Hyacinth

I'm a little more than a quarter of the way through Wives and Daughters (yay) and a strange theme seems to be recurring throughout the book. Elizabeth Gaskell seems obsessed with hatred for the name Hyacinth and its derivative Cynthia. Two of the main characters keep going on at length about how frivolous the name Cynthia is. I wonder if this was a contemporary joke that just has not aged well.

My mother's name is Cynthia! And I don't think anyone today would suggest that Cynthia as a name is any more unusual or flouncy than Molly or Phoebe. Of course, other characters also repeatedly discuss the name Molly as being quaint or homely, which may or may not be a good thing. I think you could have removed 50-100 pages from this book just by removing all this chatter about people's names!

So, be warned Cynthias of the world: Elizabeth Gaskell thinks your parents were silly.