Vol. 52 No. 1 (2004)
Research Article

Affirmative Naming in No Name

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  • Amy Leal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.2004.52.1.3

Published 2004-03-01

Copyright (c) 2004 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

In the Victorian novel No Name, Wilkie Collins uses naming and unnaming to show the powerless state of women under English common law. When Magdalen Vanstone discovers she is both illegitimate and disinherited after her parents’ sudden death, she loses her wealth, social identity, and name in one. Deprived of her family name, Magdalen begins to embody the sinful (and ultimately repentant) associations of her Christian name as she plots to win back her wealth by marrying her cousin under a false identity. Yet when she succeeds in her plan and is once again reduced to namelessness and powerlessness by her husband, she becomes emblematic of all Victorian women under the doctrine of coverture who lost both their independent social identities and control over their wealth when they married and gave up their family names.

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