# Mistakes in classic literature
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 8, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227 "2004-05-08T21:43:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/41 "2004-05-09T17:48:28Z")
I wonder if it wasn’t more a case of Dickens not wanting to make things look quite as desperate as real life, in a Christmas story at least? Maybe not, I’m no Dickens scholar.
Um. Aren’t there lots of inaccuracies in Poe’s story… I think it was the _Murders at the Rue Morgue_… I mean, I don’t want to give away who’s doing the killings, but I’m pretty sure they don’t generally behave like that. I believe the story mentions a lot of abuse, training, etc, but still, it sounds to me like an ignorant world’s perception of… um… said murderer’s “type”.
Ook. Oh, what a giveaway…
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/42 "2004-05-09T18:19:59Z")
Another Shakespearean error pointed out by Asimov (and used to buttress _his_ claim that Bill wrote his own stuff:
Shakespeare made several references to stars moving in their own spheres. However, in the cosmology of the time, while the _planets_ moved, each in its own sphere, the stars were all suspended within a single sphere. (It was the separate spheres that allowed the planets to have separate motions from each other and from the stars, while the stars all moved together.)
Isaac claims that such an elementary error in 16th century astronomy would have been unthinkable in a learned man such as Bacon or de Vere, but was quite possible in a rube from the country that picked up his knowledge without a formal education.
_Romeo and Juliet_:
> [@](#):
>
> Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
_Henry IV, part I_:
> [@](#):
>
> Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
_King John_:
> [@](#):
>
> Now, now, you stars that move in your right spheres, Where be your powers?
_Hamlet_:
> [@](#):
>
> I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres…
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### Author:  [@infamousmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infamousmom)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/43 "2004-05-09T20:42:23Z")
I dunno whether Heinlein counts as “classic.” But much has been made about the Massive Significance Of Names in “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
So why does Secretary-General Douglas’ wife’s name change from Agnes to Alice halfway through the book?
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/44 "2004-05-09T22:02:26Z")
> [@Innanna](#):
>
> And I think that Moby Dick has someone coming back from the dead as well, but I refuse to read it, so I can’t say for sure.
Not that I recall. I shall try to avoid spoiling anything- One character is near death, then remembers he has important business back home, decides not to die, and gets much better. Another character does die, but his corpse does something important later.
Re Shakespeare
IIRC A Midsummer Nights Dream makes reference to ‘birds scattering at the guns’ report’ and to nuns (some folks claim that this is a reference to the virgin priestesses of Vesta/Hestia).
```
There are plenty of historical inaccuracies in Henry V, but it's most likely that these are deliberate and were done for added effect.
```
Gulliver’s Travels has some mistakes. Some are obviously intentional (When working on the etymology of Laputa, Gulliver comes up with a few but ignores the obvious Spanish La Puta, The Whore). Others may be actual mistakes on Swift’s part.
I can’t think of any OTTOMH but there are numerous poems which confuse Hermes Trismigestus, the Greek name of the Egyptian deity Thoth, with the Greek Hermes.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/45 "2004-05-09T22:11:52Z")
In _Frankenstein_ (First Edition; never did read the more popular Third Edition), Captain Walton (Narrator of the framing sequence) was trying to sail to the North Pole. Not sure how the Polar Ice Caps were percieved by the general public at the time, but I always thought he should have been looking for a Northwest Passage instead.
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### Author:  [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/46 "2004-05-10T00:24:35Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#):
>
> O. Henry’s short story _The Gift of the Magi_ begins with this assessment of the character Delia’s cash on hand:
>
> So what of the other $1.27? You’d have to have at least 2 cents’ worth of either additional pennies or half-cent coins. However, the latter were last minted in the USA some fifty years before the story was published in the early twentieth century, and probably could have been sold to a collector for more than face value, thereby ameliorating Delia’s poverty a bit.
Maybe it just means “roughly 60 cents”.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/47 "2004-05-10T01:04:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> There are plenty of historical inaccuracies in Henry V, but it’s most likely that these are deliberate and were done for added effect.
Shakespeare chose drama over accuracy, and he also had to make sure he didn’t piss off Queen Elizabeth or King James by insulting one of their ancestors or anything of the sort. The big ‘error’ that I’ve heard is that it’s in dispute whether Richard III is really responsible for the killing of the princes in the Tower of London. But hey, it’s the same with historical movies today.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/48 "2004-05-10T01:06:00Z")
Oh, and I always forget which play it’s in - _The Winter’s Tale_, I think - but Shakespeare makes kind of a silly error in having a character talk about taking a boat to some location in Italy that’s actually landlocked. :smack:
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### Author:  [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/49 "2004-05-10T01:18:16Z")
John Sutherland, who is professor of English literature at UCL, has published a whole series of entertaining books of short essays around the arch premise that apparent inconsistencies or _lacunae_ in classic works of fiction are actually clever (or unconcious) hints by the writers as to what’s actually going on. Often slightly silly, but sometimes genuinely illuminating.
See _Is Heathcliff a Murderer?_, _Can Jane Eyre be Happy?_, _Where was Rebecca Shot?_ (on more recent works), _Henry V, War Criminal?_ and _Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?_, most published in the Oxford Classics series.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/50 "2004-05-10T01:18:43Z")
I’m not sure about this one,it’s just something I’ve heard, but Shakespeare’s play about Othello the Moor is a goof - it was based on an earlier story about a white man whose _iname_ was Moore, or something similar.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/51 "2004-05-10T01:29:09Z")
The source story for Othello is clearly about a Moor.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/52 "2004-05-10T03:49:21Z")
To revisit Dr. Watson…in _A Study in Scarlet_, Watson was said to have been shot in the shoulder, while serving in Afganistan. In _The Sign of Four_, his injury had moved to his leg.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/53 "2004-05-10T05:10:09Z")
re: glasses in _Lord of the Flies_
> [@Snooooopy](#):
>
> Given that they were a bunch of dumbass kids, we can forgive them for not realizing this!
Thinking the glasses would start a fire was the kids’ (understandable) mistake. Having them actually start a fire was Golding’s mistake.
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### Author:  [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/54 "2004-05-10T07:15:12Z")
> [@bonzer](#):
>
> See _Is Heathcliff a Murderer?_, _Can Jane Eyre be Happy?_, _Where was Rebecca Shot?_ (on more recent works), _Henry V, War Criminal?_ and _Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?_, most published in the Oxford Classics series.
Oh, I have _Henry V, War Criminal?_ It’s terribly entertaining – although some of the things he sees as problems I don’t think are actually that problematic. 😉
As far as inaccuracies in the history plays go, there are several categories: some things are liberties taken for dramatic purposes, some are changes made to avoid getting into political trouble (which didn’t stop a few of the plays from getting fairly substantially censored; check out the highly interesting early performance history of _Richard II_), and some are inaccuracies inherited from the source material, mostly Holinshed’s Chronicles (and Hall’s, in the case of the _Henry VI_ plays).
And this isn’t so much an error exactly but I’ve always found Shakespeare’s use of “double-time” rather intriguing – the most famous example is _Othello,_ where it seems on the one hand as though a long time has passed, but based on the dialogue the actual timeframe of the play is about two days or so, and Desdemona has hardly had time to have slept with anyone, including her husband according to some interpreters of the play…
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/55 "2004-05-10T21:19:38Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#):
>
> O. Henry’s short story _The Gift of the Magi_ begins with this assessment of the character Delia’s cash on hand:
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.
>
> So what of the other $1.27? You’d have to have at least 2 cents’ worth of either additional pennies or half-cent coins. However, the latter were last minted in the USA some fifty years before the story was published in the early twentieth century, and probably could have been sold to a collector for more than face value, thereby ameliorating Delia’s poverty a bit.
According to a Martin Gardner “Mathematical Games” column, two- and three-cent coins were still in circulation in 1906. Bronze two-cent and silver three-cent coins were last minted in 1873. Nickel three-cent coins were last minted in 1889. (see [http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating\_coins/index.cfm?flash=no&action=faq\_circulating\_coin](http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?flash=no&action=faq_circulating_coin)) So the $.27 could reasonably be a dime, a nickel, and four three-cent coins.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/56 "2004-05-10T21:33:44Z")
There have been several Sherlock Holmes examples but this:
> [@kellner](#):
>
> It’s not really fair to blame the author for this one:
> In Wolfram von Eschenbach’s _Parzival_ (Perceval) said knight on his quest for the grail unwittingly meets his half brother Feirefiz who is a son of Parzival’s (white) father Gachmuret and Belakane, a black African queen. As a consequence he is… well… _spotted_. In Germany ca. 1200 this must have been the logical conclusion.
reminded my of “The Yellow Face” where he has the child of a black man and a white woman turning out be be much darker-skinned than her father.
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### Author:  [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/57 "2004-05-10T21:57:20Z")
> [@betenoir](#):
>
> So the other day I was in the shower thinking about Hamlet’s soliloque…as one does 😃 …and I got the part about “that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns”, and thought…er…didn’t someone do just that in the first act :dubious:
>
> Kind of undermines the whole thrust of the speech, dunnit 😉 ?
Holy smeg! For this insight I now both love and hate you!
(grumbles, and thought he knew a lot about the philosophical arguments inherent in Hamlet)
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/58 "2004-05-10T22:20:43Z")
Hmm, it could be that Hamlet is not discussing whether there is an afterlife (as the ghost of his father is proof of that), but the nature of heaven and hell. Since the ghost seems stuck in the world of the living and unable to go on, he hasn’t returned from the shore of that undiscovered country. Heaven and hell remain a mystery.
Of course, this doesn’t jibe with ‘To sleep, perchance to dream’.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/59 "2004-05-10T23:12:33Z")
> [@MLS](#):
>
> Then, the woman he loved did not run out on him. He had become corrupted by money and greed, and broke up with her.
I beg to differ – she was indeed the one who broke up with him because he had changed so much. I specifically recall her line, “I release you.”
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### Author:  [@Spudo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spudo)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/60 "2004-05-10T23:12:49Z")
> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> In _Frankenstein_ (First Edition; never did read the more popular Third Edition), Captain Walton (Narrator of the framing sequence) was trying to sail to the North Pole. Not sure how the Polar Ice Caps were percieved by the general public at the time, but I always thought he should have been looking for a Northwest Passage instead.
Well, given what Walton says, the polar ice caps wouldn’t have been percieved at all, since he was trying to be the first to reach the North Pole. I imagine that had he not turned back he would’ve found he couldn’t sail the whole way. Also, if he was trying to find a Northwest Passage he would not have encountered Victor and the story would not have been told, so that would’ve sucked.
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