Analysis of the name Jack and Tallis

JACK

the name jack refers to someone who cant be trusted, the name really confirms who he is as a character, as he is the husband cheating on emily tallies. This could support how a jack is the knave in a suit of playing cards, as it could reflect how the family cannot trust him to be a loyal father and husband.

There isn't a presence of him in the story, this is likewise in most card games, usually we disregard the jack, and place it to the side and don't think of it much, and it really doesn't have any part in the game. This is like Mr. Tallis' life, he's always doing something else on the outside, he is not in the Tallis home, and isn't much of a part in his families life. This could refer to the distant nature of his character, and how he is always absent from the events of his wife and children. The name jack is also used frequently in fairytales, which could reflect his absent nature, and how he is like just a story thats being told, we hear about it, but never see him, like a fairytale, it is almost all make belief, like jack having to work late.

The name jack is also a another version of the name john, which refer's to a man. His attitude could be seen very stereotypical to the way a man would act, dominating, independent, doing their own thing, as well as being able to have as many women as he'd want.

There are also many equipment and jobs including the word jack in it, for instance lumberjack, which could confirm his nature of being a hardworking husband and father, who tries to earn money to put the food on the table, to meet up to that once wealthy status of the Tallis'.

TALLIS

The names Tallis actually refers to a judaism shawl worn by jewish men at morning prayer. A shawl is a elongated rectangular piece of cloth typically used to cover the head and shoulders. The word originally came from biblical hebrew tillel, which means 'to cover'. The irony here, is how the Tallis' don't cover up what they do enough, the families actions are so explicit, especially cecelias lack of etiquette and how she behaves in not a very accepted way that girls should.

The Tallis' are anything but religious, the way they don't abstain from sex and do it without any care or regard for the fact hat someone else may enter the room. Also the way they don't really have family time, and don't spend anytime together as a family seems rather unreligious. They are kind of a dysfunctional family, in the sense, there's no real sense of respect for one another. No one has meals with one and other, and the young don't seem to really respect their elders. No one has responsibility either, everyone is just free to do their own thing.

The Tallis' names makes reference to something religious, but they have committed so many sins, like Briony has wrongly convicted someone of a crime, and ruined their life and everyone else surrounding them. Paul marshal committed rape, although he is not a tallies. Jack Tallis is a stealer. There's no loyalty.

Tallis also is a french female name, meaning woodland, their home seems to be surrounded by woodland. In the woodland, it is also a large area where many things that can occur without ever being known. It seems like whenever someone wants to commit something bad and wrong, they would do it in the woods, or if someone is murdered, they would drag the body and abandon them in the woods, its as if the woods is a place where everything is private and nothing is known. This reflect the Tallis' family, we never really know what is going on with them, and within a family that appears normal an pleasant, so many unpleasant thing occurs within them, so many lies and deceit. In a way, their last name reflects the nature of the family, and perhaps foreshadows the fate of the families happiness.

I think McEwan's technique of aptonym is rather effective, in the sense that it gives us a better idea and understanding of the character, and how he perceives them. It makes us understand the work and enjoy it even more, because he doesn't actually tell us about his hidden meanings for the names, so we had to of work it out for ourselves, especially a some characters have such strange names, or names with very obvious meanings, so it gets us curious about the rest, and makes us imagine whether the name created the character, or vice versa. Reference is also made by people questioning the strange name the family has, so it hints us to look into them. All the more, Ian McEwan makes it a joy to study the novel.