“What’s in a Name?”: Shakespeare, Wilde, and the Language of Identity
Introduction What is a name? Is it a vessel of meaning, bearing the essence of a person or object, or merely a social tag affixed by convention? This enduring question lies at the heart of two iconic literary texts: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest . While Juliet famously asserts that names are superficial and malleable, Wilde’s characters—especially Gwendolen Fairfax—imbue names with almost mystical significance. These opposing views reflect a philosophical tension between nominalism and essentialism, and they resonate strongly with modern theories of language and identity. Both plays, in their distinct registers, dramatize the fraught relationship between words and the realities they claim to represent. In doing so, they anticipate central concerns of semiotics and linguistic performativity. Juliet and the Logic of Nominalism In Act II, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet , Juliet offers one of the most quoted reflectio...