Virginia Woolf Research Paper

Study of the Social and Literary Impacts of Virginia Woolf One of the greatest female authors of all time, Virginia Woolf, produced a body of writing respected worldwide. Driven by uncontrollable circumstances and internal conflict, her life was cut short by suicide. Her role in feminism and her relationship with mental illness, along with the personal relationships in her life, largely influenced her writings. The delicate but widely articulated psyche of Virginia Woolf has been a strong influence on the literature and social values of today. Virginia Woolf’s modernist and feminist writings, in addition to themes dealing with psychology, have served an important and influential role in not only the literary community but also society overall

By watching her father die of a terminal illness, Virginia wrote: “The waiting is intolerable. the worst of it is he is so tired and worn out, and wants to die. I shall do my best to ruin my constitution before I get to this age, so as to die quicker I can not bear to become the wretch my father became when he reached my stage of life. (Bond 62).” Virginia had great difficulties writing towards that end, and she feared her work would only continue to worsen with age. At the age of fifty-nine on the eve of her birthday, Virginia drowned herself. The war at the time proved too much for her. Distraught by its destruction and facing her forth mental breakdown, and worried about the burden it would impose on Leonard, Virginia stuffed her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near Monk’s House on March 28, 1941. Her father's death did not solely influence her suicide, but her identification with him was so strong that he was "instrumental in her choice of death" (Bond 62).

Darker experiences shadowed Woolf’s youth. In writings not widely known until after her death, she described being sexually abused by her older stepbrothers, George and Gerald Duckworth. Scholars have often discussed how this trauma might have complicated her mental health, which challenged her through much of her life. She had periodic nervous breakdowns, and depression ultimately claimed her

As one of the earliest feminists, Woolf's role in feminism was due to relationships with others throughout her life. Woolf shied away from feminist groups, yet she was intensely critical of patriarchal social and political system of values, particularly related to women, and her fiction became a vehicle of her criticisms. (Transue 2) Woolf felt her father was a tyrant and she became "the voice against male tyranny" (Bond 52). Her literature was a voice for suppressed women. She spoke out not only against her father, but against her mother as well. She blamed her father for her mother's death because he expected her to dedicate her whole life to his needs. Seeing this as a child, Virginia placed most of the blame on her mother for losing her personal sense of self and identity, causing her to die young. Although Virginia refused to settle for a life like her mother's, she fell into a similar pattern with her husband Leonard. Her marriage paralleled her parents because Leonard controlled every aspect of Virginia's life. For Virginia, it was necessary to depend on Leonard in order to sustain life, but she rebelled against him, and the entire male sex. Virginia blamed men for most of the negative events in her life. For the feminist Virginia Woolf, who turned down medals and doctorates at universities, which discriminated against women, second-class citizenship was unacceptable. (Bond