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Betwixt-and-Between 彼得潘與小叮噹 ピーターパンとティンカーベル

  • Writer: Robin Yong
    Robin Yong
  • Apr 18
  • 5 min read

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Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

Peter Pan has become a cultural icon symbolizing youthful innocence and escapism.


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Peter Pan first appeared as a character in Barrie's The Little White Bird (1902), a novel for adults. In chapters 13–18, titled "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens", Peter is a seven-day-old baby and has flown from his nursery to Kensington Gardens in London, where the fairies and birds taught him to fly. He is described as "betwixt-and-between" a boy and a bird. Barrie returned to the character of Peter Pan, putting him at the centre of his stage play titled Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which premiered on 27 December 1904 at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. Following the success of the 1904 play, Barrie's publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, extracted the Peter Pan chapters of The Little White Bird and published them in 1906 under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with the addition of illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Barrie later adapted and expanded the 1904 play's storyline as a novel, which was published in 1911 as Peter and Wendy.

J. M. Barrie may have based the character of Peter Pan on his older brother, David, who died in an ice-skating accident the day before his 14th birthday. His mother and brother thought of him as forever a boy.


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Barrie never described Peter's appearance in detail, even in his novel, leaving it to the imagination of the reader and the interpretation of anyone adapting the character. In the play, Peter's outfit is made of autumn leaves and cobwebs. In the book and the play, he also carries a dagger for cutting and a sword for fighting, although in some versions he only has one of the two. His name and playing the flute or pan pipes suggest that he is based on the Greek god and mythological character Pan. Barrie mentions in Peter and Wendy that Peter Pan still had all his "first teeth". He describes him as a "lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees". In The Little White Bird (1902) and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), he is seven days old.

Peter is an exaggerated stereotype of a boastful and careless boy. He claims greatness, even when such claims are questionable (such as congratulating himself when Wendy re-attaches his shadow). In the play and book, Peter symbolises the selfishness of childhood, and is portrayed as being forgetful and self-centred.

Peter has a nonchalant, devil-may-care attitude, and is fearlessly cocky when it comes to putting himself in danger. Barrie writes that when Peter thought he was going to die on Marooners' Rock, he felt scared, yet he felt only one shudder. With this blithe attitude, he says, "To die will be an awfully big adventure." In the play, the unseen and unnamed narrator ponders what might have been if Peter had stayed with Wendy, so that his cry might have become, "To live would be an awfully big adventure!", "but he can never quite get the hang of it".

Peter Pan is a free spirit, being too young to be burdened with the effects of education or to have an adult appreciation of moral responsibility. As a "betwixt-and-between", who can fly and speak the language of fairies and birds, Peter is part animal and part human. According to psychologist Rosalind Ridley, by comparing Peter's behaviour to adults and to other animals, Barrie raises many post-Darwinian questions about the origins of human nature and behaviour. As "the boy who wouldn't grow up", Peter exhibits many aspects of the stages of cognitive development seen in children and can be regarded as Barrie's memory of himself as a child, being both charmingly childlike and childishly solipsistic.


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Tinker Bell is a common fairy who is Peter Pan's best friend and is often jealously protective of him. He nicknames her "Tink". She is the friend who helps him in his escapades. Tink's malicious actions are usually caused by her jealousy; these lead to the Lost Boys shooting arrows at Wendy, and eventually revealing Peter's hideout to Captain Hook, in the hope that Wendy will be captured rather than Peter. When Tink realises her serious mistake, she risks her own life by drinking the poison Hook has left for Peter. Her extreme loyalty and dedication to Peter are everlasting.

Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelisation Peter and Wendy. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan. She also appears in the official 2006 sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital as well as the "Peter and the Starcatchers" book series by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry.

At first only a supporting character described by her creator as "a common fairy", her animated incarnation was a hit and has since become a widely recognized unofficial mascot of The Walt Disney Company, next to the official mascot of Mickey Mouse.

Barrie described Tinker Bell as a fairy who mended pots and kettles, an actual tinker of the fairy folk. Her speech consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell, which is understandable only to those familiar with the language of the fairies.

Though sometimes ill-tempered, jealous, vindictive and inquisitive, she is also helpful and kind to Peter. The extremes in her personality are explained in the story by the fact that a fairy's size prevents her from holding more than one feeling at a time, so when she is angry she has no counterbalancing compassion. At the end of the novel, when Peter flies back to find an older Wendy, "when she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see her he said, 'Who is Tinker Bell?' Try as she might, nothing she said helped Peter remember Tinker Bell. Finally, Peter said, 'There are such a lot of them, I expect she is no more.'" The narrator comments that he expected Peter was right, "that fairies don't live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them."

In the first draft of the play, she is called Tippy-toe, but became Tinker Bell in the later drafts and final version.


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My Italian friends Gabriele and Emy as Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.

I have known Emy and Gabriele for quite a few years now. They are always full of energy and they always bring many costumes to the Venice Carnevale every year. Our photo sessions together are often loud, full of drama and extremely fun. Each time I am with them, I feel I am within a movie production set. It is for this reason I like to come to Venice every year, we get to live in our own fantasies, and we get to see the other fascinating worlds of my friends' fantasies...



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The Venice Carnevale is not solely about masks. Local Italians prefer historical costumes or painted faces. During Carnevale, the whole Venice becomes a real life theatrical stage, and many of these historical costumes carry deep perspectives...

And as usual, the portraits are just done on the busy streets of Venice and using natural lighting only...It is not an indoor photo studio, there is no artificial lighting, flash or reflectors...With my costumed friends, we just take our street portraiture to an all new level....

 
 
 

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