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George Darling
From Neverpedia
George Darling is the husband of Mary Darling and the father of Wendy, Michael, and John. His characterization varies substantially from one version of the story to the next. He is a bank clerk, and is concerned about his social status at the lower rung of the middle class.
At the beginning of Peter and Wendy, Barrie stresses George's practicality above all else. Like his wife Mary, he was very pleased with the arrival of each of his children, but was concerned about the expense of raising them. When Wendy arrived, he added up each of the various anticipated costs by the pound, shilling, and penny, including figures for each of the childhood ailments he expected, and he had to be persuaded by Mary to fudge the numbers just enough to allow them to keep her. He repeated the same procedure with each of his sons. When the Lost Boys arrived expecting to be taken in, he hesitated only because his feelings were hurt at not having been asked before Mary agreed, but quickly proposed that they stay in the drawing-room. "Mind you, I am not sure that we have a drawing-room, but we pretend we have, and it's all the same."
This change of attitude comes about from his remorse over the disappearance of the children to Neverland. Because he had dismissed the stories of Peter Pan as nonsense, and had prevented Nana from protecting the children by putting her outside, he blames himself. As punishment he puts himself in the doghouse, even to the point of having Nana's kennel (with him inside) conspicuously transported to the office and back each day. He refuses to come out, to the point that Mary feels she has to confirm that he really is doing it as punishment, not because he likes it. (This is possibly the origin of the expression "in the doghouse".)
[edit] Adaptations
In the Disney adaptation of the story, he believes the stories (told by his daughter in this version and not by his wife) to be a "lot of silly stories" and "poppycock", though he could be stressing from finding out that he might lose his job. He was modeled after and voiced by Hans Conried, who is also the model and voice for the villainous Captain Hook. In many productions of the play, they are sometimes played by the same actor; However, when cooled down in the end of the film, he changes his mind about Wendy's "crazy stories". He later remarks having seen a pirate ship such as Peter Pan's when he was very young himself. In contrast to his moody outbursts, he is gentle at heart - when he punishes the children by taking Nana the dog outside, he feels sorry for her and soothes her to comfort her.
The 2003 movie also has George Darling as pompous and angry; he states that he must become a man "that children fear and adults respect", and he again barks at Wendy for her to grow up, here scheduling formal instruction for his daughter the following morning with his sister Millicent instead of just kicking her out of the nursery.
In the book Peter and the Shadow Thieves, it states that he and Molly Aster were childhood friends in their neighborhood of Kensington Gardens, and it is hinted in that story that he had a crush on her. Since Molly is a nickname for Mary, and his wife was named Mary in Peter and Wendy, it is assumed that Molly later married George Darling, and gave birth to Wendy, John, and Michael.
He is named after George Llewelyn Davies.