Chapter 1
Mrs. Darling tidying her children's minds — the idealized maternal portrait.
Read in Books4Free →Mothers and the Maternal
From Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The novel's central preoccupation with mothers — idealized, betrayed, and longed for, reflecting Barrie's own complicated relationship with his mother.
Chapter 11
Wendy tells the story of the Darling parents waiting for their children to return — Peter is suddenly anguished, revealing he once tried to return to his own mother and found the window barred.
Read in Books4Free →Chapter 16
Peter's bitter speech about mothers: 'long ago... I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me; so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred.'
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