The Duchess and the Jeweller by Virginia Woolf

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THE DUCHESS AND THE JEWELLER

Oliver Bacon, the jeweller, is really the only developed character in the short story “The Duchess and the Jeweller” by Virginia Woolf. The author uses the indirect stream-of consciousness technique as well as her own words to depicts the enterprising merchant as a many-sided man: He is both ambitious and sympathetic.

The jeweller is highly arrogant and ambitious. His strutting smugness is evident through the animal metaphors used to portray him-from his physical bearing (“his nose was long and flexible, like an elephant’strunk”), to his ambition compared to a “giant hog” snuffing for truffles or a “camel sees the blue lake.”He reveals his heart’s deepest passion for cold stones rather than other human beings, especially since he does not have any real fri...

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