Unfinished Stories

"'Among the tortures and devastations of life is this then--our friends
are not able to finish their stories'" (39).

Points for Reflection

"The Symbol" (1941; 1985), pp. 288-90

1. Do you have any favorite mountains that you consider symbolic in some way?
2. What appears to be the narrator’s only form of entertainment in this vocation locale far to the north?
3. Why did the narrator once wish her mother’s fatal illness to progress more rapidly?
4. Has the narrator’s mixed racial background enlightened her as to the shared humanity of all, or does she evince vestiges of old, tired racial prejudices?
5. Why do invalids presumably populate this isolated town?
6. Why does the narrator think herself “selfish” (290)?
7. Can you complete the narrator’s unfinished sentence about why these men climbed the mountain?

The Waves, pp. 7-72

1. At what point do the novel's six central voices become distinct enough from one another to be recognizable?
2. Trace those early moments that register mature ideas with erudite diction, neither of which would be accessible to a young child.  Why might Woolf assign such language and thought to youth?
3. In what ways do these six friends closely resemble one another?
4. What is the great, chained beast which Louis hears stamping on the shore?
5. Who is more of an outsider, Louis or Rhoda?
6. Susan says she is "'tied down with single words,'" whereas Bernard "'[rises] up higher, with words and words in phrases'" (16). What does Susan mean by this distinction, one she elaborates shortly thereafter (18)?
7. What is the Elvedon of which Bernard speaks (17)?
8. Why does Louis choose not to demonstrate his knowledge during lessons and thereby not rise to the top of the class (20)?
9. Does anyone other than Neville (24-25) seem aware of death?
10. What does Susan mean by her repeated assertion that she is afraid neither of "heat" nor "the frozen winter"?
11. Are sleep and dreams a reliable refuge for Rhoda?
12. Which of the seven voices we encounter relies most heavily on figurative language when expressing an idea or observation? Consider the narrator, Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis. What might a certain voice's reliance on simile and metaphor suggest about him/her? [Joy T]
13. Does Bernard's relationship with words/phrases resemble that of Neville?
14. Are Neville's and Louis's respective affinities for Percival homosocial or homosexual in nature?
15. What is the intended product of Louis's "supreme endeavour" (39)? What is he attempting to create?
16. Why does Susan dislike school so intensely?
17. Do Susan's, Jinny's, and Rhoda's individual experiences with the looking-glass resemble more than they vary from one another's experiences?
18. Which emotion do the three young women evince most often at this point in their lives?
19. What about Archie, Hugh, Parker, Dalton, Larpent, and Smith so entrances Louis?
20. What "hard" thing has grown inside Susan during her time at school (54)?
21. What does Jinny want out of romance (55)?
22. Why does Jinny long for day, and Rhoda for night (54-56)?
23. What do you make of Rhoda's enigmatic experience with an envelope--what actually happened here (64)?
24. Why does Neville consider Bernard's storytelling impulse faulty (69-70)?
25. Has Neville's love of literature been altered by his experience at school?
26. Would it be inappropriate to suggest that Bernard and Jinny are different sex representatives of the same personality type? What of Rhoda and Louis?
27. Does Time’s progress appear as inexorable and violent in this novel as it has in Woolf’s previous works?

The Wave (1879)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu