Pan's shadow

The Jungian archetype of Puer Aeternus (eternal boy) is a romantic hero. Northrop Frye has designated the phases of Romance: 1) 'the myth of the birth of the hero 2) the innocent youth of the hero 3) 'the normal quest theme 4) 'the maintaining of the integrity of the innocent world against the assault of experience 5) 'a reflective, idyllic view of experience from above and 6) the end of a movement from active to contemplative adventure (198-202). These are clearly portrayed in Pan’s story—perhaps the most emphatic is the maintaining of the innocent world vs. the world of experience. The quest is really embedded in this theme—not so much that the other world needs saving.
As an “Underground Man,” a boy pretending to be an adult, and one who has been long-weary of Realism…I have to confess something: I love Peter Pan. Disney’s “Peter Pan,” “Hook,” and the recent film “Finding Neverland” each explore a facet of romantic youthfulness. Frye would place the story of Pan in the second phase of Comedy—the quixotic phase. This phase is characterized by the hero who runs away to a congenial society without transforming his own. What I find about this genre of heroes’ journeys is how they fit within the realm of satire. By exposing a new world with an other set of expectations, Pan-figures (the Romantic Child—Southey’s Joan of Arc, Don Quixote, modern day sci-fi time travelers, Gulliver, and Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: the child of imagination). One the most fascinating aspects of “Finding Neverland” is how Johnny Depp’s character is, psychologically and spiritually, in another world (though he is still outwardly in the world of realism). Tinkerbell is present whether his audience acknowledges her or not. The most touching part of this film is the contrast between the “youthful-puer” escape of the author and the death of Kate Winslet’s character. In a sense, she is on the same comic journey of escape—it can hardly be described as a tragedy. I have heard this movie described, in reviews, as being “soft as a baby’s breath.”
According to Wiki, the Senex is the archetypal opposite of the Puer. He is a wise old man for whom the promises of youthful chimera have faded. He offers advice and wisdom—he does not “quest.” Socrates, Tim from Monty Python, and the oracle in “O Brother Where Art Thou” are good examples.