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...

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…