Character Names and Titles in the Works of Anton Chekhov and Abdullah Abed

Abstract

There is no doubt that the use of naming in all its forms -titles, last names, and proper names- is not a modern phenomenon. It has been present for centuries among different peoples, carving out a place on the social, historical, cultural, and economic levels until it has become, today, an integral part of communal culture. Hardly any gathering is free of it, and hardly any conversation is devoid of its use. Yet, what are the deeper dimensions that lie behind the employment of names and titles in literary works?

In this study, we adopt a comparative approach to examine the obsession with titles as a deeply rooted psychosocial phenomenon in selected short stories by Anton Chekhov and Abdullah Abd. Through this lens, we seek to reveal how names reflect hidden aspects of personality, social standing, behavior, and inner contradictions. The comparative analysis demonstrated that the names and titles of characters, for both writers, became artistic tools that expose reality and unveil the contradictions of life, along with its social, moral, and economic dilemmas.