Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf free essay sample

Virginia Woolf Modernism is a literary movement in which writers believed new forms of expression were necessary to relay the realities of a modern and fractured world. The modernist movement was concerned with creating works of art relevant to a rapidly changing world in which institutions such as religion, capitalism, and social order were thrown into question by new and confusing ideas, technologies and world events such as World War l. Virginia Woolf, one of the most eminent Modernist writers, utilised stream of consciousness, for example, to convey a characters interior thoughts. Contemporaries included James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence. Virginia Woolf, an English novelist and critic, believed that the life of the mind was always more fascinating than a persons external behaviours. In her life, and in her art, she sought to push beyond existing boundaries in search of a deeper truth that lay beneath the surface. Woolf, along with her husband and their circle of intellectual friends, known as the Bloomsbury Group, helped to shape twentieth century ideas about art, literature, gender, and sex. We will write a custom essay sample on Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By demanding her own intellectual freedom, Virginia Woolf opened the door for other artists to do the same. Rapid political and social change marked this period, especially between the two world wars. Mrs. Dalloway portrays the shifting political atmosphere through the characters Peter Walsh, Richard Dalloway, and Hugh Whitbread. However, it focuses more deeply on the changed social mood through the characters Septimus Warren and Clarissa Dalloway. Although Septimus seems dissimilar to Clarissa, he embodies many characteristics Clarissa shares and thinks in much the same way she does. Septimus offers a contrast between the conscious struggle of a working-class veteran and the blind opulence of the upper- lass. Constantly overlaying the past and present, Clarissa strives to reconcile herself to life despite her memories. Septimus, on the other hand, feels almost guilty about his past. His struggles call into question the legitimacy of the English society he fought to preserve during the war. Septimus chooses to escape through suicide. Mrs. Dalloway takes place after World War l. The war changed peoples ideas of what English society should be. The understanding is difficult between those who support traditional English society (Richard, Lady Burton and Hugh Whitbread) and those who ope for continued change (Septimus and Clarissa). English citizens, including Clarissa, Peter and Septimus feel the failure of the empire as strongly as they feel their own personal failures. Woolf uses modernist techniques to tap into minds of her characters while they all search to find their own identities. Mrs. Dalloway is one of the many novels under the Modernist literature genre. Modernist literature was filled with many new types of writing techniques including multiple narrative points of view, a new sense of the stream of consciousness, and take on a pessimist role over an optimist role. In Mrs. Dalloway, published in 1925, Woolf presents a new literary form capable of expressing the new realities of post-war England. The novel presents the subjective experiences and memories of central characters over a single day in post-World War I London. The structure of the novel highlights the interwoven especially the protagonist Clarissa Dalloway, by using a style referred to as stream of consciousness. Time and psychology also play a large role for Woolf, and she incorporated these issues into her novel. By incorporating her characters through time and psychology, Woolf shows her characters in flux, rather than static; haracters who think and emote as they move through space, and react to their surroundings in ways that mirrored actual human experience. The novel Mrs. Dalloway traces a single day in the life of British socialite Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares for a party she will be hosting that evening. The story travel backwards and forwards in and out of time of the characters minds to construct an image of Clarissas life and of the inter-war social structure. Although the action of the novel takes place in a single day, the interior thoughts of the characters, much like the thoughts of real people, leap forward and backward across time and place. In achieving this, Woolf was able to represent how people think; not Just how they do things. The multiple narrative points of view assisted Mrs. Dalloway in being considered different than most examples of Modernist literature. It is a key characteristic of Modernist literature as this style gives an insight into the different characters minds as each character has a turn as narrator. Virginia Woolf plays on time and space. By manipulating this, the readers feel as though they are standing still when in reality the June day in Woolfs novel is still in motion, and the characters still conversing. This effect is achieved through flashbacks of characters such as Clarissa Dalloway, Peter Walsh and Septimus Warren Smith, which work to take the spotlight away from the conversations which are taking place. The reader also has a sense of being motionless due to the thoughts and impressions of many characters that are thinking at the same time. An example of this can be seen with the airplane. This scene depicts the characters attempting to think, all at the same time, what the plane could be writing in the air while people in the streets still walk buy. Stream of consciousness is a depiction of a characters uninterrupted and endless flow of houghts, feelings, perceptions, and reactions. In working with this stream of consciousness, Woolf has shown us the development of a character or set of characters through their experiences and thoughts. This style appeared to be a key characteristic in the Modernist novel. Much of the novel is centred on Clarissas thoughts of what is occurring in the present moment and what had occurred in the past. Main streams of consciousness are found when Clarissa is thinking about Peter, wondering whether she would have been happier with him than with her husband, Richard. It is also used when Clarissa is searching for her own identity. By focusing on the thoughts and perceptions of characters, Woolf emphasises the significance of private thoughts rather than concrete events in a persons life. Woolf uses stream of consciousness to portray a fundamental part of Modernist literature, pessimism. Woolf moulds Mrs. Dalloway into a Modernist novel by showing the pessimistic outlooks of her characters. This is shown when Clarissa is in search for her identity, where she constantly questions whether she will find her purpose in life. It also makes itself present when Clarissa is thinking about what life with Peter would have een like. Clarissa never lets go of the doubt she feels about the decisions that have shaped her life. Septimus never has an optimistic outlook on life no matter how hard for him to ever be happy. Despite her own difficulties and the battle of internal demons, Virginia Woolfs fiction represented a shift in both structure and style. The world was changing, and as the world embarked the twentieth century, literature needed to change too in order to convey the new realities.