Feminism in Literature/ Virginia Woolf

From 19th century France to 20th century England, and exactly on March 28th 1941, a fine spring day when Leonard Woolf went back into his house after some hours of working in the garden to find a letter from his wife written on her favorite blue paper. By the time he had finished reading the letter, his wife’s body was already sinking down the river near their home in East Sussex . Virginia was born in London on January 25th, 1882. Her father was a literary figure himself, a famous critic and biographer and well connected to the known writers of his time like Henry James and George Eliot. As a victim of child abuse and incest, made worse by the loss of her most beloved family members at a young age and being sensitive by nature, Virginia was fertile soil for bipolar illness – a mental condition characterized by periods of extreme and unpredictable mood states, alternating between mania and depression in variable durations. A strong correlation exists between bipolar disorders and creativity. Her own mental illness also gave her expertise to master the technique of internal dialogue, where the writer focuses on the characters rather than the plot. The events are usually displayed through deep personal feelings, experiences and psychoanalyses of the characters. Her characters alternate between thoughts and feelings and linking past memories with present moments, where those memories and moments play pivotal roles in her novels. She is famous for diffusing the boundaries between normal and abnormal, reflecting her disturbed mind that lost clear boundaries between reality and illusion. She explores both the conscious and subconscious states of her characters, focusing on the overlap between internal and external realities. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the destruction of her home in London and the fear of a German invasion to England , she started to get very strong migraine attacks and to suffer from insomnia. Her condition deteriorated until she finally took her own life, leaving a legacy of literary works including 9 novels among which are the most famous To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, a collection of short stories titled A Haunted House and several non fiction works. In 1929, Virginia published her long Essay, A Room of One's Own, based on a series of lectures she gave in Cambridge University . Considered as a milestone of feminist writings, the book examines whether female writers can be as equally great in writing as William Shakespeare. In this book she created a female character, Judith and called her Shakespeare' s sister who has a gift exactly as that of Shakespeare but was faced by only closed doors that were open only to men. She also examines the life of female writers like George Eliot, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. The title of the book comes from Woolf's conceptual belief that, a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. Finally, I leave you with the letter she wrote to her husband before she commits suicide, considered by critics as a literary work of its own and some even described it as the most wonderful love letter ever written. Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V. P.S the above post is an adaptation of the article I wrote on Virginia Woolf in The Art Review Magazine, issue 7 titled the mad issue with special focus on Madness vs Creativity. Check the website for further information www.theartreview. com