Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Posted on March 18, 2015 by mbowman10 under Molly, Uncategorized

To answer that, I was. Totally. Getting through this book before London was, in a way tedious, due to the form and the narration style, it’s a tough read. However, during this trip, both during the class today and the Bloomsbury tour yesterday, I really admire and respect both Woolf and this novel as a whole.

Before yesterday I didn’t really know about the life of Virginia Woolf, but the tour yesterday really opened my eyes to a lot of things going on in both her life and the major comparisons between Woolf and Clarissa Dalloway. Both Woolf and Dalloway have similar romantic situations between there husbands and rumored female third parties, both are obviously living in the same area and roughly the same time, but most importantly both are struggling from depression (or at least some sort of mental illness with symptoms akin to depression). In a lot of ways, like I said in class, Mrs. Dalloway as a whole to me reads like an autobiographical take of Woolf herself.

So now that I’m seeing the book knowing this background information, in addition to the discussion we had on the form of the novel, I can’t help but really enjoy this novel both as a writer and as someone who sees literature as an interesting glance into a writer’s personal life.

But when I come to that conclusion, all I can think now is, what else am I missing in literature by not reading more about the author’s themselves? And possibly, should we be comparing fiction to the writer’s lives at all? Or is it detrimental to the fictional works to try and find autobiographical content within them? Is there aright answer to any of these questions, probably not as it would be different from scholar to scholar, but it’s something that I really enjoy to think about and will probably carry with me into the discussions of the short stories tomorrow ash Friday as well.

DAY 4: MRS. DALLOWAY

Posted on March 18, 2015 by lbryant23 under Uncategorized

Listen up English majors: DON’T LAUGH AT ME! I’m just a minor lol

I had no idea that writers could write through third person amonition. Or maybe I did know, and I just wasn’t aware of the fancy name for it. And maybe I spelled amonition wrong. But that’s the beauty of it. This is my blog post written in first person, and I can make mistakes because I’m the focalizer, and you can see the inconsistency in me through this blog post, just as we were able to see the inconsistency of characters in Mrs. Dalloway.

Moving right along!

Virginia Woolf opened a whole new door of writing for me. Her writing has encouraged me to try and drift away from first person narratives, though, I don’t know if I will be skilled enough to do so. I think the use of third person is a craft that won’t come easily to all of us. Woolf’s use of free and direct discourse was not limited like first person narratives are. Though, after reading the Embassy of Cambodia, I feel like I’m reading in “fourth person.” Or is there such a thing? Again English majors, don’t you laugh at me! But even if you do, it’s okay. Because I’m just a minor, still trying to find a way to connect to you all and still have individuality through my writing, like Woolf.

“It is a thousand pities never to say what one feels.”
-Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway, Day 4, Cashwell

Posted on March 18, 2015 by ccashwell1 under Uncategorized

Today’s discussion was really interesting from a craft perspective. What I learned about Woolf’s mental health really helps me understand the narration of the novel. Woolf used free and direct discourse, which means that she had to basically become the character while describing it in third person. You (McLeod) said that Clarissa could feel things before she could fully react to and process them. I’m sure that Virginia Woolf was a lot like Clarissa in that aspect, which is why this free direct discourse probably came easy to her. She took on the characters so well because she could feel what they feel and describe it to a tee. I found the narration confusing at first, but after the discussion, it makes complete sense. I also really liked the bird metaphors we spoke about, and I find a lot of Woolf in these metaphors. I think she was a woman who constantly felt like she was going to float away with the wind (and wishes she could fly away), hence the curtains that critics argue was the time of Septimus’s death. Woolf most certainly represents the structure of feeling by using free and direct discourse because she shows it from several angles and does so through things like the bird metaphors and also characters that are settled and characters that are floating. Elizabeth seems like she knows who she is, and Richard, too. So they represent settled characters. However, Clarissa and Septimus are floating characters because everything moves them in a way they can’t control. Interesting enough, Woolf herself was both. Her soul could easily fly off the handle, but in her suicide, she sank.

Day 4–Mrs. Dalloway

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Kayla Stockton under Kayla S.

Being in the former house of Virgina Woolf was incredible! After our discussion this morning I felt that I had a much better grasp on the flow of Mrs. Dalloway-I had not considered that it was not stream of consciousness but rather free and direct discourse. From a craft perspective I find that technique extremely interesting because it offers a wide range of persepctive while maintaining the voice of an individual character. I wish we had gone more into Peter because I have a completely different read on his characer after hearing about his potential sexual aggression. I wonder about the failure of his marriage with his first wife coupled with the aggression and the repeated phallic symbol of the knife suggesting impotency. The entire conversation was extremely interesting and I feel like I should go back and reread the novel!

Day 4: Mrs. Dalloway

Posted on March 18, 2015 by ishelton1 under Ian, Uncategorized

I’m not certain where to begin with discussing Mrs. Dalloway, which seems fitting. For me the craft of the story is as interesting as the story itself, perhaps more so. I loved the way that the novel flows with almost no breaks, only a few line breaks, from beggining to end. We discussed the theme of time and how the use of literal bell tolls drives home the themes of last vs. present and the unrelenting march of time, and I feel the unbroken structure of the story only adds to it. And as I wrote it just now, I’m hit by the obvious metaphor of the bell tolls and the themes of death. Big Ben tolls several times in novel, and arguably Septimus’ death is strongly connected to Clarrisa and through her every character in the story. The bell tolls for every “thee” in the novel.

Day 4 – Mrs. Dalloway

Posted on March 18, 2015 by kandersen3 under Kayla A.

I noticed as I started to get further into Mrs. Dalloway that the writing made me slightly uncomfortable. There are no chapters, but a constant stream of description about one character’s thoughts and actions as a focal point to the next. Automatically, my original thought was that this was written in stream of consciousness form, as we discussed in class; however, Mrs. Dalloway is not written in first person, which is a requirement of stream of consciousness. Virginia Woolf wrote this novel in what is called free and direct discourse which is written in third person omniscient. While I thought Mrs. Dalloway was somewhat hard to read at times because of its continuous action, I respect it for its unique form.

Additionally, my first judgement of Clarissa was that she was a young girl, whereas Septimus was an older man, perhaps in his fifties. These initial judgements were wrong and quite the opposite. We touched lightly upon this in class, but I do think it has to deal with each character’s experience in the world. Clarissa is mostly busy hosting parties, and so she lacks any real knowledge of what goes on outside of her upper class life. Septimus, being a war veteran, deals with having too much knowledge and experience of the horrors of the world.

Day 3: North and South gender issues

Posted on March 18, 2015 by ishelton1 under Ian

One of my favorite points to come out of today’s discussion was the idea that the invalid mother was a common trope in Victorian literature. I believe I’ve heard before a similar idea that every coming of age story has to star an orphan so the protagonist has the freedom to make mistakes that make for an interesting story (this may have been an argument about Disney movies …). What strikes me about this in retrospect is the paralelle conversation about the relative weakness of Mr. Hale. As we said, he would have been considered fairly feminine at the time, so he is in effect unable to act as a father or mother to Margarette. It feels like an interesting variation of the orphan trope to have a parent present for most of the story but who is so ineffective. I wonder if that is unique, at least for the time period.

It seems strange to me how rare it is to fine good coming of age stories that feature strong parents. I’m sure some exist that I’m not thinking of. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Feminist Theory/Termonology

Posted on March 17, 2015 by mbowman10 under Molly

So today when we were talking about gender studies in North and South we kept using words like “feminine” to describe weaker characters (like Mr. Hale) and kept calling Margaret “masculine.” When I read over the usage of these words in my notes tonight, I couldn’t help but look at North and South from the viewpoint of a modern feminist literary theorist. I think that I have an issue with Victorian literature at large because I hate how we use the terms feminine and masculine to describe characters as weak or strong, but when it comes to Victorian Literature and to the social conventions that is the best words to actually use for the descriptors. However, looking at the terminology from a modern feminist one finds fault with it and how it portrays women in so item at large. I think that’s shown in the time period of the Victorian age as well, as we talked about today in class with how women are were seen (examples being that they were always fainting and more easily seen as insane). We see this issue in other literary and historical movements as well (especially with tropes like the Southern Belle) and I wish that over all we didn’t associate “feminine” as a weaker character (regardless of sex) and “masculine” as the stronger character (again regardless of sex).

Peer Response: Amanda

Posted on March 17, 2015 by nhuynh8 under Uncategorized

I 100% agree with you about the style of the novel. However, for me the stream of consciousness was a huge turn off when I first read the book. I agree, one of the biggest turn offs about this book for me was that I had a really hard time telling who was talking to the point that I had to (shamefully) sparknote a bit in the beginning.

However, after today on the walking tour I found a new appreciation of the writing style because I found her personal life history very closely related to Septimus’s life. Septimus suicide planned like her suicide, but Woolf’s suicide was very much rehearsed down to a “T”. I feel like the stream of consciousness style of writing allowed me almost a bit into her mind and what she was feeling. Because with Septimus, I could see his entire intimate thought process laid out, and I could see how he saw the world and what elements (evil of man, etc.) drove him to his madness.

Mrs. Dalloway – Amanda

Posted on March 17, 2015 by abingle1 under Uncategorized

Before we get started talking about Mrs. Dalloway, I’d like to ask if anyone else found it difficult to tell when focus was shifting from one character’s perspective to another. I found myself reading along, knowing the focus was a particular character, then realizing that the focus had shifted, and having to re-read previous passages to figure out where the transition was. Are there clues that Woolf included to indicate that she was transitioning to another’s character’s perspective that I overlooked? I did find it got easier to tell as I became more familiar with the characters, but initially it was pretty confusing.

I’d also like to say that I loved that there was so much packed into just one day. I like the way Woolf included information (about the characters, the culture, the history) through the perspectives of different characters concerning both the present and the past. I think she really captured the thought processes many of us have throughout our days. Sometimes that thought process is repetitive and annoying, but also very interesting and revealing.