Essay on Toni Morrisons Beloved - Character Naming :: Toni Morrison Beloved Essays

Character Naming in Beloved   Whats in a gain? That which we call a rose By any some other word would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, bind that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And, for thy name, which is no part of thee, want all myself. hakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II.ii   Shakespeares Juliet tells us that names are unimportant - inconsequential, in fact. A name is merely a convenient string of sounds that denotes an individual, but it has no meaning. But this is clearly not true. Would Romeo and Juliet be the same play if its star-crossed lovers were called Robert and Jennifer? Of stratum not. The names of characters serve to identify them as members of a certain finishing and help to cement their identities. A name may be an unequivocal string of sounds, but it carries much more weight than that. In Beloved, Toni Morrison demonstrates a clear understanding of this fact. Her choices of character name s assist in firmly establishing the world of the book.   Toni Morrison was born with the name Chloe Anthony Wofford. She falsifyd her first name to Toni upon entering college - traditionally, a time looked upon as one of great significance in a young persons life. From this, we can infer that Morrison appreciates the power of a changed name to visit a new identity. There are two characters whose names change during the novel Jenny Whitlow becomes Baby Suggs, and Joshua becomes Stamp Paid. In twain of these cases, the character is abandoning the name under which they lived as a slave for a new, free name. Whitlow is the last name of Jennys original master (142), and we check up on that she takes the name Baby Suggs because her husband called her Baby. What she is known as by the deal closest to her is more important than what the white community wishes to call her.   The name Sethe is also interesting. This name could be interpreted as a maidenly version of the Jewish name Seth, used in the fourth and fifth part chapters of Genesis as the name of the third son of Adam and Eve, by and by Cain and Abel.