Virginia Woolf: Assertive or Introspective?
Virginia Woolf begins her memoir Moments of Being with a conscious attempt to write for her readers. While writing her life story, however, she begins to turn inwards and she becomes enmeshed in her writing. By focusing on her thoughts surrounding the incidents in her life instead of the incidents themselves, she unconsciously loses sight of her outward perspective and writes for herself. Her memoir becomes a loose series of declarations of her beliefs connected only by her wandering train of thought. Although Moments of Being deals largely with her conjectures, she is not trying to convince the reader of these beliefs' validity since she is so absorbed in the act of writing. What begins as an outwardly focused memoir evolves into Virginia Woolf's exploration of her thoughts and feelings.
Mrs. Woolf begins her memoir in an easygoing, conversational manner by deliberately reaching out to her audience. She states in her first paragraph that she knows many different ways to write a memoir but for lack of time cannot begin to sift through them all and so she simply begins by relating her first memory. Stating that she is not deciding upon a set method and formalizing that she will be informal demonstrates a frame of mind directed outward; it is her attempt to involve the reader in her work. The sympathetic reader feels as if he and Woolf are chatting about her life over a cup of tea. After narrating her first memory she returns to the structure of her memoir, explaining that she could never really succeed in conveying the feelings represented by her first memory without first describing herself. She notes: "Here I come to one of the memoir writer's difficulties – one of the reason...
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...me; it give me, perhaps because by doing so I take away the pain, a great delight to put the severed parts together. Perhaps this is the strongest pleasure known to me" (p. 72). She explains that it is through writing down her shocks that she both makes them real and takes away their pain. Viewing her memoir in this context, it is no surprise that she writes more to herself than to any audience. The simple act of writing about these shocks is possibly her greatest pleasure.
Although Virginia Woolf s Moments of Being begins with concern for her reader, she eventually gets caught up in her writing and writes on a more personal level. Rather than writing her autobiography to convince the reader of something, she writes a heartfelt, introspective work. In writing her autobiography, she is not searching for reader empathy; instead she is coming to terms with her past.
I have chosen to write about Virginia Woolf, a British novelist who wrote A Room of One’s Own, To the Lighthouse and Orlando, to name a few of her pieces of work. Virginia Woolf was my first introduction to feminist type books. I chose Woolf because she is a fantastic writer and one of my favorites as well. Her unique style of writing, which came to be known as stream-of-consciousness, was influenced by the symptoms she experienced through her bipolar disorder. Many people have heard the word "bipolar," but do not realize its full implications. People who know someone with this disorder might understand their irregular behavior as a character flaw, not realizing that people with bipolar mental illness do not have control over their moods. Virginia Woolf’s illness was not understood in her lifetime. She committed suicide in 1941.
It should be noted that gaining an identity in autobiographical writing is crucial “because literacy becomes a way of creating an identity where before there was none in the public discourse” (Finkelman, vol.2, 190). Although the identities of William and Ellen Craft may have been revealed partially before their narrative, their own words and experience have a much greater impact on the reader than if told by a secondary source.
Her memory of these events is a justified version of what she believes happened. This may alter the truth in her narration, leading to question the credibility of the source. According to Antonio Damasio, a comparable construct of dynamic memory may be fundamental in establishing human consciousness, which is a process that is linked to two stages known as "autobiographical self". This includes “core self” which creates an autobiographical identity which emerges through a special kind of story. This initial stage both enhances the awareness of the imagery of the “temporal and spatial context” and imposition of an experiential perspective. An instant projection made over and over which is the sense of the self in the act of knowing. This means that the governess reflecting her past, may have led to memory alteration, and what the readers are exposed to, is far from the truth. “That is, consciousness, seemingly a collection of disparate mental projects- thinking, daydreaming, planning, observing, as well as what we usually think of as remembering- occurs in the conjunction with the continuous reproduction of the “self”, or the unifying perspective that lends each separate construction its coherence.” (85). Perhaps her mental illness may have led to hearing needing an identity, along with the times she lived in, she projected her own fears onto the children, as a way to feel a sense of "self". Henry James used a point of view prose on purpose to steer the audience away from the actual truth. “I don’t know what you mean. I see nobody. I see nothing. I never have. I think you’re cruel. I don’t like you!” (James 215). The governess, so disoriented by her mind, doesn’t realize that she is projecting her own fears and demons created by her mind onto the ones she loves. In her mind, she blames the figures she sees, the things that threaten her and herself the most, not realizing she is the one struggling to
Virginia Woolf, in her novels, set out to portray the self and the limits associated with it. She wanted the reader to understand time and how the characters could be caught within it. She felt that time could be transcended, even if it was momentarily, by one becoming involved with their work, art, a place, or someone else. She felt that her works provided a change from the typical egotistical work of males during her time, she makes it clear that women do not posses this trait. Woolf did not believe that women could influence as men through ego, yet she did feel [and portray] that certain men do hold the characteristics of women, such as respect for others and the ability to understand many experiences. Virginia Woolf made many of her time realize that traditional literature was no longer good enough and valid. She caused many women to become interested in writing, and can be seen as greatly influential in literary history
Throughout Virginia Woolf’s writings, she describes two different dinners: one at a men’s college, and another at a women’s college. Using multiple devices, Woolf expresses her opinion of the inequality between men and women within these two passages. She also uses a narrative style to express her opinions even more throughout the passages.
There are countless times as one grows up when you just stop for a second and reminisce on random things. These memories serve for a very special purpose as the things you do in life shapes you into the person you will become. Today, many authors and poets make use of their memories and experiences in their work as a way to reflect back on their lives, raise awareness, or just simply to tell a story. As a prominent contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was an inspirational poet who highlighted many aspects of the urban life of African-Americans through reflections of his own life and experiences.
Langston Hughes was passionate about expressing the lives of black people through his poetry. His poetry expressed the pain and suffering that black people had to endure. Many critics have claimed that Langston Hughes created an unattractive view of black life through his poetry, but he was only demonstrating the realities of their lives. He didn’t make up stories about how great life was; he wrote realistically about the fear, segregation, and lost innocence of the black race. Langston Hughes left an immense impression on the literature of his time period. He influenced many other writers and helped to establish a voice for black people. Langston Hughes was an extraordinary poet that should be known as the man who brought light to the injustice that the people of color of America had to survive.
Today, we learn the history of our countries and other countries because the history goes around and comes around and we should not commit the exact blunder. One of the examples of the history we learn is the decline of Rome which was caused by political instability such as constant changes of emperors, military faults which caused severe consequences, and economic and civic decay of ancient Rome. For instant, approximately twelve emperors out of twenty-two emperors were assassinated during the period of 235 to 283 CE. The Roman army began to become lazy and was damaged due to their abandoned ground drills. Invaders such as the Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths discovered weaknesses of Rome and attacked Rome. The Huns were especially the most famous, strongest, and wildest invaders. With these confusions, the change of emperors and invasions, former Roman citizens whose properties had been conquered “considered their new life” with less rules. As if to rub salt into the wound, a violent disaster caused more catastrophes and soon, epidemics went any further causing more deaths of people.
Bernstock, Shari. The Private self: theory and practice of women's autobiographical writings. New York: UNC Press Books, 1988. Print.
Erik Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages that occur through life. These stages help parents of younger children understand what the child is thinking and why they are acting the way that they do. For a person to become a well-rounded adult they need to succeed in each level. This essay will discuss the first six stages into young adulthood.
It has been said of Anton Chekhov, the renown Russian short-story writer, that in all of his “work, there is never exactly a point. Rather we see into someone’s hear – in just a few pages, the curtain concealing these lives has been drawn back, revealing them in all their helplessness and rage and rancor.” Alice Munro, too, falls into this category. Many of her short-stories, such as “Royal Beatings” focus more on character revelation rather than plot.
Erikson believes a person’s personality changes throughout their lifespan and primarily focuses on ego. Furthermore, ego is a person’s sense of self-importance or self- acceptance. This is a major factor when discussing personality because how we perceive ourselves, reflects onto others. Erikson’s eight stages of psychological development consist of infancy, early childhood, preschool, middle school, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and old age. He indicates that during each stage of life a person experiences a psychological crisis, which could aid in a negative or positive result. During the infancy stage, the psychological crisis is trust vs. mistrust, meaning total dependence on the mother or father. If either or both parents show love and attention, then the child will develop trust, or otherwise mistrust if neglected. Early childhood, around the ages two to three years old a child becomes more mobile and shows signs of independence. The caregivers will either assist the child in all their needs or wait patiently as they figure them out on their own. Erikson distinguishes the importance of allowing children to face their own challenges with the tolerance of failure. This will provide the willingness to push through hard times and overcome adversity. Stage 3, initiative vs. guilt describes the interaction between other children and their ability to make decisions. A child will initiate activity with others continuously when he or she feels secure. Nevertheless, when children are told ‘no’ they react with feelings of guilt. The fourth stage of Erikson’s theory begins to explain inferiority. In this stage, a student will be introduced to teachers who become a major part of a child’s psychological development. With encouragement, children will feel confident in themselves, whereas negative reinforcement may cause self-doubt. Identity vs.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is a story that centers around the the value of memory to self. The story does this by centering around the characters that Woolf writes about, and their thoughts pertaining to their memories of one another. Woolf’s writing in To the Lighthouse is rich in her characters, Mrs. and Mr. Ramsay, their kids, and their friends’ thoughts and feelings towards everything they are going through, and more importantly, their thoughts and memories of one another. The reader learns about the characters’ through the complex thoughts Woolf’s characters’ have.
In her passage she imagines what it may have been like had William Shakespeare had a sister. She notices how difficult it would be even given the same talents as Shakespeare himself, to follow throughout and utilize them in her life. It is clear after reading further into Woolf's passage that obviously she lived in a different time period, only about fifty years apart though. The way she relates and tells a very similar story with an entirely different setting shows without the reader even knowing that she wa... ... middle of paper ... ...
The style of writing that Woolf is best known for is that of the stream-of-consciousness. When considering why she chose to write A Room of One’s Own using a stream-of-consciousness narrative, it should be taken into account the purpose of the frequent interruptions that occur for the speaker. She is stopped by an Oxbridge beadle for walking on the lawn of the college and in due course forgets what she was contemplating. She says, “The only charge I could bring against the Fellows and Scholars of whatever the college might happen to be was that in protection of their turf, which has been rolled for 300 ...