A Rose

 

   “”A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a popular reference to William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family’s rival house of Montague, that is, that he is named “Montague”.  The reference is often used to imply that the names of things do not affect what they really are.” (Wikipedia.org)

     I was reminded of this recently within a family situation that came up with my siblings.  I found out several months ago that my younger brother was in the process (and has since completed) having his name legally changed.  He has, for some time now, been producing artwork and offering it for sale on the internet.  When I inquired of him about the change, his reply was that the name he had selected (although using his original initials) gave the impression of a more artistic “ring.”  It really made no difference to me and I could understand the reasoning he had laid out for doing it.

     However, a couple of weeks ago, I got a phone call from my older sister.  Her first words were “Have you talked to our brother lately?”  I had, but I wasn’t sure where she was going with posing the question the way she did.  She then told me that she had heard he had changed his name!  She was NOT pleased!  Her tone changed quickly and she began to barrage me with questions (although I knew she was not waiting for me to give her some kind of response).  “What does he think he is doing?  Is he not wanting to be our brother anymore?”  and so on. 

     This made me think about some individuals of the past that we have come to accept by their self-imposed pseudonyms.  One of my favorite American writers, humorist, entrepreneurs, publishers, and lecturers is Samuel L. Clemens, or as you probably know him better, Mark Twain.  His beloved novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  He was a well-respected individual of his time having paid back all his debts even after being relieved of doing so by bankruptcy.  But you may not have known that Clemens tried his writing career under another pen name before becoming the now famous, Mark Twain.  Between October 18, 1856 and March 14, 1857 Clemens contributed at least three travel letters to the Keokuk (Iowa) Post for which he received a minimum payment of $5.00 each.  He signed his contributions “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass.”  The letters are significant in that they represent one of Clemens’ earliest attempts at writing in a vernacular voice according to twainquotes.com.

     One you may or may not be as familiar with is George Eliot.  This famous 19-century writer became one of the most important English novelists of the era next to Charles Dickens.  In fact, Dickens himself once wrote, in an 1858 letter to the novelist, “The exquisite truth and delicacy, both of the humor and the pathos of those stories [in Scenes of Clerical Life] I have never seen the like of.”  Also the novel Middlemarch is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written in English.  This famous writer not only changed their name for “artistic” reasons, but also changed their gender!  George Eliot was in fact, a female, Mary Ann Evans.  The use of a pen name by female authors has been one way they have tried to level the playing field and get their voices heard.  This has not changed even today.  Her publicist encouraged Joanne Rowling to write her “Harry Potter” series under the name of J.K. Rowling to improve her readership of those who might be somewhat leery of reading the works of a woman.  By the way, she also writes crime fiction under the pen name Robert Galbraith!

     And there could be many other examples that I could quote.  It wouldn’t be limited to the writing field either.  We are all familiar with those actors in Hollywood who have changed their names and gone on to be box-office successes.

     The point I am making is exactly what William Shakespeare was making in his line from “Romeo and Juliet” that I quoted at the opening of this post.  “A rose by any other name would smell as sweat.”  Just because the name of something has been changed doesn’t mean that its essence has changed in some way.  If you were to take an apple that you loved and began calling it “sweet fruit,” would it now taste different to you somehow?  Would you no longer consider enjoying the fruit since the name had changed?  These are things that we have to consider when evaluating our feelings about other things that have now become different.  The biggest obstacle in facing these types of situations is the fact that we’re only human! 

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"The caterpillar becomes the butterfly.

Change can be the start of a new beginning."