Light and Lightness in Virginia Woolf's Novels
1. Introduction
The style and method of writing of Virginia Woolf often caused surprise, amazement and reserve among her audience as well as among the critics. Her novels were labelled diversely, among other as modernist, cubist and post-impressionist; and she was considered one of the excellent writers who used the technique of the stream-of-consciousness.
The aim of the thesis is to describe what this “method of writing and style” consists of and what makes Virginia Woolf recognizable and unique among other authors, focusing on two aspects in her writing: light and lightness. Light is one of the fundamental phenomena which Woolf is interested in. She uses it as a background, as a constituent element of the atmosphere and as a motif. Light is often tied closely with lightness (as it happens for example in Orlando, p. 29-30 where angels and gulls fly into the evening, of “astonishing beauty”, full of lights, in London). There are also other devices for the transmission of lightness which will be discussed in the thesis. The terms “light” and “lightness” will be applied at the level of style and method of writing; sometimes they will be used also at the syntactic and lexical levels.
Three novels by Woolf will be analysed: Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando: A Biography. The reason for choosing these three novels by the author is above all the fact that they have similar features in common. Therefore the analysis can be made in similar fashion and similar elements within the novels can be observed. All of them have one main protagonist and dozens of secondary characters. All of them focus predominantly on the lives of the protagonists. And finally, all of them feature light and lightness at several levels. The aim will be to identify all the levels and observe particular examples. It will try to find the means by which Virginia Woolf, whether consciously or incidentally, manages the sensation of light and lightness in her writing.
The method will be based on a close-reading analysis of the three novels and later on an analysis of the features which appear repeatedly and are unifying for the three novels. The basic research questions are: What are the features of light and lightness in Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando? What are the means most frequently used by Woolf to reach the sensation of light and lightness in her novels?
1.1. Light and Lightness in the Background of Modernism
To make a solid basis for the analysis of light and lightness in the three novels by Woolf, there is a need to look more closely at the general characteristics of the historical background of Modernism. The focus will be on two historical aspects of Modernism which will be relevant later for the development of the argument, that is those aspects which in some way relate to lightness and light within the movement itself. The first one is relativism and reevaluation of science, the second one “dehumanization of art” (Ortega 58-63).
The historical period brought many changes which were very different from most of the historical changes that had happened before. One of them was the change in perception of the world - in science, in art as well as in literature.
Einstein's Relativity Theory and the term “relativism” are often put side by side when discussing Modernism. No matter how appealing the connection may be and how well it suits the authors for their argumentation, it is basically useless. Some authors (Bell in Levenson 11, Greenberg par. 6) argue at this point, logically, that there is a discrepancy in time. Modernism could not draw from Relativity Theory, because the first modernist ideas began to appear well before the start of the 20th century. Special relativity was formulated later, in 1905, General relativity in 1916, therefore it is problematic to join this theory with the relativism in Modernism.
As was mentioned, Modernism drew from earlier sources; “shift in scientific thinking arose from the last two decades of the nineteenth century” (Bell in Levenson 11). The relativism from which Modernism seriously could draw consisted in the reevaluation of scientific understanding and methods of cognition. Science lost its former privileged status, because its “development” led to a serious problem: awareness of the “epistemological limitation” (Bell in Levenson 11). The former truths were problematized and the way science had self-confidently worked for centuries had to be changed. Instead of being interested only in its subject, science had to look into a mirror and question itself.
Science lost its self-confidence and it was no longer the provider of the only and absolute truth. As Bell points out, this was reflected in literature, where scientific understanding was “just one of the possible orders of understanding rather than [as] the ultimate form of truth statement” (Bell in Levenson 12). Bell argues that the old established rules were put into question, the heavy, solid and seemingly unquestionable procedures of understanding were deconstructed; a new, lighter and unsteady way of understanding came and the science became uncertain.
Concerning the second historical aspect, which is more related to art and writing, there was a change in representation of the world, a kind of change of artist's perspective. By this change is meant the fact that most of the modern art (for which the painting will serve as an example) does not represent the world directly and in accordance with the human “habitual perception.”
In La deshumanización de arte e ideas sobre la novela (Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel, 1925) Ortega y Gasset compares the traditional and the new (Modern) art. In his approach, the difference between traditional and new art consists in the different ways they represent the objects from the world. As an example of the “art”, Gasset chooses two anonymous paintings: first one from 1860, the other from his present time (1925). The former painting represents the objects from the world “as they are”. This means that the painting is realistic and that the beholder can easily identify the objects on the canvas with the real world. According to Gasset, there were many men who fell in love with Gioconda. On the other hand, the in the new painting the represented objects are far from it and the world behind the painting is difficult to identify.
In the opinion of Gasset, the new art is far from objects which we can see in world; however, it is not nonsense. “¡Cuánta astucia supone la fuga genial! Ha de ser un Ulises al revés... (Gasset 60)” Being far from objects in the world, escaping when creating does not mean that the artist can create anything. A result which is not easily identified by the beholder does not necessarily point at meaningful content. According to Gasset it is difficult to create “proper” modern art. While in the traditional art the result - which was comparable with world outside - was directly related to the skill of the artist, the result in the modern art has no such base and the beholder can be mistaken in his or her evaluations.
It is obvious that the “real”, external world is the same. What changes, is the perspective of the new artist: the world is seen in a different light and from greater distance. New and unexpected aspects of reality become prominent and the world behind the work of art may even become not possible to be recognized. The new artist is freer in the form he or she uses than the traditional one and there is more room for an unusual expression than before.
A similar opinion, but more focused on the form in art, can be found in Woolf's essay Modern Fiction (also from 1925 in its definitive version). Woolf herself says that in certain way there are no limitations in writing, that “nothing — no 'method', no experiment, even of the wildest — is forbidden, but only falsity and pretence. 'The proper stuff of fiction' does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction, every feeling, every thought; every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon; no perception comes amiss” (Woolf MF par. 8). There seems to be almost absolute freedom in face to the form. This conclusion, at which Woolf arrives in Modern Fiction, is crucial for presentation of the argument of this thesis, because it shows Woolf's own opinion and because she herself very clearly formulates her idea of what good piece of writing is.
1.2. Modernist Novel Versus Victorian Novel
Similarly to the case of science, a difference between the “old” and the “new” way of writing novels can be found. The terms “old” and “new” should not be considered as temporal; Victorian and Modern novels overlapped, but as two different approaches to writing.
When comparing these two approaches to the novel, the Victorian and the Modernist, we can make a contrast between the opinions of two authors. Ramsden Balmforth in 1912 proclaims:
“It is the function of the novelist, by the portrayal of a multitude of experiences working on character or personality, to give definite shape and direction to [human beings'] blind and almost unconscious emotional forces, to widen and deepen feeling, to link us to the large life of humanity and of the universe, and so give a definite meaning and purpose to our life.” (Balmforth in O'Gorman 19)
Seven years later, in the year 1919, in Modern novel (and in 1925 in revised Modern fiction) Woolf considers the same theme and sees the function of the novelist capturing life very differently, when saying:
“But sometimes, more and more often as time goes by, we suspect a momentary doubt, a spasm of rebellion, as the pages fill themselves in the customary way. Is life like this? Must novels be like this? Look within and life, it seems, is very far from being “like this” [...]. Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, [...] We are suggesting that the proper stuff of fiction is a little other than custom would have us believe it.” (Woolf MF par.5)
The vision of Balmforth very nicely reflects the assumption that somewhere there exists a definite meaning and definite purpose of the human life and that a good novel should reveal it. The point here is not to argue whether there is or is not a definite purpose and meaning of life, but to make visible the difference between the Victorians and the Modernists and how they coped with the theme of life, which was the most important for both of them and which is so important for the novelists up to these days. Woolf in her writing goes straight against the definite meaning about which Balmforth talked. According to Woolf there are huge numbers of perspectives from which we can see the world and its meaning is composed from all of them, but there is none which could be proclaimed as the best.
1.3. A Comment on Stream-of-Consciousness
It has been said that Woolf used the technique of stream-of-consciousness. This technique is described by John Mepham as “a textual equivalent to the stream of a fictional character's consciousness” and formally he considers this technique not entirely verbal nor textual (Mepham, par. 1). Dahl points out that “stream-of-consciousness literature is identified by its subject matter rather than by its forms” (Dahl 9). By the subject matter she means a similar concept to that of Mepham, that is a “state of mind” of the character.
Stream-of-consciousness is characteristic for the Modernist writers; nevertheless, Dahl devotes a whole chapter (12-15) to the authors before Modernism who used the techniques which are close to it, for example the technique or soliloquy, which is very close to it. Shakespeare, Sterne and Tolstoy are mentioned in this respect.
Furthermore, Dahl warns that the terms “stream-of-consciousness” and “interior monologue” are sometimes confused. “Interior monologue” is the manifestation of stream-of-consciousness in the text, it is its verbalization. Despite the fact that interior monologue is the technique used most often to reproduce the stream-of-consciousness in literature, they do not mean the same; the latter is a term which is superior to the former. Other technical “devices” to transmit stream-of-consciousness are: internal analysis, style indirect libre, thought aside or sensory impression. As examples of these particular techniques, Dahl brings out various literary works: as an example of the interior monologue she mentions Joyce's Ulysses, for internal analysis James's later novels, for sensory impression The Sirens from Ulysses.
As an example of indirect interior monologue Dahl puts Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. In the chapter about Mrs Dalloway Dahl's observations will be mentioned.
2. Jacob's Room
2.1. Jacob's Room and Style
Jacob's Room supposes the first daring experiment of Virginia Woolf. Finished and published in 1922, it is an example of a response to the “old” method of writing - it is an example of the new approach to writing and to capturing life in prose.
Interestingly, yet in 1947 when R.L Chambers analysed the novelistic work of Woolf, he realized that Virginia Woolf changed the face of English literary style for ever. With an exceptionally good grasp he presents an overview of her novels, being sharp and severe in some evaluations (concerning Jacob's Room on p. 10, or judging the contribution of Woolf to the whole of literature on p. 101), but at the same time being aware that concerning style, Woolf introduced a completely breakthrough technique:
“For hers is a very peculiar, a very individual style; […] it is not often that we find a writer taking such a large step as that which divides the style of Jacob's Room from the style of any English novel that had preceded it. To take such a step is to pass from one world into another.” (Chambers 8)
What was so peculiar about Woolf's style? According to Chambers (9) it was the difference between the amount of information the author explicitly says and the amount of what the reader constructs in his or her mind from the allusions in the text.
The author often uses enumerations and exact descriptions, but they do not function for information or instruction of the reader. In the Victorian novel the practice was such; however in Woolf the enumeration and description does not provide more knowledge. Sue Roe, for example, considers certain passages from the novel (description of the room of Jacob) as “a discreet parody of the Edwardian mode,” because “we can note the contents, sample and atmosphere, but Jacob's room cannot necessarily tell us anything about Jacob“ (Roe in JR XIII).
On p. 84 we find Jacob who is reading the Globe and fills his pipe to smoke. “Feeling in his pocket, Jacob took out a pipe and proceeded to fill it. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes passed...” (JR 84). The reader is provided with a very concrete and stable image and with the sensation of the time passing. In the scene itself nothing happens, because Jacob is still, sitting at the fire with his pipe reading about Home Rule in Ireland, and in the end he gets up and takes the newspaper over to the fire.
The reader can construct the image in his or her mind, but he or she does not know and does not understand, probably, what this image means. The uncertainty is strengthened by the atmosphere of the passage. The reader knows that the Home Rule in Ireland was preceding World War I. and that and that it was postponed till the end of the conflict (see Trueman). Jacob is just reading about it and he cannot “know” the curse of the history.
There is something sinister in the atmosphere: the reader knows probably more than the character, but at the same time he or she does not know what the character “knows”. Jacob was “certainly thinking about Home Rule in Ireland,” (JR 84) Woolf says, but if she was certain about his thoughts, she would leave out the word “certainly”. To sum the situation up, the reader does not know anything certain about Jacob, the only certain thing is the approaching war.
Later, when Chambers reprehends Woolf of “over-emphasis” and of leaving “too much unsaid” (10), he incidentally touches on an aspect which is of great interest: the work with emphasis in the text. Chambers can be right in his critique, and his dissatisfaction may also be caused by the fact that the emphasis is often not in accordance with the expectation of the reader.
We can make a nice parallel between the emphasis and the illumination. A sharply illuminated scene is easily visible, recognizable. Similarly as on the stage, the person who is illuminated is often the most important at the moment, and the light serves as a means of easily interpretable emphasis for the public.
In the prose the scenes which are in some way illuminated, that is for example “clear” or “easy to follow” are often of major importance. The reader is used to this logical practice and is expecting it when reading the text. However, Woolf in Jacob's Room often breaks with this practice. She sometimes sharply illuminates a scene which has no importance for the development of the plot or which has apparently no importance at all. The result of this technique is that the reader is left in doubt: What is the importance of this? Where does the real emphasis lie? What is really important?
On p. 7 the bucket and aster are illuminated and they suffer a strange transformation (JR 8). What is the importance of aster which is beaten in the earth, a bucket half-full of water and a crab within the bucket, that tries to escape from it? Woolf provides no explanation of the strange image. Similarly, on p. 69 she opens and closes the paragraph with the same words: “The problem is insoluble” (JR 69).
Going back to Gasset's terminology, in the same way the reality of the world can be represented in art through the objects (“as it is”), life in the novel can also be represented through the objects which fill it. However, this apparently does not satisfy Woolf. In the novels, life for her is not recognizable from a simple enumeration of the objects which fill it; the essence of life probably lies somewhere else.
2.2. Light in Jacob's Room
In this chapter an analysis of the novel Jacob's Room will be done. The analysis will be based on close reading and examples to support the argument.
Firstly, the text, in the parts where description prevails, reminds us very much of a painting. Many passages even seem to be written/painted in a certain tone. The construction of the novel Jacob's Room is a superb example of the work with colour and light, as we will see later.
Concerning the case of writing in certain tone, the passage from 20-21 is enclosed in blue and green colour; they make a frame for the meeting of Cap. Barfoot and Mrs: Jarvis. Similarly the passages on 17 are clothed in yellow; we can find there “pale clouded yellows”, “tawny ribbons”, “fuvulous hue” (JR 17). Later, on p. 47 the yellow appears again. It is not only the colour of the dress, but it can be found also in the name of the character, Clara. This idea was later developed and extended in Mrs. Dalloway, where Woolf created the illuminating character of Clarissa. Clarissa's colour will be predominantly the green; however, the yellow can be also find in relation to her (MD 190).
An example of use of light is the beginning of a description of the court, in which lights illuminate the scene. Similarly as it will happen later in Orlando (4.2.) , the lights are “picking out dark patches of grass and single daisies” (JR 34). The sound of Moonlight Sonata is accompanying the mysterious scene. This setting is the background of author's wondering about the young men closed up inside the court.
A great part of the text is constructed from series of sharply illuminated scenes, which contrast with other scenes, which are blurred and unclear. Three examples of illuminated scenes will follow.
A lamp illuminates the scene at the end of the first chapter (JR 8-9). Thanks to this lamp the objects in the room are visible, but it also illuminates an outside scene: the aster and the bucket. These common objects (the aster and the crab) become strangely distant and dream-like at the end of the first chapter. The same light also accompanies Jacob when he is falling asleep. This effect of the light contrasts with the blackness found by Steele, “the cloud over the bay,” black parasol and black rocks (JR 4-5) which the reader sees when passing from the painting of Steele to the story.
An example of very sharp and nice illumination can be found on p. 50 where: “Jacob came out from the dark place by the window where he had hovered. The light poured over him, illuminating every cranny of his skin; but not a muscle of his face moved as he sat looking out into the garden” (JR 50). This description is reminiscent of a scene in theatre, where the actor steps out on the stage and is going to speak. In Woolf's version, against the expectation of the reader, Jacob remains almost silent - politely answering - and just the women are speaking. There is neither any hint in his expression nor any movements. The reader was provided with almost exact image of Jacob, but has no paths to follow for what is happening in Jacob's head.
This presupposition - that the reader is not provided with any “relevant” information - is confirmed later by the author, when she puts Jacob beneath the arc lamp in the street. Similarly as in the case of his room, the enumeration follows: “The light drenched Jacob from head to toe. You could see the pattern on his trousers; the old thorns on his stick; his shoe laces; bare hands; and face” (JR 81). The reader cannot see any obvious sense in this scene. This enumeration of lighted things is at the same time very vague, because it does not provide any information about the quality of the objects nor about Jacob: “Whether we know what was in his mind is another question” (JR 81).
2.3. Lightness in Jacob's Room
Lightness in Jacob's Room is not so prominent as in other novels by Woolf. The novel is more concerned with different perspectives of different characters, and there is not so much space for lightness of the perception as for example in Orlando. Not only because of these perspectives the novel was often called “cubist”, which is a complex term difficult to explain exhaustively in this space. However, even they are little, there do exist places where lightness can be found.
One of them is the scene of the description of the horse with a rider on his back, galloping (JR 86-87). The whole paragraph is dedicated to the body of the horse, to its jumps and the cooperation with the body of the raider. The lightness is achieved thanks to the word choice: the horse goes up “like a monster wave”, “swoop”, “rushing through the air”. In this scene the perspective is changing from the spectator to the horse itself. In the first sentence the preparation for the jump is described from the point of view of the observer and, suddenly, “hedges and sky swoop in a semicircle” (JR 86). The reader finds him or herself in the body of the horse and in the following paragraph can “experience” its feelings.
The birds, which are abundant in Orlando also sometimes appear here. On p. 46 the rooks settle and rise and again at the beginning of the paragraph and at the end of it. Again, as it was before with the perspective, more interesting than the lightness in this passage is the work with colours and light. In contrast to the black of the rooks stays the white of the flowers that are “washed into twilight” and the moth, “white as china” (JR 46). The beginning of the following chapter Jacob puts on a black dinner jacket. It can be a continuation of the imagery of the rooks, but it can be accidental.
In the scene where Jacob says goodbye to Clara, a strange contrast between the lightness of movement and stiffness emerges. Jacob and Clara feel uneasy. The children are “whirling past the door, throwing things high into the air” and Jacob is looking at them “without moving” (JR 52).
This example is characteristic for Jacob's Room, because it illustrates the nature of the protagonist, who is often still and even stiff.
3. Mrs. Dalloway
3.1. From Jacob's Room to Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway was published in 1925 and it brought to Woolf wider critical response than the previous novels. The reason for the success lay probably in the fact that Mrs. Dalloway was formally at a higher level and had clearer structure than Jacob's Room. Chambers characterized the advance in construction as follows:
“...whereas in Jacob's Room the movement was meandering, the pattern haphazard by consequence and the effect one of incompleteness. So it appears that Mrs Dalloway represents a compromise between the need for formal clarity of presentation and the formlessness apparently inherent in the 'stream of consciousness' technique [...]” (Chambers 32).
Despite the advance in construction, both novels have some features in common. In both novels there is one central protagonist , and both of the protagonists have their names in the title. In both novels there are large numbers of secondary characters through whose minds the reader approaches the world of the protagonist.
The novels differ in the amount of information which is revealed to the reader. In Jacob's Room, it is relatively little. The mind of the protagonist, as well as his vision of the world remain veiled throughout the novel. In Mrs. Dalloway, the protagonist's mind is open to the reader.
Also, the character of Jacob is not so developed as that of Mrs. Dalloway. Some of the critiques saw the first novel as a cul de sac of Woolf's writing: “Jacob's Room cannot begin to be a novel about the personality in action, engaged in relationships or recollection, because the emphasis is all on how it can be known.” (Lee 91). Jacob was too mysterious, too difficult. Even Virginia Woolf herself confessed that she had doubts about “how far it [JR] will enclose the human heart” (Lee 91, quotation of Woolf).
While the first novel is more closed and predominantly centred and focused on Jacob as an mysterious character, driving the attention of the reader back to the main protagonist again and again; Mrs. Dalloway is a novel more open, centred on the world and on Dalloway's perception of it. In terms of construction Woolf achieved higher degree of lightness in Mrs. Dalloway, she clearly illuminated the main character and made the character of Clarissa itself illuminating.
3.2. Light in Mrs. Dalloway
“What is this ecstasy? he thought to himself. What is it that fills me with extraordinary excitement? It is Clarissa, he said. For there she was.” (MD 219)
It is the protagonist herself who attracts and emits most of the light throughout the whole novel. Significantly, her name is Clarissa. This name “is derived from the English and French name Clarice. Clarice is derived from the Latin the (sic) word Clarus, which means 'bright, clear, or famous' ”(Wikipedia). Clarissa as a character fulfils the expectations of her name: she is open, emotional, loves life, loves parties and amusement and absolutely needs the society of other people. In the beginning of the novel, Woolf is explicit about her nature: “she, [Dalloway] too, was going that very night to kindle and illuminate; to give her party” (MD 3).
It is surprising how much of light can be found in the novel, if we consider that the one of the first ideas of Woolf when planning the novel was to write about death (Fusini in intro Mrs. Dalloway, X): “'I want to give life and death, sanity and insanity...' Eighteen months earlier she had already confided to her diary that she wanted to write about death.”
Woolf created a very important counterpoint to the light in the character of Clarissa, that is, darkness in the character of Septimus Warren Smith. Septimus suffers from mental illness caused by shell shock and because of it he is closed to the surrounding world which does not understand him. Septimus is emotionless and sometimes he has suicidal thoughts. Woolf's diary illustrates her main concern in the case of Septimus and his connection to Mrs. Dalloway: “Suppose it to be connected this way: Sanity and insanity. Mrs. D. seeing the truth. SS seeing the insane truth. The pace to be given by the gradual increase of S’s insanity on the one side by the approach of the party on the other” (Phyllis 135).
Septimus is a dark character also because he is so much concerned with himself, meanwhile Clarissa is concerned with other people, open to the world and things within it. Because of that, society accepts people like Clarissa - she is loved and surrounded by people, they look for her company; however, society is unable to accept people like Septimus. This underlying critique can be understood as another dark aspect of his character - the impossibility to be taken in.
Sally together with Clarissa is glowing and is illuminated in a distinctive way: “She was wearing pink gauze – was that possible? She seemed, anyhow, all light, glowing, like some bird or airball that has flown in […].” (MD 37) Sally represents everything which goes against the social canon. She is, by some accident free to do and say what she wants (to smoke, to run naked across a room). Her personality and uniqueness is the source of light. Her charm is “overpowering“ (36) and it enables her to behave her own way.
Sally is also depicted in moonlight (68, 84, 211). The moonlight in combination with the cabbage leaves (84) evokes extravagance and strangeness. The moonlight also appears in situations of discomfort and odd feeling, as in the scene where Peter is sitting on the terrace with Clarissa (45 – 50). Moonlight will be more substantial in Orlando. In Mrs Dalloway it functions just as a background for strange situations.
It should be pointed out that this picture of Sally is not the one and only the reader gets from the text. The other Sally, the present one, is a mother and a wife of a rich man: “The party emphasizes the ironic dichotomy between youthful aspirations and middle-aged resignation, most startlingly in the actual appearance of Sally Seton: no wild young thing (as we have continually imagined her) but a complacent Mancunian housewife“ (Lee 105). It is not a dark side of the character, it is rather a grey and a dull one.
On p. 76 Septimus, the dark character, finds himself in Regent's Park standing in the middle of a light: “Long streams of sunlight fawned at his feet...and the sun spotting now this leaf, now that, in mockery, dazzling it with soft gold in pure good temper;... Here, the sun with its light is everywhere around Septimus. It is unstable, but for Septimus, together with the aeroplane it is positive moment.
Throughout the novel the reader can find situations and moments of sharp and quick illumination. The flash of lightning serves as a metaphor in the moment when Clarissa realizes the difficulty of Sally's situation (38) and in the moment when she reveals that she has a soft spot for certain women: “...she had seen an illumination; a match burning in a crocus; an inner meaning almost expressed.” (34). Both of these are moments of unexpected revelation, of understanding the meaning of things. Quick lightening is a form of metaphor Woolf uses for the speed, elusiveness and clarity of such moments.
Adding to light, the colours that pass throughout the novel can be also mentioned. Natalia Wright makes a detailed overview of the colours used in the novel. Wright finds a colour which is characteristic for each of the characters, and also the white colour for the “English national character”. The white is sought slightly forcibly; however the colours of the characters can be mentioned here. For Mrs. Dalloway it is green: it is the colour of her evening dress, of the floor and lights in her house, of the moss in the fountain by which she refused Peter Welsch (Wright 356). For Peter, the characteristic colour that she finds is blue. It is “the colour lying next in the spectrum.” (356) For Septimus the colour is red and “in connection to the relatively small amount of space and time occupied in the book by Septimus, an admittedly vital character, this choice seems significant” (356). There is probably symbolism in Septimus's red colour, connected to his suffering. If compared to the usage of colours in Jacob's Room, here the colours are related more visibly to the characters than to the atmosphere, and they are clearly not random.
3.3. Lightness in Mrs. Dalloway
At the beginning of the novel we are led through a scene light thematically and also in terms of construction. Mrs Dalloway is choosing flowers at the florist's and she hears a shot from outside. The explosion is caused by a motor car passing by, a car which is probably carrying some famous person. Later, an aeroplane appears in the sky, writing some letters with its smoke.
This apparently simple and short action takes place over almost 20 pages. Woolf enlarges the “real” time of perception into something completely different. She presents us with several new characters, and through the car which drives around London, she shows us its inhabitants, whose perceptions help create the atmosphere of that moment.
Let us consider the objects in the scene. Today, a car producing a shot and particularly flying aeroplane are not unfamiliar objects for a contemporary reader. They are objects of everyday reality; advertising aeroplanes being rare, but not striking; cars being owned by almost everyone.
During Woolf's life cars were circulating (the first gasoline powered car was introduced by Benz in 1885 (see The History of the First Cars), but at the time they presupposed great luxury. In 1920 the number of driving licences in London was about one hundred thousand (see Museum of London). The very first aeroplane - “first powered, controlled, heavier-than-air airplane” (see Wright and Bradshaw) went up in 1903. The effect of these objects, aeroplane in particular, on a reader of that time is difficult to imagine for us. Perhaps it could be compared to the effect which a couple of cloned animals would evoke in contemporary reader. The thing is striking, new and dangerous.
The above mentioned aspect is additional to the text and we will study in depth the aspects which make Woolf's writing timeless. First, the movement of the objects: the movement of the car is slow and it is in contrast with the aeroplane which “soared straight up, curved in a loop, raced, sank, rose...” (MD 20), “Turned and raced and swooped... swiftly, freely, like a skater”(21), “curving up and up, straight up...“(30). The lexical richness connected with the movement of the aeroplane enables the reader to visualize the movement.
Similarly as the car and aeroplane move, the author leads the reader's attention through an interesting path. On p. 13 the reader follows Mrs. Dalloway in the florist's with Miss Pym. Suddenly, the shot from outsides heard and the attention focuses on the car. Without a clear ending of the previous scene, we follow the car and see it in the perspective of the people outside. Together with them, Woolf presents us with Septimus. For a while she goes back to Mrs. Dalloway (“Mrs. Dalloway, coming to the window with her arms full of sweet peas...” (14)), to continue with Septimus's perceptions. The centre of attention is the car passing through London, which seems to bear light with itself: “the pale light of the immortal presence fell upon them [upon the people around the car] as it had fallen upon Clarissa Dalloway”(18).
On p. 20 the attention is turned towards an aeroplane writing letters on the sky. The reader spontaneously follows its path, leaving behind Mrs. Dalloway, to whom will not return until when on p. 30 her question to the maid appears: “What are they looking at?” Apparently, Mrs. Dalloway, despite the fact that she is the protagonist, is not at the centre of everything and is not aware of everything that occurs. The whole of London rises their heads up to see the aeroplane, and Clarissa at the florist's, is wondering about the person in the motor car.
4. Orlando. A Biography
4.1. Orlando, the Different One
Orlando: A Biography is exceptional among Woolf's novels . Some critics see a “different quality” (Lee 138) in it when comparing it with Woolf's novels, lying in the fact that it was written as a biography. What is most interesting about the book is that it is actually written as a parody of biographies and scholarly writing.
Good-humouredly, the editor Rachel Bowlby herself confesses her uneasiness and difficulties when writing the Introduction to Orlando. Difficult task it is, but she worked out a nice solution, re-modelling of the opening sentences of Orlando: “What is Orlando's editor to do? She-but there is every doubt of her sex-finds herself in the hopeless situation of dealing with a book which is already a parody of the kinds of scholarly enterprise which her introduction might try to emulate” (Bowlby in Woolf O2 xii).
Woolf wrote Orlando as a kind of release, an “escape from problems” (Blackstone 139), and she also wrote it unusually quickly, just over the winter 1927-1928. In October 1928 the book was published and it brought her „considerable success“ (Bowlby in Woolf O2 ix). The book sold well and according to Quentin Bell (140), her husband Leonard even considered it a turning point in her career. However, Virginia did not consider Orlando a full member in her writings: “she saw well enough that Orlando was not 'important' among her works, but ... she was content, feeling that, of its kind, it was good” (Bell 138).
Orlando is the last of the three books by Woolf which have one central character and is called by his or her name. If there was criticism concerning the character of Jacob, there was also some concerning Orlando. Even Woolf was aware of some weaknesses at this point; she feared the “lack of unity” (Woolf in Lee 140) in the book. Lee characterizes wittily this lack of unity in the case of the protagonist: “The idealization of the character [...] gives an oddly romantic air to a book which partly sets out to be an instrument of ridicule and satire” (140).
Before analysing light and lightness in the book it should be noted that when writing about Orlando, “he” or “she” as the pronouns referring to the character will be used according to their occurrence in the text. Since Orlando changes sex, approximately half of the biography Orlando is referred to as “he” and half as “she”. As the analysis cannot be done chronologically, the pronouns will be used as it was suggested.
4.2. Light in Orlando
In Orlando, the author's work with light is the most visible in comparison with the other two books. The book is definitely “the lightest” of them; light is mentioned most frequently and the protagonist is the most illuminating from most of all. There are so many passages where light is prominent or forms part of the background, that it will not be possible to get into and analyse all of them. Only the most important moments will be chosen and discussed.
Firstly, we will look at the protagonist. In the opening, when Orlando stands close to the window, there are patches of light and darkness on the floor and when he opens the window he is illuminated by the sun. His face is candid and sullen and his expression is revealed thanks to the light of the sun. He is standing on the body of the heraldic leopard and this moment is of such an importance that he will remember it much later (110) when-at that time-she visits her house centuries later.
If Mrs. Dalloway is an illuminating person metaphorically (see 3.2.), Orlando is such literally. When Sasha is praising Orlando, she says: “he was like a million-candled Christmas tree (...) hung with yellow globes; incandescent; enough to light a whole street by...” (O 30). Sasha perceived him “glowing, burning, with radiance.” This exaggerated lightening in Orlando suggests something unusual about him and it will be repeated later in the book.
Sasha, although not described via light-images, is in some aspects very similar to the brilliance of Sally Seton in Mrs. Dalloway. Her personality is so powerful that Orlando falls in love with her even before he recognizes that she is a woman: “...extraordinary seductiveness which issued from the whole person. Images, metaphors of the most extreme and extravagant twined and twisted in his mind” (O 18).
The author created a very nice and also rhythmical passage in “the walk scene” of Mr. Pope with Orlando (131-133). The light and darkness are the essential background of their walk and talking. The rhythm of the passage is created by the lamp-posts which they pass by. The figures are travelling between the lamps, the light and darkness are taking turns in the background. The dialogue is interrupted by the narrators' comments about the light and shadow.
Later in the passage the notion of light and darkness penetrates to the thoughts of Orlando when she is considering: “The light of truth beats upon us without shadow, and the light of truth is damnably unbecoming to us both” (132). This passage serves to the author as a springboard for the development of more contemplative reasoning later. She likens the work of genius, which is not constantly alight, to the lighthouse, “which sends one ray and then no more for a time...” (133). This passage is more accessible thanks to the previous passage, because a visual model, clear imagery was presented to the reader, to which he or she can attach the more abstract passage about the genius's mind.
One of Orlando's favourite pastimes is to stand by the window and observe London. Through his perceptions of the changing city the reader is most palpably aware of the historical and social changes. One such station by the window is dedicated to the amazing effect of electrified London. Firstly it is the light itself in the windows and streets, secondly it is the invention of a light switch: “Look at the lights in the houses! At a touch, a whole room is lit; hundreds of rooms are lit...” (O 194).
London is also the scenery in which the radiant, “million-candled Christmas tree,” Orlando appears. The light of sunset is fading and Orlando together with torches and bonfiers remains glowing (29-30).
At the level of the construction of the whole biography, light and darkness express the mood of the particular ages throughout which Orlando passes. The Elizabethan period was suitable for Orlando: everything was more intense: the colours, the sun, the darkness. It was also suitable for him as a man who was not tied up by strict morals and could enjoy from the delights of love.
In contrast to the joyfulness of the Elizabethan period, the nineteenth century is cloudy, damp and discoloured. The last moments of the eighteenth century and the first moments of the upcoming nineteenth century are introduced by “a huge blackness [which] sprawled over the whole of London” (144-145). The metaphor serves for the development of Woolf's argument: it was the worst of the times for Orlando and also for many women. As it is said on p. 158, “the spirit of the nineteenth century was antipathetic to her in extreme.” Women found themselves in a dark age: their function was above all to wear crinolines, behave submissively and give birth to as many children as possible.
4.3. Lightness in Orlando
Orlando is written with easiness, lightness and humour: “There is more humour here than in all the the other novels put together, broad and jovial humour salted with malicious wit... ”(Chambers 41). For example at the level of the characters in the story, a humorous and slightly malicious situation occurs on p. 20-21, when Orlando talks with Sasha at a dinner and they speak in French. None of the guests around them understands what is said, so that they make use of the situation and gossip freely and lively about the whole Court.
At the level of the narrator-biographer, he or she parodies with great humour the biographer's work: “So, now that we have read a page or two of the Rape of the Lock, we know exactly why Orlando was so much amused and so much frightened and so very bright-cheeked and bright-eyed that afternoon” (O 134). Here the biographer makes a clear parallel between the work of the artist and the life of artist. There definitely exist such parallels and relationships, however, this kind of comparing should be made with extreme caution. What is humorous about the passage is above all the confidence of the biographer that he or she is right. This confidence is expressed by the words “we know exactly” in relation to the cheeks and eyes of Orlando. “Exactly,” in terms of brightness of the cheeks and eyes, the biographer knows nothing about Orlando.
One of the explicit features of lightness in the book is the presence of birds and feathers. Geese, rooks, sparrows, gulls, starlings, doves, an owl, nightjar, all of these fly or appear somewhere in Orlando. They sometimes function as a part of the background, sometimes they are constituents of the atmosphere, sometimes they are symbolical.
First, rooks appear when Orlando's perceptions are mentioned, among the sights which “made him in love with death” (5). The passage after the settled meeting of Orlando and Sasha, when Sasha does not come and Orlando is left alone, he can see that “the black eagles were flying from the mast head” (37). Black birds are typical companions of sorrow and mourning and Woolf in these two places achieves a gloomy atmosphere with their help.
In contrast to the rooks and black eagles, in the first chapter, when Orlando is in love and elated, “troops of angels” (29-30) appear together with the gulls. Typically guiding the scenes of joy and elation, the gulls and angels, supposedly in white, come flying. The moment is described with unusual lightness; the atmosphere seems to be airy. This airy atmosphere is achieved firstly thanks to the word choice: the angels are “circling”, “cutting in the air”, they are sweeping, skating (30).
Secondly, it is possible by slightly unusual syntax: “so blue the ice had become” instead of “the ice had become so blue” and in the same way it is done with “so glassy smooth was it [ice]”. The emphasis in this type of sentences shifts from the subject to the attribute. The quality of the thing is highlighted and the thing itself becomes less important. The repetition of the structure also brings with itself the feeling of circling. The construction of the sentence is in accordance with its theme.
Orlando cannot find a human mate, so she decides to engage with Nature and never to marry a man. Rooks appear again, in the moment of Orlando's “engagement” with the Nature (O 159-161). Here the function of the rooks is not that of companions in sorrow but of companions in a strange kind of joy. During the engagement the feather of the rooks is falling upon her and she collects them.
The laughter of the rooks may be ominous, but it also can be grotesque, foreseeing. Soon, Orlando and her human mate will willingly listen to a priest saying: “Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Lady Orlando, kneel down” (O 170) and they will exchange their wedding rings.
It should be noted that Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, according to Orlando is “wild, dark-plumed name ... which had, in her mind, the steel-blue gleam of rooks' wings, the hoarse laughter of their caws, the snake-like twisting descent of their feathers in a silver pool...”(O 162) . The connection between her mate and rooks is made. If the wedding of Orlando and Shelmerdine is perceived as grotesque after Orlando's engagement with Nature, which is quite probably meant so, the reason for the connection of Shelmerdine with the rooks is difficult to find.
Jay is another bird connected with Shelmerdine, it is shrieking his name and Orlando picks its feather which she puts later to her breast and comes to see her lover (O 169). The last bird mentioned in connection with Orlando and her mate are hawk (171). In the text hawks are used as metaphors for the exclamations of the newly-weds, which are “dashing and circling ... higher and higher, further and further, faster and faster they circled...”(171).
Another mention of birds is on p. 176-177, where they are listed - sparrows, starlings, doves, rooks. Here their function is different from the previous scene, the birds here are the encarnation of the Life. They are contrasted to the human beings who wonder about the sense of life. The creatures do not ask questions, they simply live: “Than they come here, says the bird, and ask me what life is; Life, Life, Life!” (O 177).
The geese are definitely the most significant birds appearing in Orlando. Their role seems to be symbolical. It is evident that they are present in important moments. Other fact pointing at the significance of geese in Orlando is the balance with which they appear. The first goose appears in the opening of the book, the second in the crucial moment of his transformation - it can be taken as the approximate middle of the book, at least in terms of gradation - and the last geese appear at the very end of the book.
Orlando is writing “A Tragedy in Five Acts” and dips “an old stained goose quill in the ink” (O 5). This mention could seem accidental, but later, when Orlando's sex changes from man to woman, Lady of Purity comes, “in whose hand reposes the white quill of a virgin goose” (O 85). The symbolism here can be seen in the fact that in the first case Orlando is a man and lives his life with all its sexual pleasures, so that he is “stained” similarly as the goose quill by the ink. In the second case Orlando is to be re-born as a woman for whom the most important thing is to be “pure” in the same way as the white virgin goose quill.
Again, towards the end of the book, when Orlando is driving car and is having a conversation with her other selves, she spots a wild goose flying out to sea (O 204-205). It should be noted that the goose is “wild” and that it appears immediately after the passage in which Orlando deeply considered her present situation. It may point to the wilderness and necessity of freedom inside Orlando. In the very last paragraph of the book (O 215), the goose appears for the last time. Together with the aeroplane which is announcing the new and hopefully better time for women, a goose flies over Orlando's head. This passage can be interpreted as the victory of the “wild” goose, symbol of women's freedom over oppression and biases from the previous ages.
5. Conclusion
Light and lightness are two characteristic features in the novels by Virginia Woolf. As we could observe throughout this thesis, Woolf's work with light and lightness developed from one novel to another. In each of the novels they are processed differently, they have different functions and they are of different importance. It seems that Woolf gradually became aware of the potential of this “device” and she used it not only more frequently, but also more naturally.
In Jacob's Room, light has similar function as the spotlight in the theatre. The light serves to illuminate a part of a scene or a character. It is very sharp and attracts the reader's attention. The reader is aware of the illuminated object, sometimes also of the light itself and he or she is often surprised by the situation which is cut out from the scene. It is because the author often chooses the object with “indiscriminate attention”. Whether the object is a bucket, an aster or the protagonist, it is focused in the same, indiscriminate way. Moreover, when the attention is driven towards the protagonist and he is illuminated, paradoxically, the light in fact reveals nothing of him.
In Jacob's Room, the light is static and external. There are no situations in which the light would come out of Jacob, whether metaphorically or literally. This feature results probably from the fact that the protagonist is closed and unknown, and remains so till the end of the novel.
In contrast to the use of light in Jacob's Room, light in Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando: A Biography emanates directly from the characters, whether literally or metaphorically. It is much more elaborated and worked with consciously, which was demonstrated in the case of the counterpoints: Clarissa and Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway and the two ages, Elizabethan period and Nineteenth century in Orlando. Also the work with colours and different kinds of light is better developed than before.
Light (and darkness) is often used as a background for the narrative, sometimes it coincides with the theme, and sometimes it is used in a rhythmical pattern (for instance as in the walk between the street lamps). Light in these books is sometimes metaphorical, other times it forms a basis for reflexive passages.
Concerning lightness in Jacob's Room, it is difficult to find particular examples (as for example the aeroplane in Mrs. Dalloway). In these terms the lightness in the novel is more or less accidental and it is an accompanying feature of the work with other literary “devices”, such as the perspective. Lightness in Jacob's Room can be found in the way Woolf is constructing the whole book, as it was suggested in 2.1. Therefore, lightness is present in Jacob's Room, but it is a different kind of lightness than that of Mrs. Dalloway. The light style in Jacob's Room is completely different from the previous ones and it meant an important change for the whole of English novel.
In Mrs. Dalloway, the author works with lightness more palpably. The whole scene with the aeroplane is based on light movement, and similarly to how she works on thematic level, she does with the narrative. The lightness is not accidental nor accompanying, it is one of the basic features of the passage. However, it should be noted that thematically the aeroplane is only an object which unifies the spectators and serves as a link among different stories.
In Orlando, lightness is even more prominent. In this novel it was used consciously, not only on thematic level (birds, feathers), but in the work itself (humour). Lightness is characteristic of this book, Woolf wrote the book with a “light hand” and she did not dedicate to it so much systematic work and re-writing as she did to other novels. Because of this, it is doubtful whether Orlando can be taken as the culmination of lightness in her work, as it was suggested in the beginning of this chapter. The book does not form part of the natural development in the succession of her novels. It is an excellent digression in which Woolf worked more extensively with light and lightness than she had ever done before and than she did later.
It would be inadequate to claim that light and lightness are of radical importance in the three novels by Woolf. They are just two of the devices that she uses in her writing having different objectives, and they are always means of transmitting something different: an image (JR), an atmosphere (MD) or a mood of an age (O). But these two devices are typical for Woolf's expression and make her recognizable among others.
Finally, the above mentioned development of Woolf's work with light and lightness should not be considered as development in quality of the three novels. Each of them is interesting in its own way. Also, the concern of Woolf in Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway and in Orlando was different.
This thesis showed the different types of light and lightness that were used by Woolf in the three novels. The light can be sharp and illuminate a scene (JR), it can be similar to the lightning (MD). It can be used with rhythmical pattern (MD) taking turns with darkness. It is related closely to the colours, which are important in all of the novels. Light can be clearly internal (O) or external (JR) to the character. Light can be used literally (luminous character of O) or metaphorically (MD). Light can be static (JR) or moving (MD). Concerning lightness, it was demonstrated that there are two levels at which it can be observed - at the level of the construction of the novel (JR) and at the lexical level (MD, O). Lightness can be found in the tone of the whole book (O) and in the author's work with the objects (MD). Both light and lightness serve sometimes as the starting point for different purposes (reflexive passage).
The thesis could not be exhaustive in the enumeration of examples, and it would not be wise to try to achieve it. The thesis tried to find and describe those examples of light and lightness which are the most significant and typical for the three novels by Woof. In the conclusion it tried to see Woolf's work with these devices complexly, considering also their importance. In the following work it could be interesting to observe Woolf's concern with light and lightness throughout the whole of her novels.
6. Works Cited
6.1.1. Primary Printed Sources
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Vintage classics. London: Vintage, 2004. Print. (O)
Woolf, Virginia, and Nadia Fusini. Mrs Dalloway / Virginia Woolf; with an Introduction by Nadia Fusini. London: Everyman's library, 1993. Print. (MD)
Woolf, Virginia, and Rachel Bowlby. Orlando: A Biography. The World's classics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992. Print. (O2)
Woolf, Virginia, and Sue Roe. Jacob's Room. Penguin twentieth c classics. London: Penguin B, 1992. Print. (JR)
6.1.2 Primary Electronic Sources
Woolf, Virginia. “Modern Fiction” in Common Reader. eds. The University of Adelaide. n. d. Web. 20 Nov. 2010. <http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91c/chapter13.html>.
6.2. Secondary Printed Sources
Bell, Michael. “The Metaphysics of Modernism” in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism. ed. Levenson, Michael Harry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.
Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf: a biography by Quentin Bell. London: Hogarth P, 1972. Print.
Chambers, R L. The Novels of Virginia Woolf: R. L. Chambers. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1947. Print.
Dahl, Liisa. Linguistic Features of the Stream-of-Consciousness Techniques of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Eugene O'Neill. Turku [Finland]: Turun Yliopisto, 1970. Print.
Lee, Hermione. The Novels of Virginia Woolf. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1977. Print.
O'Gorman, F. (ed) (2008) “Early Criticism of the Victorian Novel from James Oliphant to David Cecil” in The Victorian Novel, Blackwell Pub. Ltd, Oxford, UK: Bl P, 2002. Print.
Ortega, y G. J. La Deshumanizacion Del Arte Y Otros Ensayos De Estetica. Obras de Ortega y Gasset, 10. ca, 1991. Print.
Poole, Roger. The Unknown Virginia Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1978. Print.
Roe, Sue, and Susan Sellers, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf. Cambridge companions to literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
Phyllis Rose, Woman of Letters: A Life of Virginia Woolf. London: Pandora P, 1986. Print.
6.3. Secondary Electronic Sources
Greenberg, David. “It Didn't Start With Einsetin.” Slate. eds. Washington Post. Newsweek Interactive Co. 3 Feb. 2000. Web. 20 Nov. 2010. <http://www.slate.com/id/74164/>.
Mepham, John. "Stream of consciousness". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2003. Web. 27 November 2010. <http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics>.
Museum of London Team. eds. Museum of London. N.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. <http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources>.
Trueman Chris. Home Rule And Ireland. 2000. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/home_rule_and_ireland.htm>.
Wright, Nathalia. "Mrs. Dalloway: a Study in Composition." College English. 5.7 (1944): 351-358. JSTOR. Web. 21 November 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/pss/371046>.
Wright, Steve and Gary Bradshaw. The Wright brothers: Wilbur and Orville Wright. 26 Jul. 1996. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. <www.wright-house.com/wright-brothers>.
7 Résumé
This bachelor's thesis analyses two phenomena, light and lightness, in three works by Virginia Woolf: Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando: A Biography. Different kinds of light and lightness are described and there is an attempt to specify their functions. Woolf, with the help of light and lightness creates a peculiar background for the transmission of images, atmosphere or a mood of an age.
The introduction presents the structure of the thesis and its research questions. In the first chapter, light and lightness are observed in the background of Modernism. The re-evaluation of science and dehumanization of art are seen as metaphors for the light and lightness of that era. Similarly, in literature, the freedom of the Modernist novel lies in opposition to the Victorian novel.
In the second chapter, the analysis of Jacob's Room follows. In terms of style and construction of the novel, Woolf introduced a ground-breaking and very light technique. It is also noticed that Woolf often creates very concrete images using sharp illumination of the scene, similar as in the theatre.
In the third chapter, Mrs. Dalloway is analysed. The work with light and lightness is more elaborated in this novel. For instance, one can find dark counterpoints to the light characters, and light is also used rhythmically in the novel. Concerning lightness, the thesis focuses on the “aeroplane scene”, which forms a substantial part of the novel.
In the fourth chapter, Orlando: A Biography is discussed. This book is seen as a major example of the work with light and lightness. Light scenes are abundant, the character is literally illuminating and the moods of the ages are also expressed with the rhetorics of light. Lightness is observed above all in the humour and irony which are present throughout the book.
In the fifth chapter, the three novels are compared, and the impact of the use of light and lightness is discussed. Finally, it is suggested that subsequent work may analyse the two aspects in other novels by the Virginia Woolf.
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