{"id":2388,"date":"2025-04-10T05:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2025-04-10T05:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:21:23","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2025\/04\/10\/whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Carroll\u2019s <\/span>Through the Looking-Glass<\/span><\/i> points out the significance people (often subconsciously) attach to names and words. When Alice meets Humpty Dumpty and he asks for her name, she questions \u201c<\/span>Must<\/span><\/i> a name mean something?\u201d (174). Humpty Dumpty answers, \u201cOf course it must, <\/span>my <\/span><\/i>name means the shape I am\u201d (174). Humpty Dumpty\u2019s name is reflective of his appearance and character. The word \u201chump\u201d and the shape of the letter \u201cu\u201d illustrate his oval shape, and the \u201cump\u201d invokes feelings of falling down or \u201cthumping,\u201d matching with his fall from the wall and inability to get back up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carroll often uses made up words, such as in \u201cJabberwocky\u201d when he uses the terms \u201cbrillig\u201d and \u201cslithy.\u201d Despite these being made-up words, they still invoke feelings in the reader, and ideas of what they could mean. The \u201ctwas\u201d before \u201cbrillig\u201d seems to imply that \u201cbrillig\u201d is a time, and \u201cslithy\u201d sounds like a combination of \u201cslimy\u201d and \u201clithe.\u201d The use of these made-up words explores more deconstructionist ideas of semiotics; rather than a word or name being just that– a \u201cclothing\u201d of speech that gives a fixed name to a concept (Saussure), a name\/word is an extension of language that can change in relation to time, other words, and the changing of other words (Derrida). Carroll\u2019s frequent use of wordplay and creation of new words demonstrate this concept by showing that words have connotations that invoke feelings\/ideas and connect to other words, rather than having one solidified meaning. For example, with the knowledge of the words “slimy” and “lithe,” readers are able to create a relationship to “slithy.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Further, Carroll\u2019s emphasis on names specifically highlights how names hold connotations that can impact our perception of a person. Humpty Dumpty wants Alice\u2019s name in order to understand her business, but then concludes that her name is not one fixed identifier, saying \u201cWith a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost,\u201d continuing to reflect this deconstructionist concept of language (175). Curiously, Lewis Carrol\u2019s real name was Charles Dodgson. It is interesting to think about why he chose this pen name, and how he might have thought about the impression his name would leave on readers. \u201cCarol\u201d seems to immediately set up the idea that he is a storyteller. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lewis Carroll\u2019s Through the Looking-Glass points out the significance people (often subconsciously) attach to names and words. When Alice meets Humpty Dumpty and he asks for her name, she questions \u201cMust a name mean something?\u201d (174). Humpty Dumpty answers, \u201cOf course it must, my name means the shape I am\u201d (174). Humpty Dumpty\u2019s name is … Continue reading What’s in a name?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5595,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135984],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}