彼得潘 (Peter Pan)是由苏格兰小说家及剧作家詹姆斯·马修·贝瑞 (James Matthew Barrie, 1860-1937)所创造的小说角色名，也是同名改编的舞台剧、儿童故事、以及其他各种作品的共同名称。故事是关于一个拒绝长大的小男孩，带领著一群孤儿在梦不落岛 (Neverland)所遭遇到的各种冒险故事。

故事线

贝瑞总共写过三个关于彼得潘的故事：

• 肯辛顿公园的彼得潘 "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens"(1906)， which is a segment of his book The Little White Bird (1902)
• The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (first performed Dec. 27,1904); (first published version of play 1928)
• Peter and Wendy (1911), later retitled Peter Pan, a novel for children based on the play.

Several sequels, adaptations, and spinoffs have emerged since then, all with slightly modified storylines.

肯辛顿公园的彼得潘

In this story, Peter Pan escapes from being a human at the tender age of seven days. He, having been a bird before he was a boy, believed he was still a bird, and so he flew out the window to the Kensington Gardens. He soon discovered that something was a bit off about him, so he flew to the island in the Serpentine where all the birds-who-become-children are born.

At the island, he asks the wise old bird Solomon what is wrong -- and Solomon explains that he is now a little boy. Peter is quite horrified, and then for a moment he doubts whether he can fly any more, and so he cannot. Perfect faith is to have wings.

Peter grows up on the island -- that is to say, he spends a very long time on the island -- but he always wishes he could go back to the Kensington Gardens and play as little girls and boys do. So one day, all the thrushes on the island build Peter a huge nest that he can use as a boat. And from then on, Peter goes to the Gardens at night to play, just as real boys do in the daytime.

Peter makes friends with the fairies in the Gardens, and he plays on his pipes for them at their dances and ceremonies. So the fairies grant him a wish of his heart -- and Peter asks to go back to his mother. So the fairies give him the ability to fly, and off he goes straight to his mother, who he finds is very sad -- and Peter knows why. But he cannot bring himself to leave behind his boat and the fairies and his fun in the Gardens, and so he flies away, planning to come back later. But Peter is having too much fun to hurry back and when he finally does fly home, the window is barred and his mother has a new little boy to love.

Peter spends a very long time as a little boy in the Gardens, playing without ceasing but never knowing that he was doing it all wrong, that is, until he meets a little girl named Maimie, who remains in the Garden after Lock-Out. Maimie helps precipitate a fairy wedding, and so she finds favor with the fairies, who build her a little house for the night. And in the morning, she meets Peter Pan, who asks her to marry him after a touching scene in which kisses are confused with thimbles, as in the stage play. Maimie agrees, but then Peter seems to like her fur coat (for a nest) better than her, and she remembers her mother -- and the long and short of it is that she goes back to her family. But she leaves Peter a present a little while later -- an imaginary goat, which she asks the fairies to turn into a real goat. It is thus that Peter acquired the goat he rides on in the Gardens.

Every night, Peter rides around the Gardens, looking for lost children, and if he finds them, he puts them in a fairy house. Sometimes he is too late and then he buries them (in twos, so that they should not be lonely) and carves a tombstone for them. The story ends, "I do hope Peter is not too ready with his spade. It is all rather sad."

彼得潘与温蒂

Later renamed Peter Pan.

This is the portion of J. M. Barrie's mythos of Peter Pan that is best known to most readers.

In both the play and the novel, Peter invites the girl Wendy Darling to the Neverland to be a mother for his gang of Lost Boys. Her brothers John and Michael come along. Many adventures ensue, including the near-death of the fairy Tinker Bell, and a climactic confrontation with Peter's nemesis, the pirate Captain Hook of the pirate ship the Jolly Roger. In the end, Wendy decides that her place is at home, and brings all the boys back to London. Peter remains in the Neverland, and Wendy grows up.

背景

Barrie created Peter Pan in stories he told to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies, with whom he had forged a special relationship while both were married.

The character's name comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn-Davies, at the time the youngest of the boys, and Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands. Mrs. Llewelyn-Davies' death from cancer came within a few years of the death of her husband. Barrie was named as co-guardian of the boys and unofficially adopted them.

It has also been suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother David, whose death in a skating accident at the age of thirteen deeply affected their mother. According to Andrew Birkin, author of J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, the death was "a catastrophe beyond belief, and one from which she never fully recovered . . . If Margaret Ogilvy [Barrie's mother as the heroine of his 1896 novel of that title] drew a measure of comfort from the notion that David, in dying a boy, would remain a boy for ever, Barrie drew inspiration."

Maude Adams as Peter in an early stage productionPeter Pan first appeared in print in a 1902 book called The Little White Bird, a fictionalised version of Barrie's relationship with the Llewelyn Davies children, and was then used in a very successful stage play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which premiered in London on December 27, 1904.

In 1906, the portion of The Little White Bird which featured Peter Pan was published as the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Barrie then adapted the play into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy (most often now published simply as Peter Pan).

There are seven statues of Peter Pan playing a set of pipes, cast from a mold by sculptor George Frampton, following an original commission by Barrie. The statues are in Kensington Gardens in London, in Liverpool, in Brussels, in Camden, New Jersey, in Perth, in Toronto, and in Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland.

温蒂

Barrie is sometimes said to have "invented" the name Wendy with this story. Barrie's friend, poet William Henley called Barrie "friend" but Henley's 4-year-old daughter Margaret could only pronounce that as "My Fweiendy" or "Fwendy-Wendy".

In fact, the name was already in use in both the United States and Britain, but was extremely rare. The Peter Pan stories popularized the name, at first in Britain. Wendy is related to the Welsh name Gwendolyn, and was used by Barrie at a time when Welsh names were making a resurgence in England.

主题

The most apparent thematic thread in the story concerns "growing up" (or not), with the character of Peter wanting to remain a child forever in order to avoid the responsibilities of adulthood. "Peter Pan syndrome" has become a psychiatric term named by Dr. Dan Kiley to describe an adult who is afraid of commitment and/or refuses to act his age. It is also sometimes used to positively describe an innocent, childlike approach to life.

Along with the theme of "growing up" is the theme of death and innocence. Barrie's tale is intricately tied to the real Llewelyn-Davies boys and the deaths of both their mother and father.

Mr. Darling is constantly troubling himself with 'adult' matters. He is continually fussing over money and respect, yet he never even attempts to hide his immaturity, because he is simply unaware of it. Peter is also like that. He is the leader of the Lost Boys because he is the "bravest" and the "smartest". But whenever anything is brought up that he does not understand, he dismisses it and makes it seem inferior. Barrie is making a point: being egotistical will bring you down, not up. There is a reason why there are only lost boys and not lost girls. Girls are more mature and see the significance in growing up and maturity. Barrie is making another point: there is nothing wrong with being childish, being egotistical is the problem. If Mr. Darling represents the negative aspects of being childish, Mrs. Darling personifies when acting like a child is acceptable. She has nothing against childish acts, only immature acts. Her own personality is one of a child's, yet it is made up of the positive traits of a child. Wendy is also like her mother. She chooses to grow up, rather than staying in Neverland. Mr. Darling, along with Peter, are both immature, arrogant, and selfish. They have made their decision not to grow up. And that, somehow, seems to fascinates the girls while, at same time, keeping them at a safe distance.

Peter and Wendy form a contrast between childhood and maturity. Peter Pan remains a child in mind because he cannot feel pain of death affecting him or those around him. Peter has one emotion only: gladness, and occasionally to that he adds childish fury. He forgets soon after the fact anything that is not happy and lighthearted: "I always forget them after I kill them".