One Question

How was stream of consciousness narration viewed during the time that the novel Mrs. Dalloway was published?

Virginia Woolf's Struggles in Writing Mrs. Dalloway

Throughout my reading of Mrs. Dalloway, I have been struggling to get through the difficult to read text. However, if I am struggling as a reader, I can only imagine the difficulties associated with writing a novel in this particular way. The first difficulty that a believe Woolf must have faced in writing Mrs. Dalloway, is when to switch perspectives. Although the novel is written in a way that is supposed to emulate human thought, I believe that it must be incredibly awkward to write in this particular style as is goes against the classic writing style taught by most teachers which is to pick a point of view, try to be as clear in your writing as possible, and provide adequate support for any examples used in the text. Thus although the writing style is supposed to appear natural, I believe that it is most unnatural to write. The second difficulty that I believe Woolf faced was how to keep a reader engaged. Although readers were much more attentive back when the novel was published, and were more able to get through difficult to read sections than readers are today, I still believe that most readers of Mrs. Dalloway have some difficulty progressing through the novel. Finally, I believe that the third difficulty that Virginia Woolf faced was how to weave a story together that made sense even through the constant change in perspectives. I can imagine that it must have taken considerable time to craft a plot for Mrs. Dalloway that maintained cohesion through all the changes in perspective that are created through the stream of consciousness narration. As a reader, I may complain about having to read Mrs. Dalloway. However, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to write and that has given me much appreciation for the work as a whole. 

Books as Education

In class I recall talking about how Mrs. Dalloway lacked an education, and that in a way she wished that she was more like the lady that Virginia Woolf was, educated and scholarly. However, after re-reading sections of the novel, I believe that although she lacks a formal education, the knowledge that she has about life in general and the knowledge that she has gained through the reading of books has allowed her to become educated in a different sense. When the narrator says, “The candle was half burnt down and she had read deep in Baron Marbot’s Memoirs. She had read late at night of the retreat from Moscow” (Woolf 31), it becomes clear that Clarissa Dalloway is an individual who reads often and enjoys reading. I believe that if a person wishes to become educated, that they do not need to have it done in the formal sense. Rather, a person who does not have access to the tools of education, such as a school, either due to gender restrictions or economic restriction, can still become educated through self-learning. In this way, although Clarissa Dalloway did not receive any formal education, she still was able to educate herself through the books that she read and the lessons that she learned about history and herself through her readings. 

Negative Effects of Free Indirect Discourse in Mrs. Dalloway

In my last blog post, I discussed benefits to the free indirect discourse used in Mrs. Dalloway. In this post, I would like to cover a disadvantage to using this type of point of view. Switching points of view creates a difficult to follow plot. In my opinion, an author should attempt to create a reasonably straight forward plot, or at least an easy to follow plot for the intended audience. However, in Mrs. Dalloway, it is difficult to determine what is happening because of the constant shift in point of view, which creates confusion as to who is thinking and saying what, and requires close analysis in order to understand the progression of the story. For example, when Mrs. Dalloway thinks: "For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer's men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning-fresh as if issued to children on a beach" (Woolf 3), it is difficult to understand which character's thoughts are being examined. Is a third person omniscient narrator, one who can see into the minds of all, speaking?  Will the story follow Lucy through a third person perspective? It is only after close reading and recognition of the phrase, "thought Clarissa Dalloway," that the reader can fully determine whose thoughts are being examined.

The Effects of Stream of Consciousness

The use of stream of consciousness narration helps to improve the overall plot of Mrs. Dalloway, because it helps to create a flow of ideas that is inline with the way that the human mind thinks, as well as to provide deeper insight into characters in the novel. In a stream of consciousness narration, the plot shifts based on the thought process of the narrator. By having a stream of consciousness,  a character is able to deliver personal thoughts as well as past incidents which are connected through triggers such as sight, taste, or smell. The use of a combination of point of views helps to display both a third person perspective about the world as well as to display the internal thoughts of characters. As Clarissa is passing on the street Scrope Purvis internally states: "She stiffened a little on the kerb, waiting for Durtnall's van to pass. A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her (knowing her as one does know people who live next door to one in Westminster; a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light vivacious, though she was over fifty, and grown very white since her illness. There she perched, never seeing him, waiting to cross, very upright" (Woolf 4). The combination of Scrope Purvis' internal observations about Mrs. Dalloway, combined with a commentary from a narrator about Purvis, helps to combine points of view and deepen the understanding of the novel. The stream of consciousness also provides a more accurate portrayal of the events witnessed from the perspective of the specific characters in the novel. When Mrs. Dalloway states: "What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air" (Dalloway 3). Mrs. Dalloway's memories of the past are triggered by occurrences in the present. In this case, the squeak of the hinges brings Clarissa back to her youth when she was at Bourton. Overall, the stream of consciousness narration contributes to the overall plot of Mrs. Dalloway, because it allows for a more realistic representation of the flow of ideas, and it combines two points of view in order to provide a different perspective on events that are occurring.

Revenge in The Things They Carried

While one may associate revenge in war with one side vowing to get revenge on the enemy for a friendly casualties in battle, in the short story “The Ghost Soldiers” Tim O’Brien exacts revenge on a friendly medic for his incompetence when O’Brien needed him when he was shot. The seeds of hatred came from the idle time which O’Brien had as a result of being injured. While the injury was not fatal, having to spent countless nights in the Vietnam summer sleeping one’s stomach because of the wound resulted in revenge festering in the mind of O’Brien. Jorgenson can be seen as a scapegoat for O'Brien’s feelings of anger caused by being reject by Sanders as not being part of Alpha Company. When Sanders says: "People change. Situations change. I hate to say this, man, but you're out of touch. Jorgensen-he's with us now" (O'Brien 188), it struck a serious blow to O'Brien's pride and it furthered his hatred of Jorgenson because it was Jorgenson's fault that he was removed from Alpha Company. This introduces the question: what is the role of revenge in wartime? In the case of O'Brien, revenge served as a motivator. When O'Brien says, "The nights were miserable. Sometimes I'd roam around the base. I'd head down to the wire and stare out at the darkness, out where the war was, and think up ways to make Bobby Jorgenson feel exactly what I felt" (O'Brien 183), he is expressing how helped him recover and proceed forward. It gave him purpose and gave him a cause, to see that the wrong that Jorgenson caused be righted. Thus for at least O'Brien, seeking revenge was a necessary part of his recovery period as it gave him the strength to heal and the will to carry on. Therefore, the role of revenge in war can have both positive and negatives consequences as it can allow a soldier to recover due to a sense of purpose, or it can hinder a soldier by making them blind to what is important.

Symbolism in The Things They Carried

In the short story “The Things They Carried,” Lieutenant Cross uses his fascination and lust towards Martha as a way to distance himself from the events of the war by symbolically portraying Martha as an image of what life was like before the war, in order to help him cope with his hardships faced in Vietnam. Lieutenant Cross places significant importance on the fact that he believes Martha to be a virgin. When the narrator says, “... then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin” (O’Brien 1), we are led to believe that Martha’s virginity is part of Cross’ obsession. The significant of Martha’s virginity to Lieutenant Cross is that virginity is associated with purity, innocence, and way of life which had been prematurely taken from him. Martha’s letters are also symbolic of peace time because they contained poetry and no reference to the war. The simplicity of her correspondence, and the lack of realism, allowed Cross’s fantasies to grow as he needed them, to cope with war. Finally, the gift of the pebble which Cross idolized, represents frivolous sentiment from Martha which held Cross to the past. The pebble represents an intimate connection for Lieutenant Cross. When the narrator says, “On the march, through the hot days of early April, he carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue, tasting sea salt and moisture” (O’Brien 8), his intimate actions towards the pebble shows that he uses this connection with Martha to nullify the pains of war. A talisman of luck such as the pebble, brings the reader back to their childhood and serves as a reminder of the belief of youth which has been lost upon Cross. In whole, Martha did not represent any part of the cruel realities of war which Cross faced everyday. She was a symbol of everything Cross had lost; innocence, peace of mind, and youth. However, when Lieutenant Cross burns Martha’s letters, he is punishing himself for Lavender’s death, because the distractions caused by thoughts of Martha prevented Cross from carrying out his duty to protect his men, and as a result Lavender dies.