Smee

Mr. Smee is Captain Hook's bo'sun in J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and the novel Peter and Wendy.

Mr. Smee seems an oddly genial man for a pirate; Barrie describes him as "Irish", the only Nonconformist among Hook's crew, and "a man who stabbed without offence" – and is portrayed in the multiple pantomimes or movies of Peter Pan as a rather stupid but entertaining man interested in loot rather than Hook's more evil pleasures. Smee typically represents a humorous side to pirating, often portrayed as a portly man with a bulbous nose and red cheeks, although Barrie hinted at a darker side. When captured by Hook, every child in the brig loves Smee – he cannot lay a fist on them and does their darning – despite his belief that they fear him. Hook considers that Smee has good form without knowing it, which is of course the best form of all. He almost tears into Smee for this but knows that clawing a man for having good form is very bad form. Smee offers to save Wendy from the plank, if only she promises to be his mother – an offer she refuses, in Barrie's words, "Not even for Smee". Smee's position on the Jolly Roger is presented inconsistently (in a sense, it could be said that "no two 'Smees' are alike"). In Peter and Wendy, he is identified as the ship's bo'sun. He is one of the two pirates (the second is Starkey) who survive the final battle between the children and the pirates, and "henceforth wandered about the world in his spectacles, making a precarious living by saying he was the only man that Jas. Hook had feared."

Subject ID: 66685

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Mr. Smee is Captain Hook's bo'sun in J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and the novel Peter and Wendy.

Mr. Smee seems an oddly genial man for a pirate; Barrie describes him as "Irish", the only Nonconformist among Hook's crew, and "a man who stabbed without offence" – and is portrayed in the multiple pantomimes or movies of Peter Pan as a rather stupid but entertaining man interested in loot rather than Hook's more evil pleasures. Smee typically represents a humorous side to pirating, often portrayed as a portly man with a bulbous nose and red cheeks, although Barrie hinted at a darker side. When captured by Hook, every child in the brig loves Smee – he cannot lay a fist on them and does their darning – despite his belief that they fear him. Hook considers that Smee has good form without knowing it, which is of course the best form of all. He almost tears into Smee for this but knows that clawing a man for having good form is very bad form. Smee offers to save Wendy from the plank, if only she promises to be his mother – an offer she refuses, in Barrie's words, "Not even for Smee". Smee's position on the Jolly Roger is presented inconsistently (in a sense, it could be said that "no two 'Smees' are alike"). In Peter and Wendy, he is identified as the ship's bo'sun. He is one of the two pirates (the second is Starkey) who survive the final battle between the children and the pirates, and "henceforth wandered about the world in his spectacles, making a precarious living by saying he was the only man that Jas. Hook had feared."

Subject ID: 66685

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