In Once Upon a Time, Snow White and Prince Charming went down to ask Rumpelstiltskin about the curse from the evil queen. When down there a guard said that if he knew their name he would have power. Also as part of the deal, he asked for the name of the child Snow White was expecting, why?
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Usually in fairy tales, knowing someones true name gives you power over them.– Aaron GullisonCommented Aug 18, 2020 at 21:02
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2 Answers
Hearing Emma's name is what awakens Mr. Gold's memories of himself as Rumpelstiltskin and the fairy tale world. He wanted to know her name so this would trigger for him as answered by the directors in this YouTube video:
Did Mr. Gold know from the beginning, or was it when Emma came to town, he regained his memories?
It's when Emma came to town. When he heard her name in the pilot.
Which is why he was asking for her name in the jail cell. And then you see it when he says "Emma, what a lovely name".
answered Sep 2, 2020 at 8:25
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And it happens again in 6x17 - Awake, which makes it clear Gold doesn't even have to be hearing Emma say her own name. In that episode a prematurely awake David who remembers who he is mentions her name to Gold which awakens Rumple as well. Kinda makes you wonder though, wether anyone randomly mentioning the name Emma to Gold would trigger a wake up - or just Emma herself and her close family (her Dad in the other instance). If it's anyone Snow and Charming got lucky in choosing such a non-fairytaly name for their daughter and normal people called Emma don't live in Storybrook... ;)– BMWurmCommented Sep 2, 2020 at 9:26
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@BMWurm I've not gotten that far yet but I imagine mentioning Emma to him has to be in context to Emma not any Emma. Also a lot of the characters don't really have fairytale names "Prince James" is Charming, for example. And of course no one ever goes to Storybrooke!– TheLethalCarrot ♦Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 9:28
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@BMWurm And what if someone's named "Emily"? "Hi, I'm Emma-" "I just remembered something" "-ly" "Never mind, I forgot". Commented Sep 3, 2020 at 2:21
It's quite common for early societies to believe that knowing the name of someone gave you power over them. After all, if you do not know a mans name you cannot call for them. And nor can you tarnish his name, that is his reputation. Hence, in a sense, it's a stand-in for the mans soul.
This is underlined by the fact that pre-image and pastoral and nomadic societies were wary of photographs and mirrors as they thought that their souls had been caught (and which also might say something about how they viewed the intentions of these westerners).
This is represented in folklore, and hence fairy tales in the terms that you noted. It's just as true of more modern tales of similar material. For example, a similar stance is taken by Ursula le Guin in her cycle of stories set in EarthSea.
Whilst this isn't an answer that is in in-universe, much of literary analysis is not in-universe because we don't live in-universe. Whilst I appreciate a lot of people are interested about answers that are in-universe, the whole field of literary analysis and which includes science-fiction (although under-represented), and folklore (also under represented) shows that a lot of people are also concerned with out of universe explanations (and which of course is within our universe - the one that mostly concerns us).
This answer is based upon reading a lot of folklore and fairy tales as a child - including Snow White and Rumpelstiltskin. Though of course I didn't think like this, then.
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Downvoted, we have Word of God in my answer for why he wanted to know the name. We don't need a speculative answer based on folklore and nothing related to the work in question. And, to me, watching the program for the first time it seemed obvious for why he wanted to know the name, have you seen it?– TheLethalCarrot ♦Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 8:47
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What power over Emma/Snow White would Rumple have in this case? From the story just knowing her name doesn't give him any power over them. Sure him knowing names helps him get power over people generally but in this case his knowing Emma's name doesn't give him power over her. The sole reason appears to be so he can regain his memories, that's it.– TheLethalCarrot ♦Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 9:09
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1FWIW are you doing literary analysis purely based off of the context given in the question or have you at least seen the first few episodes of Once Upon a Time?– TheLethalCarrot ♦Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 9:24
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1Please find a way to add comments on mobile or otherwise, rather than constantly adding the same paragraphs into the body of your answer.– AncientSwordRage ♦Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 10:18