Dunstan dates three different women: Agnes Day, Gloria Mundy, and Libby Doe. These names all aptly or accurately describe each woman’s character. Explain their names and comment on the deeper symbolism of their names, if possible.

Each name is a play and pun on the latin phrases: "Agnus Dei," "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," and "Libido"

Agnes Day is close to Agnus Dei, Latin for an image of a lamb, often as a symbol of Christ, who in the Christian faith took on man's burden, dying for his sins.

There was Agnes Day, who yearned to take upon herself the sins of the whole world, and sacrifice her body and mind to some deserving male's cause. She soon became melancholy company. (107)

Gloria Mundy comes from the Latin phrase "sic transit gloria mundi," or "thus passes the glory of the world."

Then there was Gloria Mundy, the good-time girl, who had to be stoked with costly food, theater tickets, and joyrides of all kinds. (107)
And of course Libby Doe, who thought sex was the one great, true, and apostolic key and cure and could not get enough of it, which I could. (107)

Libby Doe is a reference to the libido, Freud's word of choice to mean inner-desire and passion, or sexual drive and instinct of a person.
These names were Roberston Davies's passing idea of a joke, and they highlight a way in which each woman tried to function for Dunstan. The borrowing of Latin can't be a mistake in light of Dunstan's study of saints.

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