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Virginia Woolf - Coggle Diagram
Virginia Woolf
Life:
- Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 in London.
- She didn't study at school; she was educated at home and she read her father's books.
- At thirteen she had a nervous breakdown after her mother died.
- His father died in 1903.
- The following year (in 1904) she moved to London with her friend Vanessa Bell and they became members of the Bloomsbury group.
- Virginia Woolf married Leonard Woolf and they founded the Hogarth Press. For instance (= per es.), they published authors such as Dostoevskij and Eliot (his work The Wasteland).
- In 1925 Mrs Dalloway was published.
- In the following years she wrote To the Lighthouse and Orlando.
- Virginia Woolf had a relationship with Vita Sackwille-West (a writer). Orlando is also about her.
- She suffered from depression and she took her life in 1941.
The Bloomsbury Group:
- The Bloomsbury Group was a small group of intellectuals who lived in the Bloomsbury area of London.
- It was founded in 1905.
- The group didn't discuss strictly literary themes. They discussed many different topics. They were interested in personal relations, sexuality, art and politics.
- The discussions were very free.
- They challenged (= sfidavano) the values of the time (= i valori dell'epoca).
- As a consequence, the authorities didn't accept the group.
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Plot:
- The story takes place in one day in June 1923 in London.
- The protagonist ist Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged woman (= una donna di mezza età).
- At 10 a.m. she goes out to buy flowers for a party.
- Two events (a car's noise and a plane's noise) cause different reactions on the characters.
- The other characters are:
1)Septimus,
2) Septimus' wife Lucrezia,
3) Septimus' doctor,
4) Clarissa Dalloway's ex-lover Peter Walsh (she then rejects him).
- Septimus has a mental disorder. He's a war veteran (he fought in World War I).
- He suddenly has a crisis and they call his doctor.
- At 6 p.m. he throws himself out of the window and dies (/he takes his life).
- Clarissa Dalloway hears about the suicide at the party and she's very moved/touched (= commossa) by it.
She feels empathy towards Septimus and she reflects on his extreme decision and on her compromises.
- Clarissa's husband has a very traditional vision of marriage and of the women's role and so Clarissa is frustrated.
She probably suffers from depression too.
Analysis:
Clarissa and Septimus never meet but are connected, they are doubles. They both see the beauty in life and they both suffer. The difference between the two is that Clarissa manages to survive (= riesce a sopravvivere), while Septimus doesn't.
Virginia Woolf uses the "tunneling technique" (a narrative technique). She analyses a character's past experiences and she connects it to moments in the story. She creates a tunnel between the character's past and its present.
The narration blends (= mescola):
- omniscent narrator,
- free indirect speech,
- interior monologue.
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The interior monologue:
- It represents the thoughts of the characters.
- It can be indirect or direct.
Direct interior monologue:
- There isn't a narrator.
- The character expresses his thoughts freely.
- The reader reads them as they were produced by the character's mind.
Indirect interior monologue:
- It's called "indirect" because there is a narrator who organizes the character's thoughts.
- He sometimes gives the reader explainations about these thoughts.
- So the indirect interior monologue is easier to comprehend.
- It sometimes follow a chronological or logical order.
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To the Lighthouse (1927)
Plot:
1)In "The Window", Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay stay at their summer house with their eight children and some guests. Their young son James wants to visit the lighthouse, but Mr. Ramsay says the weather will be bad. Mrs. Ramsay tries to keep the family happy and helps arrange a marriage between two friends. Lily Briscoe, a young painter, starts a painting of Mrs. Ramsay.
2)In "Time Passes," many years go by. Mrs. Ramsay dies, and two of her children also die. The summer house becomes old and empty. Finally, the family decides to return, and the house is repaired.
3)In "The Lighthouse," Mr. Ramsay, James, and Cam sail to the lighthouse. James feels angry at his father but also proud when his father praises him. Meanwhile, Lily finishes her painting and feels satisfied. In the end, both journeys (to the lighthouse and in Lily’s painting) are completed.
To the Lighthouse is divided into three parts:
1)"The Window,"
2)"Time Passes," and
3)"The Lighthouse."
The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.