Gender Roles: Peter Pan & Little Women

  Little Women (Alcott, 1880) and Peter Pan (Barrie, 1904) adhere to gender conventions of the time in which they were written, however they also push the boundaries of gender expectations. Jo March is the perfect example of the ‘new woman’ of the 19^th Century. She is strong willed and isn’t defined by the domestic sphere. She is defined by the public sphere with her passion for writing and the publishing of her writings; she has ambition. One of the first things that we discover about Jo is that she’s a tomboy. In chapter one, her Mother tells her to ‘remember that you’re a young lady’ (Alcott, 1880, loc. 102-107) she retaliates claiming that she’s not and says ‘It’s bad enough to be a girl’ (Alcott, loc. 102-107). True enough, growing up as a girl in the 19^th Century was quite different to today. In terms of expectations, girls were supposed to dress proper, speak proper and remain in the home environment. It could be said that Jo’s outgoing ambitious attitude is a hundred years before her time. Peter Pan doesn’t feature a character like Jo. Our main character Peter doesn’t seem to be restrained in any way at all, he is free to roam and partake on the adventures. Wendy also participates in the fun, however she always returns to the domestic sphere where she is seen to be most happy. Wendy shows some reluctance to grow up however, she essentially already has begun to as she acts as a mother figure for the boys. It could be viewed that this is a way of showing that for boys, there is no specific place that they are expected to reside; women take the brunt of the responsibilities of the home and family life. Jo rejects the gender conventions whilst Wendy conforms to them.
   Peter Pan is a book about pure adventure and courage; the complete opposite to Little Women. ‘The mild tales that girls read simply to pass away the time are ineffective’ (Avery, 1965, pg. 138) with boys. Peter Pan is ‘located at the epicentre of the so-called first Golden-Age of children’s literature’ (Watson, 2009, pg. 141) and features many references to other childhood favourites such as Robinson Crusoe (Defoe, 1719) with the island life and Treasure Island (Stevenson, 1883) with the swashbuckling pirates. Peter Pan and Little Women are the ideal texts for discussing the gender ideals of children through books in the 19^th Century. There was a strict difference between what girls were expected to read and what boys were expected to read. For example, Peter Pan promotes the outdoors and adventure; fiction for boys was more fun and exciting whilst fiction for girls was essentially about taking care of the home. If we look at the production of chap books in the 19^th Century we can see the social constraints that boys and girls were faced with from a young age. Chapbooks were an inexpensive way to enjoy literature even if you couldn’t afford books, as most people couldn’t. A Little Pretty Little Pocket Book (John Newbery, 1744) for girls came with a pin cushion, and the chapbook for boys came with a ball. We immediately associate the ball with boys and the pin cushion with girls but the idea was created to make either one of the books equally attractive to both boys and girls. However, The Adventures of a Pincushion (Kilner, 1783) state clearly that it’s ‘designed chiefly for the use of young ladies’ in its title with no mention of boys. Modern children’s literature is very different to when it started. In the preface to A Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature it explains how it ‘is a category that has developed over at least 300 years into an entire parallel universe’ (Grenby & Immel, 2009, pg. 13).
   Interestingly, despite the deliberate separation between fiction for boys and girls, both genders (adults as well as children) enjoyed and still enjoy both books and both texts have also been modernised and are still popular. Little Women was modernised into a film in both 1949 and 1994. Peter Pan was republished numerous times and also made into films and a play titled just Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904). Notice that the play is titled The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up; he’s choosing not to do so, it isn’t forced upon him. Peter Hollindale explains how Peter Pan ‘is a play about boundaries between childhood and adulthood’ and how ‘these boundaries are ever changing’ (pg. 161). Expanding on his point about boundaries, Hollindale asks us ‘Is there a clear line of demarcation between them, like a national frontier, with no chance of return once crossed?’ (pg. 161). This point is agreeable especially if we look at scenes such as Peter’s visit to Wendy when she’s an adult. She has reached the point of return when we discover she can no longer fly or return to Neverland. The natural ‘boundaries’ have been put in place here as Wendy has assumed the role of housewife and Mother. The idea of losing the power of imagination as you grow up is very real. Peter Hunt explains that ‘childhood, after all, is a state that we grow away from’ (Hunt, 2005, pg. 5). Peter can be viewed as a ‘tragic boy’ because he believes that a world that allows you to stay young forever is the real or only world which as a realistic take on how children think. As a child we are wrapped up in ourselves unknowingly and there are no boundaries to our imagination.
   Peter shows a reluctance to grow up when he keeps probing Wendy with questions about whether the relationship they have is real or not. There is a sense of panic in his questions showing us that he wants it to be pretend although we see that Wendy wishes it wasn’t. In addition to this, Peter has had three women falling in love with him and not once has he shown any signs of interest. He calls Wendy ‘queer’ and he explains that ‘Tigerlily is just the same. There is something she wants me to be, but she says it is not my mother’ (Barrie, 1904, loc. 1355- 1359). Peter’s puzzled reaction to the girl’s infatuation is comical and reminds us how young the characters are. We are quick to forget sometimes because of how mature Wendy’s character is. Wendy, Tigerlily and Tinkerbell have all shown signs of affection for Peter and as a twelve year old he barely understands. This search for Peter’s affections shows the ideal of marriage and relationships being a key part of women’s lives from a young age.
   Similarly, the importance of marriage is also a key theme in ‘Little Women’. As a nineteenth century novel about four sisters, marriage was considered the most important part of a woman’s life in this time period. Mrs. March reiterates this by explaining to the girls that she wants her daughters to be ‘admired, loved and respected’ (loc. 1490 - 1494) and goes on to say that ‘To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman’ (loc. 1490-1494). It is interesting to see how Jo’s attitude is considered by her mother as rebellious or inappropriate when by today’s standards it is seen as typical of a child or teenager; she has ambition and it is hard for modern readers to view that attribute as something negative. There is no doubt that Mrs. March is a loving mother, however, it’s clear that she wants Jo to remain at home with her rather than elsewhere. Complete freedom doesn’t seem to be an option. Avery explains how ‘Victorians asserted that a girl’s place was at her mother’s knee’ and a how a ‘girl might be exposed to dangerous influences and be distracted from her duty in the home’ (pg. 203). In the 19^th Century, it was very true that marriage was most women’s only ambition, they weren’t permitted to do much else in life. Taking all this into consideration, it’s interesting and perplexing to see that no matter how hard Jo tries to defy the conventions of being a woman with her defiant personality, the natural process of womanhood sets in as she grows up and she does end up married.
      In relation to this, an interesting text to look at in relation to gender conventions of womanhood is Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘The Vindication of Women’ (1792). The most striking thing about this text is how honest and carefree Wollstonecraft seems in putting her point across; it was revolutionary. In relation to Jo March’s character, Wollstonecraft supported the right for women to go out to work and become successful. She believed that women should be ‘educated in such a manner as to be able to think and act for themselves’ (Wollstonecraft, 1792, loc. 829). Jo March’s character represents the new generation of women who were taking heed of this advice and making a life for themselves outside of the home and marriage. Similarly, Wendy’s character experiments outside of the home environment, despite being very comfortable in the domestic settings of the home. Wollstonecraft argues that women would be much stronger physically and mentally if they were brought up the same as men. She explains that she would ‘hear of none of these infantine airs, if girls were allowed to take sufficient exercise, and not confined in close rooms till their muscles are relaxed, and their powers of digestion destroyed’ (loc. 1089). Although ‘The Vindication of the Rights of Women’ was written a century prior to ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Little Women’ being written, Wollstonecraft’s ideas were the beginning of the shift in gender dynamics although it has taken up until the 21^st Century for women to be treated with equality.  

Bibliography

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Kilner, A M. (1783) The Adventures of a Pincushion. London: J Fairburn.

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Wollstonecraft, M. (1792) A Vindication of the Rights of Women. [Kindle Edition] Amazon Media EU Sarl. Available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004TP7JMO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o01_ [Accessed 24/11/14].