Names In Mr Pip By Lloyd Jones

“What is your name?” is a common question an individual asks another upon meeting for the first time. With names is how we identify ourselves and others. Names have been in use since the man began to evolve from his primitive ways and began communicating. In the book Mr. Pip, by Lloyd Jones, along with it’s interesting storyline, Jones exhibits how names and nicknames shape characters in a book. Names play an essential role in developing a character personality and attributes. Mr. Pip consists of many dynamic and interesting characters which prove the importance of names, as they all live up to the meanings of their names in correlation with their role in book. The character Matilda is portrayed as a freedom-seeking persona, Dolores struggles

The name Dolores is a Spanish name which means “Mother of Sorrows” (Nameberry). Just like her name suggests, throughout the novel she goes through a lot of bitterness and sorrow which leads to her eventually rape and murder. In the novel, Dolores believes she is losing her daughter to the white world and Mr. Watts due to his teaching methods. Matilda looks up to him and they almost have a father-daughter relationship due to that. Dolores has such a strong hatred towards Watts that she went to the extent to hide the book Great Expectations, in order to get him in trouble with the Redskins. “She only saw a white man. And white men had stolen her husband and [Matilda’s] father” (Jones 49). Dolores is cruel and cold-hearted character because, due to her actions, the village belongings are burned by the Redskins and so are the houses. She had multiple chances to save the village but she decides not to in order to get back at Mr. Watts. One night, when Matilda “unrolled [her father’s sleeping] mat, [she finds] Mr. Watts’ copy of Great Expectations” (Jones 108). Dolores definitely lives a difficult life as she forever resented her husband for leaving the island and as she struggled to be close to her daughter. Although, near the end of the novel, Dolores surprises the readers and her daughter as she “[steps] forward to proclaim herself God’s witness to the cold-blooded butchery of her old enemy, [Mr. Watts]” (Jones 210). Dolores can also be compared to Miss Havisham from Great Expectations as both their husbands left them and both suffered loneliness and lived in the past. Dolores’ character definitely relates to the meaning of her name when