Clarissa’s Theme of Isolation in Mrs. Dalloway
Author: Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest feminist writers in English literature, has published numerous novels and essays throughout her life, among which Mrs. Dalloway(1925), To The Lighthouse(1925), Orlando(1928), A Room Of One’s Own(1929),and The Waves(1931) are well-known to readers all over the world. Woolf had been living in patriarchal society ever since she was child. Some said that she was kind of self-made. As a matter of fact, she suffered from mental breakdowns all her life time. Due to her half-brother Gerald Duckworth’s sexual abuse, Virginia Woolf had an unquiet youth mingling with several emotional shocks. According to her diary, writing turned out to be Virginia’s main psychological outlet. After she was involved in the Bloomsbury group, she enlarged her scope in philosophy, art, and religion. Her marriage with the political theorist Leonard Woolf led her to become a member of Hogarth Press. Besides being a famous novelist of streams of consciousness, Woolf is often cited as a modernist as well. In particular, Woolf’s feminist ideas demonstrated in her stylistic experiments have made her a literary incarnation of modern feminism. Since most literary theories have been occupied by male chauvinism, she claimed that there should be some changes in the style as well as in the awakening of feminist consciousness in literary works, both of which have been explored in her Orlando. Virginia Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself in 1941 when she was 62 years old. A letter was left to her husband saying:
I have a feeling I shall go mad. I cannot go on longer in these terrible times. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but cannot fight any longer. I owe all my happiness to you but cannot go on and spoil your life.[1]
According to the doctors, the reasons for her suicide are likely to have something to do with her long- term suffering from depression and anxiety.
Virginia Woolf, one of the greatest feminist writers in English literature, has published numerous novels and essays throughout her life, among which Mrs. Dalloway(1925), To The Lighthouse(1925), Orlando(1928), A Room Of One’s Own(1929),and The Waves(1931) are well-known to readers all over the world. Woolf had been living in patriarchal society ever since she was child. Some said that she was kind of self-made. As a matter of fact, she suffered from mental breakdowns all her life time. Due to her half-brother Gerald Duckworth’s sexual abuse, Virginia Woolf had an unquiet youth mingling with several emotional shocks. According to her diary, writing turned out to be Virginia’s main psychological outlet. After she was involved in the Bloomsbury group, she enlarged her scope in philosophy, art, and religion. Her marriage with the political theorist Leonard Woolf led her to become a member of Hogarth Press. Besides being a famous novelist of streams of consciousness, Woolf is often cited as a modernist as well. In particular, Woolf’s feminist ideas demonstrated in her stylistic experiments have made her a literary incarnation of modern feminism. Since most literary theories have been occupied by male chauvinism, she claimed that there should be some changes in the style as well as in the awakening of feminist consciousness in literary works, both of which have been explored in her Orlando. Virginia Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself in 1941 when she was 62 years old. A letter was left to her husband saying:
I have a feeling I shall go mad. I cannot go on longer in these terrible times. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but cannot fight any longer. I owe all my happiness to you but cannot go on and spoil your life.[1]
According to the doctors, the reasons for her suicide are likely to have something to do with her long- term suffering from depression and anxiety.
Bibliography: 1. Aileen Pippett. The Moth and the Star: A Biography of Virginia Woolf Boston: Little Brown, 1955 2 3. Dalgarno Emily. No God of Healing This Story: Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse in Virginia Woolf and The Visible World. UK: Cambridge University Press. 2001 4 5. Glemy Allie. “Mrs. Dalloway: Blackberrying In the Sun” in Ravenous Identity: Eating and Eating Distress In the Life and Work of Virginia Woolf. Macmillan Press Ltd. 1999. 7. Marsh Nicholas. “The Significance of Nature” in The Novels: Virginia Woolf.New York: St Martin’s Press, INC., 1998 8 9. Williams Lisa. Mrs. Dallloway in The Artist As Outsider In The Novels of Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf. London: Green Wood Press, 2000 10 11. Zwerdling Alex. “Mrs. Dalloway and the social system” in Virginia Woolf and the Real World .London: University of California Press. 1986. ----------------------- [1] Aileen Pippett, The Moth and The Star: A Biography of Virginia Woolf, (Boston: Little Brown), 1955, p.368 [7] David Dowling, Mapping Streams of Consciousness, (Twayne Publishers Boston A Division of G. K. Hall & Co. 1991),p. 112 [8] Allie Glemy, “Mrs [9] Nicholas Marsh, “The Significance of Nature” in The Novels: Virginia Woolf, (New York: St Martin’s Press, INC., 1998),p.136 [10] “ad infinitum” is a Latin tag meaning “ infinity” or “endlessness” [13] Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, (London: Harper& Row Inc.1984), p.60 [14] Emily Dalgarno, No God of Healing This Story: Mrs