Not so much my favourite names as much as the names which I felt had well chosen by the authors to import a valuable significance to the text.
I find the names of the characters can be productive keys to unlock insight into text. Names are often just one or two words yet authors often choose them carefully because of how they will be expected to reflect the character.
Warning: there will be spoilers for every text mentioned!
Kurtz from Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’
Kurtz is the evil at the heart of the jungle in Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness and although the natives of the Congo worship him like a god, everything about him is a contradiction.
Kurtz — that means short in German — don’t it? Well, the name was as true as everything else in his life — and death. He looked at least seven feet long.
As the narrator Marlow points out, Kurtz’ name contradicts the facts of his life. This irony provokes the reader to ponder what else about Kurtz is a lie? How does Kurtz’ reality match up to his god-like stature?
It’s worth noting that Marlow is the only other character in the novella to be given a proper name. Maybe Conrad is suggesting that neither Kurtz nor Marlow is truly whole? These characters with only one name need each other to be complete. At least, Marlow needs to encounter Kurtz for his realization of the horror of his work to sink in.
Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’
Victor Frankenstein is the original mad scientist whose name is often used to describe his monster instead of him.
Victor
At a glance, the name Victor, when taken as a noun, signifies the “winner”. In the case of Frankenstein, Victor does aspire to be a conqueror of ‘the citadel of nature’.
Another origin point of the name Victor is John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, an epic poem cited throughout the novel by the creature. Milton refers to ‘The Victor’ throughout ‘Paradise Lost’ when referring to God. These facts support the interpretation of the novel that Victor is punished for attempting to be like God.
Interestingly, Percy Shelley (Mary Shelley’s husband, Romantic poet, and supposed inspiration for the character of Victor Frankenstein) used the penname Victor in one of his early collections of poetry.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein is a hard name to pin down to any specific source. Mary Shelley herself claims she derived the name from a dream-vision although an author’s interpretation of their own text should be taken with a grain of salt.
In 1606, the town of Frankenstein (now known as Ząbkowice Śląskie, Poland) was the site of a scandal involving gravediggers (an act Frankenstein involves himself in). Shelley is also supposed to have visited Frankenstein Castle near Darmstadt in 1814 which is where Johann Konrad Dippel (an alchemist) had been experimenting with human bodies.
Finally, Benjamin Franklin – scientist, writer, and experimenter with lightning – may have inspired Shelley. Franklin had been referred to as a ‘modern Prometheus’ which is the subtitle of Shelley’s novel.
Funnily enough, for all that possible implications of Victor’s name, his creation does not get a name. I’ll leave you to think about the implications…
Some sources are available on the Wikipedia page which explains the origins of Victor Frankenstein’s name.
Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’
Jay Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz. James, meaning “supplanter”, makes sense in this light as Gatsby can be said to takeover an invented character.
Jay is the surname of America’s first Chief of Justice, John Jay, which could allude to Gatsby’s compromised yet honest ambition.
Jay is also a common term for someone who is foolish or talkative. Gatsby could easily be described as foolish in his conflation of money and love. Likewise, conversation is a tool employed by Gatsby who affects an English accent and exhausts the phrase ‘old sport’.
“Gat” is a 1920s slang expression for a pistol (specifically a revolver). This lends an ironic implication to Gatsby’s death by shooting, his mob connections, and his illegal money-making schemes.
Gat is also the archaic past tense of the verb “get”. Accumulation of wealth is an important theme in ‘The Great Gatsby’ which comments on the corruption of capitalistic society. ‘Gadsby’ was also a famous early 20s VIP hotel which Fitzgerald may have been alluding to.
The infrequency with which Gatsby is referred to by his first name is also interesting as a way of representing the way he distances his true self from society.
Finally, the old Scandinavian suffix “-by” denotes a town or place and would suggest Gatsby to be the leader of a great clan although ironically he is the epitome of an individualist.
You can download this article which is an excellent source of information about the names in Fitzgerald’s novel.
Othello from Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’
Characters in Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’
Character names in ‘Of Mice and Men’ get a lot of attention in classrooms. Rightfully so as almost every name tells the reader something about the character.
Lennie Small gives us ironic juxtaposition between Lennie’s name and stature.
Curley’s name gives us the visual metaphor of ’tightly curled hair’ which reflects Curley’s tightly wound personality.
Curley’s wife’s lack of a name tells us about the way women were viewed as possessions at the time.