Do I capitalize "The" when used as a title in the middle of a sentence?

Question

So, I have a character named "The Aviatress". She is only referred to as the Aviatress, never as just Aviatress.

I have a few sentences of this structure:

"After grabbing the torch, the Aviatress yelled at Jason to leave."

Is it "...torch, the Aviatress..." OR "...torch, The Aviatress..."

Neither really look correct to me, and I can't word it correctly enough to find answers online.

Answer 1

Great question! As the writer of an original story, I would say you have the freedom to do whatever makes sense to your story. However, if you are aiming for what most people (and editors) would find normal, I would not capitalize "the." You can find similar examples if you search for sentences referring to the pope, which is sometimes capitalized ("...the Pope said..."). The rationale is probably something about how the word "the" is only included for grammatical purposes and isn't a meaningful part of the title.

Answer 2

Don't capitalize "the.". Her name isn't "The Aviatress," it's what she does. Frankly, technically for that reason you shouldn't capitalize "aviatress" either. You wouldn't say "the Plumber" or "the Criminal." But given that she is your protagonist you are informally using it as if it were her name. So capitalizing "Aviatriss" is a style choice. But definitely don't capitalize the "the."

In fact, IF it's a script you're writing, then there's another reason to capitalize the word "Aviatress." In the stage directions (aka: action lines) of film and TV scripts, the first letter of all speaking characters' names (or name substitutes) is capitalized.

Answer 3

In your example no because it’s not part of her name or title. If her name was The … such as The Duke of York than it would always be capitalized.