“Mary Poppins in the Park” by P. L. Travers (post 8): Fantasy and Shadow Alternate Personalities

Fantasy Alternate Personalities

Both adult and child characters have experiences in which, for a period of time, fairy tale characters exist as real animals and people, followed by questioning as to whether these episodes really happened (but they are portrayed as real). “I remember everything,” said Michael…“And so does Jane—don’t you, Jane? And you do, too, Mary Poppins!” (1, p. 159). These fairy tale characters are equivalent to alternate personalities as long as they seem to have minds of their own.

In the chapter, “The Park in the Park,” a miniature, magically-peopled park is created within the real park. “But it happened, didn’t it?” he [Michael] whispered. “We did go into the little Park and join them at the feast…“Oh, yes, it was true” [agrees Jane]. “Do you think, Mary Poppins, that everything in the world is inside something else?” (1, 204-205). Once again, there have been fantasy characters that had minds of their own, but afterwards, the regular, host personalities have to fight the tendency to have memory gaps.

Shadow Alternate personalities

In the last chapter, “Hallowe’en” (the night before Mary Poppins’ birthday?), all the regular characters have autonomous shadows, variously referred to as “his double” (1 p. 231) and “Your other selves—your shadows…” (1, p. 251). These shadows are the most straightforward depiction of alternate personalities in this novel, except that the psychological issue is camouflaged by attributing it to Halloween.

1. P. L. Travers. Mary Poppins in the Park [1952]. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997.