. After all, she saves Peter by drinking the poison before he can in a moment of self-sacrifice that would qualify any ordinary person as a hero. That she is a fairy does certainly does not matter: her heroism is there to be seen all the same. She is always supportive of Peter (even if she is more than a little jealous of Wendy and Peter’s love). Her devotion to Peter shows (especially when she gives herself to save him). However, because she is not the main focus of the story (Peter is), she should not necessarily be considered as the hero but only as heroic.
The real archetypal hero is Peter: he stands as the man (boy) of the hour. He represents that which is best about boys—their honor, integrity, love of fighting, love of action, love of adventure (feigned dislike of mothers), bravado, bravery, and so on. He has flashes of immaturity and maturity alike—and while he intends on ever haunting the Darlings and stealing away their daughters only to return them after a little while, he will always be the boy who got away. He is the hero who is most valiant, who stands ready to combat the pirates and thwart the evil machinations of Hook.
Finally, Peter is the archetypal hero because he stands for something: he has a code that is simple and defined—even if it is somewhat self-centered. His code is: never grow up. Peter lives by this code and honors it to the last, never daring to break its rule, and never even showing a weakness with regard to it. If he constantly visits the Darlings, it is because he loves to hear stories—just like any little boy—and he loves to have a new playmate, again, just like any other little child. However, unlike the other little boys—the Lost Boys, Peter has a code and lives by it.
Conclusion
J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is filled with wonderful archetypes of characters—from the Mother archetype to the Villain to the Hero to the Scapegoat, Innocent Youth and Doppleganger—they are all there in Peter Pan. Some characters serve as more than one archetype (Wendy, for instance, is both the scapegoat at one point and the Mother figure), while Peter himself serves both as the Hero and an emblem of Innocent Youth. Nonetheless, the vivid manner with which all of his characters come to life is what makes Barries’ creations so powerfully archetypal. Peter may not be the first Hero of literature, just as Hook is not the first villain of tales of piracy—but each is so well-developed that they will stand for all time as archetypes so long as there are readers.

Works Cited
Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan. NY: Millennium Publications, 2014.