Graduation project

Submitted by:

Asmaa Abduljalil ALdosary

ID Number:

111000809

Department of English language, King Faisal University

June 2019

The concept of death on Virginia Woolf’s novels

Supervisor: Majzoub Rahmatullah Alamer

Associate professor
Abstract

Adeline Virginia Woolf  was born on 25 January 1882 and died on 28

March 1941 , she was an English writer, considered as one of the most
important modernist of the 20th-century authors and also a pioneer in
the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.

She was more than a prominent author or a famous writer, she was a
good observer of everyday coincidence of life.

Her novels often ignored traditional plots as it was known of most

writers came before her, instead of the plot concentration she began to
follow the inner thoughts and diving deeper in characters’
consciousness. She published her first work The Voyage Out in 1915.
Between the Acts is here last novel and it was published after her death.
Her best novel is Mrs. Dalloway published in 1925.

Her diaries also have been widely reprinted such as a writer’s diary
which was published in 1953 and Moment of being in 1976.

Virginia Woolf suffered a lot from depression and became mental sick
for a long time of her life. finally, after she suffered a lot, she decided to
put an end to hear life and killed herself by committing a suicide by
drowning herself in the river.

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Acknowledgment

I am honored to thank Dr. Majzoub Rahmatullah Alamer for his guidance and
sharing his expertise during this research processes. I am also thankful for all
those who have given their hand in this venture.

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 Table of contents

Abstract………………………………………………….…... i

Acknowledgment ………………………………..……….…. ii

problem statement …………………………….………….…..1

Purpose statement ………………………………..….………..1

Literature Review ………………………………………….….1

Thesis statement …………………………………………..….4

Research Questions …………………………………....….….4

Significant of the study ……………………………………….4

Research Methodology ……………………………………….5

Research results ……………………………………………….6

Conclusion ……………………………………………………6

References ………………………………………….……….7

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problem Statement

To dive in the life of Virginia Woolf is something very difficult because

she had a complex personality and she suffered from depression, but I am
here to show the relation between her life suffering and to what the
reflection of this on her literature as she was affected much of the concept
of death in her novels .

Purpose statement

This research aims to focus on the life of Virginia Woolf and to show the
relation between her personal life and her novels. what make her
miserable to do a suicide? I think the answer for this question will show
the purpose of the research which involves with the concept of death in
Virginia’s literature.

Literature review

Before Virginia Woolf killed herself by drowning in the river , she wrote
a not to her lovely husband Leonard Gordon referring that she will put an
end to her life after being mad because of the terrible disease she suffered
a lot from also she talked about his support to her during her life and the
happiness that gave her and this a piece of her note :

‘Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go

through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I
begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So, I am doing what seems
the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness.
You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two

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people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t
fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you
could work.’

In her literature, she wanted to get behind her characters surfaces, she
wanted to go deeper and beyond the simplicity that seems to be, she tried
hard to explore souls and suggested every writer’s role is to:

‘being able to go beyond the formal railway line of sentences and to

show how people feel or think or dream all over the place’

There is a strong example for her writings about the concept of death and
to her observance of the last moments to a moth when she influenced
much then wrote a famous essay named “The Death of the Moth,” she
recorded the experience as a window into the fragility of all existence and
said ; “The insignificant little creature now knew death :

‘As I looked at the dead moth, this minute wayside triumph of so great a
force over so mean an antagonist filled me with wonder. The moth having
righted himself now lay most decently and uncomplainingly composed.
Oh yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am.’

There are five terrible things which shaped the personality of Virginia
Woolf and cause to here some shocks which affected her life after that
and reflected in her writing:

1. At the age of thirteen she was not educated like her brothers at
Cambridge university, because there was indifference in the
English society at this time.
2. the sudden death of her mother
3. the death of her half sister

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 4. at the age of thirty-two She suffered immense trauma at the death
of her father in 1904
5. the sexual abuse she suffered from her two half brothers

All these hard incidents shaped her view of life and reflexed in her
literature.

Dante (2014) stated that Virginia Woolf’s essay “The Death of the Moth”
makes comparisons about the life and the similarity of struggling of an
insignificant moth to and all human life. He also said that although the
moth is a very simple. primal form of life, only concerned with breathing
and eating, Woolf still relates to its struggle to survive to the same
struggle all people face in leading meaningful lives and overcoming
obstacles with as much strength as she had just witnessed in the moth’s
battle with death. When facing death, all humans are as weak as the tiny
weak moth.

The concept of death in her literature comes from using her

consciousness reality and we can’t do anything but struggling and finally
we will do nothing because of our weakness towards the death. Virginia
in her literature wanted to make the readers know the fact that beyond
death and ending of life and to learn front hi to build life as much as we
can and to realize at the end that “death is stronger than us.

Virginia tried to say about the concept of death also that we have to fight
suffering to the last moment and if it is inevitable to die we die with
dignity but unfortunately, Virginia didn’t apply this lesson on her life and
at the end she decided to kill herself and quit .

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Thesis statement

The assumption of this research is based on academic researches and

studies that were done about Virginia Woolf’s life and literature
especially the concept of death on her literature.

Research questions

This research asks some important questions about Virginia Woolf life
and literature as following:

 How was Virginia Woolf’s earlier life?

 What were the most critical moments in her life?
 What are the main effects of her earlier life on her literature
especially adopting the concept of death and life in her novels?
 What is the moral beyond the concept of life in her literature?
 Death concept as a theme of Consciousness and reality of
Virginia Woolf’s literature.

Research Significance

The finding of this research catches the important role of death concept
on Virginia Woolf’s literature and how her life suffering built her realistic
attitude and style of writing. The finding also shows Virginia’s potentials
about life and death. This study is important because it unveils clues
about the famous writer and it will other writers to adopt new techniques
in writing literature.

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Research methodology

I used quantitative methods during my searches about the concept of

death in Virginia Woolf’s literature to categorize and identify patterns of
her style and to make in the end a generalization about her literature.

According to her famous prominent quote about death in which she said:

“I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.”

She here summed up her heritage of writing about death and asserted that
she wanted to write about death in her literature.

Indeed , he loss of her mother, half sister and her brother formed the inner
thoughts and philosophy about life and death on her writing career later ,
she suffered from these losses one after one until she couldn’t bear more
then she suffered from mental illness to the end of her life .

The criteria which has been used in this research is the earlier critical
moments that Virginia faced proving that her literature was some kind a
reflection or a mirror to the life of loss she suffered so she some times
wanted to tell the reader , I have lost very close people I feel sorry every
time I want to write and I am here to tell you about this hard concept to
avoid the bitter psychological mental life I faced .

‘No, no, nothing is proved, nothing is known ‘she revealed in “The Mark
on the Wall” already reveals one of the major themes of Virginia Woolf’s
writing, we don’t know certain knowledge , all we know is guessing and
there is a profound feeling of not being able to fully understand what this
existence is about.

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Research results

The finding of this research comes to the fact that at first Virginia Woolf
was a great magnificent English writer as it was always known. Also, she
suffered in her early life by losing three of her close relatives he mother
then her half-sister then her father, these losses affected both her life and
writing. she writes for life and death. she was uncertain about anything
because nothing is proven as she said, she also confessed that in one of
her famous quotes that she is meant to write about death.

She adopted the general consciousness of reality concept as the concept

of death is a part of this universal concept. when she talked about the
death in her literature, she expressed real concept not fancy of other
nonfiction concepts.

conclusion

To conclude the study Virginia Woolf ‘s literature is always something

interesting. She still one of the best writers who use reality concepts such
as death concept and this was because her heritage of bad loses in her life
as I mentions above .

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References

 Danny Heitman, June 2015 , Virginia Woolf Was More Than Just a
Women’s Writer .
 By some authors , 1997 , Chronological List of Works By Virginia Woolf,
https://www.uah.edu/woolf/chrono.html
 Michaela Stolte, 2007, The Meaning of Death in Virginia Woolf's "Mrs
Dalloway" and Michael Cunningham's "The Hours"
 Carrie Scott.,2014, Virginia Woolf's Literary Legacy
 Dante , 2014 , Analysis of Death and Loss in Death of the Moth
 Katharina Gerhardt ,2015, Reality and Perception of Reality in
Virginia Woolf's Short Stories