[Vwoolf] Daisy

Sat May 7 11:00:54 EDT 2022

It’s a dodgy business pontificating about names: one tends to impose one’s own prejudices and one’s own times on them.  E.g. Emily – quaintly Victorian to me.  Pams are all of a certain age; Susans not much better.  Daisy was a nickname for Margaret, then had a life of its own when flower names became popular at the end of the 19th C.  Daisy was born about the time of Daisy’s greatest popularity.  I wonder if that popularity was influenced by the music-hall song (that everyone still knows, even small children).  If so, that suggests to me that those influenced are not likely to have been the well-to-do.  (I always think of it as a “common” name – I don’t think I’ve ever met a Daisy.)  Duncan Grant’s aunt was Daisy McNeil (d. 1947).

It has to be remembered that the Raj was a very middle class closed society, consisting largely of young and middle-aged people.  There was no aristocracy (except the Viceroy), no working classes (no jobs for them, except ordinary soldiers in the Indian Army), no elderly (they’ve retired Home), no children (they’ve been sent off to boarding school, preferably at Home).

As for half-caste women, they were often observed to be very beautiful (rather than “pretty”).  The trouble was, it was remarked, they didn’t last.

“The British who chose to stay on [in India] were mainly from the lower levels of society, often retired soldiers, who got jobs on the railways.  They married girls who called themselves European but who were widely suspected of being Eurasian. ... They were a sad group, not wanting to be Indian yet not accepted fully as part of the ruling race.  Respectable British society laughed at them ... They were not asked to join the Clubs or invited to the best parties. ... The [Eurasian] girls, who were often very beautiful, tried to obliterate any hint of Indian blood with powder and paint preparations which promised ‘Four shades whiter in four weeks!’  Their dream was to marry a British husband and go Home [where they had never been].” (“Women of the Raj” by Margaret MacMillan (2nd edn, 2018), pp. 58-9).

Stuart

“Half-caste woman, living a life apart,
“Where did your story begin?”
(Noel Coward, 1931)

From: Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf 
Sent: Saturday, May 7, 2022 2:20 PM
To: VWOOLF at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
Subject: [Vwoolf] Daisy

For some reason the popularity of the name Daisy in the UK plunged dramatically (why?) just about when Woolf was writing Mrs Dalloway. See https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ukbabynames.com/girls/daisy__;!!KGKeukY!yrXONB7oJZX-AIGKRMDEvABmlLiPdqqqTQpz2FXm6uFw_8QVNrU0zZHwtLHqQ3fOUgoAykloI3z47GRM3mOs_2E18aUeVECsoQ$  This of course may not apply to India, and in ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ 
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For some reason the popularity of the name Daisy in the UK plunged dramatically (why?) just about when Woolf was writing Mrs Dalloway. See

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ukbabynames.com/girls/daisy__;!!KGKeukY!yrXONB7oJZX-AIGKRMDEvABmlLiPdqqqTQpz2FXm6uFw_8QVNrU0zZHwtLHqQ3fOUgoAykloI3z47GRM3mOs_2E18aUeVECsoQ$ 

This of course may not apply to India, and in Mrs Dalloway Daisy would presumably have been baptised when the name was popular.

I wonder if, in terms of class, “Daisy” suggests the lower end of the social scale.

Peter Walsh is 53 and Daisy is 24, married, and with 2 children. All this would raise an eyebrow even today . . . It certainly is striking that every time Peter Walsh thinks of her, the word “dark” is used. “Out came with his pocket-knife a snapshot of Daisy on the verandah; Daisy all in white, with a fox-terrier on her knee; very charming, very dark; the best he had ever seen of her.” “And the dark, adorably pretty girl on the verandah exclaimed (he could hear her).” “Vainly the dark, adorably pretty girl ran to the end of the terrace; vainly waved her hand; vainly cried she didn't care a straw what people said.” “(and the dark, adorably pretty face was on top of the envelopes)”. 

As for attitudes towards those of mixed ethnic backgrounds, Joseph Conrad’s first novel Almayer’s Folly, set in Bornean Sambir and published in 1895, includes a meeting between Dutch officers, Almayer, and his “half-caste” daughter Nina. One young officer is taken aback by Nina’s beauty.

‘The young sub began to recover from the astonishment and confusion caused by Nina's unexpected appearance and great beauty. "She was very beautiful and imposing," he reflected, "but after all a half-caste girl." This thought caused him to pluck up heart and look at Nina sideways. Nina, with composed face, was answering in a low, even voice the elder officer's polite questions as to the country and her mode of life.’

Jeremy Hawthorn

Professor Emeritus

NTNU

7491 Trondheim

Norway

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