Comparing The Voice And Fiction In Grah Water's Affinity And To The Lighthouse

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Recommended: The portrayal of women in 19th century literature

When looking at narrative voice and fiction in Sarah Water’s Affinity and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse it is clear that although there are some apparent similarities there are stark contrasts between the two. Both texts are seen as abstract, feminist texts due to the, often taboo, subjects that they explore. Sarah Water’s neo Victorian novel Affinity explores taboo passions against the backdrop of the Victorian capital thus creating a seamless combination of tradition and originality . Waters’ explores female sexuality and position in society through the narrative voice, style and chronological order of the novel. Affinity, according to Linda Hutcheon, can be seen as “historiographic metafiction,” describing it as writing in which “theoretical …show more content…

Most of the narrative is made up of the characters’ consciousness, often entire pages are dedicated to individual characters consciousness without letting an objective voice interrupt the flow of thoughts. Woolf uses this to explore the potential of the characters and show gender inequality. The characters intertwined thoughts make the characters dependant on each other: Lily dependent on the comparison to Mrs Ramsey, Mrs Ramsey’s dependence on Mr Ramsey and so forth. Each voice plays a role within society and Woolf plays on this. Through the narrative of Lily Woolf is able to show oppression caused by gender and society’s beliefs and rules surrounding it. Woolf uses Lily to symbolize women’s struggle in society, Lily is an unmarried modern artist which contrast to Victorian society’s perfect woman; a married housewife, mother – essentially the characteristics that make up the character of Mrs Ramsey – which subverts traditional female gender roles. Lily is seen to be against the stereotypical gender conventions ‘He was really, Lily Briscoe thought, in spite of his eyes, but then look at his nose, look at his hands, the most uncharming human being she had ever met. Then why did she mind what he said? Women can’t write, women can’t paint – what did that matter coming from him, since clearly it was not true to him but for some reason helpful to …show more content…

Stream of consciousness allows Woolf to capture the character’s unbroken flow of internal thoughts, there is no objective lens of a third party distorting the reader’s perception. Woolf can immediately relay the characters unspoken thoughts and feelings to the reader without a distortion. This helps to draw the reader in as the reader gets access to all thoughts, not a selective group of thoughts chosen to create a particular effect. The main bulk of the action within To the Lighthouse occurs within the thoughts and feelings of the characters which is shown in the ongoing narrative, very little ‘real’ action occurs. The stream of consciousness is related to Sigmund Freud’s, at the time revolutionary, ideas on the concept and function of the human unconscious. Woolf would have found the concept of the unconscious intriguing as they were new and revolutionary ideas and would have sought to illuminate the unconscious within her characters. Woolf provides not only a view into the thoughts and feelings of the characters but provides a more intimate view of it. Woolf not only expresses the flow of each character 's thoughts, but she also weaves them together into a narrative that flows seamlessly from one character 's thoughts to another 's without any obvious break or disruption. There is a narrative voice apart from the unconscious stream from the character’s perspectives. This is

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