A Study on Character
Respectively, the protagonists in Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Secret Garden are Alice, Wendy, and Mary. All are going through a crucial stage in growing up which comes with the loss of childhood. The conflicts they deal with are almost entirely emotional. This conflict is quite subtle and complex, and not necessarily good or evil. What I feel they are battling is acceptance of the fact that all must grow up, and each deal with it in very different ways.
These protagonists develop significantly throughout the novels, sufficiently motivated by the worlds in which they surround themselves in. In the case of Mary, an unwanted child who had lost her immediate family to disease, she arrives at Misselthwaite Manor sour, angry, rude and obstinate. "When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another." (Burnett 3). Upon hearing of a mysterious garden locked up for ten years, her curiosity is stimulated, and so begins the loss of disposition. This transformation is clearly evident in her change in attitude towards people and animals. Mary cultivates affection for the company of a friendly robin, and she marks it as the first being that she truly enjoys the company of. "She chirped, and talked, and coaxed and he hopped, and flirted his tail and twittered. It was as if he were talking. His red waistcoat was like satin and he puffed his tiny breast out and was so fine and grand and so pretty that it was really as if he were showing her how important and like a human person a robin could be. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been contrary in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and closer to him, and bend down and try to make something like robin sounds." (Burnett 53). From that point on, Mary finds herself appreciating many other people, such as Martha, a good-natured maidservant, the gardener Ben Weatherstaff, and Dickon, benevolent boy with an uncanny relationship with the wilderness. Later, she befriends the mysterious Colin. These relationships she establishes help her to feel better about herself and become thoroughly engrossed in the landscape around her. I feel this change in Mary is directly related to the new circumstances she is put in; although India was "too hot and languid to care about anything," the moor, with it's fresh air and majestic landscape inspires interest and passion. "But after a few days spent almost entirely out of doors she wakened one morning knowing what it was to be hungry, and when she sat down to her breakfast she did not glance disdainfully at her porridge and push it away, but took up her spoon and began to eat it and went on eating it until her bowl was empty." (Burnett 37).
Alice also changes in response to her environment. Her adventures seem to parallel the journey from childhood to adulthood as she is forced to adapt to new and seemingly foreign, illogical rules. In each of the new situations she encounters, she learns more about the world of Wonderland. At first, she cannot maintain enough composure to keep herself from crying. "Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again." (Carroll 9). Throughout the novel, however, Alice becomes more and more unruffled by the illogical aspects of Wonderland and instead holds her own reasoning against it. "At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his note-book, called out 'Silence!', and read out from his book, 'Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.' 'I'm not a mile high,' said Alice. 'You are,' said the King. 'Nearly two miles high,' added the Queen. 'Well, I sha'n't go, at any rate,' said Alice: 'besides, that's not a regular rule: you invented it just now.' 'It's the oldest rule in the book,' said the King. 'Then it ought to be Number One,' said Alice. The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily." (Carroll 98).
Comparatively, Wendy is portrayed as a girl who knows she must grow up, but has not. She remains in a state of childhood, and when Peter Pan arrives she is not frightened nor disconcerted, she simply is interested, and they are immediately brought together by this childish curiosity. "A shudder passed through Peter, and he sat on the floor and cried. His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. She was not alarmed to see a stranger crying on the nursery floor; she was only pleasantly interested." (Barrie 24). Her role changes significantly when she becomes the "mother" rather than a friend or sibling. This role she is designated intensifies the idea that she must grow up. She regularly educates her brothers John and Michael on their past, as they eagerly forget that they once lived in England. When they forget altogether their parents and earlier life, Wendy makes the transition from child to adolescence by imploring that they must return home. "'Wendy, let us go home,' cried John and Michael together. ... "'At once,' Wendy replied resolutely, for the horrible thought had come to her: 'Perhaps mother is in half mourning by this time.'" (Barrie 114). Although Neverland is the place where children may stay as children forever, it actualizes the rationale for Wendy that she cannot stay. Peter is not necessarily the antagonist in this situation, but Wendy must leave behind Peter and all that he symbolizes. It is Peter and the surroundings of Neverland that help Wendy to develop as a character.
The presence of a setting which gives each protagonist room to grow is what contributes to the journey they embark on. It provides a place for characters to become motivated for change and growth and in each circumstance they emerge transformed.
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