“ What’s in a name? That is what we ask ourselves in childhood when we write the name that we are told is ours. ”
James Joyce, Ulysses (1922). copy citation
| Author | James Joyce |
|---|---|
| Source | Ulysses |
| Topic | child name |
| Date | 1922 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4300/4300-h/4300-h.htm |
Context
“Like John o'Gaunt his name is dear to him, as dear as the coat and crest he toadied for, on a bend sable a spear or steeled argent, honorificabilitudinitatibus, dearer than his glory of greatest shakescene in the country. What's in a name? That is what we ask ourselves in childhood when we write the name that we are told is ours. A star, a daystar, a firedrake, rose at his birth. It shone by day in the heavens alone, brighter than Venus in the night, and by night it shone over delta in Cassiopeia, the recumbent constellation which is the signature of his initial among the stars.”
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Meaning and analysis
