Gender Identites in Peter Pan

In the Victorian society gender identities of the women were a debated topic and with Peter Pan, Barrie dares to present the two possible identities that female characters can have: mother and lover figures. While Wendy Darling naively takes up the maternal caretaker position in the storyline, jealous fairy Tinkerbell is greedy for Peter’s possession, chooses to represent the sexual lover, who is in seeking of Peter’s love. The sexual awakening of the leading female characters, Wendy and Tinkerbell, crates an environment of rivalry.

“Both Wendy and Tinker Bell maintain central points in Barrie’s novel as characters that surround the text’s protagonist. The females, however, are not secondary characters placed in the novel to highlight the delights of boyhood. Instead, both Wendy Darling and Tinker Bell come to realize their own sexual identity through the manner in which they are related to Peter. The two figures’ roles of devoted, maternal figure and jealous, aspirant lover represent two forms of conventional nineteenth century feminine identity, that of the mother and the love.” (Simmons,1334)

The petulance of Tinkerbelle catches our attention easily. Her feelings and her palpable sexual desire for Peter are so obvious that even the mind of immature children may be sufficient to grasp it. Tinker Bell’s everlasting anger and jealousy toward young British girl Wendy cause this nasty nymph to create scenes and disturbances. Her uneasiness starts with the first encounter of Peter and Wendy. The romantic attraction between these two children may be beyond their understanding at such a young age; however, our mature- looking little nymph goes with her gut, unmasking her unchained passion to coax Peter out of Wendy’s emotional ties.