ABSTRACT
MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie, as well as J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, show that the fantasists were injecting adult anxieties with metaphysics, morality, and sexuality into works for children. The derogatory psychology of superstition that Siebers discusses in The Romantic Fantastic. MacDonald also turns to literary and fairy tale traditions of fairyland to construct Diamond's vision of the realm at the back of the north wind, blending Christian notions of purgatory with legends of fairy abductions to the otherworld. Multiple claims for the underlying message of Peter Pan, particularly the play, have also centered on the plea to revive Tinker Bell after her first brush with death when she drinks poison meant for Peter Pan through an appeal to the audience's belief in fairies to be demonstrated by clapping.
