Mary Poppins (character)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins character

Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins
Created by

P. L. Travers
Portrayed by

Julie Andrews
Information
Gender Female
Occupation Magical Nanny

Mary Poppins is a fictional character and the protagonist of P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins books and all of its adaptations. A magical English nanny, she blows in on the East Wind and arrives at the Banks home at Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London where she is given charge of the Banks children and teaches them valuable lessons with a magical touch.[1]

Julie Andrews, who played the character in the 1964 film adaptation, won the Academy Award for Best Actress. British film magazine Empire ranked Mary Poppins (as played by Andrews) the 41st greatest movie character.[2]

Description of character

A quintessential English nanny, Mary Poppins is slightly stern but loving woman, who uses magic and self-control to take care of the Banks children.[1] She is usually identifiable by her sensible hat and parrot umbrella which she brings with her wherever she goes on outings. She is loving and kind towards the children, but can be firm when needed. She is "practically perfect in every way." In the film version, she is a young woman, with an air of grace and elegance about her.

Book

Mary Poppins in P. L. Travers' books is strict and no-nonsense, asserting her unusual brand of discipline over the four (later five) Banks children in her charge. Mary is very vain and is always admiring herself in the mirror and other reflections. She constantly scolds the children for their "bad" behaviour, especially when they point out the magical things she does, for she constantly denies she is anything but a prim and proper lady. Mary only shows her gentler side around her friends, among them the Matchman (Bert), Mrs. Corry, and Nellie-Rubina.

Mary has many relatives, each with their own supernatural or otherwise eccentric nature, at least one of whom appears in each book. She appears to be well known to every sort of magical entity (sorcerers, talking animals, etc.) that appear in the books, some of whom love her dearly and others of whom are quite terrified of her. Some characters, most notably an impudent jackdaw seen in the first two books, call her "The Great Exception," meaning, among other things, she is the only human being who has retained the magical secrets infants possess (such as the power to communicate with animals) until they grow up and forget about them. Some of her adventures occur in London, others in strange realms which later writers might identify as magical dimensions. In literary terms, she might be described as a character who exists in every conceivable fantasy genre (gothic, mythic, urban, etc.) at once: There are many strange people and phenomena in the world, but only Mary Poppins is familiar with them all.

Movie

Mary Poppins in the Disney film, as portrayed by Julie Andrews, is also stern but at the same time more gentle, cheerful, and nurturing of the two Banks children of whom she is in charge. Mary also has a friendship with Bert (Dick Van Dyke), a jack-of-all-trades who is quite at home with Mary's brand of magic. She also is less vain and selfish, and far more sympathetic towards the two children than the nanny in the original stories.

Stage musical

In both the West End and Broadway versions of the stage musical, the Mary Poppins character is more deliberately mysterious than in the movie version. She is stricter with the children (who are also naughtier than their book and movie counterparts) but she only wants them to become the best they can be. Mary in the stage version is also more aware of Bert's feelings towards her.

Actresses who have played Mary Poppins

Additions

Neil Gaiman's short story "The Problem of Susan" mentions a posthumously (for P. L. Travers) published work Mary Poppins Brings in the Dawn, in which Mary Poppins was Jesus's nanny and was therefore herself not part of God's creation.

Mary Poppins appears in the third League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel, in the Black Dossier when it returns to Margaret Cavendish's Blazing World. She later reappears in Century: 2009, where she defeats the Antichrist created by Oliver Haddo. In this appearance, she and other characters hint that she may be a personification of God.

In the short story "El problema de la pequeña cliente," (The Problem of the Little Client) a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Spanish writer Alberto López Aroca, included in the volume "Nadie lo sabrá nunca," (2005, ISBN 978-84-609-7429-1) the detective of Baker Street is hired by a little girl to find her missing nurse, Mary Poppins. In the story, set in Cherry Tree Lane, Bert also appears.

In a sequence of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games a small army of Mary Poppinses land on stage to fight and defeat the nightmares which were haunting children's dreams. The sequence is called "Second to the right and straight on till morning."

Terry Pratchett's Susan Sto Helit character satirizes Mary Poppins in various ways, most explicitly in the novel Hogfather.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Joanne Shattock (1993). "The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers". p.430. Oxford University Press, 1993
  2. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters". Empire. Retrieved 2 April 2013
Books
  • Mary Poppins (1934)
  • Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935)
  • Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)
  • Mary Poppins in the Park (1952)
  • Mary Poppins From A to Z (1962)
  • Mary Poppins in the Kitchen (1975)
  • Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane (1982)
  • Mary Poppins and the House Next Door (1988)
Characters
  • Mary Poppins
  • Mr. Banks
  • Mrs. Banks
  • The Banks children
  • Bert
  • Miss Lark
  • Admiral Boom
  • The servants
Adaptions
Songs
Related


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.