Literary Allusions in A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Thirteenth, The End

What's in a Name?

by Chris Frantz

Related Links Unfortunate Events, Book the Thirteenth Quiz Lemony Snicket Characters Hangman Lemony Snicket Biography

Some of the names used by Lemony Snicket might seem really peculiar if you did not know their origins. Since The End takes place on an island, most of the character names come from literary and real-life castaways, mutineers, and sea-faring folk.

Friday and Robinson

In Daniel Defoe's novel of the same name, Robinson Crusoe helps the escaped prisoner Friday and he becomes Crusoe's companion.

Ishmael

Ishmael is the narrator of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. Ishmael is also the first son of Abraham in the Old Testament. He and his mother Hagar were turned out of Abraham's house and the name has become associated with orphans and outcasts.

Sherman

Might be a reference to General William Tecumseh Sherman, famous for his March to the Sea during the American Civil War. Sherman had the distinction of being in two shipwrecks on the same day (April 9, 1853).

Erewhon

Erewhon is the name of Samuel Butler's 1872 novel. Erewhon is the word "nowhere" spelled backwards with the H and W switched and the name of the fictional country the hero discovers. Butler probably based his Erewhon on the South Island of New Zealand.

Weyden and Larsen

Humphrey Van Weyden is a castaway rescued by the brutal captain Wolf Larsen in Jack London's novel, The Sea Wolf.

Omeros

It's the Greek form of the name Homer and a poem by Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott. The poem takes place on the island of St. Lucia using characters and images from Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad.

Finn

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn sailed down the Mississippi on a raft. There is a famous shipwreck scene in the book.

Calypso

Calypso is a sea nymph in Greek mythology. It is also the name of oceanographer Jacques Yves Cousteau's research ship.

Ms. Marlow and Dr. Kurtz

Marlow and Kurtz are characters in Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. Marlow is the captain of a riverboat steamer on the Congo River.

Jonah and Sadie Bellamy

This might refer to "Black Sam" Bellamy, a pirate whose ship, Whydah Gally, sank off Cape Cod.

Characters with names from Mutiny on the Bounty

Madame Nordoff

Charles Nordhoff (with the H) and James Hall wrote the novel Mutiny on the Bounty.

Mr. Pitcairn

Pitcairn Island is where the mutineers of the HMS Bounty ended up. Descendents of the sailors live there to this day.

Byam

Roger Byam is the narrator and a fictional character in the novel, based on real crewman Peter Heywood.

Rabbi Bligh

Capt. William Bligh was the captain of HMS Bounty.

Professor Fletcher

Fletcher Christian was the leader of the mutineers. In the movies, he has been portrayed by Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, and Mel Gibson.

Characters with names from Shakespeare's The Tempest

Alonso

Alonso is the King of Naples.

Ariel

Ariel is a sprite who serves Prospero.

Ferdinand

Ferdinand is the son of Alonso who falls in love with Prospero's daughter Miranda.

Mrs. Miranda Caliban

Miranda is the daughter of Prospero. Caliban is the deformed slave of Prospero.

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