Diana - Fantomina

I found Fantomina quite intriguing, but the end was a terrific letdown. After the huge build up of how clever "Fantomina" considered herself, and the rising suspense of the plot twists, I expected a spectacular ending. My impressions are twofold:

1) Perhaps Mrs. Haywood couldn't think of an appropriate ending that would trump the former plot twists.
2) Mrs. Haywood's objective may have been to show that a woman without guidance who gets involved in intrigues of her own accord will come to a bad end.

This unhappy tale leaves unanswered questions: What happened to the baby? Did Fantomina spend the rest of her days in the Monastery? Did Beauplaisir have any regrets, or did he go on his merry way with no further thought of the woman who had tricked him?

Personally, I dislike stories with vague endings, so I tend to imagine the best about the situation. However, I think writing a happy ending would have nullified Mrs. Haywood's moral message to her generation.

Diana - Woolf Ch 5 & 6

I must say, I look askance at one of the premises in the last two chapters of “A Room of One’s Own.” As a woman who had no children of her own, Woolf’s idea that a woman’s life is worth nothing because she has raised children shows that she knows not of what she speaks. She refers more than once to the idea of motherhood impoverishing women’s feelings of contentment. “And if one asked her, … she would look vague and say that she could remember nothing. For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children sent to school and gone out into the world. Nothing remains of it all. All has vanished.” (p. 88)

Later, she says, “May I also remind you that most of the professions have been open to you for close on ten years now?” (p. 111) Her implication is that only employment gives women’s lives worth.

I realize Woolf was an ardent feminist, and as such, she and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, I believe I am more tenable to her argument than she would be to mine, were she still alive. For while I firmly believe that no one can raise children with as much love and attention as their own mother can, I also believe women’s lives consist of seasons. I fully advocate any woman attaining an education and entering the workforce when her season of child rearing is ending, if it’s possible for her to wait. Spending time with your own children cannot be postponed, for they grow up all too quickly, but education and jobs will always be available. However, I also understand that some women must work and some women want to work while their children are young, and I leave that decision to them.

It seems to me that Woolf advocated gaining self-worth through attaining an education and entering the workforce at all costs. She reinforces her selfish argument by saying, “…I am asking you to live in the presence of reality, an invigorating life, it would appear, whether one can impart it or not. … When I rummage in my own mind I find no noble sentiments about being companions and equals and influencing the world to higher ends. I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else. Do not dream of influencing other people, … Think of things in themselves.” (p. 109)

It is interesting to note that Woolf does here what many mothers do: she tries to coax her listeners (children) to fulfill her own unmet desires for accomplishment. Sadly, perhaps her lack of interest in “influencing the world to higher ends” contributed to her own lack of self-worth, as evidenced by her suicide.

Diana - Woolf Ch 3 & 4

One concept jumped out at me continually in chapters three and four: “empty shelf.”

Referring to male authors:
“…the shelf where the histories stand…” (p. 42 – note the plural usage of ‘histories’ written by men.)
“I looked at the works of Shakespeare on the shelf…” (p. 46)

Referring to books by or about women:
She speaks later of books about “the life of the average Elizabethan woman…, I thought, looking about the shelves for books that were not there…” (p. 45)
“But what I find deplorable, I continued, looking about the bookshelves again, is that nothing is known about women before the eighteenth century.” (p. 45)
“But for women, I thought, looking at the empty shelves, …” (p. 52)

I found it particularly interesting that Woolf speaks often about the shelf holding books authored by men and the shelves empty of books written by or about women. Through the subtle use of singular and plural, she emphasizes the overabundance of substantive books written by men and the dearth of any books authored by or about women.

As a side note, she states, “Currer Bell [aka Charlotte Brontë], George Eliot, George Sand, all the victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man.” (p. 50) Since all three women died before Woolf was born, how did she know their purpose in assuming a masculine penname?

Diana - Woolf Ch 2

The ease with which Woolf foreshadows her thoughts, thus lending readers the feeling that they are merely bringing to the forefront their own knowledge and thoughts, stunned me.

Early in chapter two, she tells us, "an answer [to her questions about women and fiction] was only to be had by consulting the learned and the unprejudiced, who have removed themselves above the strife of tongue and the confusion of body. . ." (p. 25) However, we already know her feelings about men, and the tone in chapter one leads us to believe "the learned and the unprejudiced" mentioned here, if they are learned, are certainly not unprejudiced, because they are men.

Her essay is so simplistic that from the first page of the chapter, we expect the conclusion she draws at the end, "I had been foolish to ask my professor to furnish me with 'indisputable proofs' of this or that in his argument about women." Interestingly, although she still has no answer to her original questions about women and fiction, she succeeds in raising questions and illuminating new thoughts within the reader's mind.

I found enlightening the idea that men seek to emphasize women's inferiority in order to boost their own feeling of superiority and self-confidence.

I'd be interested to know if anyone in our group experienced something similar with this chapter. If so, what questions were raised in your mind? What illuminations did you experience?

Diana - Woolf Chapter 1

Woolf states early in chapter one, “I need not say that what I am about to describe has no existence; Oxbridge is an invention; so is Fernham; “I” is only a convenient term for somebody who has no real being. Lies will flow from my lips, but there may perhaps be some truth mixed up with them; it is for you to seek out this truth and to decide whether any part of it is worth keeping. If not, you will of course throw the whole of it into the wastepaper basket and forget all about it.” (pp. 4,5)

Which, of course, no one has done. But why not?

Despite the fact that Woolf declared, “Lies will flow from my lips,” by the next paragraph, I felt as though I were with her, witnessing the beauty of the riverbank on which she sat. The analogy of Thought trolling for an idea as though it were a fish entranced me. (p. 5) As she strolled through the colleges, past the ancient halls (p. 6), I clearly pictured all she described, from the library’s Beadle refusing her entrance (p. 7), to her description of the “grey blocks [of the ancient hall] in whose shade I was now standing” (p. 9).

Perhaps Woolf thought that setting the stage by allowing readers to experience the reality of the places she described would lend credence to the ideas she planned to propose, thereby encouraging people to seek out the truth and thoughtfully consider what were then radical views. If so, her reasoning was sound, because readers have found "A Room of One's Own" worth keeping in its entirity for over seventy-five years.

Diana - Woolf - General Impressions

Stunning prose!

I confess I’ve never read anything by Virginia Woolf because I saw the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966) as a child, and mistakenly believed the movie portrayed her life. The strangeness of the film (a black comedy) made a huge impression on me at such a young age, and convinced me I wouldn’t be interested in her writing. I freely admit I was wrong.

“Show, don’t tell” is hammered into the heads of fiction writers from the moment they read their first “how to write a novel” book. Woolf shows us what she’s thinking in lyrical fashion, as she describes people “busying themselves at the door of the chapel like bees at the mouth of a hive.” (p. 8) A beautiful fall evening she portrays thus: “All was dim, yet intense too, as if the scarf which the dusk had flung over the garden were torn asunder by star or sword.” (p. 17) Readers visualize the age of the buildings at Oxbridge with the aid of phrases like “busy for centuries,” “leathern purse,” “it was then the age of faith,” and “coffers of kings and queens.” (p. 9)

Woolf also repeats phrases, reminding readers that the novel/essay is, in fact, one piece, despite her stream of consciousness style of writing. “Where the grasses waved and the swine rootled” appears twice, on pages 9 and 10. She also reiterates similar images: “rumps of cattle in a muddy market,” “sprouts curled and yellowed at the edge,” “stringy as a miser’s heart,” (pp. 17, 18) “lean cows,” “muddy market,” “withered greens,” and “the stringy hearts of old men.” (p. 19)

I look forward to exploring her writing in greater detail.