The Genius of James Matthew Barrie - Essay Example

Arielle Maldonado Mrs. Marchiafava June 2, 2007 The Genius of James Matthew Barrie It will always be a rich, wonderful experience to study the mystery and genius of JM Barrie whose life was surrounded by events that are as eventful and colorful as his writings. Born into poverty the 9th of May, 1860, James was the ninth of a huge brood of ten children, with a handloom weaver for a father. Barrie's mother, obviously an inspiration for many of his writings, was in many ways a very influential figure who "hailed from a particularly hard outcrop of the Presbyterian Church" (Lane, Page 1). This church system that was used as an adjective might correctly create the right mindset in the small, provincial town of weavers called Kirriemuir, in a region of Scotland now called Angus. Barrie himself, in the novel titled by his mother's name, Margaret Ogilvy (1896), describes his mother's very careful ways: She begins the day by the fireside with the New Testament in her hands, an old volume with its loose pages beautifully refixed, and its covers sewn and resewn by her, so that you would say it can never fall to pieces. It is mine now, and to me the black threads with which she stitched it are as part of the contents. Other books she read in the ordinary manner, but this one differently, her lips moving with each word as if she were reading aloud, and her face very solemn. The Testament lies open on her lap long after she has ceased to read, and the expression of her face has not changed. (Chapter 3) Books were indeed very common in the Barrie household and would surely sow the seeds of imagination in the young James that would do him very well in his writing career. Margaret would read the classics in "Robinson Crusoe" and "Arabian Nights," among many others, together with her children, thus giving them the desire to read and to allow their creativity fly. Yet, as any biography of the respected novelist and playwright will surely mention, an important moment in Barrie's youth was the tragic death of his older brother, David, in a senseless skating accident before the 14th birthday. David had been a favorite of the mother and from this accident she never fully recovered. The young James, barely seven at the time of the tragedy, made every loving attempt to console his mother, once even wearing David's suit. Only then was he "rewarded with the first intent glances of his mother toward him" (Sarris, Page 1) This key event in Barrie's youth would turn into one of the most unforgettable images in his art, because in the eyes of his mother, comfort was found in the fact "that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her" (Wikipedia, Page 1). Barrie managed to complete his education at Dumfries Academy at the University of Edinburgh with an M.A. in 1882. He started professional work as a journalist for a local newspaper before moving to London in 1885, freelancing for national dailies and magazines. After three years in London, Barrie produced his first novel, Better Dead (1888) - a funny whodunit about the imaginary deaths of the most famous celebrities at the time. Indeed, his own fame would soon follow with a series of novels based on his hometown of Kirriemuir, beginning with Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums (1889), and The Little Minister (1891). Soon after, with his working together with Charles Frohman, Barrie realized his ambitions of writing plays which in turn made his stature grow as one of Britain's most popular writers. His penthouse would entertain a continuous line of visitors including ministers, royalties, politicians, artists, celebrities, socialites and a list of who's who in society at that time. Already, he counted the most famous writers as his friends: Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, Jerome K. Jerome, George Bernard Shaw. His influence was beginning to exert itself well that he even managed to form a cricket team of these literature giants called the "Allahakbarries," a wordplay that somehow made it seem that he was equal to Allah. All this string of successes took place before he reached the tender, ripe age of 30. And still, his greatest success was still to come. It seems the character of Peter Pan was beginning to form in the creative mind for a noticeable period of time before Barrie introduced him to the world. Pan first appeared in the novel with a sensitive theme, The Little White Bird (1902), a first-person account of a successful bachelor's attraction to a young boy, curiously named David, the same name as Barrie's dead older brother. Here, similarly, Kensington Gardens, the wide stretch of grass in central London, began to become an important point in his writings as the narrator in the book takes his young boy for what seems like innocent walks here, amusing the child with tales of Peter Pan appearing in the gardens at night. Kensington Gardens was certainly a favorite place of the writer. But more importantly, it saw what is likely one of the most lucky chance encounters in literary history: that of Barrie and the children of the Llewelyn Davieses. In one of Barrie's many walks in the park with his St Bernard named Parthos, he accidentally strikes a friendly, playful talk with two boys, aged 5 and 4, accompanied by their guardian named Mary Hodgson. The boys, George and John, would become five brothers, with Peter, Michael and Nicholas following in 3-year intervals. Their parents, Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, would die of cancer and Barrie would then win legal rights as caretaker of the children; this decision becoming possible because of the closeness Barrie developed with the boys in a relationship many would question with some form of malice. It does seem that certain protectiveness in society remain through time. In the film "Finding Neverland" (2005), inspired by the events surrounding the creation of Peter Pan, Barrie (portrayed by Johnny Depp) is warned by friends, the most important of which is fellow popular writer Arthur Conan Doyle (played by Ian Hart), on improper behavior in his fondness with the boys that are not his own. At the same time, Barrie is discouraged by the children's grandmother, Emma du Maurier (Julie Christie), the widow of the famous novelist George du Maurier, from making his friendship with the Davies children closer. The film takes liberty in its artistic license by changing a few facts to create a good plot for movie fans. But despite this, the point is clear: then, as it is today, the actions of Barrie will result in scandal, especially when involving the protection of our children. Accusations on whether Barrie was a pedophile will forever find themselves mentioned in any and every commentary on his life. Yet, despite the study of countless scholars over time, absolutely no evidence exists to prove it. Lane (Page 3) strongly declares, "the stubborn fact remains: J. M. Barrie was innocent. He no more sought sex from children than he did from women." Barrie himself remained childless all his life and his marriage to actress Mary Ansell only ended in divorce - a result of Barrie's obsession, not with young boys, but with his art. The Little White Bird, it is important to mention, is not a tale of secret pedophile temptations. Instead, it is a joyful friendship between a child and an adult, working together to invent an imaginary character who only exists between them. The audience must look at the fine writing with purity and faith, just the same way children view the world. Indeed, if there is one victim, it is none other than Barrie himself. Of the five Davies children he would call his own, three would eventually die, with George becoming a casualty of the First World War in 1915, Michael inexplicably drowning off the waters in Oxford, and Peter, a month short before the 100 year commemoration of Barrie's birth, committing suicide by throwing himself in front of an incoming London subway train. Death and loss followed the sad creator of a happy classic all throughout his lifetime. In addition, the important result of that fateful encounter in the park cannot be ignored. In the Davies children, the story of Peter Pan began to form, just like the protagonist and his young friend in The Little White Bird. "I always knew," claims Barrie in the famous preface to the novel, "that I made Peter by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a flame That is all he is, the spark I got from you" (Barrie, Preface). Combined, his experiences with the children, their games and antics, and how their imaginations became as one, became the major material for the writer. If before the image of the boy who wouldn't grow up was forming in that place between sleep and awake, now Peter Pan came into life in what would become the most loved, and the most enduring children's story ever made. In the words of Berman, "Peter Pan is a perfect distillation of childhood fantasies and adult nostalgia." But what is ironic is, while it is really children's fare, the Peter Pan novels are actually dark, perhaps showing the inner turmoil of its writer. "Barrie was a wounded creature," writes Lane, "from his earliest youth, and his probing of that wound is what makes "Peter Pan" so enduringly painful to read" (Page 4). Barrie's writings are at the same time symbolic. Death and loss, which Barrie knew all too well, is true and clear in the famous phrase in the novel, "To die would be an awfully big adventure" (Barrie, 1911). And the protagonist Peter Pan himself is not really innocent: a runaway who refuses to become like everybody else, Pan is highly self-centered, impulsive, and is very competitive - even against his very shadow. Yet, this may exactly be the charm of Pan. In the middle of all the group of characters, Indians, pirates, mermaids and fairies, we are all forced to see the world in the eyes of a child. "By portraying even the play's adults through this lens, Barrie allows you to watch an intricate, fantastical game of make-believe--the very kind you yourself used to play," thus describes Ditkoff (Page 1). What may at first appear to be a silly joke now makes perfect and beautiful sense: Peter Pan makes us all hunger for the time of our youth, when everything seems to have been simpler and happier. He may not really be perfect, and in fact has a lot of flaws in many ways. Yet, Pan pays for his beliefs and accepts his price. In a way, Barrie summarizes his mother's consolation in the eternal youth of David Barrie by showing the story of a boy who refused to grow up. Many other important works were to follow: What Every Woman Knows (1908) shows the firm principles of a confident woman; Dear Brutus (1917), another fantasy wherein its characters are transformed like magic into their other selves after having made different decisions in their past; Mary Rose (1920), referring to Barrie's very influential mother; and The Boy David (1936), Barrie's version on the Bible tale of David and Goliath (again, another memoir to a departed brother). His output might have slowed with age. But one can also give the reason for this in yet another loss in Barrie's life: that "other bizarre child of the theater" (Stokes, Page 1)) and Barrie's longtime partner, producer Charles Frohman, who dies famously, both by refusing a lifeboat seat in the RMS Lusitania after being hit by a German submarine in World War I and by quoting Pan's famous line, "To die would be an awfully big adventure" (Barrie, 1911). Other known works in Barrie's big list of masterpieces deserve mention. He was a very productive writer no doubt, and his mind was always at work. But it is only Pan who survives to immortalize him. In this one inspired work of art, Barrie was an avant-garde who dared open our eyes to a new way of looking at things. Here, he bravely went against the normal, from the theater production requirements, to the plot, to the themes, to the conventions of the day. It is therefore no surprise that he was truly, and is always, misunderstood. "A most lovable man -- in certain circumstances -- he must have been; but there was something about him, too, a strangely perverse quality whose nature was almost pathological," claims Stokes (845). To say he is pathological might be a little extreme, but the fact remains that "the saga of Barrie is full of long-sufferers, the longest being Barrie himself" (Lane, Page 4). From being insecure over his height (Barrie never grew to more than 5 feet), to the love he looked for from his mother, to his failed marriage, to the stigma he went through over the Davies children (the only real family he really had), and to seeing the people closest to him die most unexpectedly, Barrie's life certainly seems like a Shakespearean tragedy. Few other famous artists can lay claim to such bad luck. In another Hollywood salute to the Peter Pan mythology titled Hook (1991), Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) sadly realizes the reason behind Peter Pan's (Robin Williams) sudden inability to fly: "With so many sad memories, no wonder you can't find the right happy thoughts to make you fly." But with Barrie, it is somehow the opposite; with so much stigma, and struggling with so many personal problems, it is a wonder at all that he somehow manages, at least as far as his art is concerned, to keep that sense of hope. His art fails to show his inner troubles. The flame of youth burns forever in his soul. Indeed, there is no denying the judge of history. Barrie is now forever regarded a literary genius, with his mystery adding to his fame. He remains as mysterious as ever, and we remain isolated from his inner world, just as Pan (Barrie, 1911) himself was forever locked out of his home in this world thus making him young forever. We can only merely see some acceptable explanation from his works - and even that won't lead us to any sure answer. But what matters is that he gave us so much to make our lives noble. The art of James Matthew Barrie should be the end in itself. After all, it was the great American director, Alfred Hitchcock, who said that one of the high points of dramatic art in the Western world was the moment when Peter Pan asked the audience to clap if they believed in fairies (Sarris, Page 1). And, it is worth mentioning, the audience did react in a thunderous applause as they still do today, more than a century after. Works Cited Barrie, J.M. Margaret Ogilvy. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1896 Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan. Harper Festival. 1911 (The printed edition of Peter Pan was where many of the explanations on who Barrie is as an artist was used. Some beliefs of Barrie may be seen in this work which includes the beliefs that Peter Pan says.) Berman, Matt. "Common Sense Review: Peter Pan" CommonSenseMedia. 01 June, 2007 http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/Peter-Pan.html Ditkoff, Anna. "Not Acting Their Age." CityPaper OnLine. 10 September, 2002. 01June, 2007. < http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.aspid=4277 > Finding Neverland. Dir. Marc Forster. Perf. Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Ian Hart, Dustin Hoffman. Miramax. 2005. Hook. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman. Tristar Pictures. 1991. Lane, Anthony. "Lost Boys. Why J.M.Barrie Created Peter Pan." The New Yorker. 22 November, 2004. 01 June, 2007. . Path: archive; 2004/11/22/041122 Stokes, Sewell. "The Story of J.M.B." Theatre Arts. November (1941): 845-848. Sarris, Andrew. "Clap if You Believe in Fairies: Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland." The New York Observer. 21 November, 2004. 01 June, 2007. Wikipedia. "Peter Pan." 31 May, 2007. 01 June, 2007. Annotated Bibliography 1. Margaret Ogilvy, Barrie's biographical account of his mother, was used to show how she became a major influence in his life. The important information in this book is in the third chapter where Barrie tells of the death of his brother, David, which hurt his mother badly. Because Barrie longed for the attention of his mother, this episode will haunt him until adulthood. He will not forget in particular how his mother finds consolation in the fact that David will always remain young and will never grow old. This goes on to become the central theme of the Peter Pan story. 2. Peter Pan, the most loved children's classic of all time, is where many of the explanations on who Barrie is as an artist was used. We can see glimpses of his beliefs and his life through Peter Pan like, for example, when Peter Pan loses his mother. But the most important thing is that despite the pain, Pan does not lose his zest for life and remains young at heart, because to grow old (just like the Pirates and Captain Hook) means losing your innocence and a pure heart. In life, Barrie also showed this to everybody. 3. Peter Pan Book Review by Common Sense: This review of the book is where some of the quotations in the paper were taken. The book review makes a lot of comments on the character of Peter Pan and makes some connections to the life of Barrie. 4. Peter Pan Play Review titled Not Acting Their Age. This is another review of the play where some quotations in the paper were also taken. The play is unique because the performers were asked to act like children. This way, the director believes that they will capture the true spirit of the novel. 5. Finding Neverland. From this movie, some of the important events in Barrie's life were shown and this was used as examples in this paper. More importantly, I used the scenes where people around Barrie would discourage him from being friends with the Davies children. 6. Hook. Just one scene in this movie was used for this paper. It was the scene where Tinkerbell realized that Peter Pan has so much agony deep inside him. I used this in relation to what Barrie must also have felt as a person. 7. Lost Boys. Why J.M.Barrie Created Peter Pan. This internet article by Anthony Lane gave me a lot of support for the many points I mentioned in the paper. Lane defends Barrie in this article and praises him for being a pioneer in his art. 8. "The Story of J.M.B." This internet article also mentioned many points on the character of Barrie and I used some of these points in this paper. 9. "Clap if You Believe in Fairies: Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland." This movie review of Finding Neverland mentioned an important statement from Dir Alfred Hitchcock and I used it as the closing statement. 10. Wikipedia. From this online encyclopedia I gathered many facts or events that happened in Barrie's life. Read More