Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Introduction ………………………………………………………….Page 3
Biography …………………………………………………………….Page 5
Early life ………………………………………………..…… Page 5
Bloomsbury ………………………………………………… Page 7
Suicide ……………………………………………………… Page 8
Style…………………………………………………………………… Page 20
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Key facts……………………………………………………………... Page 21
Bibliography……………………………………………………. Page 33
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Introduction
Mrs Dalloway portrayed not only the society of that period but
also Virginia Woolf’s mind and problems. Mrs Dalloway showed us her
personal style and it is one of the first works in which stream of
consciousness is used.
4
Biography
Early life
5
with the family until she was institutionalized in 1891. Leslie and Julia
had four children together: Vanessa Stephen (1879), Thoby Stephen
(1880), Virginia (1882), and Adrian Stephen (1883).
The sudden death of her mother in 1895, when Virginia was 13,
and that of her half-sister Stella two years later, led to the first of
Virginia's several nervous breakdowns. The death of her father in
1904 provoked her most alarming collapse and she was briefly
institutionalised.
6
Her breakdowns and subsequent recurring depressive periods,
modern scholars (including her nephew and biographer, Quentin Bell)
have suggested, were also influenced by the sexual abuse she and
Vanessa were subjected to by their half-brothers George and Gerald
Duckworth (which Woolf recalls in her autobiographical essays A
Sketch of the Past and 22 Hyde Park Gate).
Bloomsbury
7
Virginia Stephen married writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. Despite
his low material status (Woolf referring to Leonard during their
engagement as a "penniless Jew") the couple shared a close bond.
Indeed, in 1937, Woolf wrote in her diary: "“Love-making — after 25
years can’t bear to be separate ... you see it is enormous pleasure
being wanted: a wife. And our marriage so complete.”" The two also
collaborated professionally, in 1917 founding the Hogarth Press,
which subsequently published Virginia's novels along with works by
T.S. Eliot, Laurens van der Post, and others. The ethos of the
Bloomsbury group discouraged sexual exclusivity, and in 1922,
Virginia met the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West, wife of
Harold Nicolson. After a tentative start, they began a sexual
relationship that lasted through most of the 1920s. In 1928, Woolf
presented Sackville-West with Orlando, a fantastical biography in
which the eponymous hero's life spans three centuries and both
genders. It has been called by Nigel Nicolson, Vita Sackville-West's
son, "the longest and most charming love letter in literature." After
their affair ended, the two women remained friends until Woolf's
death in 1941. Virginia Woolf also remained close to her surviving
siblings, Adrian and Vanessa; Thoby had died of an illness at the age
of 26.
Suicide
8
On 28 March 1941, Woolf committed suicide. She put on her
overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, then walked into the River
Ouse near her home and drowned herself. Woolf's skeletonised body
was not found until 18 April. Her husband buried her cremated
remains under a tree in the garden of Monk's House, their home in
Rodmell, Sussex.
Work
9
This novel was originally entitled Melymbrosia, but Woolf
repeatedly changed the draft. An earlier version of The Voyage Out
has been reconstructed by Woolf scholar Louise DeSalvo and is now
available to the public under the intended title. DeSalvo argues that
many of the changes Woolf made in the text were in response to
changes in her own life.
Her work was criticised for epitomizing the narrow world of the
upper-middle class English intelligentsia. Some critics judged it to be
lacking in universality and depth, without the power to communicate
anything of emotional or ethical relevance to the disillusioned
common reader, weary of the 1920s aesthetes. She was also
criticized by some as an anti-semite, despite her being happily
10
married to a Jewish man. This anti-semitism is drawn from the fact
that she often wrote of Jewish characters in stereotypical archetypes
and generalizations. The overwhelming and rising 1920s and 30s anti-
semitism had an unavoidable influence on Virginia Woolf. She wrote in
her diary, "I do not like the Jewish voice; I do not like the Jewish
laugh." However, in a 1930 letter to the composer, Ethel Smyth,
quoted in Nigel Nicolson's biography,Virginia Woolf, she recollects her
boasts of Leonard's Jewishness confirming her snobbish tendencies,
"How I hated marrying a Jew- What a snob I was, for they have
immense vitality." In another letter to her dear friend Ethel Smyth,
Virginia gives a scathing denunciation of Christianity, pointing to its
self-righteous "egotism" and stating "my Jew has more religion in one
toe nail--more human love, in one hair." Virginia and her husband
Leonard Woolf actually hated and feared 1930s fascism with its anti-
semitism knowing they were on Hitler's blacklist. Her 1938 book
Three Guineas was an indictment of fascism.[
11
To the Lighthouse (1927) is set on two days ten years apart. The
plot centers around the Ramsay family's anticipation of and reflection
upon a visit to a lighthouse and the connected familial tensions. One
of the primary themes of the novel is the struggle in the creative
process that beset painter Lily Briscoe while she struggles to paint in
the midst of the family drama. The novel is also a meditation upon
the lives of a nation's inhabitants in the midst of war, and of the
people left behind. It also explores the passage of time, and how
women are forced by society to allow men to take emotional strength
from them.
Her last work, Between the Acts (1941) sums up and magnifies
Woolf's chief preoccupations: the transformation of life through art,
sexual ambivalence, and meditation on the themes of flux of time and
life, presented simultaneously as corrosion and rejuvenation—all set
in a highly imaginative and symbolic narrative encompassing almost
all of English history. This book is the most lyrical of all her works, not
only in feeling but in style being chiefly written in verse.
12
with Bloomsbury, particularly its tendency (informed by G.E. Moore,
among others) towards doctrinaire rationalism.
Woolf's fiction is also studied for its insight into shell shock, war,
class, and modern British society. Her best-known nonfiction works, A
Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938), examine the
difficulties female writers and intellectuals face because men hold
disproportionate legal and economic power, and the future of women
in education and society.
13
write. Accounts of Virginia's supposed anti-semitism (Leonard was a
secular Jew) are not only taken out of historical context but greatly
exaggerated. Virginia's own diaries support this view of the Woolfs'
marriage.
In films
14
university married couple — refers to an academic joke about
"who's afraid of living life without false illusions".
Virginia Woolf is a character in the film The Hours (2002).
She is portrayed by Nicole Kidman.
Bibliography
Novels
"Biographies"
15
Flush: A Biography (1933, more explicitly cross-genre:
fiction as "stream of consciousness" tale by Flush, a dog; non-
fiction in the sense of telling the story of the owner of the dog,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Roger Fry: A Biography (1940, usually characterised non-
fiction, however: "[Woolf's] novelistic skills worked against her
talent as a biographer, for her impressionistic observations
jostled uncomfortably with the simultaneous need to marshall a
multitude of facts.")
Non-fiction books
Drama
16
Moments of Being (1976)
A Moment's Liberty: the shorter diary (1990)
The Diary of Virginia Woolf (five volumes) - Diary of
Virginia Woolf from 1915 to 1941
Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897-1909
(1990)
Travels With Virginia Woolf (1993) - Greek travel diary of
Virginia Woolf, edited by Jan Morris
The Platform of Time: Memoirs of Family and Friends,
Expanded Edition, edited by S. P. Rosenbaum (London,
Hesperus, 2008)
Letters
Prefaces, contributions
Mrs Dalloway
17
in post-World War I England. Mrs Dalloway continues to be one of
Woolf's best-known novels.
Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-
language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
Plot
18
became numb to the horrors of war and its aftermath: when his friend
Evans died, he felt little sadness. Now Septimus sees nothing of worth
in the England he fought for, and he has lost the desire to preserve
either his society or himself. Suicidal, he believes his lack of feeling is
a crime. Clearly Septimus’s experiences in the war have permanently
scarred him, and he has serious mental problems. However, Sir
William does not listen to what Septimus says and diagnoses “a lack
of proportion.” Sir William plans to separate Septimus from Lucrezia
and send him to a mental institution in the country.
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eye. All the partygoers, but especially Peter and Sally Seton, have, to
some degree, failed to accomplish the dreams of their youth. Though
the social order is undoubtedly changing, Elizabeth and the members
of her generation will probably repeat the errors of Clarissa’s
generation. Sir William Bradshaw arrives late, and his wife explains
that one of his patients, the young veteran (Septimus), has
committed suicide. Clarissa retreats to the privacy of a small room to
consider Septimus’s death. She understands that he was
overwhelmed by life and that men like Sir William make life
intolerable. She identifies with Septimus, admiring him for having
taken the plunge and for not compromising his soul. She feels, with
her comfortable position as a society hostess, responsible for his
death. The party nears its close as guests begin to leave. Clarissa
enters the room, and her presence fills Peter with a great excitement.
Style
20
by her and her husband Leonard, had to turn down the chance to
publish the novel because of the obscenity law in England.
Key Facts
language · English
21
This technique ensures that transitions between the thoughts of
a large number of characters are subtle and smooth.
22
change due to her moment of clarity, but we do know that she
will endure.
foreshadowing
Themes
Feminism
23
patrician politician, but she is still able to express herself and find
distinction in the parties she throws.
Homosexuality
She and Sally fell a little behind. Then came the most exquisite
moment of her whole life passing a stone urn with flowers in it Sally
stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips. The whole world
might have turned upside down! The others disappeared; there she
was alone with Sally. And she felt that she had been given a present,
wrapped up, and told just to keep it, not to look at it - a diamond,
something infinitely precious, wrapped up, which, as they walked (up
and down, up and down), she uncovered, or the radiance burnt
through, the revelation, the religious feeling! (Woolf, 36)
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"undemonstrative in the company of women." Woolf describes
Septimus and Evans behaved together like "two dogs playing on a
hearth-rug" who, inseparable, "had to be together, share with each
other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other..." Jean E.
Kennard notes that the word "share" could easily be read in a
Forsteran manner, perhaps as in Forster's Maurice which testifies as
to the word's use in this period to describe homosexual relations.
Furthermore, Kennard is one to note Septimus' "increasing revulsion
at the idea of heterosexual sex", abstaining from sex with Rezia and
feels "the business of copulation was filth to him before the end."
Other critics contend that Septimus and Evans are intended as
parallels for T.S. Eliot and his dear friend Jean Verdenal, whom Eliot
mourned greatly.
Mental illness
Existential issues
25
When Peter Walsh sees a girl in the street and stalks her for half
an hour, he notes that his relationship to the girl was "made up, as
one makes up the better part of life." By focusing on character's
thoughts and perceptions, Woolf emphasizes the significance of
private thoughts, rather than concrete events, in a person's life. Most
of the plot points in Mrs Dalloway are realizations that the characters
make in their own heads.
Clarissa Dalloway
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Constantly overlaying the past and the present, Clarissa strives
to reconcile herself to life despite her potent memories. For most of
the novel she considers aging and death with trepidation, even as she
performs life-affirming actions, such as buying flowers. Though
content, Clarissa never lets go of the doubt she feels about the
decisions that have shaped her life, particularly her decision to marry
Richard instead of Peter Walsh. She understands that life with Peter
would have been difficult, but at the same time she is uneasily aware
that she sacrificed passion for the security and tranquility of an upper-
class life. At times she wishes for a chance to live life over again. She
experiences a moment of clarity and peace when she watches her old
neighbor through her window, and by the end of the day she has
come to terms with the possibility of death. Like Septimus, Clarissa
feels keenly the oppressive forces in life, and she accepts that the life
she has is all she’ll get. Her will to endure, however, prevails.
27
On the surface, Septimus seems quite dissimilar to Clarissa, but
he embodies many characteristics that Clarissa shares and thinks in
much the same way she does. He could almost be her double in the
novel. Septimus and Clarissa both have beak-noses, love
Shakespeare, and fear oppression. More important, as Clarissa’s
double, Septimus offers a contrast between the conscious struggle of
a working-class veteran and the blind opulence of the upper class. His
troubles call into question the legitimacy of the English society he
fought to preserve during the war. Because his thoughts often run
parallel to Clarissa’s and echo hers in many ways, the thin line
between what is considered sanity and insanity gets thinner and
thinner. Septimus chooses to escape his problems by killing himself, a
dramatic and tragic gesture that ultimately helps Clarissa to accept
her own choices, as well as the society in which she lives.
Peter Walsh
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detests Clarissa’s bourgeois lifestyle, though he blames Richard for
making her into the kind of woman she is. Clarissa intuits even his
most veiled criticisms, such as when he remarks on her green dress,
and his judgments strongly affect her own assessments of her life and
choices. Despite his sharp critiques of others, Peter cannot clearly see
his own shortcomings. His self-obsession and neediness would have
suffocated Clarissa, which is partly why she refused his marriage
proposal as a young woman. Peter acquiesces to the very English
society he criticizes, enjoying the false sense of order it offers, which
he lacks in his life. Despite Peter’s ambivalence and tendency toward
analysis, he still feels life deeply. While Clarissa comes to terms with
her own mortality, Peter becomes frantic at the thought of death. He
follows a young woman through the London streets to smother his
thoughts of death with a fantasy of life and adventure. His critical
nature may distance him from others, but he values his life
nonetheless.
Sally Seton
29
meaningful communication, and she still thinks saying what one feels
is the most important contribution one can make to society.
Clarissa considers the moment when Sally kissed her on the lips
and offered her a flower at Bourton the “most exquisite moment of
her whole life.” Society would never have allowed that love to
flourish, since women of Clarissa’s class were expected to marry and
become society wives. Sally has always been more of a free spirit
than Clarissa, and when she arrives at Clarissa’s party, she feels
rather distant from and confused by the life Clarissa has chosen. The
women’s kiss marked a true moment of passion that could have
pushed both women outside of the English society they know, and it
stands out in contrast to the confrontation Peter remembers between
Sally and Hugh regarding women’s rights. One morning at Bourton,
Sally angrily told Hugh he represented the worst of the English middle
class and that he was to blame for the plight of the young girls in
Piccadilly. Later, Hugh supposedly kissed her in the smoking room.
Hugh’s is the forced kiss of traditional English society, while the kiss
with Clarissa is a revelation. Ultimately, the society that spurs Hugh’s
kiss prevails for both women.
Richard Dalloway
30
potential as a woman. If he had had a son, he would have encouraged
him to work, but he does not offer the same encouragement to
Elizabeth, even as she contemplates job options. His reticence on the
matter increases the likelihood that she will eventually be in the same
predicament as Clarissa, unable to support herself through a career
and thus unable to gain the freedom to follow her passions.
Film adaptation
31
Conclusion
32
Bibliography
33
Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on
Her Life and Work by Louise DeSalvo. Boston: Little Brown, 1989
A Virginia Woolf Chronology by Edward Bishop. Boston:
G.K. Hall & Co., 1989.
A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf
by Jane Dunn. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990
Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life by Lyndall Gordon. New York:
Norton, 1984; 1991.
Virginia Woolf and war, by Mark Hussey. Syracuse
University Press, 1991.
The Flight of the Mind: Virginia Woolf's Art and Manic-
Depressive Illness by Thomas D. Caramago. Berkeley: U of
California Press, 1992
Virginia Woolf by James King. NY: W.W. Norton, 1994.
Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf by Panthea Reid.
New York: Oxford UP, 1996.
Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee. New York: Knopf, 1997.
Granite and Rainbow: The Hidden Life of Virginia Woolf by
Mitchell Leaska. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf, by Jane
Goldman. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Virginia Woolf and the nineteenth-century domestic novel,
by Emily Blair. SUNY Press, 2002.
Virginia Woolf: becoming a writer, by Katherine Dalsimer.
Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300092083.
Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman by Ruth
Gruber. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005
My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of
Virginia Woolf by Thomas Szasz, 2006
Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life, by Julia Briggs. Harcourt,
2006.
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The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Virginia
Woolf and Bloomsbury by Sarah M. Hall, Continuum Publishing,
2007
Virginia Woolf and the Visible World, by Emily Dalgarno.
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living through the
Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf by Ilana Simons, New York:
Penguin Press, 2007
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