The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up : En tematisk analys av döden i J. M. Barries drama om Peter Pan

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to analyse the thematic purpose of death in J.M. Barries play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. Peter Pan, the Darlings and Neverland each get analysed in separate chapters, to get a fuller understanding of their relation to death. This has been done through the use of copingtheory, and comparisons to earlier myths about catabasis, Pan, and British changelings. Further support has been found through earlier works written about the subject, to deepen the understanding of death’s part in this play for children. The essay concludes that the children in the play are deathly ill – and thus Neverland and Peter Pan are representations of the afterlife, and a spirit which guides children on from this life in to the next.