Virginia Woolf~

约 1245 个字 预计阅读时间 4 分钟

About

是大一英语课的一次汇报的电子版稿件。历经了第一次macOS浩劫（指发生于2020年7月27日的误删系统事件）后依然通过印象笔记的云笔记功能保存下来，成为为数不多的大一英语课电子文物。特记录如下。

Hello everyone, have you ever finished reading some books and felt shocked in the end, can’t wait to shout at the writer: What does the novel talk about? It doesn’t make any sense. Well, today the book I’m goona talk about is just like that. Here’s The Mark On the Wall, written by Virginia Woolf and first published in 1919.

Before I start my introduction part, I have to admit that the first time I saw the end of this novel, I felt like an innocent boy who is tricked by is closest friend in Halloween. I mean, it’s too ridiculous for me to accept that. You know, some kind of, wired, right? But if you dig into that genre, the Stream of Consciousness novel, you can never forget the beauty of Woolf. To start with, I decided to answer the 3 questions: Who’s Woolf? What in earth is the stream-of-consciousness? Why the novel is so famous? Frist, let’s go back to 100 years ago, V.W was born in Britain in 1882, Famous for her literary criticism essays, It was the stream-of- consciousness that made her eternal. She was also a member of Bloomsbury Group which included some artists like Russal, T. S Eiliot, and James Joyce, who wrote U. At that time, That’s where the inspiration sparks.

However, what’s hidden behind the briliant achievement is continusous depression which had been torturing her since she was a little girl. It’s really a tragedy that in 1941 she chose to fill her pocket with rocks and jumped into river Ouse to end her life. But just as F said, what if the suicide itself iexactly the proof of her excellent thoughts and mind and we just can’t understand her? Who knows? We can just show our respect and honor to such a legendery woman.

Next we are gonna touch the most abstract concept: The Stream of consciousness. It’s not evented by Woolf but the Mark on the Wall is her first trial. In Wikipedia, the Stream of Consciousness is explained as “~(Listed in the slides)”, Writers of this genre pay attention to the pure feelings and thoughts and emotions of human beings. Let’s see this picture, Interestingly the definition is relevant to the stream, because critics feel that those novelists thoughts are just like the stream, flowing to all directions and you can never catch, not to mention to predict where it heads to. However in Woolf’s persoective, things are a little bit different. Sometimes she led you into a foggy town and you can hardly grasp the main topic, While in “The Mark on The Wall”, it’s like a rose, with all petal pointing to each side, and a fixed core inside them. To Woolf, the core is the title What’s “The Mark on the Wall”, the process of finding out the answer is fascinating.

All in all, I believe the quatation of Woolf herself can best explain her ideas: “~” At this point, you may ask why the novel is so famous? Firstly, it had a very simple plot: The writer saw a mark on the wall, after various thoughts like self reflection about the nature uncertainty, even about the former owner of the house, She finally realized that the so-called mark is simply a snail. Of course with the help of “Someone”, Very short indeed. But it’s not hard to see the complicating thoughts given by Woolf. Sometimes she mentioned Shakespare, the Whitaker’s Almanack, the tomb etc. But she didn’t just mixed these parts together, she followed people’s subconsciousness to express the whole thing. Supposing you are looking out of the window and letting your mind wandering, there’s always a start point, but after that, your consciousness is completely out of control. Jumping from one to another, and you can hardly remember where you get started. However at a sudden moment, there seems to be a sound ringing around your mind, forcing you to go back to reality. To be honest, this kind of Meditation usually reminds you of important things like deadlines and appointment. That’s actually what Woolf expressed in the novel, Your association is unstoppable, but the mark on the wall is still there.

So what does the symbol mean?

Take a look at W.A. Woolf mentioned it 3 times in the story, of course in a very ironic way: She said the book is about “Men’s masculine part of view which governs our lives.” The writer believed that the society is built because “People follow orders”, As an independent woman, she didn’t want to be ordered by others, who set the standard. Men are forcing their power on women, That’s why such a book could exist!

This can be seen as Woolf’s bud for feminism. Equal rights for both genders, no restrictions should exist any more. Another good example is Naturalism. In the end, Woolf’s imagination falls back on a “Plank in the sea”, she then tracked back to the original condition of the plank, the tree in a forest, the winter night, small insects and the winterstorm. Woolf was finding a natural life where she can enjoy the pure nature without being interrupted. Her understanding of “Future life” is idealistic, I believe she would choose a countryside abbey and just be engaged in the beauty of nature. Even if she was a feminism fighter. This can be proved by this quotation: “~”.

The last but most famous symbol is the snail. In the last but 2 para, the so-called “Someone” is complaining about the “War”, considering the time of the novel is 1919, the war is definitely the WWI, Interestingly, the “Wall” shares the same pronunciation with “War”, so the title can also mean: The snail on the war. People are just like snails, the war is going on, and tregedy is happening everyday, everywhere.

In my opinion, I divide the snail into 4 parts, Snails always carry a heavy shell to protect their delicate body, Woolf prefer using animals, insects, plants and so on to show pure naturalism. You can find more examples in Walves, Woolf’s another novel, Their praise of insects is some kind of respect for nature. The snail also symbolized powerful men and delicate women, the shell is the pressure of men, and the reason why women move so slowly, is that men are putting pressure on them. The fourth symbolization is about Woolf’s another novel “A room of your own” which is published 12 years later. She made an appeal to people that we should leave a room for us to store our thoughts and emtions, the shell is like the port for ships, to prevent you from the interfere of the outside world. Ok, let’s look back on what we’ve talked about 3 parts....Conclusion parts. Thx for watching...