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English 179: Modernism By: Kiranjit Gill, :star: Key, Both Woolf and…

- - - - "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain." ("The Burial of the Dead").
        
        Spring is normally associated with new beginnings and happiness, but here the arrival of spring is "cruellest" because the "land" (or the world) is in such bad condition ("dead" and full of "dead roots)." One way to interpret this is that returning to normal life after experiencing the horrors of war is extremely difficult.
      - "At the violet hour, when the eyes and back / Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits / Like a taxi throbbing waiting..." ("The Fire Sermon")
        
        This quote describes people at the end of the work day ("at the violent hour"). Workers are characterized as machine-like through referring to them by their separate body parts ("eyes" and "back") (as if they are nothing more than useful pieces at work). This portrayal of the dehumanization of workers could be a comment on the decay of society's values.
  - - - H.D. wrote this collection while living in London during the Blitz. So, it is possible that the narrative of the first poem of relentless disaster that cannot be prevented is a a unique response to what she endured during WWII (Line 31). In other words, this perspective could be a reaction that is only made possible by living through war.
  - - - Yeats wrote this poem in response to the multiple political upheavals of his time and after WWI. So, the poem could be understood as new, negative perspective on the state of the world that may only have been possible after witnessing so many disasters (both global and personal) during his life.
- - - - “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom...I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.” (pg. 28).
        
        The boy has such strong emotion for Mangan's sister that "her name" is frequently on his mind, she (through "her words and gestures") has the ability to affect him as if he were an instrument ("like a harp"), and she moves him to tears (pg. 28). And, he has "confused adoration" for her (which includes his confusion about why "her name" is frequently on his mind and why his eyes become "full of tears") (pg. 28). This confusion could be a result of his inexperience with love; what he is feeling could be just so new to him that he is having trouble sorting through all of it.
  - - - The children are excited that Pip seemed to have found a "nemeral" (an emerald (pg. 9, Ch. IV). The children mispronounce "emerald," and the text does not include a clarification of this (pg. 9, Ch. IV). Leaving only the mispronounced version of the word helps to keep this part of the narrative in the child's unique perspective.
    - - Beryl judges Alice's appearance (such as the fact that "she wore gloves") and makes fun of the way she says the word "parasol" (pg. 16-17, Ch. VIII). It is evident that she looks down on Alice, who is the servant-girl, and thinks that Alice is doing a bad job of looking sophisticated. Because of her higher social status, Beryl ridicules Alice and refuses to see her as both a servant girl and someone who dresses up nicely.
- - - - By mixing the account of other events of the past 10 years--such as Prue's wedding, the deteriorating state of the house, and the occurrence World War I--with the news of death, this section highlights the brutal nature of time's passage--where death is simply one topic in the conversation of life.
    - - Mrs. Ramsay associates herself with "the long steady stroke" of light coming from the lighthouse (Ch. XI, "The Window").
        
        "[James] was so pleased that he was not going to let anybody share a grain of his pleasure. His father had praised him."
        (Ch. XII, "The Lighthouse").
        
        The visit to the lighthouse brings characters together. James finally receives his father's praise--or approval. This lessens some of the tension he normally has with his father and brings them closer. Also, Lily, through thinking about Mr. Ramsay and his kids' arrival at the lighthouse, is put at ease and no longer worries about how she left things with Mr. Ramsay earlier. In these ways, the lighthouse continues Mrs. Ramsay's work of unifiying characters and reducing tensions between them.
        
        "The place [the house] was gone to rack and ruin. Only the Lighthouse beam entered the rooms for a moment, sent its sudden stare over bed and wall in the darkness of winter..." (Ch IX, "Time Passes").
        
        After her death, the lighthouse and its light "beam" remain (Ch IX, "Time Passes"). It continues to overlook the house. So, in this sense, Mrs. Ramsay's dependable presence lives on.
        
        "[Lily] was relieved. Whatever she had wanted to give [Mr. Ramsay], when he left her that morning, she had given him at last." (Ch. XIII, "The Lighthouse).
    - - “To her son these words conveyed an extraordinary joy...Since he belonged, even at the age of six, to that great clan which cannot keep this feeling separate from that, but must let future prospects, with their joys and sorrows, cloud what is actually at hand, since to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystallise and transfix the moment upon which its gloom or radiance rests, James Ramsay...endowed the picture of a refrigerator... with heavenly bliss. It was fringed with joy. The wheelbarrow, the lawnmower, the sound of poplar trees, leaves whitening before rain, rooks cawing, brooms knocking, dresses rustling—all these were so coloured and distinguished in his mind...” (Ch I, "The Window").
        
        The prospect of visiting the lighthouse fills James with such "joy" that it transfers to unrelated things like the pictures he is cutting out (Ch I, "The Window"). Here, James' intense emotion could be viewed as a demonstration of children's distinct emotional capacities.
      - "Had there been an axe handy, or a poker, any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father’s breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it." (Ch. I, "The Window)
        
        James' earlier happiness is quickly and intensely replaced with hatred and anger directed towards his father; this is evidenced by his violent wish to kill his father for simply opposing the trip to the lighthouse. Children sometimes quickly go from one extreme emotion to the next or overreact to situations, and this is shown here through this quote.
  - - - The deaths were so abrupt and individually unexpected that a sense of unreality is being associated with the Blitz's devastating impact on Londoners. Since no one knows if they will live to see the next day every night during the Blitz, people are constantly being brought close to death or the expectation of death; this may make them feel as if they are just on the other side of the line between life and death. And, as in the quote, the dead Londoners are near the line between life and death as well; had things gone differently one night, they could have been among the living. So, this quote ultimately highlights the precarious position Londoners were left in, where the conditions of life and death were brought into disturbingly close proximity.
    - - World War II, and especially the Blitz, impacted how Londoners felt about different times of day and different times of year; they likely would not have even imagined associating certain times with negativity before the war.
  - - - Here, through the falling snow, "the living and the dead" are unified, which (by likening the two) furthers the the other mentioned quote's point that the distinct conditions of life and death are being questioned (pg. 234).
    - - The distinction between "the living" and "the dead" is becoming blurred (pg. 234). Gabriel seems to sense the presence of "other forms" ("the dead") in the "solid world" (the world of living) (pg. 234). By saying it is "dissolving and dwindling" (not solid), there is a suggestion that the world of the living is becoming destabilized, not unlike "the flickering" (as in unstable) "existence" of "the dead" (pg. 234). It may be the case that "the living" are becoming like "the dead" by not experiencing life fully (like Gabriel's realization that he never truly felt love like the love his wife had with someone else) (pg. 234).
- - - - Here, Alice talks about her exchanges with Beryl; Beryl, who is of a higher social standing, seems to feel a sense of superiority over Alice since "she made her feel low" and "seems to have expected" that Alice is so foolish that she will make mistakes. (pg. 29, Ch. X).
    - - Kezia is first very distressed by the death of the duck (she "sobbed" and demanded that he put "'Head back!'") (pg. 27, Ch. IX). However, soon after, she is easily distracted by something as simple as realizing that Pat "wore...earrings." (pg. 27, Ch. IX). This quote demonstrates the quick turn in emotion that can occur at a young age.
  - - - From the short story, readers know that Rosabel does not enjoy her everyday life. However, when she daydreams before bed and when she sleeps, she escapes her reality and "smile[s]." (pg. 4).
    - - In this quote, the wealthy girl makes Rosabel try on a hat before she decides to purchase it; this reduces Rosabel to the role of a mere mannequin (pg. 2). Then, she compliments her, yet this does not seem like an genuine compliment because her goal in having Rosabel try on the hat is to figure out how the hat looks, not how the hat looks on Rosabel (pg. 2). And, she first reacts that the hat is "adorable" and "[she] must have that," which shows her focus on the hat over Rosabel (pg. 2). Overall, the wealthy girl is ignorant of the belittling effect her request and words to Rosabel have. And, Rosabel, who belongs to a lower social class, is angry about this exchange (since "she longed to throw [the hat] in the girl's face..."), but instead she stays silent (since she "bent over the hat, flushing") (pg. 3). So, it could be that her lower status (and the risk of losing her job) makes it harder for her to speak up against the insensitive actions of the wealthy.
  - - - In this scene, Laura is confronted with the dead body of someone of a lower social class and the mourning for them (pg.12). Her insistence on calling the dead person "happy" and "sleeping," both false descriptors of reality, shows her discomfort with being in this situation (pg. 12). To make herself feel better about having her party, Laura pretends like the person is not dead. So, this is an instance where the wealthy lie to themselves to avoid the truth about their inconsideration of what is happening to others near them.
- - - - “Daniel Gluck looks from the death to the life, then back to the death again. The world’s sadness. Definitely still in the world. He looks down at his leaf coat, still green. He holds out a forearm, still miraculous, young. It will not last, the dream. He takes hold of one leaf at the corner of his coat. He holds it hard. He will take it back with him if he can. Proof of where he’s been.” (pg. 17, Ch.1, Part 1)
  - - - Woolf argues that a person's desire for "sympathy" for their "suffering" will not be fulfilled by others because they will make it about their own "suffering" (pg. 35). In order to feel something akin to "sympathy," she believes that one must lie still while ill and observe nature (pg. 38). Nature's "indifference" will provide some consolation (pg. 38).
    - - Woolf suggests that people, when ill, could become so still that they become as inanimate as small pieces of nature ("sticks" and "dead leaves") (pg. 37). Such lifelessness in behavior might bring one closer to death. So, when ill, people can almost enter into a kind of living death.
- - - - Josephine and Constantia are never truly able to escape their late father's torment. Even when he is dead, they remain fearful and expect to find him "ready to spring" as soon as they let their guard down; this makes it difficult for them to start the process of trying to recover from what he put them through (pg. 7).
  - - - Eveline, at the moment of leaving her abusive home situation (where she is "in the danger of her father's violence"), freezes (pg. 35, 39). She cannot, for some reason, leave.