George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) and Pseudonyms: In her comic short story “Brother Jacob,” why does David Faux change his name to Edward Freely?

The plot—which makes no sense, so I consider it a cover story—is about a young man, David Faux, who steals his mother’s savings, goes to America to seek his fortune, but then returns to England and establishes himself under an assumed name, Edward Freely. His true identity is revealed when he is found by his developmentally disabled brother, Jacob, which is funny, but implausible.

—Why is his real name “Faux” (which means fake)?

—When he returns, why does he adopt a false identity without first checking if he is under any legal jeopardy due to the theft, or if his family will accept him back anyway (which turns out to have been the case)?

—Why has Eliot used a fugue scenario, in which a person travels and changes identity (except that Faux/Freely has no amnesia)? (Search “fugue” or “dissociative fugue” in this blog. It is a symptom of multiple personality.)

This story, about a person who adopts a pseudonym, raises the question of Mary Ann Evan’s pseudonym, George Eliot, which she had no good reason to keep using after everyone knew who she was.

That the protagonist’s real name is given as “Faux” (fake) suggests that, in some psychological way, Mary Ann Evans did not consider “Mary Ann Evans” to be her real name.

Since she had “double consciousness”— multiple personality (see post earlier today)—it may be that “Mary Ann Evans” was not her writing personality. When it came to writing, “Mary Ann Evans” was not her real name.