35 pages • 1 hour read
P.L. TraversMary Poppins
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1934A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Class in England
The novel takes place entirely in London, England where Mr. Banks makes a living in the city and Mrs. Banks worries ceaselessly about the norms and goings-on of her social set. Even Mary Poppins herself carries airs: “[S]he smoothed down her frock and tucked in her umbrella […] so that the handle, or rather the parrot, could be seen by everybody” (17), suggesting an aspirational side to her persona. Humans, magical or otherwise, are unable to avoid engaging with class-consciousness; however, from the hamadryad, Jane and Michael learn that all beings are born, and all beings will die. In other words, everyone is ultimately the same.
The maintenance of class distinctions has long been a quintessential characteristic of British culture, and Travers, an outsider to the British class system as an Australian, clearly has plenty to say about the social strata in place at this time. Travers makes a mockery of excessive upper-class extravagance with the examples of Miss Lark’s over-indulgence and her dog’s Andrew’s shame over being a pedigree. In addition, Travers pokes fun at the anxieties of middle-class women like Mrs. Banks who are so desperate to fit into modern society that they fall victim to individuals who are cleverer and more astute. Even Miss Persimmon, Mr. Wigg’s landlady, is so concerned with seemingly upper-crust concepts like dignity that she cannot engage with extraordinary experiences due to worrying about how she must appear to others.
Reality Versus Fantasy
At several points in the novel, Jane and Michael wonder if what they saw or heard or experienced could have actually taken place. Early on, they witness Mary Poppins sliding up the banister, and when she opens an empty bag, she begins pulling items out of it, causing Michael to proclaim, “But I saw […] It was empty” (11). Likewise, the morning after Mary Poppins’s birthday extravaganza at the zoo, both children assume that what they experienced was a dream. This tension between reality and fantasy plays out continuously because Mary Poppins denies everything marvelous; she is no help in terms of discerning the truth. After her birthday party, for instance, she doesn’t admit to the event happening, yet the children see she’s wearing a snakeskin belt and then remember she received a snakeskin as a gift by the hamadryad (king cobra) the previous night.
Tellingly, it is this incongruity in the character of Mary Poppins that adds to her magical qualities. In her, wondrous magic melds with harsh, cold reality. To Jane and Michael, the magical side that supports fantasy is much more significant than harsh reality, which makes the incongruity of Mary Poppins’s character instructional because it highlights that these elements can coexist.
The Loss of Innocence
The story of the Banks twins, John and Barbara, and their eventual loss of language is a moving reminder of the inevitable loss of innocence that takes place as children grow up. As a starling in the twins’ room tells them, “You’ll forget because you just can’t help it. There never was a human being that remembered after the age of one […]” (109). Travers explores this loss of innocence in an unexpected way by homing in on the experience of young babies. By taking seriously the days and interests of infants like John and Barbara, Travers reveals a kind of humanism that might not be typical of fantasy as a genre. Indeed, Travers devotes an entire chapter to the musings of these babies as they converse with sunlight and animals. By describing the potential of babies to speak with nature, a skill and talent that is truly enviable and marvelous, Travers suggests that adult humans have exhausted their potential just by being grown-up. Ultimately, the only adults in the novel who have much to offer by way of insight, personality, and wisdom are the ones who behave like children or the ones who have some otherworldliness to their character.
