By Any Other Name

Melina is one of the novel’s heroines and a viewpoint character. She is a young woman living in contemporary New York City, described as dark haired with “silvery eyes the color of lightning flashes” (171). She is a distant descendant of Emilia, whose eye color she shares. When the novel begins, she is a college student studying playwriting and it follows her to New York as she struggles to ignite her career. Melina’s main flaw is her lack of belief in herself and her attempts to make herself small and unseen. This issue stems from her childhood, when her mother slowly died of cancer. Though Melina’s parents loved her, the illness consumed their attention. Melina explains, “I think parents have, like, a shelf for their emotions, and only so many fits on it. There were times my dad just didn’t have the room for me” (295). The first time Melina attempts to put herself in her work, she uses her senior play to confront her predatory mentor and misogyny in general. The play is met with ferocious criticism and Melina responds by further shrinking into herself.

In Melina’s attempts to get recognition for her play (also called By Any Other Name), she winds up pressing Andre to pretend to be the author. Eventually, she confesses the truth and realizes that she deeply hurt her friend. Her focus on her own struggles totally obscured Andre’s own fight for recognition as a gay, Black man working in theatre. However, her convictions change Jasper’s mind about his own prejudices and lead him to open the Athena Playhouse. She learns to take ownership of her mistakes but also to take her place in the spotlight. The novel ends with her taking a bow at the playhouse and thinking of herself as a girl “who was seen” (482).

Andre is Melina’s best friend and a playwright. He and Melina met in college and bonded over their similar taste in theatre, and they became roommates. Andre is kind, funny, and supportive of Mel. He continually cheers her on and encourages her not to give up on her dreams. However, Andre faces his own challenges. He is a Black man in a profession that often prioritizes white voices, and he struggles to believe in his own talents and succeed. Mel notes that, in college, “Andre had never actually finished a play” instead, he gets “stuck endlessly rewriting” (7). His inability to finish his work is related to his fears about being his true self. Though Andre is a gay man, he has not come out to his parents and instead has Mel pretend to be his girlfriend to appease them. In both his professional and personal life, Andre struggles to please the people around him rather than prioritizing his own life and truth.

By the end of the novel, Andre has matured and is able to stand up for himself. He forces Mel to tell the truth about writing By Any Other Name, and he has become a successful playwright on his own merits. He also comes out to his parents and can live his life as an out and proud gay man. These changes strengthen his friendship with Mel, who realizes that she was taking advantage of Andre in some ways, and who cheers him on as he discovers who he really is. In Andre, Picoult represents other marginalized voices in theatre, a reminder that women are not the only ones who struggle for recognition.

Jasper is the antagonist turned love interest of Melina Green. He is the novel’s third viewpoint character. When he first encounters Melina, he is a critic for the New York Times and hailed as a “wunderkind” for his youth. Andre deems him “hot” and Melina agrees: “He had white-blond hair with a cowlick in the back, and behind his tortoiseshell glasses, his vivid blue eyes glittered like cut glass. He was tall, lanky, and looked aggrieved” (12). Jasper earns Melina’s enmity when he pans her play and is dismissive of her, and she assumes (as most people do) that he is a rude, callous person. However, Jasper’s point of view reveals his lifelong struggle to understand social cues and “decipher the emotions of others” (104). He explains to Melina that he is neurodivergent and explains that it feels like “there’s a blurry window between me and the rest of the world” (311). His bluntness is not callousness, but a disinterest in lying.

Jasper’s character arc undergoes a radical transformation. He initially appears to be a misogynistic villain but is revealed to be more sensitive and kinder than Melina thought. After meeting Melina and hearing her story, he realizes that he has been guilty of not recognizing his own biases in reviewing plays. He quits his job as a critic and helps to open the Athena Playhouse, which only produces plays by women and nonbinary people. He believes that in doing so, he can build a “bigger table” and help theatre become more equitable for those who aren’t white men. His reunion with Melina is made possible by his change of heart and his actions, which prove that he is interested in righting wrongs.

Southampton is the love of Emilia’s life. He is a real historical figure, and Picoult writes in the author’s note that the relationship between him and Emilia is fictional, though she believes there is historical evidence for it. Southampton is often identified as the fair youth of Shakespeare’s sonnets and two of his narrative poems were dedicated to the Earl. He is handsome, “broad-shouldered and fit, with a long tousle of auburn hair and eyes so blue it seemed the sky passed through him” (123). In the novel, he and Emilia meet at Court when he is very young. He is taken by her immediately and when they meet again, he pursues a physical relationship with her. Emilia is also attracted to him and thinks of him as the “spark to her straw” (125). They continue their love affair for many years, and he is possibly the father of Emilia’s son.

Southampton is a thoughtful, passionate lover and tries his best to protect Emilia. However, she insists on their separation after her marriage because Alphonso is too jealous and abusive, and she fears for her son’s life. In later years, the Earl marries and has his own family, though he tries to help Emilia as he can. After his death, his son returns the miniature portrait to Emilia, who thinks that this is the only way they can be together.

Hunsdon is Emilia’s lover and protector. A real historical figure, he was Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain and the son of Henry VIII’s mistress, Mary Boleyn. Hunsdon is much older than Emilia and bargains with her family to have her as his mistress. However, despite the gap in their age and status, he is a kind man. He tells Emilia that he chose her “because [she] shall keep [him] young” and encourages her to speak her mind (69). He is generous with her and buys her fine clothes and takes her to court with him. Hunsdon loves music, theatre, and gardening, and enjoys sharing these pleasures with Emilia. She comes to be fond of him and their relationship, though she does not love him like she loves Southampton.

Despite his kindness, Hunsdon still prioritizes his social status and propriety. When Emilia becomes pregnant, he dismisses her from Somerset House. Others believes he is generous because he arranges for her to be married and does not abandon her. However, Emilia is struck by the fact that he settled £700 on her, “slightly more than what the Lord Chamberlain had paid last year for a handful of doublets and three cloaks” (242). She thinks that “[a]t least now she knew what she was worth” and realizes that, despite his kindness, Hunsdon still does not see her as a person with autonomy, but rather a possession to be disposed of (242). He is still bound by the ideas of his time and social status.

Alphonso is Emilia’s husband and one of the novel’s major antagonists. He is a stupid, cruel man who delights in abusing Emilia and believes that, as a man, he has the upper hand in the relationship. He is a distant cousin of Emilia’s and marries her when she becomes pregnant. Like Emilia, he is a secret Jew, but he does not seem to believe the faith or practice it beyond custom. Emilia’s cousin Jeronimo brokers the marriage, and Alphonso agrees to it in return for £700. Emilia finds him repulsive at first sight: “He had red hair and pockmarks on the part of his face his beard did not cover” (240). His cruelty is immediately apparent: He tries to assault her on their wedding night, even though she begs him not to. He ignores her son, Henry, and he and Emilia do not have any living children. She loses several pregnancies with him and finally gives birth to a daughter, Odyllia, who dies at a few weeks of age.

Alphonso’s character is static. He remains cruel and abusive throughout his life with Emilia. Several times, he beats her so badly that she is seriously hurt. He often loses money on schemes to become a knight or get rich, and he has no work ethic and little common sense. When he dies suddenly in bed with another woman, Emilia reacts with shock and laughter: “She dissolved into giggles, clutching her sides” (422). Rather than tearing her garments in mourning, she rejoices that she is finally free of this cruel tyrant. In the author’s note, Picoult explains that Alphonso was a real person. Though there is no evidence he abused Emilia, he did squander the money Hunsdon left her.

Though Shakespeare looms large in the literary world, he is a minor character in By Any Other Name. He is also one of the novel’s antagonists. Though he does business with Emilia and produces her plays, he also gloats over taking credit for her genius and does not deal fairly with her. Emilia initially considers him a bad writer and an unimportant figure after reading his work: “I could do a better job than this man, she thought. But by the time she reached her chamber, she had already forgotten William Shakespeare’s name” (96). Marlowe also dislikes him and makes fun of his bad writing.

Physically, Shakespeare is described as a slight man “with a receding hairline and a weak chin badly camouflaged by a dark beard” (144). Though Emilia dislikes him and thinks poorly of his boasting and his greed, he is humanized by her when his son, Hamnet, dies. After telling Emilia about his grief, he urges her to “give sorrow words” and she thinks, “Shakespeare was a charlatan; but here he spoke truth” (364). This moment of reconciliation is undone when he cheats Emilia out of money and prints her work and the work of others under his name, taking the profit for himself. In By Any Other Name, Shakespeare and his reputation represent the way that women’s work has been downplayed and misunderstood historically, while men of lesser talent are able to profit.

Kit Marlowe is a real historical figure. He was a playwright in Elizabethan London, and though few facts are known about his short, colorful life, he is thought to be a spy for Queen Elizabeth, as well as an atheist and a queer man. In By Any Other Name, he is all these things as well as a friend to Emilia, whom he recognizes as a kindred spirit. When he initially meets Emilia, he tries to shock her by making sexual innuendos about the young male actors, “as if he were expecting her to faint in a fit of maidenly vapors at his provocative comment” (128). Emilia is unimpressed and banters with him, thinking that he is “handsome in a dangerous way” (129). The two eventually become close friends, reading one another’s work and sharing secrets. Kit nicknames her “Mouse” and helps her broker the deal with Shakespeare. Emilia is devastated by his sudden death in a bar fight, and when she eventually dies, she finds him waiting for her in the afterlife. His friendship with Emilia parallels Andre’s relationship with Melina and underscores the way that marginalized people can find allies in one another.

Isabella is the Baron’s mistress and the woman who tutors Emilia in the arts of becoming a mistress and pleasing men. She is a voluptuous, beautiful woman who speaks English with an Italian accent. When Emilia initially meets her, she thinks of Isabella as a “monstrous and fearsome” woman with “fingernails like talons” (42). However, she comes to love Isabella and appreciate her mentorship. Isabella is very blunt and practical, but she tries to equip Emilia with the tools she will need to survive in the world. She counsels Emilia on the difference between being a mistress and a wife. She explains that a wife is “owned,” and a mistress has “freedom.” Her mentorship helps Emilia succeed with Hunsdon. Later in life, she and Emilia continue to be friends. When she dies of the plague, she leaves jewelry to Emilia so that she has some money that is not Alphonso’s.