- Title
- Virginia Woolf and a reverence for time
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- Identifier
- honSP2017Touhey
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- Subjects
- ["Literature."]
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- Format
- ["application/pdf"]
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- Language
- ["English"]
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- Collection Name
- ["Towson University Honors Theses"]
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Virginia Woolf and a reverence for time
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Virginia Woolf and a Reverence for Time
Virginia Woolf challenged the validity of the perception of time as a concept in that it
exists exclusively as a ruthless and uncontrollable force that robs characters of then' agency,
forcing them to fall victim to an ancient and inescapable fate. While this perception of time
supports the linear narrative structure that was first exalted by Greek philosophers, it only
accounts for the acceleration of time through space. Woolf details the anxieties that accompany
the subscription to these beliefs and details the potentially all-encompassing gloom that
permeates a character’s life when they come to understand time only as a road towards
oblivion. Woolfs work revolves around the uniquely human concepts that make up the bones of
the nonlinear system of narrative— memory, and perception. Memory, or the re-arrangement of
time, and perception, or the re-arrangement of space, cannot be separated from human life.
Woolf demonstrates that if a narrative can follow a nonlinear structure, the function of time
could also accommodate more than just the relationship between time and space. While the
effects of memory, perspective, space, and time have always been felt, Woolf draws a clear
connection between the terms. Woolf validates the intrinsic role that memory and perceptive
play in the human experience of time through her works Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, and To
The Lighthouse.
By following the traditional narrative structure of a bildungsroman while shielding the
true essence of the “hero” from the reader, Jacob ’s Room highlights the relationship between
perspective and time. The absence of Jacob’s interiority is highlighted by the easily recognizable
structure of the bildungsroman. Woolf gives readers multiple perspectives of Jacob, emphasizing
the subjectivity of the experience of time and space as she makes it clear that, while the images
of Jacob are inconsistent and partially obscured, they are not inaccurate. Jacob's Room cannot be
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