Thy name is
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"______, thy name is ______" is a snowclone used to indicate the completeness with which something or somebody (indicated by the second part) embodies a particular quality (indicated by the first part), usually a negative one.
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[edit] History
The term is generally agreed to come from the Shakespearean play Hamlet (I, ii, 146). In this work, the title character is chastised by his uncle (and new stepfather) Claudius, for grieving his father so much, calling it unmanly. In the following soliloquy, Hamlet denounces his mother's swift remarriage, with the statement, "Frailty, thy name is woman."[1] He thus equates womankind with the attribute of frailty.[2]
[edit] Examples
[edit] Quoted
- Amos Bronson Alcott famously said of William Ellery Channing in 1871, "Whim, thy name is Channing." He was referring to Channing's Transcendentalist poetry style.
[edit] Television
- In an episode of Are You Being Served?, Mr. Humphries exclaims, "Deceit, thy name is man!"
- In an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Raymond says, "Devil, thy name is woman!"
- In The Simpsons episode entitled "Krusty Gets Busted", in reference to the titular clown, Bart pronounces, "Comedy, thy name is Krusty."
- Episode 21 of the television show Joan of Arcadia is titled "Vanity, Thy Name is Human."
- Episode 3 Season 7 of the television show Scrubs, Dr Cox says to Elliot Reid "Hypocrisy, thy name is you."
Full quote: Dr Cox, "Hypocrisy, thy name is -- Boon, would you like to finish that for me? No? Not bright enough to follow?" Boon, "No" Dr Cox, "It's you, Barbie, Hypocrisy, thy name is you."
- Professor Farnsworth of Futurama once proclaims "Oh, Vanity, thy name is Professor Farnsworth."
- Episode 2 Season 1 of the television show Sports Night, Casey McCall says "Sarcasm, thy name is Dana."
- In "Plankton's Army," Episode 58b in Season 2 of SpongeBob SquarePants, Plankton states "Victory, thy name is Plankton!"
- In Episode 16, Season 3 of Married With Children titled "The House That Peg Lost":
- MARCY "Man, thy name is Steve."
- STEVE "And love, thy name is Marcy. The warmth of your arms is my hearth."
[edit] Literature
- The poet Anne Sexton has a poem called "Divorce, Thy Name Is Woman".
- In The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantès (disguised as Abbé Busoni) utters the phrase "Frailty, thy name is woman!" after learning that his fiancee Mercédès has married his rival Fernand.
[edit] Music
- The Half Man Half Biscuit song "Whiteness, Thy Name Is Meltonian" from the album This Leaden Pall. The title refers to a brand of none-more-white shoe polish.
- The following lyrics appear in the Dark Tranquillity song "...Of Melancholy Burning": "Frailty, thy name is weakness. Vengeance, thy name is pain."
[edit] Notes
- ^ (2006). "Frailty, thy name is woman!" ENotes.com (accessed October 13, 2006)
- ^ Martin, Gary (2006). "Frailty, thy name is woman" Phrases.org.uk (accessed October 13, 2006)
