Project

STUDENT: STANCIU DARIA

PROFESSOR : CRISTESCU
 Life
Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, critic, and essayst .She was born on January 25, 1882 in
London , United Kingdom . Woolf grew up in an upper-middle-class, socially active, literary family
in Victorian London.
She had three siblings, two half-brothers, and two half-sisters. She was educated at home,
becoming an avid reader of the books in her father’s extensive library. Tragedy first afflicted the
family when Woolf’s mother died in 1895, then hit again two years later, when her half-sister
Stella died.Virginia experienced her first episode of mental illness after her mother’s death, and
she suffered from mania and severe depression for the rest of her life.
During the Victorian time , the Enghlish society denied women a proper academic education ,
yet dispite all that Woolf managed to publish her first essays and reviews at an early age .
At the end of 1940, Woolf suffered another severe bout of depression, from which she felt she
was unable to recover. On March 28, 1941, at the age of 59, Woolf filled her pockets with stones
and drowned herself in the River Ouse, near her Sussex home. She left two suicide notes; one for
her sister Vanessa, the other for her husband, Leonard.
 Literary works
Virginia Woolf’s most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway, To the
Lighthouse, Orlando, and her essay A Room of One's Own.
 Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway was published in 1925 and it is Woolf’s most autobiographical novel and at the
same time expressing the new realities of postwar England. The novel depicts the subjective
experiences and memories of its central characters over a single day in post–World War I
London.
It is divided into parts, rather than chapters, and focuses mainly on the main characters
thoughts and complex feelings .
This book focuses on commonplace tasks, such as shopping, throwing a party, and eating
dinner, showing that no act was too small or too ordinary for a writer’s attention. Ultimately,
Mrs. Dalloway transformed the novel as an art form.
 Main characters
• Clarissa Dalloway- the protagonist in the • Peter Walsh - A close friend of Clarissa’s, once
novel , is a vivacious woman and cares a desperately in love with her. Clarissa rejected
great deal about what people think of Peter's marriage proposal when she was
her, but she is also self-reflective. She eighteen, and he moved to India. He has not been
often questions life’s true meaning, to London for five years. He is highly critical of
wondering whether happiness is truly others, is conflicted about nearly everything in his
possible. life.
• Septimus Warren Smith - A World War I • Sally Seton - A close friend of Clarissa and Peter in
veteran suffering from shell shock, their youth. She and Clarissa were sexually
married to an Italian woman named attracted to one another as teenagers.
Lucrezia. Though he is insane, Septimus • Richard Dalloway - Clarissa’s husband. A member
views English society in much the same of Parliament in the Conservative government. He
way as Clarissa does, and he struggles, as is a sportsman and likes being in the country. He
she does, to both maintain his privacy is a loving father and husband.
and fulfill his need to communicate with
others.
 The Victorian Society through Mrs. Dalloway
In the Victorian time women’s rights were
limited and they weren’t enjoying equality
with men . The rules were very strict , from the
way people talked to the way they even
dressed. Education was a very important mark
of high class and social position . During this
time , members of the high class were
throwing parties , had fatuous dinners to
maintain the relationships with old friends and
family .
 Dressing style in Victorian England

Women wore big , richly decorated hats, white

and sometimes black gloves.
Dresses were very long , in order to cover their
bodies entirely however extremely elegant and
pretentious .
Men were very elegant and ceremonious . They
usually wore black costumes , white shirts with
ties , and outside they always wore a hat and a
cane . Whenever , they met someone they
would greet and take of their hats .