British Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences
February 2017, Vol. 16 (1)
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Titles as Vital Devices for Content Interpretation: Response to Literary Stories
Mohammad Al-Abdulrazaq
Lecturer of English Language and Literature
Department of English Language and Literature
Al-Balqa' Applied University, Irbid University College, Irbid-Jordan, Mobile +962785440555
Email: [email protected]
Abstract. This article explores the interpretations of making titles and reveals the power of giving
artistic and unfamiliar ones to literary stories. In the hope that it will provide new understanding of the
content through titles, this article scrutinizes three short stories; William Faulkner‟s „A Rose for Emily‟,
D. H. Lawrence‟s „Odour of Chrysanthemums‟ and Ernest Hemingway‟s „Cat in the Rain‟. The article
would like to conclude that reasonable interpretation of fictional titles will also take into account the
features thrown up by the stylistic analysis.
Key Words: Titles, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, D.H. Lawrence, Odour of
Chrysanthemum, Cat in the Rain, A rose for Emily.
1. Introduction
The creation of titles is of great importance. Their important significance lies in the ability of the
writers to make titles distinct and different, as this makes their works interesting and the titles memorable.
Unique titles remain in the minds of readers for the rest of their lives. The way the titles can be crafted
also may evoke certain thoughts, feelings and lasting effects in the target readership.
An amusing short story or novel might not get read by people and publishers if the title does not
look remarkable. For publishing purposes, a well-chosen title can function as a superb opening paragraph.
Titles should be appealing and should catch the attention of readers. The title should at least suit the
content of the story. To achieve this, many writers give titles that play on words or provide a hidden
meaning which is revealed later in the story.
Moreover, a good story title can grab the attention and inspire the artistic emotion of readers. The
purpose of analyzing titles is to draw attention to the aesthetic emotion of writers when they are
constructing story titles. Jerrold Levinson argues that „the title slot for a work of art is never devoid of
aesthetic potential; how it is filled, or that it is not filled, is always aesthetically relevant‟ (Levinson,
1985). This article investigates the interpretations of crafting titles and discusses the impact of giving
aesthetic and unfamiliar ones to literary stories. In the hope that it will provide new understanding of the
content through titles, this article scrutinizes three short stories; William Faulkner‟s „A Rose for Emily‟,
D. H. Lawrence‟s „Odour of Chrysanthemums‟ and Ernest Hemingway‟s „Cat in the Rain‟.
It is generally believed that the author of a literary text is the one to choose an original and unique
title of the story. This is because the author is aware of the meanings of the text and therefore can lead
readers towards the correct interpretation. Undoubtedly, titles not given by the authors themselves of the
literary stories can be misleading for readers and lead to an incomplete understanding of the text. This
greatly highlights the fact that the title is an inseparable part of the whole artistic creation of the literary
text.
2. Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’
Faulkner in „A Rose for Emily‟ gives power to the title by making the reader conceive the story
differently before and after reading the text. As it is the first words of the story which the reader
welcomes, Faulkner skillfully carves a title which serves to establish an image of what the story is
probably about. Reading the title „A Rose for Emily‟ for the first time and prior to reading the text steers
the thoughts of the readers towards a happy and a sweet love story. Still, it does not exactly prepare us for
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what the story will be about. If we know that a rose is a symbol of love and sweet experiences and
feelings, we might have a picture of that in our heads. In any case, unless we have already heard
something about the story, we experience a sense of positive and optimistic feelings and attitudes towards
the text. However, Faulkner in essence also makes the title a post text, namely, the last station to which
the reader returns after his contact with the body of the text. Looking back at the title again and after
reading the story thrusts the reader into questioning what does this title itself mean in relation to the
story?
Although the text involves a love story, the type of love presented is a metamorphosis of the
familiar and the homely into the disgusting and the strange. Emily poisons Homer and sleeps next to his
dead body because she cannot live without him, and he will not stay voluntarily. Emily thought that if
she could not have him, nobody would. Emily has guaranteed that she, and she alone, will have Homer.
She lies with his body because it signifies the husband or lover she never had but always desired.
Generally speaking, roses often suggest love and honour. Michael Ferber (1999) indicates that the
rose often symbolizes two virtues, love and purity or virginity. However, roses are also used in funerals.
Accordingly, the „rose for Emily‟ could be Homer, the man whom she loved and without whom she could
not imagine her life. The „rose for Emily‟ also could signify the tragedy of killing Homer to keep him
dead with her forever.
The rose was also in the past a symbol of confidentiality (Wald Amberstone and Ruth Ann
Amberstone, 2008). The rose could be Miss Emily‟s secret, since it could be the rose that she loved, kept,
and valued. Ferber also suggests that „the rose blooms in the spring, and does not bloom long‟ (Ferber,
1999). This is probably suggested in the story by the brief time of love that Miss Emily shared with
Barron before he was gone.
It is obvious that „A Rose for Emily‟ is more about a reward for Emily due to her tragedy than
about a happy love story. Faulkner uses the rose as a way to sympathize with Emily, and to give his
readers a way to read and deal with the text more empathetically. William Faulkner revealed in an
interview that „A Rose for Emily‟ „was an allegorical title; the meaning was: here was a woman who had
had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a
salute…to a woman you would hand a rose‟ (Jelliffe, 1956).
3. Lawrence’s ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’
Lawrence‟s „Odour of Chrysanthemums‟ is not very different from Faulkner‟s story in that, prior
to reading the story, the title can be seen as misleading. A close analysis and investigation of the text
reveals the multiple significations of the title, especially that of the chrysanthemums, as it is foregrounded
in the very title of the story. In the fictional world, the chrysanthemums, chief among other signifiers,
function as the major locus of love and beauty while, frequently, it is usually associated with shortness of
life and death. Philip Freneau (1994) in „The Wild Honey Suckle‟ refers to the fading and short time that
lies between the growing and dying of a flower:
the space between, is but an hour,
the frail duration of a flower‟
D.H. Lawrence shows that Chrysanthemums, though chiefly a symbol of bereavement and loss,
sometimes have connotations of life as well. Elizabeth‟s daughter, Annie, is charmed with the
chrysanthemums that her mother has placed in her apron and thinks they smell beautiful. When Elizabeth
tells her daughter about the time her husband came home drunk, she thinks of the other special moments
when chrysanthemums have disrupted her life: her marriage and the birth of Annie. keeping vases of
chrysanthemums in her home, all of which suggests that Elizabeth continues to be uncertain about the
flowers, as she both resents and embraces the memories they arouse.
Chrysanthemums which usually suggest the sweet experiences of marriage and love are presented
otherwise in the story. From the beginning, it becomes clear that the marriage between Elizabeth and her
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husband Walter is loveless. Confinement in marriage is explored as Elizabeth deals with the reality of her
cold feelings towards her husband. The crumbling marriage inspires important changes that occur in
Elizabeth. She becomes more assertive at the end of the story, for once putting her own interests before
her husband‟s. She realizes the extent of her dysfunctional marriage as well as her unhappiness. The death
of Walter leads her to both of these important realizations. They contribute to the change seen in
Elizabeth‟s character, bringing back her sense of shame and fear as she ventures physically and
metaphorically into the unknown. She is the only dynamic character in the story.
Many women believe that flowers reflect who they are. They do not need to receive flowers daily,
yet they like to receive them on the special occasions when they are the focal point, as it were. Women
like men to buy them the best, freshest, most fragrant ones, as it is a really great way to flatter them. This
leads readers to think of Elizabeth as one who is like other women. She wants Walter to be romantic and
to present her with chrysanthemums on special occasions like their wedding day or when she has just
given birth to a baby. The presence of flowers would remind Elizabeth when they had been given to her,
what words he might have used and the general loveliness of the moment. Flowers are a surefire way to
grab a woman's attention and make her continuously think of her husband whenever she glances at the
bouquet. What happens instead is that the presence of the chrysanthemums in the story is connected to
death, sadness and unhappy memories.
The child put the pale chrysanthemums to her lips, murmuring: “Don‟t they smell beautiful!” Her mother
gave a short laugh. “No,” she said, “not to me. It was chrysanthemums when I married him, and
chrysanthemums when you were born, and the first time they ever brought him home drunk, he‟d got
brown chrysanthemums in his button-hole.”
It is the odour of the Chrysanthemums that reminds Elizabeth of her misery since marrying
Walter. Chrysanthemums and their smell make such lasting memories dismal and depressing for her. This
justifies Lawrence‟s use of the word „odour‟ which intimates a nasty smell rather than a pleasant one.
Because of the miserable memories that chrysanthemums evoke, their smell becomes unpleasant for
Elizabeth. Scientists and psychiatrists strongly argue that smells do trigger strong emotions and
memories. Amanda White indicates that ‘A number of behavioural studies have demonstrated that smells
trigger more vivid emotional memories and are better at inducing that feeling of „being brought back in
time‟ than images‟ (White, 2016).
The way in which Lawrence presents the curious link between the chrysanthemums and the sad
experiences of Elizabeth allows the readers to think of relating the odour of chrysanthemum to
Elizabeth‟s own character. Flowers can be representative of feminine beauty, for chrysanthemums are
especially popular for reflecting the fragile beauty often associated with females. Elizabeth‟s beauty is
just like the beauty of the chrysanthemum which smells of death. The beauty of Elizabeth is distorted by
her cold feelings and spiritual separation from her husband. Although Elizabeth is beautiful outwardly,
she is emotionally removed from her husband before and after he dies. When Elizabeth looks at Walter‟s
dead body, she feels „the utter isolation of the human soul‟. She knows that she and Walter have always
been two isolated individuals who did not understand one another, and even when they were physically
connected, there was a lack of understanding and emotional connection between them.
Lawrence could have been referring in the title „Odour of Chrysanthemums‟ to this spiritual
separation between the beautiful couple who do not lack beauty, but lack spiritual connection and
understanding of each other‟s needs. As content creator, Lawrence achieves high popularity for the
content by giving a symbolic title. An analysis of the effect of the title is extremely valuable as it explains
how the content creator enhances the content for readers and increases both their enjoyment and their
understanding. For example, we might learn that the occurrence of certain words in the title increases the
chances of literary success and popularity.
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4. Hemingway’s ‘Cat in the Rain’
Ernest Hemingway‟s short story, „Cat in the Rain‟, has also been selected for examination to
highlight the relationship between the title and content of the story. Nonetheless, the analysis of the title
of „Cat in the Rain‟ is centred on the effects of missing words rather than on their presence. Mostly,
omitting an article (definite or indefinite) in titles is done for brevity and in order to attract more
attention. It is noticeable that, unlike other noun phrases which are used in „Cat in the Rain‟, the title of
the story has no article in front of it.
Most noun phrases consist of a head noun plus one or two of the optional elements. In „Cat in the
Rain‟ the definite article and head noun as a structure is typical of nominal groups. For example, the
umbrella, the door, the table, the maid, the hotel-keeper, the office, the doorway, the book, the padrone,
the signora, the mirror, the bed, the square and many others. This is meant to make readers feel familiar
with these nominal groups, which undoubtedly comes from the multiple use of the definite article, which
assumes some familiarity with the referent. The use of the definite article makes the readers feel able to
understand what is going on. It needs no explanation. Readers feel that they are faced with a typical scene
that they all know so well. Hemingway thus arouses his readers‟ imagination. He achieves this by using a
host of real locations to envision his setting by combining and juxtaposing locations. His familiarity with
the intricacies of these locations gives him absolute confidence as he describes them, and equips him with
minor details that it would be hard to make up.
It seems that Hemingway, deliberately, did not use the article „the‟ or „a‟ before the title of the
story. This is because an article is a word used to qualify a noun, which is a person, place, object, or idea.
Technically, an article is an adjective, which is any word that qualifies a noun. Usually adjectives qualify
nouns through description, but articles are used instead to point out or refer to nouns. The articles „the‟
and „a‟ refer directly to a specific noun. One would not say „child went out‟. Instead, one would say either
„The child went out,‟ or „A child went out‟. In these two sentences, „the‟ and „a‟ are articles. They tell the
reader that a specific child went out.
Hemingway has artistically dropped both articles „the‟ and „a‟ from the title. His intention of using
the „cat‟ symbolically and ambiguously can be discerned from his skillful choice of title, which refers to
both the real cat and the American girl. This clearly validates Hemingway‟s intention of keeping the title
without articles. Ronald Carter indicates that „the cat of the title is somehow made to stand for something
else. For want of a better word, I might say that it is symbolic‟ (Carter, 1982). Hemingway is fond of
omitting and manipulating linguistic devices to create confusion and ambiguity through portraying
language as a vital key into reaching to concrete evidence for the interpretation of the story.
Hemingway wanted his readers to make a link between the suffering of the cat under the rain and
the American girl‟s misery with her husband. This link reveals why Hemingway left the American girl
unnamed throughout the story just as the cat of the title is left unidentified. The cat's isolation, pitifulness,
its lack of protection, and also the hostility of its surroundings identifies it with the nameless American
wife. All of these things are similar to the wife's own problem with her husband. She is also in a situation
that is far from ideal, which reveals why she would pity the cat.
Hemingway probably wanted to indicate that the cat in the story shares with the American girl the
need to meet the demands of others. Both of them lack a secure place where they might find love,
kindness and protection. The husband does not care about his wife‟s emotional and physical needs, which
the wife seemingly finds in the hotel owner who acts as a substitute for the inadequate husband. Women
can be just like cats. The cat and the wife would respond to an owner‟s and husband‟s needs, if their
owner and husband had previously responded to theirs. The American wife wants long hair and flowers
and her own silverware. George completely ignores her complaints and tells her to „shut up and get
something to read.‟ These needs which are associated with femininity make readers think of the need to
obtain the cat as a suppressed desire for maternity.
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The search of the American wife for something to satisfy her reveals her need for some change in
her life, as she repeats: „I want a cat‟, „I want to have a kitty‟. „A cat‟ and „a kitty‟ with the indefinite
article here suggests that she does not want a particular cat, but something to love and take care of. At the
end of the story, the maid brings her a cat that seems to be a gift from the hotel keeper. This probably
suggests that if the wife is ever going to have a child, it will have to be with another man. George, who is
sitting on the bed reading during the entire story, is completely closing his eyes and ears to her needs and
desires. It can be said that if the husband has shown a tendency to pity the cat in the rain, this would
suggest his ability to establish with his wife an intimate relationship.
5. Conclusion
Titles of course have an impact on a literary work‟s success. The analysis of titles greatly helps to
read a little deeper into the themes and interests that absorb people when reading the examined stories.
Titles have been utilized to reflect so many ideas and concerns of the writers. The involvement of titles
within the analysis of the stories is not arbitrary. Often the insertion of aesthetic titles follows a logic. It is
helpful to make available supporting explanations that show how much the use of well selected titles for a
story may help readers to understand and learn from the story. The authors of the examined stories
utilized the titles to maintain a balance between both the symbolic and realistic dimensions of their
stories. It has been shown that the use of different linguistic features of a story can actually lead to solid
evidence for the interpretation of a text because, after all, „concentrated attention to relevant linguistic
evidence can help to decide critical disagreements.‟ (Short, 1982). The paper would like to conclude that
reasonable interpretation of fictional titles will also take into account the features thrown up by the
stylistic analysis.
Bio
Dr. Mohammad Ahmed Taleb Al-Abdulrazaq has a PhD in Victorian Literature from Edith Cowan
University, Western Australia. Currently, I am working as a full time lecturer at Al-Balqa‟ Applied
University, Irbid University College in the Department of English Language and Literature. My research
interest areas include Victorian novel, Psychoanalysis, theatre of Absurd, Romanticism and Feminism.
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© 2017 British Journals ISSN 2048-1268