Eng 463 J.M. Barrie
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ENG 463:The Victorian Period (1837-1901)
Tom Passaro
Contents |
Introduction
Useful internet sources for information about J.M. Barrie:
- J.M. Barrie: Official Web Site
- Wikipedia entry: J.M. Barrie
- Encyclopaedia Britannica entry: Barrie, Sir James (Matthew), Baronet
- Free Online works by J.M. Barrie (Full Text):
Wikipedia Biography
(Available Online)
- Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937), more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys.
- Born in Kirriemuir, Angus, the second youngest of ten children, Barrie was educated at the Glasgow Academy and the University of Edinburgh. He became a journalist in Nottingham, then London, and turned to writing novels and subsequently plays. He is also credited for the invention or popularisation of the name "Wendy", as only five records of girls named Wendy can be found before the 1910 United States Census.
- Made a baronet in 1913, Barrie lies buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and one sister and brother. His baronetcy was not inherited.
Topics
All topics are based on chapter titles of Sally Mitchell's Daily Life in Victorian England (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996).
Class, Tradition, and Money
J.M. Barrie (1860-1937) was born into a large family in Kirriemuir, Scotland, during what is commonly recognized as the mid-Victorian period. In the early years of Barrie's life, his father, David Barrie, was a weaver. His mother, Margaret Olgilvy, never worked for wages, but did much of the "more delicate" chores around the home.
Barrie's father successfully anticipated the imminent spread of industrialization into the weaving town of Kirrimuir and, through the purchase of more looms and the hiring of workers, was able to keep up with the machinization of the industry. This business move allowed David Barrie to become more of a manager than a weaver, and in turn brought more income to the family.
While it was normal for children to begin work early in life, J.M. Barrie was not made to do so. Instead, he was given many opportunities to gain education at various schools, including those which his elder brother, Alick, initiated. This extended amount of education during his childhood helped to provide Barrie with the learning and inspiration he would need to become a writer.
In Sentimental Tommy, Barrie gives an example of the value of money during the Victorian period. At this point in the story, Tommy and Elspeth (brother and sister) are saving money to celebrate Hogmanay, a Thrums tradition which is similar to Thanksgiving or Christmas. Though they are the poor children of a dying, single mother, they manage to save up enough to buy "three bridies, an oatmeal cake, and a hunk of kebbock." The following describes the progression of the meager savings:
- What to do with their ladyship's threepence? Tommy finally decided to drop it into the charity-box that had once contained his penny. They held it over the slit together, Elspeth almost in tears because it was such a large sum to give away, but Tommy looking noble he was so proud of himself; and when he said "Three!" they let go.
- There followed days of excitement centred round their money-box. Shovel introduced Tommy to a boy what said as after a bit you forget how much money was in your box, and then when you opened it, oh Lor'! there is more than you thought, so he and Elspeth gave this plan a week's trial, affecting not to know how much they had gathered, but when they unlocked it, the sum was still only eightpence; so the Tommy told the liar to come on, and they fought while the horrified Elspeth prayed, and Tommy licked him, a result due to one of the famous Thrums left-handers then on exhibition in that street for the first time, as taught by Petey Whamond the younger, late of Tillyloss.
- The money did come in, once in spate (twopence from Bob in twenty-four hours), but usually so slowly that they saw it resting on the way, and then, when they listened intently, they could hear the thud of Hogmanay. The last halfpenny was a special aggravation, strolling about, just out of reach, with all the swagger of sixpence, but at last Elspeth had it, and after that, the sooner Hogmanay came the better.
Working Life
Barrie gives a comic commentary on the working life of a writer in Tommy And Grizel, by showing Mr. O.P. Pym's (a writer) reason for telling other writers to grow a beard:
- He had no beard. "Young man, let your beard grow." Those who have forgotten all else about Pym may recall him in these words. They were his one counsel to literary aspirants, who, according as they took it, are now bearded and prosperous or shaven and on the rates. To shave costs threepence, another threepence for loss of time -- nearly ten pounds a year, three hundred pounds since Pym's chin first bristled. With his beard he could have bought an annuity or a cottage in the country, he could have had a wife and children, and driven his dog-cart, and been made a church-warden. All gone, all shaved, and for what? When he asked this question he would move his hand across his chin with a sigh, and so, bravely to the barber's.
- Pym was a present suffering from an ailment that had spread him out on that sofa again and again -- acute disinclination to work.
Science and the Urban World
Barrie includes references to scientific, technological and urban advancements in his books, such as horse-drawn buggies/cabs, trains, and perambulators. In fact, he seems to have had a sort of facination with the latter. Peter Pan, Barrie wrote, escapes from his mother by rolling away in a perambulator. In Sentimental Tommy, Tommy and Grizel, two young, about-to-be-runaway sweethearts are tracked down by a man in a hansom cab, as the following illustration shows.
In Tommy And Grizel, Tommy's childhood friend, Corp, has become a porter at the train station:
- And the other Jacobites, what of them? Hi, where are you, Corp? Here he comes, grinning, in his spleet new uniform, to demand our tickets of us. He is now the railway porter. Since Tommy left Thrums "steam" had arrived in it, and Corp had by nature such a gift for giving luggage the twist which breaks everything inside as you dump it down that he was inevitably appointed porter. There was no traveling to Thrums without a ticket. At Tilliedrum, which was the junction for Thrums, you showed your ticket and were then locked in. A hundred yards from Thrums Corp leaped upon the train and fiercely demanded your ticket. At the station he asked you threateningly whether you had given up your ticket. Even his wife was afraid of him at such times, and had her ticket ready in her hand.
In Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens, Barrie makes several comical mentions of perambulators (in this case "walk" refers to a sidewalk or paved path):
- We are now in the Broad Walk, and it is as much bigger than other walks as your father is bigger than you. David wondered if it began little, and grew and grew, until it was quite grown up, and whether the other walks are its babies, and he drew a picture, which diverted him very much, of the Broad Walk giving a tiny walk an airing in a perambulator.
And
- Returning up the Broad Walk we have on our right the Baby Walk, which is so full of perambulators that you could cross from side to side stepping on babies, but the nurses won't let you do it.
And again, when describing the "Round Pond":
- It is the Round Pond because it is in the very middle of the Gardens, and when you are come to it you never want to go any farther. You can't be good all the time at the Round Pond, however much you try. You can be good in the Broad Walk all the time, but not at the Round Pond, and the reason is that you forget, and, when you remember, you are so wet that you may as well be wetter. There are men who sail boats on the Round Pond, such big boats that they bring them in barrows, and sometimes in perambulators, and then the baby has to walk. The bow-legged children in the Gardens are those who had to walk too soon because their father needed the perambulator.
Government and the Law
House
Clothes
In the passage above, taken from Sentimental Tommy, J.M. Barrie describes a childs reaction to the "sexless clothes" worn during early childhood. It is obvious that the boy, Tommy, is somewhat ashamed to be wearing them, because the narrator mentions that the reader must look at him "sideways" or Tommy will sit down to hid the appearance of his clothes.
In Mitchell's book, Daily Life In Victorian England, she includes a drawing of what these clothes may have looked like:
Family and Social Rituals
James Barries' mother, Margaret Olgilvy, was arguably one of the strongest influences in his life. Barries' older brother, David, died at a young age, and their mother was left stricken with grief for, some say, the rest of her life. Seeing her unhappiness, the young James decided that he was going to try to cheer her up. Whenever he would hear a joke or a warming story, he would rush home and tell his mother. He had a notepad on which he kept track of how many times she laughed. When he told her that he kept track her laughs, she laughed, and when James marked that one down, she laughed again.
Mitchell states in Daily Life In Victorian England that as more and more people began to gain wealth, or at least a larger surplus of money, especially in the lower classes, more people were prone to have pets. The following pictures show J.M. Barrie's dog, Porthos, which was included in the play Peter Pan.
Education
In the book Sentimental Tommy, Barrie makes references to education. The children in the fictional town of Thrums attend one of several nearby schools, based on their capacity for learning. Tommy's teacher is a strict man named Mr. Cathro; some other teachers are nice young women. There is a strong competition among the schools in the town, as well as with schools from other towns, to excel academically. Those students who do the best in school are allowed to take a special test to see if they will, as Barrie says it, "carry the bursary." While the term "bursary" is never defined, it is obvious from the context that it is similar to scholarships in modern schools. Those students who score the highest on the test are given an amount of money to go on to higher education, which is essentially a college or seminary, as seem of them have religious connotations, or at least that option.
Health and Medicine
Holidays, Sports, and Recreation
In Sentimental Tommy, Barrie describes an annual festival called "The Muckley," which is a carnival-like street festival in the fictional town of Thrums, Scotland. He begins by describing the intense feelings of anticipation among the children:
- Every child in Thrums went to bed on the night before the Muckley hugging a pirly, or, as the vulgar say, a money-box; and all the pirlies were ready for to-morrow, that is to say, the mouths of them had been widened with gully knives by owners now so skilful at the jerk which sends their contents to the floor that pirlies they were no longer. "Disgorge!" was the universal cry, or, in the vernacular, "Out you come, you sweer deevils!"
And:
- Beware of Pickpockets! Had it not been for placards with this glorious announcement (it is the state's first printed acknowledgement that boys and girls form part of the body politic) you might have thought that the night before the Muckley was absurdly like other nights. Not a show had arrived, not a strange dog, no romantic figures were wandering the streets in search of lodgings, no stands had sprung up in the square. You could pass hours in pretending to fear that when the morning came there would be no fairyland. And all the time you knew.
- About ten o'clock Ballingall's cat was observed washing its face, a deliberate attempt to bring on rain. It was immediately put to death.
Later, Barrie gives descriptions of the festival, such as:
- If it was true that all the witches were dead, then the streets of stands and shows and gaming-tables and shooting-galleries were erected by human hands, and it followed that were you to listen through the night you must hear the hammers. But always in the watches the god of the Muckley came unseen and glued your eyes, as if with Teuch and Tasty, and while you slept -- Up you woke with a start. What was it you were to mind as soon as you woke? Listen! That's a drum beating! It's the Muckley! They are all here! It has begun! Oh, michty, michty, michty, whaur's my breeks?
and, later:
- How to describe the scene, when owing to the throng a boy could only peer at it between legs or through the crook of a woman's arm? Shovel would have run up ploughmen to get his bird's-eye view, and he could have told Tommy what he saw, and Tommy could have made a picture of it in his mind, every figure ten feet high. But perhaps to be lost in it was best. You had but to dive and come up anywhere to find something amazing; you fell over a box of jumping-jacks into a new world.
Throughout his life, Barrie loved to play sports. Though cricket seemed to be his favorite, he also enjoyed croqiet and all sorts of other games. In his book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Barrie wrote:
- Between the well and the Round Pound are the cricket pitches, and frequently the choosing of sides exhausts so much time that there is scarcely any cricket. Everybody wants to be first, and as soon as he is out he bowls unless you are the better wrestler, and while you are wrestling with him the fielders have scattered to play at something else. The Gardens are noted for two kinds of cricket: boy cricket, which is real cricket with a bat, and girl cricket, which is with a raquet and the governess. Girls can't really play cricket, and when you are watching their futile efforts you make funny sounds at them. Nevertheless, there was a very disagreeable incident one day when some foward girls challenged David's team, and a disturbing creature called Angela Clare sent down so many yorkers that ---- However, instead of telling you the result of that regrettable match I shall pass on hurriedly to the Round Pound, which is the wheel that keeps all the gardens going.
Religion and Reform
Morality
England and Empire
There are several places in Sentimental Tommy where Barrie makes references to Queen Victoria. In his normal playful manner, he shows the children in the story acting out a rebellion against the queen. While the children are only pretending to be rebels against another character, the situation gives us a small glimpse into the minds of those who opposed Victoria's accent to the throne. The following two images give one reference in its full form:
References
Barrie, James Matthew. Sentimental Tommy. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899.
Barrie, James Matthew. Tommy And Grizel. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912.
J.M. Barrie's official web site. 16 Jan. 2007 <jmbarrie.co.uk>
"J.M. Barrie." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 16 Jan. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Matthew_Barrie>.
Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.