What's in a Name? Transformation of a Name & Transformation of the Self

Most everyone has heard the classic William Shakespeare line “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” This line from the play Romeo and Juliet, spoken by Juliet Capulet regarding Romeo’s last name of Montague, basically means a name does not make a person. Just because Romeo’s last name is Montague, the rival family of the Capulets, does not mean that he is an evil man. Juliet loves him, no matter what his last name may be.

This philosophy, however, does not apply to Jasmine, the main character in Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine. That name is only one of the many different titles Jasmine uses throughout her life. For each different name she is called, she has a unique identity. She is originally named Jyoti, yet eventually, throughout her journey from India to the United States, she settles on the name Jase. In between, she takes on different personas, each tailored to fit a certain variation of her name.

Jasmine acknowledges the fact that her name changes and transforms along with who she is and where she is in her life. She says, “I have had a husband for each of the women I have been. Prakash for Jasmine, Taylor for Jase, Bud for Jane. Half-Face for Kali” (197). As a young girl in India, she is Jasmine, the wife of Prakash. He is the first love of her life, symbolizing her years spent growing up in a small village. His death leads to her immigration to the United States, with her new identity becoming Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. After being raped and humiliated minutes after first setting foot in the United States by a man she calls Half-Face, in her mind she is Kali, murdering him and leaving her old identity as Jasmine behind. Working as a nanny in New York City, she transforms into “Jase,” as she is called by Taylor, the father of the little girl she cares for. Moving to Iowa, she meets her second husband Bud, who calls her “Jane.” Jasmine is foreign to him, and he creates a more familiar name for her. She adopts this name, which brings her closer to the traditional American way of life. Being called Jane, she loses her exotic Indian qualities.

In the end of the novel, however, she abandons her Jane nickname and once again becomes “Jase.” She is reunited with Taylor, the second love of her life. Analyzing her names again, Jasmine says, “Jyoti…had burned herself in a trash-can – funeral pyre behind a boarded-up motel in Florida. Jasmine lived for the future, for Vijh & Wife. Jase went to movies and lived for today” (176). In her mind, Jase is the true American woman. The independent, self-sufficient, adventurous form of herself. With Taylor, she can be the woman who has broken free from her traumatizing past and lives for the moment. As the novel ends and she begins her future with Taylor, it seems she has finally settled into the personality she loves the most.

With each name Jasmine adopts for herself, she conforms to the behavior expected from each. She does not seem trapped by the names, but rather they provide a guide on how she should act in these different situations, with each separate man. In the end, she has chosen which persona she wants to be. Taylor is the man she can be herself with, so Jase is the woman she ultimately chooses to be.

It could be argued that a name is not what makes a person, just as Shakespeare did in his famous play. For many, however, the name they use provides a framework for their personality. A teacher, for example, may go by “Dr. ____” during class, her students formally addressing her. In her personal life she may go by a childhood nickname, reverting back to familiar times, feeling comfortable and at-home. A person may also go as far as officially changing their name to create a new persona, such as a musician or movie star might. Whether or not you want your name to stand for you are, you have the power to change it to fit whoever you want to be.