What Do Semicolons Mean? Historical Analysis and an Interpretive Experiment

The semicolon has prompted surprisingly intense celebration and disdain. This essay first examines the complicated history of the semicolon: changes in how it has been used, entanglements with matters of class and gender, affinities and antipathies expressed by writers and readers. Then comes an interpretive experiment. Might the semicolon, which influential voices have derided as meaningless, actually mean something? Analysis of semicolons from three very different twentieth-century American novels—The Maltese Falcon, Monkeys, and The Mezzanine—reveals an interesting pattern. In all three, semicolons participate in moments of deviation: a swerve away from what the narrative voice constructs as normal or admirable.