Acceptance

[Tiffany B. Clark]

No: HPFGUIDX 178540

Shelley:

Look at all the ghosts- the Gray Lady, the Fat Friar, and the 
paintings-many of those you never get a name for as well. They are 
just titled as something about them- even Nearly Headless Nick's name 
almost implies that the "nearly headless" part is way more defining 
of him than his name. If someone said, "Go talk to Nick the Ghost", 
new students might say "Who?" But then one would say, "You know the 
one- Nearly Headless?" "Oh yeah, that ghost!" For the new Gryffindor, 
it might just be easier to explain that the common room door is 
behind the "Fat Lady", because that painting itself might be 
so "large", as well as the woman in it, and that's the defining 
feature that makes it stick out from all the other portraits in that 
general location. I agree- it's just a defining feature, not an 
insult or a judgment of her. She doesn't need a name, because Rowling 
is painting a visual picture with her words. She does name her best 
friend though, "Vi" or "Violet", because the Fat Lady talks about her 
without her being in the scene at the moment for us to get a 
description of what she looks like.

Tiffany:

Exactly, sometimes a name is not needed if there's a better 
description about someone.  That's why the "Fat Lady" is just 
the "Fat Lady" because the painting might be so large as well as the 
person in it, that it's easier for new Hogwarts students to remember 
that than her actual name.  It's hardly an insult or jdugment by JKR, 
just that the actual visual image we get is so "larger than life" 
that we don't need more information.