Jim Prideaux - names, nicknames and their function

Mark Strong as Jim Prideaux in Tinker Tailor...

Example of using names as a test of trust is Ricki Tarr’s confession about what has he been told by Soviet agent Irina. The girl fell in love with young and handsome Ricki during his mission in Penang. She wanted to became a double agent and serve Great Britain. Ricki Tarr presenting how much did she trust him said to Smiley and Lacon:

She told me her real name, her workname and the covernames she'd travelled and transmitted by, then she hauled out her handbag and started showing me her conjuring set: recessed fountain pen, signal plan folded up inside; concealed camera, the works (Le Carre 54).

Significance of the real names is visible due to the fact, that Tarr speaks about them in the first place. Knowing another person’s name means being trust or at least to get to know the person. Hiding the name means to hide yourself. For instance, Smiley working for Lacon, stays at the hotel “where, on the day after his visit to Ascot, George Smiley under the name of Barraclough had set up his operational headquarters” (Le Carre 141). According to The Internet Surname Database the name was used by the people who moved from their original homes and went to work in another place.^[1] The meaning corresponds to Smiley’s situation. He hardly ever is presented at his place. It is yet another signal from the author that the meaning of his characters’ names are significant.

Even though, George Smiley is the protagonist of the novel, it is Jim Prideaux whose names are the best of description of his personal identity. In the first chapter of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy the reader sees a scene of the headmaster of the school in which Prideaux former secret agent of great skills, is just about to teach French.

Priddo.' He gave the spelling P-R-I-D' - French was not Thursgood's subject so he consulted the slip of paper - 'EA-U-X, first name James. I think he'll do us very well till July. 'The staff had no difficulty in reading the signals. Jim Prideaux was a poor white of the teaching community (Le Carre 3).

The name suggests that Prideaux’s nationality is mixed. The first name – Jim, is typically English, surname is French. As the reader learns in next chapters, Prideaux has also some Hungarian roots. That is why he was sent on a secret mission by Control to Budapest. During the trip Prideaux used a name J.B. Ellis. And after he was shot in the arm because of betrayal in Hungary everybody in Britain called him Ellis. It was possibly because they did not want to feel guilty that he was left alone in strange country while being on duty. Another reason for trying to forget his real name was due to the fact that the real name identifies a person, a human being. Yet, his former colleagues  prefer to treat him as a machine, a soldier, an agent who exists only in the secret world of spies. It is illustrated by following quotes:

’Ellis, we're to call him, and we still do, don't we, even if we know his real name as well as we know our own.’ Shrewdly Martindale waited for Smiley to cap this(…) (Le Carre 26).

Lacon, slightly pink, wore a dependent smile. 'Why do I say Ellis?' he asked conversationally. 'Why do I talk about the Ellis affair when the poor man's name was Prideaux?' 'Ellis was his workname.' 'Of course. So many scandals in those days, one forgets the details.'” Lacon to Smiley (Le Carre 79).

Jim Prideaux is, in my opinion, the most complex character in the book. Therefore, people are giving him different nicknames. It is impossible to find one, best sobriquet that captures all his features. The boys that he thought French tried with three different nicknames:

They had several shots before they were happy. They tried Trooper, which caught the bit of military in him, his occasional, quite harmless cursing and his solitary rambles in the Quantocks. (…)Trooper didn't stick, so they tried Pirate and for a while Goulash. Goulash because of his taste for hot food, the smell of curries and onions and paprika(…)Goulash for his perfect French which was held to have a slushy quality. (…)In a quaint way, they actually added to the aura of gentleness which quickly surrounded him, a gentleness only possible in big men seen through the eyes of boys. Yet Goulash did not satisfy them either. It lacked the hint of strength contained. It took no account of Jim's passionate Englishness, which was the only subject where he could be relied on to waste time. (…) Finally they hit on Rhino. Partly this was a play on Prideaux, partly a reference to his taste for living off the land and his appetite for physical exercise which they noted constantly (Le Carre 13).

The description shows advantages and disadvantages of Jim Prideaux from the children’s point of view which is very accurate. What is more important the quotation shows that even though, Jim was good in French and liked Hungarian spicy food he was still a great patriot full of fidelity to England. His character is opposite to Bill Haydon’s behavior, who pretending to be a patriot, was a communist. He betrayed his country. At the same time, as the quotations state, he betrayed Prideaux’ faith and love.

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[1]    “Last name: Barraclough.” Surname Database. Web. 10. Jan.2013. <http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Barraclough>.