Names in The Flight of the Heron
Jun. 15th, 2020 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeLanguage meta, part three!
One of my favourite things about stories with historical—specifically eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British—settings is all the beautiful subtlety of characterisation, relationship development and intimacy that can be conveyed through the level of formality of the names characters use for each other. I thought it'd be interesting to investigate this topic as applied to Flight of the Heron, a book which features a carefully-delineated relationship progression and quite a bit of emotional repression. Thanks toluzula for encouraging me to do so :)
First of all, here are all the names used for both Ewen and Keith throughout the book, with how many times each appears:
*This will be an overestimate, because some of them refer to Ardroy the place rather than to Ewen.
Ewen is referred to by name more than Keith, and has more different names. Both characters are referred to by first name more often than anything else, and this is more the case for Ewen, with first name-only accounting for 63% of the mentions of Ewen, vs. 60% for Keith.
I then chose four scenes to examine in detail: two from early on in the book and two from later on, one from each character’s POV in each case. I looked at what names the narrative uses for the two characters, and what names they use to address each other. Here are the results for these:
Chapter 1.6, from beginning of chapter to ‘…his legs felt abominably cold’. Keith’s POV.
Narrative references to Keith: Keith (15), Captain Windham (6), Keith Windham (5)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ardroy (17), Ewen (5), Ewen Cameron (2)
Ewen addressing Keith: Captain Windham (5)
Keith addressing Ewen: Mr Cameron (4)
Here we’re very much in the formal early stages of Ewen and Keith’s relationship—they address each other by title and last name only, and Keith mostly thinks of Ewen as Ardroy rather than by his first name.
Chapter 2.3, whole chapter. Ewen’s POV.
Narrative references to Keith: Captain Windham (17), Keith (13), Keith Windham (5), Windham (1)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ewen (39), Ardroy (1)
Ewen addressing Keith: Captain Windham (7)
Keith addressing Ewen: Mr Cameron (5), Ardroy (4)
The names here are still fairly formal. The use of title vs. first name in the narration has swapped round, as each character thinks of himself mostly by first name and the other mostly by title/last name. But there’s a little less formality in Keith’s speech than in the last scene, with the less formal ‘Ardroy’ joining the more distant ‘Mr Cameron’. It’s noticeable that Keith uses ‘Ardroy’ in more emotionally charged moments—for instance, in his first surprise on recognising Ewen, and after he accidentally hurts him.
After this I made brief stops in another few pivotal scenes in the middle of the book, where I picked up some interesting subtleties. In chapter 3.5—the first time Ewen and Keith meet since the above scene in 2.3—Ewen addresses Keith as ‘Windham’ as soon as he recognises him, and continues to do so for the rest of the chapter. He goes back to using ‘Major Windham’ in 4.3, when he thinks Keith has betrayed him—and then returns to ‘Windham’ in 4.4 after accepting that he didn’t. Keith addresses Ewen as ‘Ardroy’ throughout these scenes.
Chapter 4.7, beginning of chapter to ‘…and a happy end to your journey!’. Keith’s POV.
Narrative references to Keith: Keith (38)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ewen (29), Ardroy (4)
Ewen addressing Keith: Windham (11; two of these are ‘my dear Windham’ <3), Keith Windham (1)
Keith addressing Ewen: Ardroy (3), Ewen Cameron (1)
We’re very much on a ‘friends’ level of intimacy now, with consistent last name-only addresses from both characters. It’s noticeable how often Ewen addresses Keith by name in this scene—it’s as if he’s going out of his way to affirm the intimacy implied by calling him ‘Windham’. Keith thinks of himself by his first name only; but in contrast with the earlier scene, the narrative is now calling Ewen mostly by his first name too.
Chapter 5.5, ‘God’s curse on you…’ to ‘…and the oncoming patrol’. Ewen’s POV. This is quite a bit shorter than the other scenes—there are no whole chapters in the later part of the book from Ewen’s POV where both characters are present—hence the smaller numbers.
Narrative references to Keith: Keith (6), Keith Windham (2), Windham (1)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ewen (14)
Ewen addressing Keith: Windham (2)
Keith addressing Ewen: Ardroy (1)
The more intimate forms of address are clearly still here in dialogue, despite the small numbers. And again, Ewen thinks of Keith with more familiar forms of his name as well—the narrative here doesn’t use Keith’s title at all.
For ease of comparison, I then calculated the relative frequency of use for all the names in each of these scenes. The following table shows uses of each name (in narration and dialogue) per 1,000 words:
These numbers broadly bear out the conclusions above. Both characters tend to think of themselves by first name more than anything else. There’s a clear pattern of the names used in dialogue becoming more familiar over the course of the book, and observable meaningful changes in the level of familiarity even within sections and scenes. Interestingly, the names used in the narrative follow the same pattern: the POV character’s first name is used disproportionately more in each scene, but in the two later scenes the non-POV character’s first name also appears disproportionately, and there are no narrative ‘Captain’s or ‘Major’s, and fewer ‘Ardroy’s in these later scenes. The names used in the narrative, even for the non-POV character, are consistently more familiar than those used in dialogue.
Now, the narrative names are a bit tricky here—the narrative is basically omniscient even while it stays within one character’s head, but on the other hand the names used in narrative are clearly influenced by the characters’ feelings and the development of their relationship, so I think this is fairly notable. The increase in familiarity of names in the narrative over the course of the book is a lovely little detail of style. I especially like that Keith thinks of himself as well as Ewen by first name more, and by title less, in the later scene from his POV—it gives a sense that he's letting his guard down emotionally, letting himself exist around Ewen as 'Keith' rather than 'Major Windham'. Of course, neither character ever addresses the other by first name—but I think this is a good thing, because the significant switch to first name terms is always such a good part of a fic. :D
I already had a definite sense that Ewen and Keith's use of each other's names changes with the development of their relationship throughout the book, but it was great fun and very interesting looking at this in detail and seeing how precisely the pattern is worked out as the story and their intimacy progress. Once again my admiration for Broster's writing is only increased!
One of my favourite things about stories with historical—specifically eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British—settings is all the beautiful subtlety of characterisation, relationship development and intimacy that can be conveyed through the level of formality of the names characters use for each other. I thought it'd be interesting to investigate this topic as applied to Flight of the Heron, a book which features a carefully-delineated relationship progression and quite a bit of emotional repression. Thanks to
luzula for encouraging me to do so :)First of all, here are all the names used for both Ewen and Keith throughout the book, with how many times each appears:
| Keith | 493 | Ewen | 678 | |
| Captain/Major Windham | 239 | Ardroy | 197* | |
| Keith Windham | 54 | Mr Cameron | 92 | |
| Windham | 35 | Ewen Cameron | 57 | |
| Cameron of Ardroy | 17 | |||
| Captain Cameron | 14 | |||
| Mr Cameron of Ardroy | 10 | |||
| Ewen Cameron of Ardroy | 5 |
*This will be an overestimate, because some of them refer to Ardroy the place rather than to Ewen.
Ewen is referred to by name more than Keith, and has more different names. Both characters are referred to by first name more often than anything else, and this is more the case for Ewen, with first name-only accounting for 63% of the mentions of Ewen, vs. 60% for Keith.
I then chose four scenes to examine in detail: two from early on in the book and two from later on, one from each character’s POV in each case. I looked at what names the narrative uses for the two characters, and what names they use to address each other. Here are the results for these:
Chapter 1.6, from beginning of chapter to ‘…his legs felt abominably cold’. Keith’s POV.
Narrative references to Keith: Keith (15), Captain Windham (6), Keith Windham (5)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ardroy (17), Ewen (5), Ewen Cameron (2)
Ewen addressing Keith: Captain Windham (5)
Keith addressing Ewen: Mr Cameron (4)
Here we’re very much in the formal early stages of Ewen and Keith’s relationship—they address each other by title and last name only, and Keith mostly thinks of Ewen as Ardroy rather than by his first name.
Chapter 2.3, whole chapter. Ewen’s POV.
Narrative references to Keith: Captain Windham (17), Keith (13), Keith Windham (5), Windham (1)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ewen (39), Ardroy (1)
Ewen addressing Keith: Captain Windham (7)
Keith addressing Ewen: Mr Cameron (5), Ardroy (4)
The names here are still fairly formal. The use of title vs. first name in the narration has swapped round, as each character thinks of himself mostly by first name and the other mostly by title/last name. But there’s a little less formality in Keith’s speech than in the last scene, with the less formal ‘Ardroy’ joining the more distant ‘Mr Cameron’. It’s noticeable that Keith uses ‘Ardroy’ in more emotionally charged moments—for instance, in his first surprise on recognising Ewen, and after he accidentally hurts him.
After this I made brief stops in another few pivotal scenes in the middle of the book, where I picked up some interesting subtleties. In chapter 3.5—the first time Ewen and Keith meet since the above scene in 2.3—Ewen addresses Keith as ‘Windham’ as soon as he recognises him, and continues to do so for the rest of the chapter. He goes back to using ‘Major Windham’ in 4.3, when he thinks Keith has betrayed him—and then returns to ‘Windham’ in 4.4 after accepting that he didn’t. Keith addresses Ewen as ‘Ardroy’ throughout these scenes.
Chapter 4.7, beginning of chapter to ‘…and a happy end to your journey!’. Keith’s POV.
Narrative references to Keith: Keith (38)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ewen (29), Ardroy (4)
Ewen addressing Keith: Windham (11; two of these are ‘my dear Windham’ <3), Keith Windham (1)
Keith addressing Ewen: Ardroy (3), Ewen Cameron (1)
We’re very much on a ‘friends’ level of intimacy now, with consistent last name-only addresses from both characters. It’s noticeable how often Ewen addresses Keith by name in this scene—it’s as if he’s going out of his way to affirm the intimacy implied by calling him ‘Windham’. Keith thinks of himself by his first name only; but in contrast with the earlier scene, the narrative is now calling Ewen mostly by his first name too.
Chapter 5.5, ‘God’s curse on you…’ to ‘…and the oncoming patrol’. Ewen’s POV. This is quite a bit shorter than the other scenes—there are no whole chapters in the later part of the book from Ewen’s POV where both characters are present—hence the smaller numbers.
Narrative references to Keith: Keith (6), Keith Windham (2), Windham (1)
Narrative references to Ewen: Ewen (14)
Ewen addressing Keith: Windham (2)
Keith addressing Ewen: Ardroy (1)
The more intimate forms of address are clearly still here in dialogue, despite the small numbers. And again, Ewen thinks of Keith with more familiar forms of his name as well—the narrative here doesn’t use Keith’s title at all.
For ease of comparison, I then calculated the relative frequency of use for all the names in each of these scenes. The following table shows uses of each name (in narration and dialogue) per 1,000 words:
| Name | Whole book | Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 4.7 | Chapter 5.5 |
| Keith | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.1 | 9.3 | 5.9 |
| Keith Windham | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
| Windham | 0.3 | - | 0.1 | 2.6 | 2.9 |
| Captain/Major Windham | 1.8 | 1.8 | 5.8 | - | - |
| Ewen | 5.3 | 1.2 | 9.4 | 7.0 | 13.7 |
| Ardroy | 1.5 | 4.2 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 1.0 |
| Mr Cameron | 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.2 | - | - |
| Ewen Cameron | 0.4 | 0.5 | - | 0.2 | - |
These numbers broadly bear out the conclusions above. Both characters tend to think of themselves by first name more than anything else. There’s a clear pattern of the names used in dialogue becoming more familiar over the course of the book, and observable meaningful changes in the level of familiarity even within sections and scenes. Interestingly, the names used in the narrative follow the same pattern: the POV character’s first name is used disproportionately more in each scene, but in the two later scenes the non-POV character’s first name also appears disproportionately, and there are no narrative ‘Captain’s or ‘Major’s, and fewer ‘Ardroy’s in these later scenes. The names used in the narrative, even for the non-POV character, are consistently more familiar than those used in dialogue.
Now, the narrative names are a bit tricky here—the narrative is basically omniscient even while it stays within one character’s head, but on the other hand the names used in narrative are clearly influenced by the characters’ feelings and the development of their relationship, so I think this is fairly notable. The increase in familiarity of names in the narrative over the course of the book is a lovely little detail of style. I especially like that Keith thinks of himself as well as Ewen by first name more, and by title less, in the later scene from his POV—it gives a sense that he's letting his guard down emotionally, letting himself exist around Ewen as 'Keith' rather than 'Major Windham'. Of course, neither character ever addresses the other by first name—but I think this is a good thing, because the significant switch to first name terms is always such a good part of a fic. :D
I already had a definite sense that Ewen and Keith's use of each other's names changes with the development of their relationship throughout the book, but it was great fun and very interesting looking at this in detail and seeing how precisely the pattern is worked out as the story and their intimacy progress. Once again my admiration for Broster's writing is only increased!
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Date: Jun. 16th, 2020 07:28 pm (UTC)It's given me plenty to think about for my current WIP, as well, since that introduces some complications which I think might take the formality of Keith's thoughts and dialogue back up for a bit after the (AU) end of the book—I'll have to do some editing...
I mean, if Keith addresses Ewen as Ardroy, but the narrative uses Ewen while we are seeing things from Keith's POV (though of course really it's omniscient), that feels a bit strange to me, because in my head, those two should match. Otherwise it feels to me like Keith thinks of him as Ewen, but addresses him as Ardroy. How do you reconcile this in your head?
Yeah, it is a bit odd—it's as if the narration is consistently one level of formality above the dialogue, with Keith thinking of Ewen as 'Ardroy' when he calls him 'Mr Cameron' and then thinking of him as 'Ewen' when he calls him 'Ardroy'! But ultimately I think it makes most sense to consider the narration omniscient, with the changing level of formality meant to reflect the characters' thoughts and feelings rather than directly representing them. Of course the narrator, being omniscient, knows both characters intimately and can call them whatever she likes.
Also, it's very interesting that the Keith narration also uses more formal terms for Keith himself in the beginning of the book! I had missed that entirely.
I had too, and it's such a good bit of characterisation! Doing these language meta posts has been very worthwhile.
I actually use 'Captain Cameron' as a form of address from Keith to Ewen very deliberately in my fic to signal Keith's respect for Ewen, as opposed to the disrespect of some of the other Hanoverian officers, who don't take him seriously as an officer.
Another good characterisation detail! The canon 'Captain Cameron's are all from the Prince, his associates and other Edinburgh characters (I suppose Keith wasn't there to see him be made a captain)—it's very appropriate to have that show Keith's respect for Ewen when they spend more time together :)