Virginia Woolf - 1120 Words

Virginia Woolf In recent times there has been a renewed interest in Virginia Woolf and her work, from the Broadway play, â€Å"Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?† to the Academy award nominated film â€Å"The Hours† starring Nicole Kidman. This recent exposure, along with the fact that I have ancestors from England , has sparked my interest in this twentieth century British novelist. During the early part of the twentieth century, artists and writers saw the world in a new way. Famed British novelist Virginia Woolf was very sensitive to this change, for she felt that human relationships such as ones between a husband and wife of master and servant were shifting, due to all of the political, religious, and social changes. These, of course,†¦show more content†¦She felt that his language captured processes of thought, perception, and most pivotally feeling. In her own words, Woolf once exclaimed â€Å"‘Oh, if I could write like that! And at the moment such is the astonishing vibration and saturation and intensification that he procures. Scarcely anyone so stimulates the nerves of language in me: it becomes an obsession† (qtd. in King 310). Woolf began to realize that she had made a breakthrough in her work while working on both The Common Reader and Mrs. Dalloway . She also hoped that Prousts influence would be apparent. It is through these techniques that Virginia Woolf illustrated the way in which she strived to capture the sense of reality that the traditional standards of writing had prevented authors of the past from accomplishing. Besides being influenced by such writers as Proust, Woolf was also linked to the Post-impressionist, who she found engrossing and zestful (Blackstone 12). At the first Post-Impressionist exhibition, which was organized by friend Roger Fry, Virginia saw an explosion of Victorian and Edwardian conventions dealing with art, as well as human relationships (Dunn 146-47). By dismissing traditional standards, Virginia Woolf created a masterpiece of reality through Mrs. Dalloway and even she recognized her great achievement. Woolf was certain that in Mrs. Dalloway , she had at last â€Å"uncovered her gold mine as a writer of fiction. The ‘trick was to get all the gold out, that precious metalShow MoreRelated Virginia Woolf Essay1175 Words   |  5 Pages Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf was a very powerful and imaginative writer. In a quot;Room of Ones Ownquot; she takes her motivational views about women and fiction and weaves them into a story. Her story is set in a imaginary place where here audience can feel comfortable and open their minds to what she is saying. In this imaginary setting with imaginary people Woolf can live out and see the problems women faced in writing. Woolf also goes farther by breaking many of the rules of writing inRead MoreThe And The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf2070 Words   |  9 Pagesrevolution. That which was â€Å"true† or â€Å"real† was no longer straight-forward; the role of the perception of reality pioneered a wave of artistic endeavors in response to this rising uncertainty. In literature, rules of writing were actively defied, as Virginia Woolf did in To the Lighthouse. The novel is written as a stream-of-consciousness, switching amongst inner dialogues of the characters as narration, leaving th e reader desperately grasping at straws in order to draw out a plot without a clear senseRead MoreThe Life of Virginia Woolf Essay1535 Words   |  7 PagesThe Life of Virginia Woolf Driven by uncontrollable circumctances and internal conflict, her life was cut short by suicide. One of the greatest female authors of all times, Virginia woolf, produced a body of writtings respected world wide. Her role in feminsim, along with the personal relationships in her life, influanced her literary. Virginias relationships throughout her life contributed not only to her literature, but the quality of her life as well. Perhaps the greatest influence in VirginiasRead MoreEssay about Virginia Woolf1250 Words   |  5 PagesBrush Virginia Woolf is not unlike any other truly good artist: her writing is vague, her expression can be inhibited, and much of her work is up to interpretation from the spectator. Jacob’s Room is one of her novels that can be hard to digest, but this is where the beauty of the story can be found. It is not written in the blatant style of the authors before her chose and even writers today mimic, but rather Jacob’s Room appears more like a written painting than a book. It is as if Woolf appearedRead MoreTo The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf Essay1237 Words   |  5 Pagesof To The Lighthouse between Mr Ramsay and Mrs Ramsay displays the gender division that flows throughout this passage highlighting Woolf’s own perspective on society and sexuality between genders. Woolf supports the belief in a complete change to society resulting in a non – hierarchical society. Woolf felt for this to happen aside from the practical changes, that a radical redefinition of s exuality was also needed. The novel focuses on sexual issues of the twentieth century central to feminist campaignsRead More To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Essay2176 Words   |  9 PagesTo the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf When speaking of modernism in the work Virginia Woolf, scholars too readily use her innovations in style and technique as the starting point for critical analysis, focusing largely on the ways in which her prose represents a departure from the conventional novel in both style and content. To simply discuss the extent of her unique style, however, is to overlook the role of tradition in her creation of a new literary identity. In To the Lighthouse, WoolfsRead MoreMrs. Dalloway By Virginia Woolf1322 Words   |  6 PagesIn the book Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, it is evident that the main character, Clarissa Dalloway, double persona is Septimus Smith. While Clarissa proves to be more rational, Septimus is irrational. Clarissa shows optimism with her life and finding her true identity while Septimus is someone who experiencing insanity and madness. Although she never meets him and their lives are vastly different, the two characters actually mirror each other. Clarissa and Septim us share many characteristicsRead MoreAnalysis Of To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf1805 Words   |  8 Pages Though set in early 1910s Britain, the passage from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse in which Lily Briscoe first doubts her painting skills and her lifestyle is reminiscent of the doubts that many young adults face in modern America. Woolf’s writing style exemplifies this struggle within Lily with its repetition of declarative sentence beginnings and specific usage of language to note the way Lily would likely have been seen in early 20th century Western society. Regardless of this early 20thRead MoreMrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 1495 Words   |  6 PagesThe psychological effect the city environment has on both, the characters and authors, can be seen in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and T.S.Elliot’s the wasteland. The lack of unity of Elliot’s text has lead critics to feel the writing is far too fragmented: My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. What are you thinking of? What thinking? What. I never know what you are thinking. Think. (TWL: 110) However, as Gareth Reeves suggests in theRead MoreMrs. Dalloway, By Virginia Woolf1498 Words   |  6 Pagesdying in trenches everyday, a woman’s place in the kitchen became a secondary concern. World War One was a time of progressive change–however, this change was only temporary. Both One of Ours, written by Willa Cather, and Mrs. Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf, take place during this era. Despite being set during a time of supposed progress for women’s rights, the roles that women are expected to fulfill in these texts are still oppressive.Examining these novels, it becomes apparent that the roles of