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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BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “East Wind”
The Banks family lives at Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Unlike other, larger houses on the road, the Banks’ house is “rather dilapidated and needs a coat of paint” (1). There’s also a cook, Mrs. Brill; Ellen; and Robertson Ay. Katie Nanna has just left the family, leaving the Banks children without someone to look after them, and when Mrs. Banks asks Mr. Banks what to do about the situation, he suggests she advertise for a nanny “at the lowest possible wage and at once” (3). Mr. Banks leaves for the city where he works as a cold wind blows.
Later in the day, Jane and Michael Banks listen “to the sound of the East Wind blowing through the naked branches of the cherry trees in the Lane” (4) and watch the trees move in the wind. A visitor with black hair and blue eyes arrives to their house, and Jane and Michael overhear their mother talking with the visitor about references, a requirement that the visitor considers outdated, much to the dismay of Mrs. Banks. When Mrs. Banks brings the visitor upstairs to the nursery, Jane and Michael observe the visitor sliding “gracefully up the banisters” (6). Mrs. Banks then introduces Jane, Michael, and the twin babies, named John and Barbara, to Mary Poppins, who is to be their new nanny.
Mary Poppins accepts the position “with a long, loud sniff” (7). Mrs. Banks goes downstairs, and the new nanny begins unpacking her carpet bag. Michael comments on the appearance of the carpet bag, which appears to him and Jane to be completely empty; when Mary Poppins removes several items from the bag, including a white apron, soap, some personal items, and “a small folding armchair” (8), the children can’t help but stare. Mary Poppins gives each of the four children a spoonful of medicine, and the flavor of the medicine in this “miraculous bottle” (10) changes according to the unspoken preference of whomever drinks from it.
As Jane and Michael prepare for bed and watch Mary Poppins continue to unpack her empty carpet bag, they realize “that something strange and wonderful had happened” (10). Michael begs Mary Poppins to never leave, and she explains that she will “stay till the wind changes” (11). The chapter concludes with a description of how glad the entire household feels now that Mary Poppins has arrived, though no one knows how Mary Poppins feels because she doesn’t tell them.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Day Out”
Mary Poppins negotiates the frequency of her days off with Mrs. Banks by asserting the norms of “‘the best people’” (13), and Mrs. Banks gives in, flustered that Mary Poppins “know[s] so very much more about the best people than she did herself” (13). Mary Poppins, looking vain, leaves the house with her white gloves and umbrella. As she walks to meet the Match-Man, whose name is Herbert Alfred (Bert), she looks at her reflection in the windscreen of a car. Today, because the weather is nice, the Match-Man is painting with chalk on the sidewalk instead of selling matches, and Mary Poppins surprises him. Bert has not made much money today with his paintings, so he is unable to treat Mary Poppins to tea. Though disappointed, Mary Poppins smiles.
As Bert and Mary Poppins look at Bert’s paintings, one painting of “trees and grass and a little bit of blue sea” (16) attracts her attention. Bert suggests that he and Mary Poppins “go there—right now—this very day” (17). They jump inside the painting, finding themselves both dressed in beautiful new clothes, and as they walk through the trees, they find a table set for afternoon tea. A waiter appears to serve them tea, raspberry jam cakes, and whelks; after they enjoy tea, they ride on horses on a merry-go-round and then ride “all the way to Yarmouth and back” (20). As darkness falls, Mary Poppins and Bert say goodbye to the waiter and leave the painting. Upon returning to the nursery, Jane and Michael ask Mary Poppins where she has been, and Mary Poppins explains that she spent the day in her very own “Fairyland.”
Chapter 3 Summary: “Laughing Gas”
Jane, Michael, and Mary Poppins get off a bus and walk to Mr. Wigg’s house. Mr. Wigg is Mary Poppins’s uncle, and on the way to his house, Mary Poppins checks her appearance in the window of the tobacconist. She is so pleased with what she sees that she wishes “there had been a dozen of her or even thirty” (24). A woman named Miss Persimmon answers the door and takes offense when she is mistaken for Mrs. Wigg. When they arrive to Mr. Wigg’s sitting room, they see a fire, and a table laden with cups, saucers, bread and butter, tea, crumpets, coconut cakes, and a plum cake. Mr. Wigg welcomes his visitors from his position in the air, close to the ceiling, where he appears to be “sitting on the air, for his legs were crossed and he had just put down the newspaper” (26).
Mary Poppins disapproves of her uncle, and he apologetically explains himself by saying that today is his birthday. Mr. Wigg laughs as he continues to explain that because he is “very disposed to laughter” (26), and because today is his birthday and it has fallen on a Friday, he is “filled with Laughing Gas” (27). These explanations satisfy the children who find themselves laughing uncontrollably; soon, they both “go soaring up through the room” (28) to join Mr. Wigg at the ceiling. Though Mary Poppins does not at all approve of such behavior, she joins Jane, Michael, and Mr. Wigg, and she even manages to bring the table full of food up to where they are sitting.
When Miss Persimmon, Mr. Wigg’s landlady, arrives to deliver more hot water for the tea, she is shocked to see “them all seated on the air round the table” (33), and she scolds Mr. Wigg for being so crass. Michael suggests she join them, and when Miss Persimmon disapproves further to the suggestion, she suddenly finds herself floating through the air with the jug of hot water. Mary Poppins thanks Miss Persimmon as the landlady returns to the ground, which gives Mr. Wigg reason to look at her “half-amused, half-accusing” (34).
When Mary Poppins announces that it is time to go home, the thought is sad enough to make them all return to the floor. On the bus ride home, Jane and Michael marvel over the delightful afternoon they enjoyed with Mr. Wigg, but when they ask Mary Poppins questions about Mr. Wigg and his tendency to laugh and go up in the air, she becomes “offended and silent” (36). Undeterred by her coldness, the two children fall asleep by her side.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
In the first chapter, Travers introduces the main characters and the setting in which much of the plot takes place. Jane and Michael Banks are typical children, complete with infinite curiosity and challenging behaviors: ‘“And [the children] give no trouble at all,’ continued Mrs. Banks uncertainly, as if she herself didn’t really believe what she was saying” (8). Their slightly generic personalities suggest that they represent all children. Jane and Michael communicate the resilience of children, most of whom will tolerate coldness in people they love as long as they get some attention from them, however negative. The openness of children and their acceptance of adult flaws and even hostility make them vulnerable. The Banks children need magic in their lives badly, so much so that they don’t seem to mind Mary Poppins’s sour moods and sarcastic comments.
Mary Poppins displays an unexpected hostility towards her role as a caretaker of children; her lack of affection and her coldness towards Jane and Michael suggest that she doesn’t really like children, which is a startling characteristic for a nanny. One explanation for her behavior is that Mary Poppins must spend her time with children; it may not be a choice for her. After all, only children have access to the world of magic that is her world, so children are her people whether she likes it or not. Alternatively, Mary Poppins might be a softer-hearted soul than she lets on initially, preferring to maintain her aura of authority over the children with a frosty veneer; at moments, Mary Poppins does show some tenderness, first towards her friend Bert the Match-Man and then later towards her uncle, even when the two men behave in ways that inspire her mild disapproval. These breaks in Mary Poppins’s character hint at her complexity and foreshadow future breaks in decorum.
Throughout these early chapters, Travers weaves in plenty of commentary about class hierarchies, establishing an important theme of the entire work. Mrs. Banks, for example, easily falls prey to Mary Poppins’s manipulative behavior when Mary Poppins mentions what “the best people” do and think. Likewise, Miss Persimmon, Mr. Wiggs’s landlady, is too obsessed with her self-image as a dignified lady to notice how marvelous it is to be able to float in the air. Only the children and uncle are impressed with the events that actually warrant awe and admiration. Though Mary Poppins is very concerned with her image in terms of her physical appearance, her vanity may conceal a deeper anxiety about her place in the physical world; her sudden appearance and promise to disappear when the wind changes suggests that her fate is subject the whims of another power greater than her own.
