Symbolism or otherwise of Names in the End.

[shesnotthere]

people pointed out around the time of TBB that Shakespeare had a character called Beatrice from the Tempest, who was an orphan raised by her uncle

I read that in another thread on here, which prompted me to start a discussion on the symbolism/non-symbolism of peoples names in 'The End'.

Let me start by saying There is no character in The Tempest called Beatrice. There is also no character who is raised by her Uncle. There is a Miranda, who is raised on an Island by her father, Prospero.
This name IS used in The End, as are other character names, Caliban, Ariel, Gonzalo, Alonso etc.
if you're determined to read into these i'll give you a brief synopsis of all of those characters within the play.

Miranda- a girl who has never known anything but the Island she lives on, and who lives alone with her controlling father.
(Prospero- said girls father, who has magical powers and controls Caliban as his slave, and Ariel as his faithful spirit. - i don't think anyone is called Prospero in the end though)
Ariel- a Spirit who serves Prospero.
Caliban- a disgusting beast who was the son of a witch Prospero destroyed when he became shipwrecked on the Island. (he also tries to rape Miranda)
Gonzalo- a wise old man (he's only referred to briefly in 'The End'- i believe in this context)
Alsonso- the King of Naples, who becomes shipwrecked due to Prospero's magic and the want for revenge.

I'm sure there are more. I'm unsure that there's any real symbolism in any of them, as for instance Caliban was a horrible beast- why on earth would they called Mrs Caliban after him if it bears any symbolism. also her name is Miranda Caliban.. so that's sort of a contradiction that doesn't really make sense.
it seems that the author has just gone for names which are to do with people who are shipwrecked Ie.

Friday- as in Man Friday in the novel 'Robinson Crusoe'- about being shipwrecked.
Dr Kurtz- as in Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novel 'Heart of Darkness' - Kurtz isnt exactly shipwrecked but his boat has been damaged and left him alone to rule over 'savages' becoming a savage himself ultimately.
Ms. Marlow- Marlow- also in the novel Heart of Darkness, the man who pursues Kurtz into (Africa) via boat.
Erewhon- Erewhon is a character from 'Erewhon' or 'Over the range' by Samuel Butler which is about a failing Utopia- which is obviously not a reference to other books about shipwrecks, but others about failing Utopia's such as the Island in 'The End'
Mr. Pitcairn- Pitcairn is an Island where the mutineers from the mutiny on the Bounty went.
Calypso- Calpyso is the name of a sea nymph in Greek mythology.


- there are tonnes more but these are ones which sprung to mind when tihnking about it, i'm without doubt that every single name mentioned on the Island has a somewhat nautical/utopia/shipwrecked sort of reference, and i don't think there's anything else to read into about that.

-who wants to add some more?

[Dante]

There are a whole bunch of attempts to source all the islanders' names - see these posts in the official discussion thread: 1, 2, 3. Wikipedia's page on the castaways is also very good, and Quidditch.com's guide remains an excellent resource.

[shesnotthere]

In reference to some of the islanders' names, though, let me add/restate some of the connections between the book and other famous tales of shipwreck and revolt:

-- BLIGH, FLETCHER, BYAM, and PITCAIRN all come from the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty.
-- NORDOFF wrote the most famous book about the Bounty
-- ARIEL, CALIBAN, FERDINAND, GONZALO, ALONSO, and MIRANDA (and, earlier, STEPHANO) are all from Shakespeare's The Tempest.
-- MARLOW and KURTZ are from Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
-- CALYPSO is the nymph who holds Odysseus captive on her island for seven years in The Odyssey.
-- OMEROS is the Greek name for Homer, author of The Odyssey (see also Derek Walcott's poem of the same name).
-- FRIDAY and ROBINSON are from Robinson Crusoe – but also, by extension, Swiss Family Robinson.
-- LARSEN and WEYDEN allude to Jack London’s The Sea Wolf
-- JONAH is a gimme.
-- BELLAMY seems to refer to Sam Bellamy, the captain of the pirate ship Whydah, which wrecked in a storm off Cape Cod.
-- And SADIE? See, perhaps, Our Girl Friday, a 1953 British comedy about shipwrecked folks. Not too high-brow, I'll admit, but what the heck!?

WILLA has me stumped, though. Perhaps Willa Cather is the appropriate guess, since she once wrote:

psattler has pretty much answered my question.
- i hope my elaborations on the characters are useful.

[Edward]

shesnotthere said:

[quote
Erewhon- Erewhon is a character from 'Erewhon' or 'Over the range' by Samuel Butler which is about a failing Utopia- which is obviously not a reference to other books about shipwrecks, but others about failing Utopia's such as the Island in 'The End'

Did anyone realize that "Erewhon" is an anagram of "Nowhere"

[Dante]

I believe that the book Erewhon (from which the character takes their name) was so named for precisely that reason.

[Edward]

ffwf said:

I believe that the book Erewhon (from which the character takes their name) was so named for precisely that reason.

Ah, yes, I knew about the book but haven't checked the article. Thanks!

[katysnicket]

I kind of assumed that Ish was so called because if you try to label him good or evil or whatever, you get "Good Ish" or "Evil Ish"... as in, never completely good or evil. And that's why he kept wanting to be called Ish.


Does that make sense? It makes sense in my head, I don't think I worded it very well..

[s]

I guess that's possible, but I think the main idea was more just for it to be a play on Moby-Dick, whose protagonist is named Ishmael, and which begins with the sentence "Call me Ishmael." Ish was just the most convenient nickname. What you say makes sense, I suppose; it just seems like you're overanalyzing a bit.

[madeyetooney]

I think the character Finn was named after Huck Finn.