The CBB :: View topic - Eustacia vs. Eustace?

#1: Eustacia vs. Eustace? Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:38 pm

Upon re-reading the Narnia books recently, it struck me that there are distinct parallels between these two characters.

Obviously the names have come from the same route, but also, they are both obnoxious and stuck up children, with weird parents, who think they are better than all the others, but are thrown into situations they don't want to be in, which change them in the end Smile

Eustacia was of course written first (1930?) by quite a way, since Dawn Treader was 50-something I think, but since the first Narnias were written for a little girl (if I remember correctly, anyway), is it possible that she was also an EBD reader?

#2: Author: Lulie, Location: Middlesbrough

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 4:22 pm

It's possible, but for Eustacia to have influenced the character of Eustace it means that CS Lewis would have had to be an EBD reader as well! Given that he was an ineverate (is that the right word?) reader it's possible, but given that his taste doesn't appear to have included girl's school stories, it's a bit improbable Smile

#3: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:11 pm

Interesting parallels, Lady G. Certainly parents are ultimately to blame for both of their attidudes, and Eustacia's accident and Eustace's becoming a dragon play similar roles. I know I also reacted similarly to the two characters -- annoyed with the way the characters acted at first, but also aggravated with the "good guys" for the automatic classification of big words, etc. as "showing off."

I wonder if the name just generally has priggish connotations. Interestingly, even in a book I'm reading (by Elizabeth Goudge, 1948. Thank you, Patmac) in which the story of St. Eustace figures very positively, one of the characters says:

Quote:

Eustace - dreadful name! One thinks at once of a parson's dog-collar.

#4: Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 6:12 pm

Kathy_S wrote:

I wonder if the name just generally has priggish connotations. Interestingly, even in a book I'm reading (by Elizabeth Goudge, 1948. Thank you, Patmac) in which the story of St. Eustace figures very positively, one of the characters says:

Quote:

Eustace - dreadful name! One thinks at once of a parson's dog-collar.

Thanks Kathy! As I read Lady G's post, that quote came back to me and I couldn't recall where from. I do agree with Elizabeth Goudge that Placidus is much nicer!

It's odd how names invoke such connotations. My m-in-law was Winifred Florence and she hated Winnie so much she used her second name - to us, Florrie sounds equally old fashioned but she liked it much better.

As for the Choosing of Eustacia/Eustace for the two characters, I'm sure there's a PhD in there somewhere!

#5: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 6:33 pm

It was The Herb of Grace, p. 199. Sorry for the lack of footnoting.

#6: Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:12 pm

You could be right on the connotations of the name thing Kathy Smile

Though I still thing the similarities are uncanny! Smile

The only reason I wondered if Lewis may have been influenced was that at the beginning of one of my books (Wardrobe I think), that it was written for a little girl called Lucy - she may have read EBD Smile

'tis a little remote though.

#7: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:39 pm

I know that the names of Peter, Susan, and Edmund Pevensie and of Polly and Digory were all names of children killed in a specific bombing raid during WWII. I always liked that fact that Lewis honored them (although perhaps not so much honored Susan) by putting them in books.

However, Eustace appears to have been his wholesale creation. Though he is similar to Eustacia in many ways, including a non-traditional approach to education, I imagine that the name just suggests priggishness. To me, I remember the scene when he meets the very deaf Trumpkin in Silver Chair and there's the:

"The boy's called Eustace--"
"The boy's USELESS? What'd you bring him here for, then?"

exchange, which, to me, is completely worth Lewis using the name just by itself.

Chang

#8: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:40 pm

Poor old Susan. I always felt sorry for Susan.

#9: Author: Changnoi, Location: New Mexico, USA

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:44 pm

Kate wrote:

Poor old Susan. I always felt sorry for Susan.

Well, SOMEONE has to turn into a parallel of the whore of Babylon and reject G-d, don't they? Smile

Poor Susan...

Chang

#10: Author: Liane, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:37 pm

Didn't know about the name thing, I think that's a lovely idea.

#11: Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:17 am

Changnoi wrote

Quote:

"The boy's called Eustace--"
"The boy's USELESS? What'd you bring him here for, then?"

Our nasty next-door neighbours moved to Eustace Road, down which we have to drive to get to our Kingdom Hall - it took a while before my husband realised I was saying Useless Rd, not Eustace Rd. Embarassed

I never thought about the similarity of the names before. Does anyone know anyone named Eustace? Because it's not a name I can imagine a parent naming thier little bundle of joy!

#12: Author: Tiffany,

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:06 pm

Changnoi wrote:

Oooh, that's nice of him - thanks, Chang, I didn't know that. Poor Susan - I never really understood what she did wrong, as a kid, cos the whole Christian allegory thing passed me by Embarassed

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