Virginia Woolf's Orlando and the Relationship between Virginia and Vita
It has been said the novel Orlando is the longest love-letter ever written; a celebration of the bond between women. The relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West is well documented and known to have been intimate. That Virginia was passionate and giddy about her relationship with Vita is also known and displayed in Orlando. But Orlando also offers a rare intimate glimpse into the mind of Virginia Woolf. An unselfconscious work, it reveals her mind, talent at play. Orlando offers rich insights into her mind while keeping the rich prose that embodies her other great works. The novel demonstrates several of Virginia's obsessions, the focus here on gender and sexuality. While presumptuous to assume an author's life directly through her work, Virginia herself writes about this inevitable link in Orlando: "In short, every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works, yet we require critics to explain the one and biographers to expound the other" (Orlando 209). A good author usually writes what she knows; considering the background of this novel, the reader may draw parallels between Virginia's life, her relationship with Vita and the writing of Orlando.
Who is Orlando? The common interpretation is Orlando is Vita. The book is dedicated to her and pictures of Vita are interspersed throughout the book. Vita herself was said to tell Virginia that she fell in love with herself after reading the novel. Vita's mother was more acetic: "You have written some beautiful phrases in Orlando but probably you do not realise how cruel you have been. And the person who inspired the book ...
... middle of paper ...
...nergy of her relationship with Vita is apparent in the novel. She was to wrestle her demons in other books (To the Lighthouse as an example) in Orlando she celebrated. But in Virginia's hands, even satire has its serious moments. "I am writing Orlando half in mock style very clear and plain, so that people will understand every word. But the balance between truth and fantasy must be careful" (Dairy 117). And now years later, critics are still trying to view in-between the truth and fiction and the enigma of Virginia Woolf.
Works Cited
Bond, Alma Halbert, Phd. Who Killed Virginia Woolf - a Psychobiography. Human Sciences Press, Inc.:New York, NY 1989.
Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.:New York, NY 1996.
Woolf, Virginia. A Writer's Diary. The Hogarth Press:London 1953
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Harcourt Brace & Company:New York 1956.
Dozier, Richard. "Adultry and Disappointment in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" Modern Drama Vol11. No 4, (Feb 1969): 432-436.
Rosenmann, Ellen Bayuk. The Invisible Presence: Virginia Woolf and the Mother-Daughter Relationship. Louisiana State University Press. Baton Rouge, 1986.
One of the greatest female authors of all time, Virginia Woolf, produced a body of writing respected worldwide. Driven by uncontrollable circumstances and internal conflict, her life was cut short by suicide. Her role in feminism, along with the personal relationships in her life, influenced her literary works.
It is interesting to contrast the points of view of Alice Walker and Virgina Woolf on the same subject. These writers display how versatile the English language can be. Alice Walker was born in 1944 as a farm girl in Georgia. Virginia Woolf was born in London in1882. They have both come to be highly recognized writers of their time, and they both have rather large portfolios of work. The scenes they might have grown up seeing and living through may have greatly influenced their views of subjects which they both seem to write about.
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet’s journey to love and marriage is the focal point of the narrative. But, the lesser known source of richness in Austen’s writing comes from her complex themes the well-developed minor characters. A closer examination of Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s dear friend in Pride and Prejudice, shows that while she did not take up a large amount of space in the narrative, her impact was great. Charlotte’s unfortunate circumstances in the marriage market make her a foil to Elizabeth, who has the power of choice and refusal when it comes to deciding who will be her husband. By focusing on Charlotte’s age and lack of beauty, Austen emphasizes how ridiculous and cruel marriage can be in this time.
Woolf’s pathos to begin the story paints a picture in readers minds of what the
There is an article by Emma Brown titled “Police in Schools: Keeping kids safe, or arresting them for no reason?” and in the article she questions their positions in schools. She states that after an incident occurred at Spring Valley High in South Carolina, it prompts the exploration of school resource officers as well as police officers should be allowed in schools. After reading the article by Brown, schools should have SRO’s in public schools.
3 Haines-Wright, Lisa and Kyle, Tracy L. "Fluid Sexuality in Virginia Woolf" Virginia Woolf: Texts and Contexts New York, NY: Pace University Press, 1996
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 ...
Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf is famous absurd play written by Edward Albee. It was first performed on ocatobar in New York and it won the New York drama critics Circle award and the Tony Award for the season 1962-63 season. In American society it bought the major shakeup which was yet to be seen in the future. In the late 1960s economically as well as socially America was being homogenized through cold war, planned suburbs and fast food culture. Different voices like Albee came to the world in the late 1960s.
In A Room of One's Own the narrator begins an exploration of women in literature. She attempts to answer many questions regarding women. The first being why is literature about women written by men. She also critiques the scholarship of the great men of literature.
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.
Virginia Woolf’s eccentric style is what causes her writings to be distinct from other authors of her time. The unique characteristics of her works such as the structure, characterization, themes, etc are difficult to imitate and cause a strong impression in her literary pieces. “Virginia Woolf’s works are strongly idiosyncratic, strange, a surprise to ...
O’Brien Schaefer, Josephine. The Three-fold Nature of Reality in the Novels of Virginia Woolf. The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1965, pp. 111-13, 118-25. (Latham, pg. 72-78).
Education is as important as the air we breathe. It is the most important possession a person must have. Education is beneficial in many aspect of life especially, personal and social it is the only possession that cannot be taken away from you. Education is important because it will open up the windows of opportunities. In this competitive world having a good education is as important as the air we breathe because it is our weapon to conquer the world.