THIS IS THE FIRST THING I'VE PUBLISHED ON MY BLOG THAT WASN'T WRITTEN BY ME.....AND I'M PUTTING IT ON MY SITE WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR, WHO BY THE WAY IS 17 YEARS OLD AND THANK GOD DOESN'T KNOW ANY LAWYERS....YET.
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Laura Fairly
Mrs. Frank
AP English IV
28 January 2007
World War I, Feminism, and Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf lived during a time of social transformation, disillusionment, and fear. Coming out of World War I, the English realized the great cruelties that humanity is capable of. They encountered horrors that they could not foresee, and these horrors forever altered them. Suddenly, tradition was insufficient and many looked to new, unexplored ideas. The English confronted what had not protected them: realism and suppression. Realism, mundane and universal, had limited their imaginations and individuality; while suppression had chained men and women to the gender ideal. Essentially, the English longed to escape their inhibitions, and this longing encouraged a multitude of revolutions. Virginia Woolf took hold of the transformational experience of the times, and allowed them to take shape in her writing. She was not afraid of writing about her time during her time; she was not afraid to be influenced by the Great War, modernism, and the feminist movement, and because of her courage, she was able to influence.
England had once reigned supreme. It went both politically and militarily unchallenged, and therefore its people felt secure to live in a harmonious, external world. They knew without a doubt that their country was ideal and unparalleled. Essentially, the English, at the turn of the twentieth century, had no reason to think that there was a
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reality beneath the objective. They had no reason to acknowledge their selves and their own, private needs because, in their minds, their country had immaculately predetermined the country and the lives of its people. Then, the war arrived and unraveled the securities that the world, including the English, held dear. The English felt despair as haunted men returned from war; new forms of cruelty, mainly machine warfare, brought new fears; the world became hostile; the traumatic experience of war made standard assumptions outdated; and the culture of England was not able to acknowledge the extreme pain and suffering of the people.
As the war ended, modernism began. Change was definite because the war was “an all-consuming experience for every Briton” (Encarta). Each individual was altered, and modernism confronted that change. Modernism, in terms of writing, is a “strong and conscious break with tradition”, and this is exactly what occurred in and out of literature (Modern). Modernist writers began to reflect this break in their works. They began to move away from the traditions that had failed England, and look for answers in the experimental. Writers sought relief from the feelings of alienation and loss that consumed the post-war world by examining their foundations. Ultimately, modernists questioned and forced others to question English customs. Realism was too practical and neutral to address the effects of the war, and so modernism refuted any supreme reality. Instead, they took on imaginations capable of examining the inner self and his pains. Modernists recognized that social order had not saved humanity from World War I, and now, it was not saving its victims from isolation and despair. Modernists uncovered a now deep-seeded uncertainty in England.
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To illustrate: in Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf is greatly influenced by the effects the war had on the individual. Her characters, whether they are simply English citizens or World War I veterans, confront the pain of the war. She explores the character’s inner, unconscious selves in an effort to relieve them of what they are too afraid to say and do. Woolf, through her characters, tells of a world that the English had once ignored: “The first use of modern writing, I would suggest is to hold a mirror up to the confusions of the age […]” (Blackstone). This age is imbued with confusion and individuality, and to Woolf, it is more secure than the failing traditions once were. The characters lack the stability that the past once offered, and are disillusioned with tired ideals. After reading a line from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, Clarissa Dalloway thinks to herself: “This late age of the world’s experience had bred in them all, all men and women, a well of tears. Tears and sorrows; courage and endurance; a perfectly upright and stoical bearing” (9). Mrs. Dalloway sees beyond the facades of society and into the vulnerability that was felt collectively, but quietly, after the war. By recognizing the illusion of perfection, she is able to confront her own feelings of failure. Real and profound sadness is part of the reality realism had rejected; sadness, before the war, went socially ignored. Now, Mrs. Dalloway recognizes that the war brought sorrow to the forefront, and it now lurks beneath the falsities that the English are beginning to reject.
Similarly, Septimus, a World War I veteran, sees past English society. Septimus cannot rationalize his fighting in the war; everywhere he looks, the society he sacrificed to preserve, disappoints him: “ It might be possible, Septimus thought, looking at England from the train window, as they left Newhaven; it might be possible that the
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world itself is without meaning” (88). Septimus is disillusioned with society. When he looks at England, he feels hopeless. The focus of his youth had been to fight for England and her traditions; and now, he does not feel that these things were worth fighting for. Seeing the world in this way means that Septimus’s life and the deaths of his friends were empty and futile. Virginia Woolf allows Septimus to fight a war, see the realities of the world, and ultimately commit suicide in order to examine the disillusionment with the British Empire that surrounded her. According to one critic, “Living in the world between two wars and in the world of war itself, she was unremittingly conscious of the fragility of the civilization that is Western Europe […]” (Blackstone). Unlike many before her, Virginia Woolf peers into that forbidden world of the mind. In true modernity, she explores the thoughts of her characters, identifies their conflicts, and reveals the origins and effects of those conflicts.
By the end of the novel, Clarissa Dalloway, a member of the upper class, is also disillusioned with England. As she escorts the Prime Minister through her party, she reflects, “[…] He looked so ordinary. You might have stood him behind a counter and bought biscuits […] He tried to look somebody. It was amusing to watch. Nobody looked at him. They just went on talking, yet it was perfectly plain that they all knew felt to the marrow of their bones, this majesty passing; this symbol of what they all stood for, English society” (172). Mrs. Dalloway realizes that everyone, including herself, cannot see the Prime Minister as they once did. He is no longer mysterious and awe-inspiring; now, the English see him as an empty outline of a society that they once adored. He does not meet the expectations of what a Prime Minister would be like, and because he
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represents English society as a whole, England does not meet the expectations of the partygoers either.
Virginia Woolf continues to look at the effects of World War I in To the Lighthouse. She looks at her characters inwardly, giving them a past, present, and future all at once. We know who they were and who they became as a result of their loss of innocence. In particular, Mrs. Ramsay manages her own disillusionment. The world, after the war, is without meaning and uniformity, and Mrs. Ramsay looks to art in order to deal with the world’s uncovered meanness. Her art is domesticity and it is one of the only things that did not fail her. It never changed or proved to be unreal and insubstantial. Instead, Mrs. Ramsay finds haven from the cruelty of life in her home, and devotes her life to making memories for those around her. She wants there to be memorable dinner parties so that no matter what the future brings and how evil the world becomes, everyone around her will always have memories of tranquility and happiness: “ […] so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures” (100). Mrs. Ramsay knows now that the world shifts: one moment it will be civil and the next it will be irrational, and she tries to make her dinner parties permanent fixtures in the minds of her guests. Essentially, Mrs. Ramsay refuses to live in a world that has no meaning and so, she implements meaning in it herself. With Mrs. Ramsay, Virginia Woolf explores the effects World War I has on society. One critic says, “Woolf works consistently inward, away from the world of events […]” (Adeline). Mrs. Ramsay signifies more than just one woman; she is postwar society as a whole, grieving and persevering in any way possible.
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As importantly, Woolf explores the subjective nature of reality. With the close of the war, the English realize that they are not protected by collective patriotism. They feel alienated from the lives they lead prewar and they feel alienated from one another. Virginia Woolf looks into their minds to reveal a world where one thing is really many things. In the novel, the lighthouse represents this modern individuality. As James reaches the lighthouse, he discovers that it is not what it was when he was a child. Now, it does not hold the mystery and power it once had, and he determines that this is what the lighthouse is. It is simply a lighthouse, unadorned with childhood naiveté. However, suddenly James realizes, “[…] No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too” (203). James has worked his whole life to reach this lighthouse, and now, with his life experiences, it is different than it once was. Like the lighthouse, life is individual. Life will never be what the realist wanted it to be: direct and simple. Instead, it is a forever-changing concept of plurality. Even for the individual, life is a multitude of perceptions: prewar and postwar. As James Ginden wrote, “Woolf's symbolic searcher must suffer, must pass through the tumult of destruction and war, before he can reach the lighthouse” (Adeline).
Fundamentally, through the eyes of a modernist, Virginia Woolf addresses the war’s effect as well as the disillusionment with English traditions.
As prominently, the feminist movement influenced Virginia Woolf as a writer.
The feminist movement came with World War I and its shattering of tradition. The war revealed previously ignored equalities in the sexes: women joined men at war, acting as nurses, journalists, and entertainers. Women, in war- time, were temporarily exposed to
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new freedoms. Critically, the war led many to sympathize with the feminist movement. After the war, women were given the write to vote -albeit limited- in England, and in doing so, England recognized women’s contributions made to the war effort (Trueman). Virginia Woolf experienced the feminist movement; she, like many women, could now see an attainable confirmation of equality. According to historian Eric Leed, the Great War meant “the collapse of those established, traditional distinctions” that had before discouraged women (Goldstein). Yet, Virginia Woolf was not a feminist in the traditional sense. Through her writing, she sought to show that men and women are both human, and alike in that humanity. She wrote how men should have the rights that women do, and conversely, that women should have the right that men do. While the feminist movement provided her with a more welcoming environment to discuss gender roles, she was a humanist. As one critic affirms, “[…] more truly we might call her an androgynist: she puts the emphasis every time on what a man and a woman have to give to each other, on the mystery of completion, and not on the assertion of separate superiorities” (Goldstein).
Humanists believe that identities formulated from gender are socially constructed. To a humanist, the formulaic differences between men and women are artificial, and in reality, men and women are intrinsically equal. Simply, humanism questions the rationale behind the dichotomy of men and women. Humanism asks if men are inherently and completely masculine and if women are inherently and completely feminine. Are manhood and womanhood learned concepts? Is this nonsensical division a source of oppression for humanity?
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Virginia Woolf was inspired by the feminist movement, and in her novels Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf illustrates the destruction of gender-based separation. When men are holistically “male” and women are holistically “female”, true and individual identity is stifled; no longer is there room to exist beyond the expectations of gender. Men are silenced in their grief as women are silenced in their domestic duties. Although both men and women may long for change, they both perpetuate the limitations of a gender-obsessed society. In both novels, societal gender expectations oppress the individual.
In Mrs. Dalloway, society denies men the importance of the grieving process. Sorrow is effeminate- it does not belong within the confines of masculinity. Pain and
tears lie in the world of women, away from acceptable, masculine behavior. As such, the feminization of grief means that Septimus, a World War I veteran, has no permissible means to express his torment about the war. He cannot communicate his angst to his wife because society has taught him that emotional communication is unacceptable for men. Never has Septimus seen emotion in another man and so he lacks the encouragement of tradition. Septimus realizes his lack of feeling: “But he could not taste, he could not feel. In the teashop among the tables and the chattering waiters the appalling fear came over him-he could not feel. He could reason; he could read […] his brain was perfect; it must be the fault of the world then-that he could not feel” (88). The war made Septimus numb, and society refuses to comfort him. Professor Joanna Bourke says, “Sympathy was only rarely forthcoming. Sufferers had no choice but to acknowledge that their reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow” (Bourke). According to society,
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man is impervious to feeling, making Septimus’ emotion illegitimate. Men, returning home from war, do not feel that they can express their fear and hurt because society has ignored their trauma. Society has banned him from the grieving process and in so doing, banned him from healing. Since society denies him communication and thus, relief, Septimus remains locked within the torment of World War I.
As Septimus perceives his insensitivity, his wife, Rezia, oppresses Septimus’ ability to communicate: “ ‘The English are so silent,’ Rezia said. She liked it, she said. She respected these Englishmen […]” (88). Rezia, like society, admires these Englishmen because they are void of feeling. There is no trace of pain, passion, or vulnerability in them. These men, in their respectability, do not express emotion. Essentially, Rezia respects them because they are quintessentially male. Even worse, instead of releasing his hurt, Septimus internalizes it as society has taught him to. When he does cry out for help- in outbursts- society accuses him of being “selfish”. Society lacks sympathy for Septimus’ grief because he is a man. Rezia remembers what Septimus doctor, Holmes, said: “ She was close to him now, could see him staring at the sky, muttering, clasping his hands. Yet Dr. Holmes said there was nothing the matter with him” (67). To the contemporary reader, it is obvious that Septimus suffers from shellshock; unfortunately, the early 20th century did not recognize depressive behavior from soldiers as a legitimate psychological illness. Although Septimus has obviously been traumatized, Dr. Holmes thinks him healthy. Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, another doctor, simply prescribe rest and isolation. By doing so, they deny Septimus the importance of communication. Instead of advising him to express and release his hurt, they encourage
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him to hide it. The doctors, following gender conventions, refuse to acknowledge sensitivity in a man: “The War made traditionally feminine mourning unpatriotic and promoted the more manly virtues of fortitude and devotion to duty […]” (Smith).
Recognizing Septimus’ anguish and aiding him through his grieving process would mean, in part, admitting that men, too, have “feminine” qualities. Eventually, Septimus commits suicide, throwing himself out of a window in a desperate attempt to understand his emotions. Septimus’ suicide might have been prevented had society not been so cruel in their definition of appropriate, male behavior.
Gender-based limitations also pervade To the Lighthouse. In the novel, men are always in need of attention. Society has bread men to expect that the opposite sex exists to serve them- to cater to their every insecurity. Mr. Ramsay, like many men in the novel, constantly demands concession and sympathy from the women around him: “ He was a failure, he said. Mrs. Ramsay flashed her needles. Mr. Ramsay repeated, never taking his eyes from her face, that he was a failure. She blew the words back at him […] But he must have more than that […] to be assured of his genius, first of all, and then to be taken within the circle of life, warmed and soothed, to have his senses restored to him, his barrenness made fertile […]” (37). Mr. Ramsay searches for validation from his wife. He
needs to be “assured of his genius” and he longs to feel “needed”. Societal tradition deems women responsible for the male ego: “expressive activities of the woman fulfill 'internal' functions, for example to strengthen the ties between members of the family. The man, on the other hand, performed the 'external' functions of a family, such as providing monetary support” (Answers). Mr. Ramsay turns to his wife for that comfort
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because society has taught him, through years of convention, to do so. Yet, Mrs. Ramsay is hesitant: she “flashes her needles” – her household duties being her only protection. Each time she lends her husband her own confidence, she feels exhausted; she feels as if she has lost some part of her: “So boasting of her capacity to surround and protect, there was scarcely a shell of herself left for her to know herself by; all was so lavished and spent” (38). Mrs. Ramsay realizes that comforting her husband means sacrificing her own vitality. Comforting her husband means leaving her individual identity, separate from her familial roles and domestic duties, behind.
Although there is a discrepancy between Mrs. Ramsay’s liveliness and Mr. Ramsay’s overbearing needs, the needs of Mr. Ramsay always prevail. He is always catered to because she is a woman and gender rules clearly state that women exist to nurture. Exhausting as it is, Mrs. Ramsay provides her husband with validation. Mr. Ramsay feels that it is his wife’s duty to preserve his ego and Mrs. Ramsay feels obligated to do so. Each of them abets the stereotypical, socially predetermined male and female outlines.
Mr. Ramsay also looks towards Lily, a guest in his summerhouse, for confirmation. Lily thinks, “ […] But he’ll be down on me in a moment, demanding- something she felt she could not give him […] That man, she thought, her anger rising in her, never gave; that man took. She, on the other hand, would be forced to give. Mrs.
Ramsay had given […]” (149). Mr. Ramsay’s very presence requires recognition. Lily does not want to give because she knows that she will never receive. She resists society’s idea of femininity because it is not part of her; Lily recognizes that although she is a
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woman, she is first and foremost an individual. Although it is a social sin, Lily places her own, personal wellbeing before Mr. Ramsay’s. At the same time, she outwardly yields to Mr. Ramsay’s power as a man because “Mrs. Ramsay had given” in to male priorities; the women before her had always championed their roles. The pressure of society that exists within Mr. Ramsay forces Lily to externally obey a set of prearranged, impersonal laws.
Fundamentally, the feminist movement encouraged Woolf to argue that human beings are complex and idiosyncratic; no one is definite and exact. Men will never be the ideal “man” just as women will never be the ideal “woman”; instead, men and women will always be simply human.
In the end, Virginia Woolf allowed the world around her to pervade her writing. Through her, the reader knows both World War I and feminism. She does not place the world before him as perfect and common. Alternatively, she shows the confusion of modernity in the minds of her characters. With characters heavily influenced by the war and feminism, the reader is able to exist in a specific period of time; to see the world as Virginia Woolf did.
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Laura Fairly
Mrs. Frank
AP English IV
28 January 2007
World War I, Feminism, and Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf lived during a time of social transformation, disillusionment, and fear. Coming out of World War I, the English realized the great cruelties that humanity is capable of. They encountered horrors that they could not foresee, and these horrors forever altered them. Suddenly, tradition was insufficient and many looked to new, unexplored ideas. The English confronted what had not protected them: realism and suppression. Realism, mundane and universal, had limited their imaginations and individuality; while suppression had chained men and women to the gender ideal. Essentially, the English longed to escape their inhibitions, and this longing encouraged a multitude of revolutions. Virginia Woolf took hold of the transformational experience of the times, and allowed them to take shape in her writing. She was not afraid of writing about her time during her time; she was not afraid to be influenced by the Great War, modernism, and the feminist movement, and because of her courage, she was able to influence.
England had once reigned supreme. It went both politically and militarily unchallenged, and therefore its people felt secure to live in a harmonious, external world. They knew without a doubt that their country was ideal and unparalleled. Essentially, the English, at the turn of the twentieth century, had no reason to think that there was a
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reality beneath the objective. They had no reason to acknowledge their selves and their own, private needs because, in their minds, their country had immaculately predetermined the country and the lives of its people. Then, the war arrived and unraveled the securities that the world, including the English, held dear. The English felt despair as haunted men returned from war; new forms of cruelty, mainly machine warfare, brought new fears; the world became hostile; the traumatic experience of war made standard assumptions outdated; and the culture of England was not able to acknowledge the extreme pain and suffering of the people.
As the war ended, modernism began. Change was definite because the war was “an all-consuming experience for every Briton” (Encarta). Each individual was altered, and modernism confronted that change. Modernism, in terms of writing, is a “strong and conscious break with tradition”, and this is exactly what occurred in and out of literature (Modern). Modernist writers began to reflect this break in their works. They began to move away from the traditions that had failed England, and look for answers in the experimental. Writers sought relief from the feelings of alienation and loss that consumed the post-war world by examining their foundations. Ultimately, modernists questioned and forced others to question English customs. Realism was too practical and neutral to address the effects of the war, and so modernism refuted any supreme reality. Instead, they took on imaginations capable of examining the inner self and his pains. Modernists recognized that social order had not saved humanity from World War I, and now, it was not saving its victims from isolation and despair. Modernists uncovered a now deep-seeded uncertainty in England.
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To illustrate: in Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf is greatly influenced by the effects the war had on the individual. Her characters, whether they are simply English citizens or World War I veterans, confront the pain of the war. She explores the character’s inner, unconscious selves in an effort to relieve them of what they are too afraid to say and do. Woolf, through her characters, tells of a world that the English had once ignored: “The first use of modern writing, I would suggest is to hold a mirror up to the confusions of the age […]” (Blackstone). This age is imbued with confusion and individuality, and to Woolf, it is more secure than the failing traditions once were. The characters lack the stability that the past once offered, and are disillusioned with tired ideals. After reading a line from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, Clarissa Dalloway thinks to herself: “This late age of the world’s experience had bred in them all, all men and women, a well of tears. Tears and sorrows; courage and endurance; a perfectly upright and stoical bearing” (9). Mrs. Dalloway sees beyond the facades of society and into the vulnerability that was felt collectively, but quietly, after the war. By recognizing the illusion of perfection, she is able to confront her own feelings of failure. Real and profound sadness is part of the reality realism had rejected; sadness, before the war, went socially ignored. Now, Mrs. Dalloway recognizes that the war brought sorrow to the forefront, and it now lurks beneath the falsities that the English are beginning to reject.
Similarly, Septimus, a World War I veteran, sees past English society. Septimus cannot rationalize his fighting in the war; everywhere he looks, the society he sacrificed to preserve, disappoints him: “ It might be possible, Septimus thought, looking at England from the train window, as they left Newhaven; it might be possible that the
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world itself is without meaning” (88). Septimus is disillusioned with society. When he looks at England, he feels hopeless. The focus of his youth had been to fight for England and her traditions; and now, he does not feel that these things were worth fighting for. Seeing the world in this way means that Septimus’s life and the deaths of his friends were empty and futile. Virginia Woolf allows Septimus to fight a war, see the realities of the world, and ultimately commit suicide in order to examine the disillusionment with the British Empire that surrounded her. According to one critic, “Living in the world between two wars and in the world of war itself, she was unremittingly conscious of the fragility of the civilization that is Western Europe […]” (Blackstone). Unlike many before her, Virginia Woolf peers into that forbidden world of the mind. In true modernity, she explores the thoughts of her characters, identifies their conflicts, and reveals the origins and effects of those conflicts.
By the end of the novel, Clarissa Dalloway, a member of the upper class, is also disillusioned with England. As she escorts the Prime Minister through her party, she reflects, “[…] He looked so ordinary. You might have stood him behind a counter and bought biscuits […] He tried to look somebody. It was amusing to watch. Nobody looked at him. They just went on talking, yet it was perfectly plain that they all knew felt to the marrow of their bones, this majesty passing; this symbol of what they all stood for, English society” (172). Mrs. Dalloway realizes that everyone, including herself, cannot see the Prime Minister as they once did. He is no longer mysterious and awe-inspiring; now, the English see him as an empty outline of a society that they once adored. He does not meet the expectations of what a Prime Minister would be like, and because he
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represents English society as a whole, England does not meet the expectations of the partygoers either.
Virginia Woolf continues to look at the effects of World War I in To the Lighthouse. She looks at her characters inwardly, giving them a past, present, and future all at once. We know who they were and who they became as a result of their loss of innocence. In particular, Mrs. Ramsay manages her own disillusionment. The world, after the war, is without meaning and uniformity, and Mrs. Ramsay looks to art in order to deal with the world’s uncovered meanness. Her art is domesticity and it is one of the only things that did not fail her. It never changed or proved to be unreal and insubstantial. Instead, Mrs. Ramsay finds haven from the cruelty of life in her home, and devotes her life to making memories for those around her. She wants there to be memorable dinner parties so that no matter what the future brings and how evil the world becomes, everyone around her will always have memories of tranquility and happiness: “ […] so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures” (100). Mrs. Ramsay knows now that the world shifts: one moment it will be civil and the next it will be irrational, and she tries to make her dinner parties permanent fixtures in the minds of her guests. Essentially, Mrs. Ramsay refuses to live in a world that has no meaning and so, she implements meaning in it herself. With Mrs. Ramsay, Virginia Woolf explores the effects World War I has on society. One critic says, “Woolf works consistently inward, away from the world of events […]” (Adeline). Mrs. Ramsay signifies more than just one woman; she is postwar society as a whole, grieving and persevering in any way possible.
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As importantly, Woolf explores the subjective nature of reality. With the close of the war, the English realize that they are not protected by collective patriotism. They feel alienated from the lives they lead prewar and they feel alienated from one another. Virginia Woolf looks into their minds to reveal a world where one thing is really many things. In the novel, the lighthouse represents this modern individuality. As James reaches the lighthouse, he discovers that it is not what it was when he was a child. Now, it does not hold the mystery and power it once had, and he determines that this is what the lighthouse is. It is simply a lighthouse, unadorned with childhood naiveté. However, suddenly James realizes, “[…] No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too” (203). James has worked his whole life to reach this lighthouse, and now, with his life experiences, it is different than it once was. Like the lighthouse, life is individual. Life will never be what the realist wanted it to be: direct and simple. Instead, it is a forever-changing concept of plurality. Even for the individual, life is a multitude of perceptions: prewar and postwar. As James Ginden wrote, “Woolf's symbolic searcher must suffer, must pass through the tumult of destruction and war, before he can reach the lighthouse” (Adeline).
Fundamentally, through the eyes of a modernist, Virginia Woolf addresses the war’s effect as well as the disillusionment with English traditions.
As prominently, the feminist movement influenced Virginia Woolf as a writer.
The feminist movement came with World War I and its shattering of tradition. The war revealed previously ignored equalities in the sexes: women joined men at war, acting as nurses, journalists, and entertainers. Women, in war- time, were temporarily exposed to
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new freedoms. Critically, the war led many to sympathize with the feminist movement. After the war, women were given the write to vote -albeit limited- in England, and in doing so, England recognized women’s contributions made to the war effort (Trueman). Virginia Woolf experienced the feminist movement; she, like many women, could now see an attainable confirmation of equality. According to historian Eric Leed, the Great War meant “the collapse of those established, traditional distinctions” that had before discouraged women (Goldstein). Yet, Virginia Woolf was not a feminist in the traditional sense. Through her writing, she sought to show that men and women are both human, and alike in that humanity. She wrote how men should have the rights that women do, and conversely, that women should have the right that men do. While the feminist movement provided her with a more welcoming environment to discuss gender roles, she was a humanist. As one critic affirms, “[…] more truly we might call her an androgynist: she puts the emphasis every time on what a man and a woman have to give to each other, on the mystery of completion, and not on the assertion of separate superiorities” (Goldstein).
Humanists believe that identities formulated from gender are socially constructed. To a humanist, the formulaic differences between men and women are artificial, and in reality, men and women are intrinsically equal. Simply, humanism questions the rationale behind the dichotomy of men and women. Humanism asks if men are inherently and completely masculine and if women are inherently and completely feminine. Are manhood and womanhood learned concepts? Is this nonsensical division a source of oppression for humanity?
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Virginia Woolf was inspired by the feminist movement, and in her novels Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf illustrates the destruction of gender-based separation. When men are holistically “male” and women are holistically “female”, true and individual identity is stifled; no longer is there room to exist beyond the expectations of gender. Men are silenced in their grief as women are silenced in their domestic duties. Although both men and women may long for change, they both perpetuate the limitations of a gender-obsessed society. In both novels, societal gender expectations oppress the individual.
In Mrs. Dalloway, society denies men the importance of the grieving process. Sorrow is effeminate- it does not belong within the confines of masculinity. Pain and
tears lie in the world of women, away from acceptable, masculine behavior. As such, the feminization of grief means that Septimus, a World War I veteran, has no permissible means to express his torment about the war. He cannot communicate his angst to his wife because society has taught him that emotional communication is unacceptable for men. Never has Septimus seen emotion in another man and so he lacks the encouragement of tradition. Septimus realizes his lack of feeling: “But he could not taste, he could not feel. In the teashop among the tables and the chattering waiters the appalling fear came over him-he could not feel. He could reason; he could read […] his brain was perfect; it must be the fault of the world then-that he could not feel” (88). The war made Septimus numb, and society refuses to comfort him. Professor Joanna Bourke says, “Sympathy was only rarely forthcoming. Sufferers had no choice but to acknowledge that their reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow” (Bourke). According to society,
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man is impervious to feeling, making Septimus’ emotion illegitimate. Men, returning home from war, do not feel that they can express their fear and hurt because society has ignored their trauma. Society has banned him from the grieving process and in so doing, banned him from healing. Since society denies him communication and thus, relief, Septimus remains locked within the torment of World War I.
As Septimus perceives his insensitivity, his wife, Rezia, oppresses Septimus’ ability to communicate: “ ‘The English are so silent,’ Rezia said. She liked it, she said. She respected these Englishmen […]” (88). Rezia, like society, admires these Englishmen because they are void of feeling. There is no trace of pain, passion, or vulnerability in them. These men, in their respectability, do not express emotion. Essentially, Rezia respects them because they are quintessentially male. Even worse, instead of releasing his hurt, Septimus internalizes it as society has taught him to. When he does cry out for help- in outbursts- society accuses him of being “selfish”. Society lacks sympathy for Septimus’ grief because he is a man. Rezia remembers what Septimus doctor, Holmes, said: “ She was close to him now, could see him staring at the sky, muttering, clasping his hands. Yet Dr. Holmes said there was nothing the matter with him” (67). To the contemporary reader, it is obvious that Septimus suffers from shellshock; unfortunately, the early 20th century did not recognize depressive behavior from soldiers as a legitimate psychological illness. Although Septimus has obviously been traumatized, Dr. Holmes thinks him healthy. Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, another doctor, simply prescribe rest and isolation. By doing so, they deny Septimus the importance of communication. Instead of advising him to express and release his hurt, they encourage
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him to hide it. The doctors, following gender conventions, refuse to acknowledge sensitivity in a man: “The War made traditionally feminine mourning unpatriotic and promoted the more manly virtues of fortitude and devotion to duty […]” (Smith).
Recognizing Septimus’ anguish and aiding him through his grieving process would mean, in part, admitting that men, too, have “feminine” qualities. Eventually, Septimus commits suicide, throwing himself out of a window in a desperate attempt to understand his emotions. Septimus’ suicide might have been prevented had society not been so cruel in their definition of appropriate, male behavior.
Gender-based limitations also pervade To the Lighthouse. In the novel, men are always in need of attention. Society has bread men to expect that the opposite sex exists to serve them- to cater to their every insecurity. Mr. Ramsay, like many men in the novel, constantly demands concession and sympathy from the women around him: “ He was a failure, he said. Mrs. Ramsay flashed her needles. Mr. Ramsay repeated, never taking his eyes from her face, that he was a failure. She blew the words back at him […] But he must have more than that […] to be assured of his genius, first of all, and then to be taken within the circle of life, warmed and soothed, to have his senses restored to him, his barrenness made fertile […]” (37). Mr. Ramsay searches for validation from his wife. He
needs to be “assured of his genius” and he longs to feel “needed”. Societal tradition deems women responsible for the male ego: “expressive activities of the woman fulfill 'internal' functions, for example to strengthen the ties between members of the family. The man, on the other hand, performed the 'external' functions of a family, such as providing monetary support” (Answers). Mr. Ramsay turns to his wife for that comfort
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because society has taught him, through years of convention, to do so. Yet, Mrs. Ramsay is hesitant: she “flashes her needles” – her household duties being her only protection. Each time she lends her husband her own confidence, she feels exhausted; she feels as if she has lost some part of her: “So boasting of her capacity to surround and protect, there was scarcely a shell of herself left for her to know herself by; all was so lavished and spent” (38). Mrs. Ramsay realizes that comforting her husband means sacrificing her own vitality. Comforting her husband means leaving her individual identity, separate from her familial roles and domestic duties, behind.
Although there is a discrepancy between Mrs. Ramsay’s liveliness and Mr. Ramsay’s overbearing needs, the needs of Mr. Ramsay always prevail. He is always catered to because she is a woman and gender rules clearly state that women exist to nurture. Exhausting as it is, Mrs. Ramsay provides her husband with validation. Mr. Ramsay feels that it is his wife’s duty to preserve his ego and Mrs. Ramsay feels obligated to do so. Each of them abets the stereotypical, socially predetermined male and female outlines.
Mr. Ramsay also looks towards Lily, a guest in his summerhouse, for confirmation. Lily thinks, “ […] But he’ll be down on me in a moment, demanding- something she felt she could not give him […] That man, she thought, her anger rising in her, never gave; that man took. She, on the other hand, would be forced to give. Mrs.
Ramsay had given […]” (149). Mr. Ramsay’s very presence requires recognition. Lily does not want to give because she knows that she will never receive. She resists society’s idea of femininity because it is not part of her; Lily recognizes that although she is a
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woman, she is first and foremost an individual. Although it is a social sin, Lily places her own, personal wellbeing before Mr. Ramsay’s. At the same time, she outwardly yields to Mr. Ramsay’s power as a man because “Mrs. Ramsay had given” in to male priorities; the women before her had always championed their roles. The pressure of society that exists within Mr. Ramsay forces Lily to externally obey a set of prearranged, impersonal laws.
Fundamentally, the feminist movement encouraged Woolf to argue that human beings are complex and idiosyncratic; no one is definite and exact. Men will never be the ideal “man” just as women will never be the ideal “woman”; instead, men and women will always be simply human.
In the end, Virginia Woolf allowed the world around her to pervade her writing. Through her, the reader knows both World War I and feminism. She does not place the world before him as perfect and common. Alternatively, she shows the confusion of modernity in the minds of her characters. With characters heavily influenced by the war and feminism, the reader is able to exist in a specific period of time; to see the world as Virginia Woolf did.
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