Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Names
Something I noticed while reading the novel was that the names of most of the main cast of characters are entirely opposite of what they mean when it comes to nomenclature. For example Manfred traditionally comes from Germanic words meaning "Peace" or "strength", and can mean "Man of peace". Manfred is, as we see, a very violent and irrational man at times. Hippolita, his wife, gets her name from the Greek Queen of the Amazons; implying she would be a strong female character who is not so easily ruled by her husband. Conrad means "brave, bold ruler or counsel" and from the little glimpsed of Conrad, he seems not to have been the type to be brave or bold, or really given the chance to be so considering his sickly frame.
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ReplyDeleteI find this very interesting and is knew knowledge to me. Whether Horace was aware of the meanings behind the names or not, they are pure contradictions to the characters in their entirety. Assuming the reader had knowledge and knew the meaning of each characters name, it shows how far off each of them is from what their name "says they should be." But then again that is one of the features of the Gothic/Romanticism era - to venture into and experience the unknown and the abnormal; to go in the opposite direction than is normally expected.
DeleteI actually didn't think about that when I was reading it because I always just regarded them as names. However, after seeing this post, I can see the irony in the names and their characteristics. I'm not sure if this is indeed the case, but part of me wonders if the reason for the irony in their names is because these characters are suppose to be allowed to be more (or something different) than what their name meaning is set to be. For most people, their names do reflect their character to some degree, especially in stories and during this time frame; yet, they were completely different from their original name meanings. I think that the reason behind that is because of this time period. As the first Romantic gothic story, this explored what the Romanticism period was set to do: venture out to beyond. The completely ironic names play into exploring what you don't know, going away from the normal.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fascinating take on the story, as names are meant to define the person. We often overlook such things today, and indeed, I had not even thought about the meanings of the character's names. The fact that the Walpole chose to use names that are in diametric opposition to the attributes of his characters is either quite intentional or an unlikely coincidence. Given the multilayered meanings in many Victorian works, I tend to favor the former explanation. Though the romantic period authors explored new ideals and rationality, the naming of characters has strong ties to the past, and in the case of Hippolita, mythological times. Walpole has his "foot" in two worlds so to speak. He lived in an age of new wonders, and also hearkens back to an age of myth and mystery. What is also interesting is that the meaning of Isabella is "consecrated to God" and Theodore's name means "God's gift". This parallelism, given the fact that they end up marrying each other also seems quite intentional on Walpole's part. If not for Karoc's post, I would never have payed close attention to the names of the characters and would have missed a fascinating aspect of the story.
ReplyDeleteYes, all excellent insights; this practice has its roots in Restoration drama, where character's names often define them by negation (a bad servant named Waitwell or the dull, unimpassioned suitor Sir Willful in Congreve's _Way of the World_, for example). I wonder if this very intentional practice (I agree, this is no coincidence) is telling us how to read the book's characters more generally: the names draw attention to the character's ruling qualities, the passions that drive their actions throughout the novel. Manfred's lack of peace and Hippolita's lack of strength that drives the novel to its It is unfortunate conclusion, the fulfillment of the prophesy. The novel thus joins the episodic plotting of early 18th century novels to the character-driven (or passion-driven) approach of Restoration drama—it's innovation is in the combination of genres.
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