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“An Analysis of Stream of consciousness Technique in ‘To the Lighthouse’ ”
Name: Dodiya Meghana j.
Semester: - 3
Roll no: - 11
Year: - 2016-17
Paper No: - 09
Paper Name: - The Modernist Literature
Topic: - “An Analysis of Stream of consciousness Technique in ‘To the Lighthouse’ ”
Email ID:- mdodiya26@gmail.com
Submitted to: - Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Introduction
Virginia Woolf was a popular British author born on January 25, 1882 and died on March 28, 1941. She is considered to be one of the primary figures of both Modernism and Feminism in the twentieth century. Woolf is considered one of the most psychological of all the Modernists; Many of her later novels take place entirely within her characters' heads, focusing solely on the literary technique, stream of consciousness.
Virginia Woolf, one of the prominent representatives of modernist novelist in England, has contributed significantly to the development of modern novel in both theory and practice. She abandoned traditional fictional devices and formulated her own distinctive techniques. The novels of Woolf tend to be less concerned with outward reality than with the inner life.
What is stream of conciousness:
• Stream of Consciousness is a literary technique which was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.
• ‘Stream of consciousness’ is characterized by a flow of thoughts and images, which may not always appear to have a coherent structure or cohesion. The plot line may weave in and out of time and place, carrying the reader through the life span of a character or further along a timeline to incorporate the lives (and thoughts) of characters from other time periods.
‘Interior Monologue’:
#mental process
#Broken logic
#Broken into grammer
#coherence
• The related phrase ‘Interior Monologue’ is used to describe in inner movement of Consciousness in a character’s mind. A stylized way of thinking out loud.Unlike stream-of-consciousness, an interior monologue can be integrated into a third-person narrative. The points of view of character’s thoughts are woven into authorial description, using their own language. This is the essential difference between interior monologue and straight narrative :
• Two types of interior monologues:
. Indirect Interior Monologue:
-omnicient author present unspoken material.
-concioussness of character with commentary description.
# Direct Interior Monologue::
-Eighter completely or largely excluded.
#Exact process presentation of stream of conciousness:
-sense
-perception
-mental process
- feelings and some aspect of thoght itself non-verbal
# Virginia Woolf and To The Lighthouse
When we mention Virginia Woolf’s ‘To The Lighthouse’, it’s very natural to talk about her stream of consciousness technique. In this novel, the structure of external objective events is demised in scope and scale, or almost e completely dissolved. It is composed of the continual activity of characters’ consciousness and shower of impressions. External events occupy little space in the novel the writer as an omniscient narrator has almost completely vanished and almost everything stated appears by the way of reflection in the consciousness of the dramatic characters and the novel does not progress on “what – happens – next” basis, but rather moves forward through a series of scenes arranged according to a sequence of selected moments of consciousness and the techniques to which Mrs. Woolf mainly employs are interior and free association.
In literature, stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. The term was coined was initially coined by a psychologist William James in his research “The Principles of Psychology”. The use of the stream of consciousness technique is a defining literary aspect of “To The Lighthouse”, along with the use of flashbacks-recollections, as well as the changing perspective and narrative voice from character to character. Then we can say that, this technique is too tough to know at first reading of the novel.”
This Technique of Stream of Consciousness, through they say about the highlight ideas, feelings and thoughts of people intentionally, complication of human relationship, and also class conflicts and all this things can be found. In this novel this technique to show the inner chaos of the common people by this novel, her narrative technique can be categorized as complex one, which indicates several features as enlisted below, complexities of human relationships and Scuffle of women in the society.
#Rejection of Traditional Technique:
Modernist writer start the new style of writing and reject the old style of writing and also we can say that the writer of the novel ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf’s start the new way of writing. Mrs. Woolf’s Concern in writing novels was not merely to narrate a story as the older novelists did, but to discover and record life as the people feel who live it. Hence it is she rejected the conventional technique of narration and adopted a new technique more suited to her purposes.
It is for this reason that in ‘To The Lighthouse’ she not told a story, in the sense of a Series of events, and has Concentrated on a small number of Characters, whose nature and feelings are represented to us largely through their interior monologues. In order to capture the inner reality, the truth about life, she has tried to represent the moving current of life and the individual’s Consciousness of the fleeting movement, and secondly, also to select from this current and organize it so that the novel may penetrate beneath the surface reality and may give to the reader a sense of understanding and completeness. The interior monologues of the different characters are, no doubt, given, but the novelist, the central intelligence, is also constantly busy, organizing the material and illuminating it by frequent Comments.
Mrs. Woolf’s technique of narration is quite different from that of the “Stream of Consciousness” novelists. Writers, James Hefley. “Far from being a stream of Consciousness novel, ’To the Lighthouse’ is theobjective account of a central intelligence thatapproaches and assumes the characters. Consciousness, but does not become completely identified with any one Consciousness.
This central intelligence is thus free to Comment upon the whole in what seems a completely impersonal manner, as this short passage shows:‘It is a triumph’ said Mr. Bankes, laying his knife down for a moment. He had eaten attentively. It was rich; It was tender. It was perfectly cooked. How did she manage these things in the depths of the country? He asked her. She was a wonderful woman. All his love, all his reverence, had returned; And she knew it.” “It is a French recipe of my grandmother’s said Mrs. Ramsay, Speaking with a ring of great pleasure in her voice. Of course it was French. What passes for cookery in England is an abominations; It is pulling cabbages in water. It is roasting meat until it is like leather. It is cutting off the delicious skins ofvegetables. ’In which’, said Mr. Bankes, “All the virtue of vegetables is contained.” Here the central intelligence is reporting a part of the dinner Conversation.
‘To the Lighthouse’ may not have a logical unity, a logical sequence of Cause and effect, it is have a unity of a higher and stronger kind i.e. emotional unity. Jean Guiget has considered the point in detail, and we may be excused for quoting from him at
length;
“Lily Briscoe, painting on the lawn, fromtime to time costs a glance towards the bay to watchthe boat on which Mr. Ramsay, James and Cam aresailing. But this link is purely eternal; The real unity ofthe sections lies in the Coincidence of Project andthought me the Completion of Lily’s Canvas, thefulfillment of James’ plan. It is not so very importantthat Lily sees the sails fall and Flap; What common istheir common immobility: “Life stands still here, and“The boat made no motion at all.”
Ø Third Person Narration
The Third person narration is a very Common novel device Virginia Woolf is, however, very careful to mock her direction of the narrative as little noticed as possible. Her use of direct speech for the interior monologues of her characters makes it easy for her to work into these mental soliloquies a number of statements and ideas which are outside the range of knowledge of character she is dealing with. When, for example, at the beginning, she describes the feelings of James about his father, she moves from what the child is thinking to what Mrs.Ramsay habitually did and said, through impersonal sentences:
“Had there been an ate handy, apoker, or any weapon that would have gashed a holein his father’s breast and killed him, there and thenJames would have seized it. Such were the extremesof emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in his children’sbreasts by his mere presence: Standing: disillusioning his son and casting ridicule upon his wife, who was tenthousand times better in every way than he was(James thought), but also with some secret conceit athis own accuracy of judgment. What he said was true.It was always true. He was incapable of untruth; Nevertampered with a fact; Never altered a disagreeableword to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortalbeing, least of all of his own children, who sprung fromhis loins, should be aware from childhood that life is difficult…….”
The statements in the midge here clearly develop from James is thinking, but we seem to move away from the child himself into a general comment, which, in turn, merges into the description of Mr. Ramsay’s attitude towards life. Yet we hardly notice the shift because of the uniformity of style; The two currents of thoughts seem to flow together. Just as this third person narration makes it possible for Virginia Woolf to move smoothly from one character to another, so in the novel as a whole it is a unifying Principle.
Conclusion:-
Thus, The lighthouse Stream of consciousness is used as unifying factor in the novel. The action moves on normal Constructional lines from scene to scene andfrom the mind of one person to that of another. There is very little Complication. These shifts from one consciousness to another and these movements aremade further easy by allowing every incident to take place in a close knit homogenous world. ’To The Lighthouse’ is a masterpiece of Construction. It is anorganic whole. It is a great work of art which fully deserves the Praises that have been lavished on it.
Woolf has cleverly avoided the drawbacks of the stream of Consciousness novel, and given form and coherence to her material. She is not haphazard and incoherent like the other “Stream of Consciousness” novelists. Indeed through her flexible style she fuses narrative and description of thought, imparts farm and unity, and conveys a sense of the amazing richness and Complexity of life.
Cited:
http://kishankubavat131416.blogspot.in/2015/10/an-analysis-of-stream-of-consciousness.html
http://avanidave031213.blogspot.in/2013/10/stream-of-consciousness-in-novel-to.html
To Evaluate My Assignment click here
“An Analysis of Stream of consciousness Technique in ‘To the Lighthouse’ ”
Name: Dodiya Meghana j.
Semester: - 3
Roll no: - 11
Year: - 2016-17
Paper No: - 09
Paper Name: - The Modernist Literature
Topic: - “An Analysis of Stream of consciousness Technique in ‘To the Lighthouse’ ”
Email ID:- mdodiya26@gmail.com
Submitted to: - Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Introduction
Virginia Woolf was a popular British author born on January 25, 1882 and died on March 28, 1941. She is considered to be one of the primary figures of both Modernism and Feminism in the twentieth century. Woolf is considered one of the most psychological of all the Modernists; Many of her later novels take place entirely within her characters' heads, focusing solely on the literary technique, stream of consciousness.
Virginia Woolf, one of the prominent representatives of modernist novelist in England, has contributed significantly to the development of modern novel in both theory and practice. She abandoned traditional fictional devices and formulated her own distinctive techniques. The novels of Woolf tend to be less concerned with outward reality than with the inner life.
What is stream of conciousness:
• Stream of Consciousness is a literary technique which was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.
• ‘Stream of consciousness’ is characterized by a flow of thoughts and images, which may not always appear to have a coherent structure or cohesion. The plot line may weave in and out of time and place, carrying the reader through the life span of a character or further along a timeline to incorporate the lives (and thoughts) of characters from other time periods.
‘Interior Monologue’:
#mental process
#Broken logic
#Broken into grammer
#coherence
• The related phrase ‘Interior Monologue’ is used to describe in inner movement of Consciousness in a character’s mind. A stylized way of thinking out loud.Unlike stream-of-consciousness, an interior monologue can be integrated into a third-person narrative. The points of view of character’s thoughts are woven into authorial description, using their own language. This is the essential difference between interior monologue and straight narrative :
• Two types of interior monologues:
. Indirect Interior Monologue:
-omnicient author present unspoken material.
-concioussness of character with commentary description.
# Direct Interior Monologue::
-Eighter completely or largely excluded.
#Exact process presentation of stream of conciousness:
-sense
-perception
-mental process
- feelings and some aspect of thoght itself non-verbal
# Virginia Woolf and To The Lighthouse
When we mention Virginia Woolf’s ‘To The Lighthouse’, it’s very natural to talk about her stream of consciousness technique. In this novel, the structure of external objective events is demised in scope and scale, or almost e completely dissolved. It is composed of the continual activity of characters’ consciousness and shower of impressions. External events occupy little space in the novel the writer as an omniscient narrator has almost completely vanished and almost everything stated appears by the way of reflection in the consciousness of the dramatic characters and the novel does not progress on “what – happens – next” basis, but rather moves forward through a series of scenes arranged according to a sequence of selected moments of consciousness and the techniques to which Mrs. Woolf mainly employs are interior and free association.
In literature, stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. The term was coined was initially coined by a psychologist William James in his research “The Principles of Psychology”. The use of the stream of consciousness technique is a defining literary aspect of “To The Lighthouse”, along with the use of flashbacks-recollections, as well as the changing perspective and narrative voice from character to character. Then we can say that, this technique is too tough to know at first reading of the novel.”
This Technique of Stream of Consciousness, through they say about the highlight ideas, feelings and thoughts of people intentionally, complication of human relationship, and also class conflicts and all this things can be found. In this novel this technique to show the inner chaos of the common people by this novel, her narrative technique can be categorized as complex one, which indicates several features as enlisted below, complexities of human relationships and Scuffle of women in the society.
#Rejection of Traditional Technique:
Modernist writer start the new style of writing and reject the old style of writing and also we can say that the writer of the novel ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf’s start the new way of writing. Mrs. Woolf’s Concern in writing novels was not merely to narrate a story as the older novelists did, but to discover and record life as the people feel who live it. Hence it is she rejected the conventional technique of narration and adopted a new technique more suited to her purposes.
It is for this reason that in ‘To The Lighthouse’ she not told a story, in the sense of a Series of events, and has Concentrated on a small number of Characters, whose nature and feelings are represented to us largely through their interior monologues. In order to capture the inner reality, the truth about life, she has tried to represent the moving current of life and the individual’s Consciousness of the fleeting movement, and secondly, also to select from this current and organize it so that the novel may penetrate beneath the surface reality and may give to the reader a sense of understanding and completeness. The interior monologues of the different characters are, no doubt, given, but the novelist, the central intelligence, is also constantly busy, organizing the material and illuminating it by frequent Comments.
Mrs. Woolf’s technique of narration is quite different from that of the “Stream of Consciousness” novelists. Writers, James Hefley. “Far from being a stream of Consciousness novel, ’To the Lighthouse’ is theobjective account of a central intelligence thatapproaches and assumes the characters. Consciousness, but does not become completely identified with any one Consciousness.
This central intelligence is thus free to Comment upon the whole in what seems a completely impersonal manner, as this short passage shows:‘It is a triumph’ said Mr. Bankes, laying his knife down for a moment. He had eaten attentively. It was rich; It was tender. It was perfectly cooked. How did she manage these things in the depths of the country? He asked her. She was a wonderful woman. All his love, all his reverence, had returned; And she knew it.” “It is a French recipe of my grandmother’s said Mrs. Ramsay, Speaking with a ring of great pleasure in her voice. Of course it was French. What passes for cookery in England is an abominations; It is pulling cabbages in water. It is roasting meat until it is like leather. It is cutting off the delicious skins ofvegetables. ’In which’, said Mr. Bankes, “All the virtue of vegetables is contained.” Here the central intelligence is reporting a part of the dinner Conversation.
‘To the Lighthouse’ may not have a logical unity, a logical sequence of Cause and effect, it is have a unity of a higher and stronger kind i.e. emotional unity. Jean Guiget has considered the point in detail, and we may be excused for quoting from him at
length;
“Lily Briscoe, painting on the lawn, fromtime to time costs a glance towards the bay to watchthe boat on which Mr. Ramsay, James and Cam aresailing. But this link is purely eternal; The real unity ofthe sections lies in the Coincidence of Project andthought me the Completion of Lily’s Canvas, thefulfillment of James’ plan. It is not so very importantthat Lily sees the sails fall and Flap; What common istheir common immobility: “Life stands still here, and“The boat made no motion at all.”
Ø Third Person Narration
The Third person narration is a very Common novel device Virginia Woolf is, however, very careful to mock her direction of the narrative as little noticed as possible. Her use of direct speech for the interior monologues of her characters makes it easy for her to work into these mental soliloquies a number of statements and ideas which are outside the range of knowledge of character she is dealing with. When, for example, at the beginning, she describes the feelings of James about his father, she moves from what the child is thinking to what Mrs.Ramsay habitually did and said, through impersonal sentences:
“Had there been an ate handy, apoker, or any weapon that would have gashed a holein his father’s breast and killed him, there and thenJames would have seized it. Such were the extremesof emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in his children’sbreasts by his mere presence: Standing: disillusioning his son and casting ridicule upon his wife, who was tenthousand times better in every way than he was(James thought), but also with some secret conceit athis own accuracy of judgment. What he said was true.It was always true. He was incapable of untruth; Nevertampered with a fact; Never altered a disagreeableword to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortalbeing, least of all of his own children, who sprung fromhis loins, should be aware from childhood that life is difficult…….”
The statements in the midge here clearly develop from James is thinking, but we seem to move away from the child himself into a general comment, which, in turn, merges into the description of Mr. Ramsay’s attitude towards life. Yet we hardly notice the shift because of the uniformity of style; The two currents of thoughts seem to flow together. Just as this third person narration makes it possible for Virginia Woolf to move smoothly from one character to another, so in the novel as a whole it is a unifying Principle.
Conclusion:-
Thus, The lighthouse Stream of consciousness is used as unifying factor in the novel. The action moves on normal Constructional lines from scene to scene andfrom the mind of one person to that of another. There is very little Complication. These shifts from one consciousness to another and these movements aremade further easy by allowing every incident to take place in a close knit homogenous world. ’To The Lighthouse’ is a masterpiece of Construction. It is anorganic whole. It is a great work of art which fully deserves the Praises that have been lavished on it.
Woolf has cleverly avoided the drawbacks of the stream of Consciousness novel, and given form and coherence to her material. She is not haphazard and incoherent like the other “Stream of Consciousness” novelists. Indeed through her flexible style she fuses narrative and description of thought, imparts farm and unity, and conveys a sense of the amazing richness and Complexity of life.
Cited:
http://kishankubavat131416.blogspot.in/2015/10/an-analysis-of-stream-of-consciousness.html
http://avanidave031213.blogspot.in/2013/10/stream-of-consciousness-in-novel-to.html
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