The Looking-Glass Smashes

“‘Speech is an old torn net, through which the fish escape as one
casts it over them. Perhaps silence is better’” (99).
Virginia Woolf's "The Evening Party" (c.1918)

Points for Reflection

"The Mark on the Wall" (1917), pp. 83-89

Immediately after decrying “the mystery of life!”, our narrator declares “the inaccuracy of thought,” and then, “what an accidental affair this living is after all our civilisation” (84). Convinced of life’s randomness and of human incapacity, what, then, does life mean for our narrator? Does “The Mark on the Wall” (1917) merely dismantle old assumptions, or does it also extol something in their place?
Do the same motivational factors appear to drive both this narrator’s desire “to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts” (Complete 85) and Rachel Vinrace’s longing to be “flung into the sea, to be washed hither and thither, and driven about the roots of the world” (Voyage 298)?
The narrator thinks it pleasant to think along “a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself,” and observes that we can’t fully see one another, but merely the “shell of a person” (85). When we see others on omnibuses or underground railways “we are looking into the mirror,” confronted with “not one reflection but an almost infinite number” (85). S/he then anticipates future novelists one day exploring the depths of such reflections (85). What might this mean? If we can only see the “shell” of others, and inevitably see our own reflections when looking at others, what “depths” can we possibly explore?
What sort of rules and standards does the narrator believe must be eliminated before one can gain “an intoxicating sense of illegitimate freedom” (86)?
Does the narrator’s assertion that most English people prefer “melancholy” say more about the narrator than the English (86)?
Does our narrator think highly of archaeology?
Is Woolf’s narrator channeling the narrator of Wordsworth’s “The Tables Turned” (1798) when s/he recommends a world without professors or specialists (87)?
What does the narrator think of female housekeepers “with the profiles of policemen” (87)?
Instead of finding in Nature a refuge, as Wordsworth might, the narrator configures Nature as hostile to what which the narrator is attempting?
What pleasure does the narrator find in thinking of a tree?

"The Evening Party" (c.1918), pp.96-101

Does this short story, which anticipates the fluid form of Woolf’s novel The Waves (1931), contain a traceable narrative?
Is our narrator eager to attend the party in question?
Does the description of the effect created by the party’s lighting on attendees’ features remind you of any particular visual artistic movement?
Does Woolf’s own, implied stance towards modernist experimentation emerge amidst the partygoers’ conversations about grammar and punctuation?
Why might one need to “exclude” in order to “enjoy [. . .] perfection”?
When one speaker observes “‘Ah, we’re an ungrateful race’” (99), is s/he referring to a group of people defined by ethnicity, class, or nationality?
Does this tale, which voices the possible benefits of silence, seem capable of achieving it? Do humans themselves appear capable of silence? Also, has this quantity become either more or less accessible since Woolf wrote this?
Do you agree with the notion that discontent, recorded in literature, is worn like a “‘badge of superiority’” by the elite (99)?
What barriers do the speakers find blocking their appreciation of contemporary, modern writers?
What does one speaker fear more than her dress catching fire from the paper lanterns, and does her/his anxiety find an antidote?

Chps. 20-27

can you identify scenes and situations described in a style that resembles any particular modern artistic movement, such as impressionism, cubism, pointillism, or surrealism?
what impact does the nearly unbroken darkness of night on the river have on the various characters?
as Rachel and Terence walk through the forest, the narrator considers which one will begin the conversation they must have (270-71). Once they begin, does one character consistently take the lead?
do their respective reactions to the river country unite or differentiate the travelers?
what additional charges do Woolf’s narrator and characters level—both silently and loudly—at the church?
does Rachel’s observation that “‘Where I want to fight, you [Terence] have compassion’” ring true (282)?
does Terence ask Rachel to marry him?
does Rachel’s and Terence’s growing intimacy place them on the same wavelength?
does the meeting between different cultures and races at their village destination implicitly validate the indigenous people’s uniqueness?
does Helen advocate for the institution of marriage?
how does romance promise to change the shape of the novel, entitled Silence, which Terence has been writing? [Hoku C]
how does Rachel respond to Terence’s questions about femininity, and do his queries evince a willingness to question societal norms?
Terence wonders whether his and Rachel’s marriage will resemble that contained in the depressing novel he’s currently reading (297). What does the evidence suggest? Does Rachel’s and Terence’s relationship hold the promise of lasting happiness?
what causes the “vague sense of dissatisfaction” that at one point fills Rachel (302), and does Terence’s dissatisfaction arise from similar causes?
do Helen and Terence appear moved by the suicide of a parlour maid, or apathetic?
does Terence’s ongoing willingness to tell Rachel she’s not beautiful strike you as rude or searchingly truthful?
in your estimation, is Hirst more admirable, pitiable, or despicable?
what has Hirst apparently identified as the “whole meaning of life,” and does Woolf appear to agree which his conclusion?
does love make Rachel feel intertwined with Terence, or separate from him—and does she experience this sensation as a positive or negative state of being?
why might Miss Allan have omitted Charles Algernon Swinburne (316) from her book on the history of English literature?
do later events bear out Hirst’s assertion that not all is well with Susan’s and Arthur’s engagement (307)?
why might Terence read the lines he does from Milton’s masque Comus (1634)?
do Rachel’s fevered hallucinations appear utterly random?
what might the deformed individuals whom Rachel sees in her mind's eye near the beginning and end of the novel actually signify (77, 331)?
is Hewet’s conscious self-deception (342-43) at all useful?
is Hewet’s epiphany about pain a truth Woolf means us to accept (344-45)?
is the key event of the novel’s close foreshadowed earlier?
why might Woolf wait till so later in the novel to give us the ages of Miss Allan (356) and Mrs. Thornbury (324)?
does Helen's earlier estimation of her niece seem apt, now that the novel has ended? "[S]he felt her, on the whole, a live if unformed human being, experimental, and not always fortunate in her experiments, but with powers of some kind, and a capacity for feeling" (207).
are the various characters' views of human nature merely a function of their peculiar circumstances and personalities, or does Woolf actually bestow her (implicit) stamp of approval on any particular character's point of view?
is St. John Hirst's perspective usually valid? Does he seem primarily a satirized or serious character?
why end the book with Hirst instead of Hewet?
does Woolf, like George Eliot, want us to feel sympathetic towards--and to some degree understand--all of her characters?
Hewet earlier exclaimed, "'[Life] seems to me so tremendously complicated and confused. One can't come to any decision at all; one's less and less capable of making judgments. D'you find that? And then one never knows what any one feels. We're all in the dark. We try to find out, but can you imagine anything more ludicrous than one person's opinion of another person?'" (218). Do the final chapters support or challenge Hewet's conclusion?
does this novel provide any answers to life’s deepest questions about God, life’s meaning, death, or human relationship?

The Kiss (1897)
Edvard Munch

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu