“I'm Sick to Death of This Particular Self. I Want Another.”

BIBLIOTECA TECLA SALA February 21, 2019 Orlando Virginia Woolf “I'm sick to death of this particular self. I want another.” Contents: Introduction 1 A Not-So-Brief 2-4 Author Biography Themes, Symbols 5-6 and Motifs in Orlando Notes 7 Page 2 A Not-So-Brief Author Biography Who Was Virginia Woolf? Stephen (née Jackson), had been From the time of her birth until Born into a privileged English born in India and later served as a 1895, Woolf spent her summers household in 1882, author Virginia model for several Pre-Raphaelite in St. Ives, a beach town at the Woolf was raised by free-thinking painters. She was also a nurse very southwestern tip of England. parents. She began writing as a and wrote a book on the The Stephens’ summer home, young girl and published her first profession. Both of her parents Talland House, which is still novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915. had been married and widowed standing today, looks out at the She wrote modernist classics before marrying each dramatic Porthminster Bay and including Mrs. Dalloway, To the other. Woolf had three full has a view of the Godrevy Lighthouse and Orlando, as well as siblings — Thoby, Vanessa and Lighthouse, which inspired her pioneering feminist works, A Room Adrian — and four half- writing. In her later memoirs, of One's Own and Three Guineas. In siblings — Laura Makepeace Woolf recalled St. Ives with a her personal life, she suffered Stephen and George, Gerald and great fondness. In fact, she bouts of deep depression. She Stella Duckworth. The eight incorporated scenes from those committed suicide in 1941, at the children lived under one roof at early summers into her age of 59. 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington. modernist novel, To the Lighthouse (1927). Early Life Two of Woolf’s brothers had been educated at Cambridge, but As a young girl, Virginia was Born on January 25, 1882, Adeline all the girls were taught at home curious, light-hearted and playful. Virginia Stephen was raised in a and utilized the splendid confines She started a family newspaper, remarkable household. Her father, of the family’s lush Victorian the Hyde Park Gate News, to Sir Leslie Stephen, was a historian library. Moreover, Woolf’s document her family’s humorous and author, as well as one of the parents were extremely well anecdotes. However, early most prominent figures in the connected, both socially and traumas darkened her childhood, golden age of mountaineering. artistically. including being sexually abused by Woolf’s mother, Julia Prinsep her half-brothers George and Gerald Duckworth, which she Page 3 wrote about in her essays A intellectuals and artists including Virginia and Leonard published Sketch of the Past and 22 Hyde the art critic Clive Bell, who some of their writing, as well as Park Gate. In 1895, at the age of married Virginia's sister Vanessa, the work of Sigmund Freud, 13, she also had to cope with the novelist E.M. Forster, the Katharine Mansfield and T.S. the sudden death of her painter Duncan Grant, the Eliot. mother from rheumatic fever, biographer Lytton Strachey, which led to her first mental economist John Maynard A year after the end of World breakdown, and the loss of her Keynes and essayist Leonard War I, the Woolfs purchased half-sister Stella, who had Woolf, among others. The Monk's House, a cottage in the become the head of the group became famous in 1910 village of Rodmell in 1919, and household, two years later. for the Dreadnought Hoax, a that same year Virginia practical joke in which members published Night and Day, a novel While dealing with her personal of the group dressed up as a set in Edwardian England. Her losses, Woolf continued her delegation of Ethiopian royals, third novel Jacob's Room was studies in German, Greek and including Virginia disguised as a published by Hogarth in 1922. Latin at the Ladies’ Department bearded man, and successfully Based on her brother Thoby, it of King’s College London. Her persuaded the English Royal was considered a significant four years of study introduced Navy to show them their departure from her earlier her to a handful of radical warship, the HMS Dreadnought. novels with its modernist feminists at the helm of After the outrageous act, elements. That year, she met educational reforms. In 1904, Leonard Woolf and Virginia author, poet her father died from stomach became closer, and eventually and landscape gardener Vita cancer, which contributed to they were married on August Sackville-West, the wife of another emotional setback that 10, 1912. The two shared a English diplomat Harold led to Woolf being passionate love for one another Nicolson. Virginia and Vita began institutionalized for a brief for the rest of their lives. a friendship that developed into period. Virginia Woolf’s dance a romantic affair. Although their between literary expression and Literary Work affair eventually ended, personal desolation would they remained friends until Several years before marrying continue for the rest of her life. Virginia Woolf's death. Leonard, Virginia had begun In 1905, she began writing working on her first novel. The professionally as a contributor In 1925, Woolf received rave original title was Melymbrosia. for The Times Literary Supplement. reviews for Mrs. Dalloway, her After nine years and A year later, Woolf's 26-year-old fourth novel. The mesmerizing innumerable drafts, it was brother Thoby died from story interweaved interior released in 1915 as The Voyage typhoid fever after a family trip monologues and raised issues of Out. Woolf used the book to to Greece. feminism, mental illness and experiment with several literary homosexuality in post-World After their father's death, tools, including compelling and War I England. Mrs. Dalloway was Woolf's sister Vanessa and unusual narrative perspectives, adapted into a 1997 film, starring brother Adrian sold the family dream-states and free Vanessa Redgrave, and home in Hyde Park Gate, and association prose. Two years inspired The Hours, a 1998 novel purchased a house in the later, the Woolfs bought a used by Michael Cunningham and a Bloomsbury area of London. printing press and established 2002 film adaptation. Her 1928 During this period, Virginia Hogarth Press, their own novel, To the Lighthouse, was met several members of the publishing house operated out another critical success and Bloomsbury Group, a circle of of their home, Hogarth House. considered revolutionary for its Page 4 stream of consciousness intellectual, an innovative and 1940, the couple’s London home storytelling. influential writer and pioneering was destroyed during the Blitz, feminist. Her ability to balance the Germans bombing of the city. Woolf found a literary muse in dream-like scenes with deeply Sackville-West, the inspiration for tense plot lines earned her Unable to cope with her despair, Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando, which incredible respect from peers and Woolf pulled on her overcoat, follows an English nobleman who the public alike. Despite her filled its pockets with stones and mysteriously becomes a woman at outward success, she continued walked into the River Ouse on the age of 30 and lives on for over to regularly suffer from March 28, 1941. As she waded three centuries of English history. debilitating bouts of depression into the water, the stream took The novel was a breakthrough for and dramatic mood swings. her with it. The authorities found Woolf who received critical praise her body three weeks later. for the groundbreaking work, as Suicide and Legacy Leonard Woolf had her cremated well as a newfound level of and her remains were scattered at popularity. Woolf's husband, Leonard, always their home, Monk's House. by her side, was quite aware of In 1929, Woolf published A Room of any signs that pointed to his wife’s Although her popularity One's Own, a feminist essay based descent into depression. He saw, decreased after World War II, on lectures she had given at as she was working on what Woolf's work resonated again women's colleges, in which she would be her final with a new generation of readers examines women's role in manuscript, Between the during the feminist movement of literature. In the work, she sets Acts (published posthumously in the 1970s. Woolf remains one of forth the idea that “A woman must 1941),that she was sinking into the most influential authors of the have money and a room of her deepening despair. At the time, 21st century. own if she is to write fiction.” World War II was raging on and Woolf pushed narrative boundaries the couple decided if England was [https://www.biography.com/ in her next work, The invaded by Germany, they would people/virginia-woolf-9536773] Waves (1931), which she described commit suicide together, fearing as "a play-poem" written in the that Leonard, who was Jewish, voices of six different characters. would be in particular danger. In Woolf published The Years, the final novel published in her lifetime in 1937, about a family's history over the course of a generation. The following year she published Three Guineas, an essay which continued the feminist themes of A Room of One's Own and addressed fascism and war. Throughout her career, Woolf spoke regularly at colleges and universities, penned dramatic letters, wrote moving essays and self-published a long list of short stories. By her mid-forties, she had established herself as an Page 5 Themes, Symbols and Motifs in Orlando THEMES Gender differences Conforming to society Fact and Imagination The determination of difference As Orlando is introduced to each between the genders is a main new age and each new situation, One of the most important the- theme in Orlando.

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