A sacrificial connection: The struggle to communicate in Woolf

Virginia Woolf brought to novels something that no one else attempted - she wrote about and experimented in her own novels with the inadequacy of dialogue to illuminate a character and further a story. Woolf was interested in memory - a personal memory and a collective memory that pre-exists in a group of people. In the first chapter I compared Woolf to Jane Austen, who relied heavily on dialogue. Woolf wrote an essay entitled "JANE AUSTEN" in which she praised Austen for her ability to turn a trivial moment into something beautiful - an ability Woolf shared. But Woolf's critique of Austen was that her reliance on dialogue showed an almost juvenile attempt to approach the complexities of human nature. These complexities are what Woolf tackled in her reliance on memory instead of dialogue. I chose two novels, MRS. DALLOWAY and TO THE LIGHTHOUSE as examples of Woolf's use of memory as a collective resource. The second chapter is devoted to Mrs. Dalloway and Mrs. Ramsay. These two middle-aged heroines are the women who connect all of the characters. This ability is what gives life to the other characters and to themselves - inducts them into the circle of life. But this ability brings death to them also. The third chapter centers around Lily and Septimus who are afraid to participate in this cycle. Septimus has almost no memory and Lily is afraid to draw on hers to complete her painting. Both characters must learn to participate, and it is with the help of Mrs. Dalloway and Mrs. Ramsay that they finally take action.