Gor blimey, Mary Poppins

[ceemage]

Watching Mary Poppins yet again, it's interesting to focus on the Bert character. (Don't worry, this isn't going to be another Dick van Dyke/cockney accent diatribe.) It's long been obvious to me that he's actually the focus of most, if not all, of the magic. But really his role is much more than that, being the central character of the film. I'm not prepared to go as far as some theorists and identify him as an Crowley figure - "do what that wilt, shall be the whole of the law." A better literary archetype would be that of the Lord of Misrule, in that the freedom he represents is fundamentally non-malevolent and ultimately temporary - the authority of the father-figure is restored by the end of the movie.

Or, alternatively, mayhap I've just been reading too much Dave Langford, and am still in hyper over-analysis mode...