Virginia Woolf

How fitting that we end our class and our talk of the moderns with the lady writer, Virginia Woolf(The only lady modern we looked at by the way) First off, let me say that this is my subjective opinion of Mrs. Woolf. I am pretty sure she would like that. I mean it was her who stressed this idea of subjectivity. Another idea she wanted to express was writers freedom. She felt that no true writer is really free to write with their emotions. This means a writer on any particular day can have any particular mood. Thus, making each work take on a life of its own everyday. The frustrating part for a writer though is that they have to stay in the same emotional state in order to write an acceptable piece of art. If not she said that it will not be acceptable to the market. Even though I think she would like to write without any boundaries, I will have to say that she is not a fool because she know that publishers would not pick it up.
She did however did a good job at selling her subjective point across to me in “A Reflection.“ In this first person narrative she describes a women that sees another women through a looking glass. As she is looking through this glass she starts to describe how wonderful this person’s life seem to be and how pleasing her room is for her eyes. But then she goes from a pleasant praising description of her to the more disappointing points of her life. Now look how she describes her room.

Under the Stress of thinking about Isabella, her room became more shadowy and symbolic; the corners seemed darker, the legs of chairs and tables more spindly and hieroglyphic.
(from a Reflection)

This is a drastic change in tone here for the narrator. It is quite a powerful tool that she uses and has to make you wonder about how you make first impressions about someone. We can go from calling someone a homeless, uneducated, thief to dubbing them the next multi-millionaire just by the way a person dresses, talks or just how the sun hits them at a particular moment. I mean this poem really makes you think how many wrong assumptions you have had about someone without finding out the truth? Even more to think about is how many people have the wrong impression about you? In today’s world where image is so very important, I find this subject a topic that will stay with us until death……………..Many kudos for bringing that to my attention Mrs. Woolf. Thanx