Virginia Woolf and Marriage
Virginia Wool
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Virginia Woolf was an exceptional figure in English literature whose work has often been embraced by feminist literary critics because of WoolfÆs special understanding of the ways in which women approach and experience marriage. The thesis to be addressed in the report is that through characters such as Clarissa Dalloway and Lily Briscoe, Woolf depicts marriages in which women are required to subjugate the self to the masculine other, thus denying their autonomy and their wholeness and necessitating a choice between the self and the other (Whiteley, 1987). It will be argued that Woolf, in her novels, sought to capture a reality more intimate and urgent than conventional modes of presentation have been able to render (Whiteley, 1987). Woolf attacked the conventions of social realism that had been in the mainstream of the English novel for the preceding 200 years. By lending a feminine and distinctly female authorial voice to stories of human relationships, Woolf reconstituted realism and presented a new understanding and interpretation of the experience of women within marriage and the larger social system (Whiteley, 1987). Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, and was the daughter of a well-known couple. According to one biographer: Adeline Virginia Stephen was born on 25 January 1882 in London. Her father, Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), was a man of letters (and first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography) who came from a family distinguished for
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st his will, from oneÆs husband, without losing oneÆs independence, oneÆs self-respect.ö What this suggests about Clarissa and about Virginia Woolf is that marriage had the potential to become a prison, but entered into with the right party, matrimony could be comfortable if not filled with romantic passion.
Nevertheless, Clarissa has a genuine belief in and concern for the world beyond her immediate happiness. Unlike Septimus, Clarissa chooses her isolation and still manages to maintain contact with others. Unlike Septimus, Clarissa does not meet her problems face to face. Whiteley (1987) maintains that Clarissa is a character who is used by Woolf to illustrate how a woman of sensitivity manages to maintain a marriage without having to enter into much of the romantic passion that others feel is necessary.
In To the Lighthouse, Woolf (1927) introduces the character of Mrs. Ramsay, another married woman. Set against Mrs. Ramsay is Lily Briscoe who recognizes that Mrs. Ramsay does not provide her husband with the sympathy and understanding that he so desperately needs. Woolf (1927) writes Mrs. RamsayÆs marriage as one in which two separate persons struggle to find comfort with one another. Mrs. Ramsay tends to exhibi
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Approximate Word count = 1576
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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