Virginia Woolf's Notions of Marriage in the Voyage Out, Mrs. Dalloway

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Virginia Woolf's Notions of Marriage in the Voyage Out, Mrs. Dalloway VIRGINIA WOOLF’S NOTIONS OF MARRIAGE IN THE VOYAGE OUT, MRS. DALLOWAY, AND TO THE LIGHTHOUSE ____________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University Dominguez Hills ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Humanities ____________ By Janice L. Keene Summer 2016 Copyright by JANICE LEE KEENE 2016 All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my husband, Paul Keene, who inspired me to pursue a Master’s degree and who supported me along the way. I also want to thank my mentor, Dr. Patricia Cherin, whose patience and adaptability has been invaluable to me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE COPYRIGHT ..................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. ...........................................................................................................1 II. THE VOYAGE OUT (1915): YOUTHFUL IGNORANCE AND THE PROFOUND IMPACT OF THE ENGAGEMENT ....................................................5 III. MRS. DALLOWAY (1925): MATURING MARRIAGES AND THE WISDOM OF PRIVACY ............................................................................................................18 IV. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (1927): PUBLIC FACES, PRIVATE THOUGHTS ...........34 V. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................51 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................55 iv ABSTRACT In The Voyage Out, Mrs. Dalloway, and To the Lighthouse, there are moments when Virginia Woolf suggests that death is preferable to marriage. However, there are enough exceptions to these grim notions that one must call into question the idea that Woolf is entirely opposed to marriage; there are also moments when she shows the reader the benefits of marriage. These contradictions reveal that Woolf’s outlook on marriage is nuanced and open to multiple interpretations. This thesis explores Woolf’s conflicting views on marriage as portrayed by several protagonists. Through the portrayal of the Dalloways, Woolf shows the benefits of respecting each other’s privacy in a marriage, for in order to thrive as a couple, one must also thrive as an individual. Ultimately, Woolf portrays marriage as neither a wholly positive or negative experience; instead, her characters demonstrate the ways in which marriage involves benefits and sacrifices for both parties involved. 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In 1901, eleven years before she married Leonard Woolf, Virginia Woolf wrote in a letter to Emma Vaughan, “I am going to found a colony where there shall be no marrying … no human element at all, except what comes through Art–nothing but ideal peace and endless meditation. This world of human beings grows too complicated” (Rosenfeld 18). Clearly, twenty year old Virginia Woolf believed humans to be an unfit species for marriage. Having experienced sexual abuse at the hands of her step brothers, it is perhaps no wonder that Virginia was skeptical about the idea of permanently settling down with a man or even having sexual intercourse with a man. Yet she eventually chose to marry Stephen Woolf, a man who gave her a marriage of equality, one in which they valued each other’s needs for privacy and freedom. In her first full-length novel, The Voyage Out, Woolf creates her first protagonist, Rachel Vinrace, who, much like herself, suffers from the effects of a patriarchal, Victorian culture which grossly limits her education and ability of self-expression and therefore, self-actualization. Many critics have written about the numerous ways in which Rachel’s character was based upon Woolf’s own experiences: both had a lack of formal education; both had highly educated, successful fathers; and both lost their mothers at a young age. Rachel is eleven when her mother dies and Woolf was thirteen. Surrounded by overeducated, sexist males and under-educated, unsympathetic females, Rachel appears doomed to a constricting marriage with Terence Hewet. Woolf’s ironically grim 2 suggestion that death is perhaps preferable to marriage is a fascinating idea worthy of further investigation. In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf further develops Richard and Clarissa Dalloway, whom she first introduces to readers in The Voyage Out. Clarissa’s marriage to shy and stiff Richard sometimes fills her with doubts and insecurities. Though she does not die like Rachel, by the end of the novel Clarissa finds herself accepting the inevitability of death without trepidation, all the while contemplating her friend Septimus’ suicide, whose death represents an act of anti-conformity in which he abandons his wife and his shell-shocked state. Similarly, in To the Lighthouse, Woolf presents readers with Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, neither of whom is ever given the luxury of a first name, symbolically suggestive of their interdependence as a couple. Mr. Ramsey’s selfish and callous ways are largely tolerated by his forgiving wife, but her challenges eventually come to an end when she dies suddenly one night. All of these descriptions of marriages affected by sudden and mysterious deaths beg the question: “Is Woolf suggesting that sometimes death is in fact preferable to marriage?” A myriad of critics have written at great length about Woolf’s feminist convictions while her madness and eventual suicide are the stuff of numerous scholarly journals and books. I have structured my analysis chronologically, tracing the evolution of Virginia Woolf’s handling of the marriage theme over time. Upon comparing The Voyage Out, Mrs. Dalloway, and To the Lighthouse, it is evident that while some expressions of marriage are relatively consistent, as conveyed indirectly by both single and married characters, other initial impressions of marriage seem to have evolved just as Woolf herself evolved from a single, young woman into a mature, married woman trying 3 to figure out the ideal balance between being married and being an independent individual. In Mark Hussey’s essay “Refractions of Desire,” he points out that in a letter Virginia Stephen stated that she would not “look upon marriage as a profession” (138). This letter ultimately convinced Leonard Woolf to resign from his colonial service and stay in England. Unlike many women of her age and status at the time, Virginia refused to be thought of as someone’s property or as being somehow incomplete until she is married. For many Victorian women, marriage appeared to be their only option. However, it does not appear that this was Virginia Woolf’s only option. By the time she met Leonard she was already embarking on a burgeoning writing career and was thriving socially in the midst of fellow intellectuals in the Bloomsbury Group. Furthermore, she clearly did not marry for money, having once described Leonard as a penniless Jew. Their marriage also involved professional collaboration as they founded the Hogarth Press together in 1917. Leonard gave his wife plenty of time and space to write freely and he fully supported her work. He also let her spend a great deal of time with other people, such as her eventual lover Vita Sackville-West. This permission to live, work, and think as she chose must have been liberating “exactly what Virginia Woolf wanted. Natania Rosenfeld describes the Woolf’s marriage as one “in which neither subjectivity drowns out the other and both partners thrived” due to “self-awareness on both sides” (3). It seems as though the Woolfs managed to figure out how to reconcile their desire to be married to each other with their desire to maintain their individual identities. Leonard cared for Virginia during her mental breakdowns and he published all 4 of her unfinished work after she committed suicide, a testament to his unfailing love for her and his belief and pride in her work. Although many critics conjecture that their marriage was mostly sexless, there is evidence of mutual love, respect, and freedom in their marriage. Ultimately, the treated novels largely showcase female protagonists like herself who are wrestling with both the positive and negative aspects of being married. 5 CHAPTER II THE VOYAGE OUT (1915): YOUTHFUL IGNORANCE AND THE PROFOUND IMPACT OF THE ENGAGEMENT Woolf began writing The Voyage Out in either 1906 or 1907. By this point she had been proposed to by three different men. By the time she finished her first novel she had been proposed to a total of four times, eventually marrying the fourth man who asked her in 1912. These life experiences surely played out in her writing and, as a result, Woolf re-wrote aspects of The Voyage Out a number of times, perhaps in part the result of her evolving understanding and opinions on marriage. In this, her first novel, we meet a largely naive and inexperienced young woman grappling with the idea of getting married. We also meet numerous older characters (some single and some married) who share their thoughts on marriage with Rachel Vinrace, and indirectly, the reader. Overall, the reader gets the impression that Woolf may have been rather ambivalent about marriage
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