Virginia Woolf - Moving Beyond a Convoluted Memory of Her Parents
Why would I start with Julia Duckworth Stephen to get to Virginia Woolf? One answer is Virginia’s often quoted statement that "we think back through our mothers if we are women" (Woolf, A Room of One’s Own). Feminism is rooted not just in a response to patriarchy but also in the history of females and their treatment of each other. Part of feminism is a reevaluation of the value of motherhood.
But what does Virginia’s mother have to do with Virginia’s writing? I chose to look at the problem of inheritance by starting with Julia’s first influences on Virginia, particularly her stories for children. I then move on to portraits of mothers in Virginia's novels. This essay is not only about Virginia’s task of overcoming "the Angel in the House" but moving past a confrontational and convoluted memory of a mother, into an orderly, whole picture of females working together.
In talking about Virginia Woolf in the context of Julia Duckworth Stephen and feminism, I will start from the beginning of Virginia Stephen’s life. The idea of ‘Mother’ is a basic, recognizable concept in probably even the most primitive human cultures. Infants start separation of self and other with the body of Mother, since an infant gains a sense of ‘continuity of being’ from his or her mother’s attention. (Rosenman 12) From this definition of relationship-as-self, an infant finds her existence confirmed by feedback from her mother. In this manner, Julia is the first contact for Virginia with the rest of the world, and with all of womankind. Since Virginia will go on to have most of her important relationships with women, this is an important connection.
What kind of connection was it? V...
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...pie and Steele, ed. Julia Duckworth Stephen. Syracuse University Press. New York, 1987.
Ingram, Heather, ed. Women’s Fiction Between the Wars. "Virginia Woolf: Retrieving the Mother." St. Martin's Press. New York, 1998.
Johnsen, William. "Finding the Father:Virginia Woolf, Modernism, and Feminism." February 28, 2003. http://www.msu.edu/course/eng/492h/johnsen/CH6.htm April 16, 2003.
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Rosenmann, Ellen Bayuk. The Invisible Presence: Virginia Woolf and the Mother-Daughter Relationship. Louisiana State University Press. Baton Rouge, 1986.
Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room. Penguin. London, 1992.
Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt Brace. New York, 1981.
To The Lighthouse. Harcourt Brace. New York, 1981.
A Room of One’s Own. Harcourt Brace. New York, 1981.
The Waves. Harcourt Brace. New York, 1981.
The concern of this paper is the “happy ending,” typical in Women’s Fiction according to Harris (46), present in A New England Tale, in which Jane Elton sacrifices her autonomous self through marrying Mr. Lloyd. I will critique this ending by applying several of the points Harris makes, including the conflict between theme and structure, the “extended quest for autonomy” (50), and the issue of the self-willing and “socially determined self” (54); also, I will discuss the sexual and religious politics Jane faces, as well as the importance of her role as educator. Readers can understand the autonomous self to which I refer in a nineteenth-century context: this do...
Although the Canadian government has done a great deal to repair the injustices inflicted on the First Nations people of Canada, legislation is no where near where it needs to be to ensure future protection of aboriginal rights in the nation. An examination of the documents that comprise the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms reveal that there is very little in the supreme legal documents of the nation that protect aboriginal rights. When compared with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples it is clear that the Canadian Constitution does not acknowledge numerous provisions regarding indigenous people that the UN resolution has included. The most important of these provisions is the explicit recognition of First Nations rights to their traditional lands, which have a deep societal meaning for aboriginal groups. Several issues must be discussed to understand the complex and intimate relationship all aboriginal societies have with the earth. Exploration into the effects that the absence of these rights has had the Cree of the Eastern James Bay area, will provide a more thorough understanding of the depth of the issue. Overall, the unique cultural relationship First Nations people of Canada have with Mother Earth needs to be incorporated into the documents of the Canadian Constitution to ensure the preservation and protection of Canadian First Nations cultural and heritage rights.s
There are two women from the near and distant past that have become strong female role models in recent years: Queen Elizabeth I and Virginia Woolf. These women were not without problems while growing up, though. Elizabeth’s mother was beheaded after being charged with treason when she was only three; she grew up viewing women as indispensable after her father had six wives; her family kept dying (mother, step mother, father, half brother, sister), and she was locked away by her sister Queen Mary in the Tower of London for a number of years. Virginia Woolf on the other hand battled with depression and mental disease her whole life, was denied a typical education because she was female, had many mental breakdowns after death of mother, and was institutionalized after father’s death. Both Elizabeth Tudor and Virginia Stephen-Woolf shared many of the same family problems in their lives, but their life paths and careers were drastically different from one another.
Levi, Michelle. "Corruption Is Eating Through Afghan Society, Candidate Says - Political Hotsheet - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. .
*"(Adeline) Virginia Woolf." Feminist Writers. St. James Press, 1996.Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRCć
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'" Women's Studies 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
In recent times there has been a renewed interest in Virginia Woolf and her work, from the Broadway play, “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to the Academy award nominated film “The Hours” starring Nicole Kidman. This recent exposure, along with the fact that I have ancestors from England , has sparked my interest in this twentieth century British novelist.
Wattendorf, Daniel. "Diagnosis and Management of Fragile X Syndrome." Am Fam Physician (2005): 111-113. Web. 30 May 2010. .
The Indian Act is a legal document that spells out the laws and gives a legal identity to the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada with the exception of the Métis and Inuit. It is more than a body of law, but rather a formal government document that controls every aspect of The Aboriginal Peoples way of life. Our textbook, Ways of Knowing – An Introduction to Native Studies in Canada by Yale D. Belanger states, “…Indigenous people had legally been turned into wards that must be protected and civilized, the British Parliament was responsible for legislating on behalf of them, instead of negotiating with them.” (Belanger, 2014, p. 112)
intense or extensive than others” (Rapee, et al 17). Some fears may be more common at certain ages; for example, children the ages of three-five will be afraid of the...
Virginia Woolf, one of the pioneers of modern feminism, found it appalling that throughout most of history, women did not have a voice. She observed that the patriarchal culture of the world at large made it impossible for a woman to create works of genius. Until recently, women were pigeonholed into roles they did not necessarily enjoy and had no way of
Goldman, Jane. The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf. New York: Cambridge University Press. fsfdfsdgg2001. Print.
Transue, Pamela J. Virginia Woolf and the Politics of Style. Albany: State U of New York P, 1986.
Feminism is a global movement that affects women all around the world either directly or indirectly because of the discrimination that it defends. Over the years women have been limited to living in a male dominated world. Women have been alienated from educational opportunities, workforce or labor opportunities and most importantly financial opportunities. Being oppressed by these factors and others has left women with the little option of becoming a housewife or a servant, or inheritor. Feminism has proven to be a controversial yet present point in the works of literary giants such as William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and many others. Charlotte Bronte phenomenal novel Jane Eyre is developed with ample evidence that is a direct
Woolf pioneered in incorporating feminism in her writings. “Virginia Woolf’s journalistic and polemical writings show that she made a significant contribution to the development of feminist thought” (Dalsimer). Despite her tumultuous childhood, she was an original thinker and a revolutionary writer, specifically the way she described depth of characters in her novels. Her novels are distinctively modern and express characters in a way no other writer has done before. One reason it is easy to acknowledge the importance of Virginia Woolf is because she writes prolifically.