Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Virginia Woolf

    Uploaded by

    Carmen Guidetti
    38 views30 pages
    Virginia Woolf was a British writer and modernist novelist. Some key facts about her life and work include: She grew up in a literary household in London in the late 19th/early 20th century. Her novels experimented with stream-of-consciousness narrative techniques to depict the inner thoughts and feelings of characters. Her best known works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury Group and a prominent feminist writer who explored themes of women's experiences and relationships. She suffered from mental illness and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    35._VIRGINIA_WOOLF

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Virginia Woolf was a British writer and modernist novelist. Some key facts about her life and work include: She grew up in a literary household in London in the late 19th/early 20th century. Her novels experimented with stream-of-consciousness narrative techniques to depict the inner thoughts and feelings of characters. Her best known works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury Group and a prominent feminist writer who explored themes of women's experiences and relationships. She suffered from mental illness and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    38 views30 pages

    Virginia Woolf

    Uploaded by

    Carmen Guidetti
    Virginia Woolf was a British writer and modernist novelist. Some key facts about her life and work include: She grew up in a literary household in London in the late 19th/early 20th century. Her novels experimented with stream-of-consciousness narrative techniques to depict the inner thoughts and feelings of characters. Her best known works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Orlando. Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury Group and a prominent feminist writer who explored themes of women's experiences and relationships. She suffered from mental illness and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 30

    Virginia Woolf

    Virginia Woolf.
    Virginia Woolf

    1. Life (1882-1941)
    Her father Leslie Stephen
    was an eminent Victorian
    man of letters.
    She grew up in a literary
    and intellectual
    atmosphere with free
    access to her father’s library

    Leslie Stephen with Virginia Woolf.

    Childhood experiences of death and sexual abuse led to depression

    the death of her mother her stepbrothers


    when she was 13

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    1. Life (1882-1941)

    Suicide

    The Second World War increased her


    anxiety and fears. After rewriting drafts
    of her suicide note, she put rocks into
    her pockets and drowned herself in the
    River Ouse.

    Virginia Woolf.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    2. Literary career

    The Bloomsbury Group  In 1904


    she moved to Bloomsbury and became a
    member of the Bloomsbury Group. This
    meant the rejection of traditional morality
    and artistic convention.

    Experimentation  best known as one


    The Bloomsbury Group of the great experimental novelists during
    the modernist period.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    2. Literary career
    Evolution of her style in her main novels

    •
    The Voyage Out (1915)
    Traditional
    •
    Night and Day (1917) narratives

    •
    Jacob’s room (1922) Narrative experimentation with the
    novel
    •
    Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
    A more completely developed
    “stream-of-consciousness
    •
    To the Lighthouse (1927) technique”

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    2. Literary career
    A feminist writer  the themes of androgyny, women and writing

    Describes Clarissa Dalloway and


    •
    Mrs. Dalloway (1925) Sally Seton’s relationship as young
    women

    Click to edit Master subtitle style Deals with androgyny


    •
    Orlando (1928)

    Shows Woolf’s concern with the


    •
    A Room of One’s Own (1929) questions of women’s subjugation
    and the relationship between women
    and writing

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    3. A modernist novelist
    •
    Main aim  to give voice to the complex
    inner world of feeling and memory.

    •
    The human personality  a continuous
    shift of impressions and emotions.

    •
    Narrator  disappearance of the
    omniscient narrator.

    •
    Point of view  shifted inside the
    characters’ minds through flashbacks,
    associations of ideas, momentary Vanessa Bell, Mrs St John Hutchinson, 1915,
    Tate Gallery, London
    impressions presented as a continuous flux.
    Only Connect ... New
    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    4. Woolf vs Joyce
    Woolf’s stream of Joyce’s stream of
    consciousness consciousness

    never lets her characters’ characters show their


    thoughts flow without control, thoughts directly through
    maintains logical and interior monologue,
    grammatical organisation sometimes in an incoherent
    and syntactically
    unorthodox way

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    4. Woolf vs Joyce
    Moments of being Epiphanies

    Rare moments of insight The sudden spiritual


    during the characters’ daily manifestation caused by a
    life when they can see trivial gesture, an external
    reality behind appearances object  the character is
    led to a self-realization
    about himself/herself

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    5. Mrs Dalloway (1925)


    •
    Takes place on a single ordinary day
    in June 1923.

    •
    Follows the protagonist through a
    very small area of London, from the
    morning to the night of the day on
    which she gives a large formal party.

    •
    Clarissa Dalloway’s party is the
    climax of the novel and unifies the
    Cover for the first edition of Mrs. narrative by gathering all the people
    Dalloway, London, Hogarth Press,
    1925. she thinks about during the day.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    5. Mrs Dalloway (1925)


    Clarissa Dalloway
    •
    A London society lady of fifty-one,
    the wife of a Conservative MP,
    Richard Dalloway, who has
    conventional views on women’s
    rights.

    •
    Had a possessive father, refused
    Vanessa Redgrave as Mrs. Dalloway in Marleen Gorris’s
    1997 film adaptation Peter Walsh, a man who would force
    her to share everything.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    5. Mrs Dalloway (1925)


    Clarissa Dalloway
    •
    Characterized by opposing feelings:
    her need for freedom and
    independence and her class
    consciousness.

    •
    Her life appears to be an effort towards
    order and peace, an attempt to
    overcome her weakness and sense of
    Vanessa Redgrave as Mrs. Dalloway in Marleen
    Gorris’s 1997 film adaptation failure.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    5. Mrs Dalloway (1925)


    Septimus Warren Smith
    •
    A young poet and lover of
    Shakespeare.

    •
    When the war broke out,
    enlisted for patriotic reasons.

    Rupert Graves as Septimus in Marleen Gorris’s 1997 film


    •
    An extremely sensitive man who
    adaptation
    can suddenly fall prey to panic
    and fear, or feelings of guilt.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    5. Mrs Dalloway (1925)


    Septimus Warren Smith
    •
    A character specifically
    connected with the war.

    •
    Suffers from headaches and
    insomnia.

    Rupert Graves as Septimus in Marleen Gorris’s 1997 film •


    Finally commits suicide.
    adaptation

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    6. To the Lighthouse (1927)


    No traditional plot  a series of experiences, memories, emotions
    and feelings held together by symbols.

    The story develops over a period of ten years.

    Divided into three sections:

    1. The Window  It starts just


    before World War I. It is set
    during a summer afternoon
    and evening in a summer
    home on the Isle of Skye in
    the Hebrides The original St. Ives lighthouse, built by John Smeaton in
    1830.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    6. To the Lighthouse (1927)


    2. Time Passes  covers
    about ten years. The
    children grow up, war
    breaks out, Mrs Ramsay
    dies suddenly one night.
    Her eldest son, Andrew, is
    killed in battle, and her
    daughter Prue dies too. The
    summerhouse falls into a The original St. Ives lighthouse, built by John Smeaton in
    1830.

    state of decay for ten years


    until the family comes back.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    6. To the Lighthouse (1927)

    3. The Lighthouse  lasts


    less than one day. time
    experienced, and especially
    recaptured in memory,
    replaces outer time. Mr
    Ramsay, his son James
    and his daughter Cam sail
    to the lighthouse. Lily The original St. Ives lighthouse, built by John Smeaton in
    1830.
    succeeds in finishing her
    painting.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    7. To the Lighthouse: characters


    MRS RAMSAY

    •
    A beautiful woman and loving wife,
    constantly provides support to the
    other characters in the novel.

    •
    As a mother, her main objective is to
    preserve her son James’s sense of
    hope and wonder in relation to the
    lighthouse. Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf at Asheham, ca.
    1910, National Portrait Gallery, London.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    7. To the Lighthouse: characters


    MRS RAMSAY

    •
    She realizes that the beauty of
    this world is ephemeral and
    should be protected.

    •
    She has the ability to bring
    together different things into a
    whole.

    Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf at Asheham, ca.


    •
    After her death, Lily and the other 1910, National Portrait Gallery, London.

    characters try to reach this unity.


    Only Connect ... New
    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    7. To the Lighthouse: characters


    LILY BRISCOE

    •
    A painter who fears her work
    will end up in attics or under a
    couch.

    •
    Rejects the conventional
    image of the woman
    represented by Mrs Ramsay.
    Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell painting,
    1915, National Galleries of Scotland.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    7. To the Lighthouse: characters


    LILY BRISCOE

    •
    Her portrait of Mrs. Ramsay
    embodies her doubts: at the
    beginning of the novel she cannot
    make sense of the shapes and
    colours that she tries to
    reproduce.

    Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell painting,


    •
    Undergoes a drastic change
    1915, National Galleries of Scotland.
    evolving into an artist who
    achieves her final vision.
    Only Connect ... New
    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    8. To the Lighthouse: themes


    a. Transience  the idea that nothing lasts runs through the novel

    §
    Mrs Ramsay does not want
    her children to become adults.

    §
    The house falls into decay.

    §
    Death unexpectedly ends life.

    St. Ives, Cornwall, the setting for The Lighthouse

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    8. To the Lighthouse: themes


    b. Loss

    §
    Minta loses her brooch on the
    beach.

    §
    The family loses some of its
    members.

    St. Ives, Cornwall, the setting for The Lighthouse

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    8. To the Lighthouse: themes


    c. Art the ambition to stop the flux of time is embodied by the

    artist Lily Briscoe.

    d. The force of love 


    Mrs Ramsay believes that
    also love can create durable
    memories making moments
    permanent.

    St. Ives, Cornwall, the setting for The Lighthouse

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    9. To the Lighthouse: symbolism


    The sound of the sea  the fullness
    of life and the imminence of death,
    uncertainty.

    The land and the house  idea of


    shelter and stability.

    The window  the dividing and


    A scene from 2002’s The Hours, directed by
    Stephen Daldry. connecting point between the self and
    society.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    9. To the Lighthouse: symbolism

    The lighthouse

    •
    a positive symbol linked to light,
    comfort, hope and enthusiasm, a
    reference point in a changing world.

    •
    the inaccessible destination leading
    to frustration and threatening danger.
    A scene from 2002’s The Hours, directed by
    Stephen Daldry.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    10. A Room of One’s Own (1929)


    •
    Woolf had been invited to give a
    lecture on the topic of Women and
    Fiction. She advanced the thesis
    that “a woman must have money
    and a room of her own if she is
    to write fiction”.

    •
    Her essay is constructed as a
    partly-fictionalized narrative of
    the steps that led her to adopt this
    A contemporary edition of A Room thesis.
    of One’s Own.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    10. A Room of One’s Own (1929)


    •
    She dramatizes that mental process in the
      character of an imaginary narrator (“call
    me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary
    Carmichael or by any name you please--it
    is not a matter of any importance”).

    •
    The narrator reflects on the different
    educational experiences available to men
    and women as well as on more material
    differences in their lives.

    •
    The figure of Judith Shakespeare is
    A contemporary edition of A Room
    of One’s Own.
    generated as an example of the tragic fate a
    highly intelligent woman would have met.
    Only Connect ... New
    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    10. A Room of One’s Own (1929)


    •
    She considers the achievements of the
    major women novelists of the nineteenth
    century and reflects on the importance
    of tradition to an aspiring writer.

    •
    Woolf closes the essay with an
    exhortation to her audience of women to
    take up the tradition that has been so
    hardly bequeathed to them, and to
    increase the endowment for their own
    daughters.
    A contemporary edition of A Room
    of One’s Own.

    Only Connect ... New


    Directions
    Virginia Woolf

    10. A Room of One’s Own (1929)


    MAIN THEMES

    q
    Women’s position in
    fiction and in real life.

    q
    Critique of patriarchal
    society.

    q
    Struggle for women’s
    rights.
    Only Connect ... New
    Directions

    You might also like