Stylistic Features
Virginia Woolf was one of the first writers of the modernist period to write with the stylistic features of Interior Monologue and Stream of Consciousness. Because of her connection in helping to develop and refine these styles, readers and literary critics a like can pull these styles from most of her works throughout her life as a writer.
*It should be noted that quite a large number of her works can fit into both stylistic features, even those listed specifically under one heading.
Interior Monologue
Woolf commonly employs the techniques of interior monologue to distinguish between the public exterior and the private interior. Her use of this technique takes the reader from the expected view of outside the main character into their mind. She allows the reader to witness the innermost thoughts of her characters and to pull the story and character development from them. This style differs from any that had been seen before because all other writers focus their stories on the growth of characters from interpersonal interaction and external motivation. Woolf specifically wrote in the style of Indirect Interior Monologue, which means that she never let the characters thoughts flow without specific organization and control (Filimon 26).
One of Woolf's most well known examples of Interior Monologue is her novel "Mrs. Dalloway":
“So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their sakes? Food was pleasant; the sun hot; and this killing oneself, how does one set about it, with a table knife, uglily, with floods of blood, - by sucking a gaspipe? He was too weak; he could scarcely raise his hand. Besides, now that he was quite alone, condemned, deserted, as those who are about to die are alone, there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know.”
Stream of Consciousness
As one of the pioneers of this literary technique, Woolf can be seen as one of the best examples of Stream of Consciousness writing. Stream of Consciousness is seen as a subset of the Interior Monologue, as it is seen from inside the characters mind, but it builds on the main premise. This style of writing is most known for it's flow of thoughts and images that do not seem to have any particular coherence to them (Sang 175). Stream of Consciousness works like the human thought process, the words and images move in a way that mimics this process and allows the writer to manipulate not only the conscious thought of their readers, but also the unconscious thought. This style of writing focuses more on the emotional and psychological processes within the character than the interaction with the physical world or with other characters (Snaith 133-48).
One of Woolf's most well known examples of Stream of Consciousness is her novel "To The Lighthouse":
"Disappearing as stealthily as stags from the dinner-table directly the meal was over, the eight sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay sought their bedrooms, their fastness in a house where there was no other privacy to debate anything, everything; Tansley's tie; the passing of the Reform Bill; sea birds and butterflies; people; while the sun poured into those attics, which a plank alone separated from each other so that every footstep could be plainly heard and the Swiss girl sobbing for her father who was dying of cancer in a valley of the Grisons, and lit up bats, flannels, straw hats, ink-pots, paint-pots, beetles, and the skulls of small birds, while it drew from the long frilled strips of seaweed pinned to the wall a smell of salt and weeds, which was in the towels too, gritty with sand from bathing."
*It should be noted that quite a large number of her works can fit into both stylistic features, even those listed specifically under one heading.
Interior Monologue
Woolf commonly employs the techniques of interior monologue to distinguish between the public exterior and the private interior. Her use of this technique takes the reader from the expected view of outside the main character into their mind. She allows the reader to witness the innermost thoughts of her characters and to pull the story and character development from them. This style differs from any that had been seen before because all other writers focus their stories on the growth of characters from interpersonal interaction and external motivation. Woolf specifically wrote in the style of Indirect Interior Monologue, which means that she never let the characters thoughts flow without specific organization and control (Filimon 26).
One of Woolf's most well known examples of Interior Monologue is her novel "Mrs. Dalloway":
“So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their sakes? Food was pleasant; the sun hot; and this killing oneself, how does one set about it, with a table knife, uglily, with floods of blood, - by sucking a gaspipe? He was too weak; he could scarcely raise his hand. Besides, now that he was quite alone, condemned, deserted, as those who are about to die are alone, there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know.”
Stream of Consciousness
As one of the pioneers of this literary technique, Woolf can be seen as one of the best examples of Stream of Consciousness writing. Stream of Consciousness is seen as a subset of the Interior Monologue, as it is seen from inside the characters mind, but it builds on the main premise. This style of writing is most known for it's flow of thoughts and images that do not seem to have any particular coherence to them (Sang 175). Stream of Consciousness works like the human thought process, the words and images move in a way that mimics this process and allows the writer to manipulate not only the conscious thought of their readers, but also the unconscious thought. This style of writing focuses more on the emotional and psychological processes within the character than the interaction with the physical world or with other characters (Snaith 133-48).
One of Woolf's most well known examples of Stream of Consciousness is her novel "To The Lighthouse":
"Disappearing as stealthily as stags from the dinner-table directly the meal was over, the eight sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay sought their bedrooms, their fastness in a house where there was no other privacy to debate anything, everything; Tansley's tie; the passing of the Reform Bill; sea birds and butterflies; people; while the sun poured into those attics, which a plank alone separated from each other so that every footstep could be plainly heard and the Swiss girl sobbing for her father who was dying of cancer in a valley of the Grisons, and lit up bats, flannels, straw hats, ink-pots, paint-pots, beetles, and the skulls of small birds, while it drew from the long frilled strips of seaweed pinned to the wall a smell of salt and weeds, which was in the towels too, gritty with sand from bathing."