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WHAT VIRGINIA IS KNOWN FOR ?


!Virginia Woolf" (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)by RV1864



QUESTION TO YOU ? THE READERS...

When somebody thinks about Woolf, what would be the first image which comes in the mind of the readers ? Is it her mental illness - manic depressive, bipolar disorder? Serial deaths of her family members ? Haunted childhood? Unsuccesful marital status? suicidal note to her husband Leonard? Her horrible childhood sexual abuse by her step brother ? Her illicit love affair with her girlfriend Vita Sack Ville West? Or her critical writing style which can never be understood in first reading ?

CAN IT BE THE ANSWER.

Well, to give a single definitive answer will be quite difficult. In spite of all the negatives in life she stood herself and represented  era wih her name and works, which is critical but at the same time intresting too. It really surprises the readers, that how can she has a powerful vision irrespective of her famous demise and personal struggles.

She is considered to be one of the leading figures of modernist literature of the twentieth century who used the stream of consciousness technique to get close to the mind of the characters and expressed exactly the impact of life on their personality. Her unique style of writings forced the people to be curious about her and creates the thirst of knowledge which can only be fulfilled by reading her. 

She is known for her most famous and renown novels i.e Mrs Dalloway and  To the Lighthouse. Mrs Dalloway, the whole novel  of two hundred  pages is based on a story or can say incidents of a single day of twenty four hours. Whereas To the Lighthouse is divided into three sections out of which first section is of normal length, second section is of very short span and last but not the least section three is of ten years which is quite abnormal gap for the readers to understand the novel.

So it can be said that she never ever focused on characterizations, plot constructions, subjectivity, tragedy, comedy, and romance as well as love interest as in the traditional novels. Her context has a tendency to fly off on many directions; instead of continuity of actions it has a tendency to discontinuity. In fact it can be seen that she never followed the proper beginning and endings in her works. Rather the action moves backward and forward in time with no logical arrangements of incidents and events leading chronologically to catastrophe or denouement. Instead of these characteristics she focussed more on representing the inner self of the characters, analysed their psychological mind set, their hidden thoughts and desires of unconscious minds. She gave more emphasis on the importance and significance of that particular thought occurred in the mind of the character on that particular time period than the logical sequence and this is what makes her special.




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  1. Unknown5 February 2017 at 19:57

    Her intrinsic values guided her way of writing,which impressed the readers and ascertained her inherent treasure of feelings kept her alive.

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