Naming the Trees: Literary Onomastics in Susan Warner's The Wide, Wide World

Abstract

wish could name them all. there's no end to them. ... If you are a-going to name them all, said Nancy, we sha'n't get home to-night; you might as well name all trees. --Susan Warner, The Wide, Wide World Without a Name We have both got same said she, as they went along a wide corridor; shall know which is which? said Ellen, laughing, you say Ellen I shall know you mean me, and when I say it you will know I mean you. I shouldn't be calling myself, you know. Yes, but when somebody else calls, Ellen, shall both have to run. Do you run when you are called? Sometimes, said Ellen, laughing. Ah, but I do always; mamma always makes me. (1) This meeting between Ellen Montgomery, heroine of The Wide, Wide World, and Ellen Chauncey, her young doppelganger, comes at halfway point of novel, when former Ellen has already lived for a time with emotionally cold Aunt Fortune, and learned to live independent of daily comforts of a loving family by seeking higher comfort of Christ's love. At this point, she has left her second, surrogate home and ventured back into wide world of acquaintances, equipped with determination to be Christ-like (and not, as are frequently reminded, merely Christian). With each new acquaintance, Ellen discovers, a transaction takes place in which greetings are offered, trivialities are shared, and names are exchanged. On occasion of this particular meeting, both parties share a name, so there is no impediment to their friendship, and they form an instant bond. That a nominal similarity would render fundamentally compatible would appear at first to be a crude and superstitious claim. resemblance of names is used elsewhere in novel to determine compatibility, such as when Ellen Montgomery first inquires about her Aunt Fortune, and concludes by her name that they will not get along--a prejudgment that turns out to be, for most part, correct: What is my aunt's name, mamma? think you must have heard that already, Ellen: Fortune Emerson. Emerson! I thought she was papa's sister? So she is. Then how comes her name not to be Montgomery? She is only his half-sister; daughter of his mother, not his father. am very sorry for that, said Ellen, gravely. Why, my daughter? am afraid she will not be so likely to love me. (1:23) In this scene, affection, blood relation, and appellation are triune. Where one is absent, others are apt to vanish as well. Implicit in Ellen's perception too is belief that such difference is insurmountable. These three areas meet in relationship of Ellen and her mother, accounting for strength of their attachment. Noting lack of a shared name with her Aunt Fortune, Ellen finds little hope of such a bond. in meeting with Ellen Chauncey, when the Ellen's creep down to find their stockings on Christmas, it is suggested twice that resemblance between them is more than nominal: in response to question, But how shall know which is which? Ellen Montgomery responds, tellingly, Perhaps they are both alike (2:35). In their stockings, they find two great scarlet satin pincushions, with E.C. and E.M. very neatly stuck in pins (2:37). Thus, in both instances, a common name is a common kind: two Ellens finding identical stockings, with identical presents in them, establishes continuity between characters, and marks growth of Ellen Montgomery (juxtaposed with young and uninitiated Ellen Chauncey) as she learns to transcend earthly attachments. Following directly after this fond introduction is another, somewhat less fond one, between Ellen Montgomery and boy William Gillespie. …