Wendy

Wendy Darling is the oldest of the three Darling children in J. M. Barrie’s well-known, oft performed and beloved 1904 play, “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”, as well as his 1911 novel, “Peter Pan and Wendy”. Wendy and her two younger brothers, John and Michael, live in London, where they are visited by the boy who never grew up, Peter Pan. Peter teaches them how to fly and leads them all across the night sky to Never Land. Wendy is a conventional, good little Edwardian girl who honors her parents and loves her little brothers, but she has an unfulfilled wish never to grow up, to remain a girl forever. Who better to befriend her than Peter, the forever boy? Peter introduces the Darling children to all the frights and delights of Never Land, and hopes to keep them (especially Wendy) there with him. Ironically, it is Wendy who finds her path to natural adulthood through these adventures, discovering that while it is to be cherished, childhood is also to be left behind in the natural order of things. Wendy mothers the Lost Boys of Never Land, and tends to them with loving care. It is obvious that she also harbors an innocent love for Peter. Ultimately, however, Wendy realizes the inevitability of maturing, growing and accepting responsibility, all the while maintaining a vestige of the magical powers of childhood. With a mixture of reluctance and anticipation, Wendy decides to return with her brothers to reality, to embrace what is to come but never to forget what has been.