Stream Of Consciousness In Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader

In this passage, Molly describes how well-endowed Boylan is, and then attributes it his eating a lot of oysters. Nevertheless, she was not entirely satisfied from the sexual experience. She ponders on the irony of the whole thing. The man had the largest phallus she had ever encountered, but because of his lack of stamina or “spunk.”, he is the one who receives all the pleasure from his penis, apparently because he climaxed before she had her own. There is certainly order in this passage that reflects the idea of interior monologue. Even without punctuation, one can fairly easily follow the thought process and the reflective aspect that comes at the end of this particular thought.

None of the examples utilized here thus far have not conveyed

an outlandish or exaggerated accounts of event that aren’t common to most people. Stream of consciousness then as it relates to time and place is meant to convey real life situation.

Stream of Consciousness as a modernist tool conveys real life scenarios. Virginia Woolf considers this in her novel The Common Reader. “Life is…a

semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. It is not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit…We are pleasing merely for courage and sincerity; we are suggesting that the proper stuff of fiction is a little other than custom would have us believe it” (150). Her idea that consciousness should be transparent is an important element of modernist writing, particularly as this relates to stream of consciousness. Thus while a person might have his or her secret thoughts and desires, with stream of consciousness, all of a character’s thought as they pass through his or her mind are put on display for the reader. This omniscient perspective is not always pleasant, but can be discomforting as some might experience reading Molly’s interment experience with Boylan or even a little uninteresting as part of Blooms casual narration standing on the bridge. Yet, both accounts are based on truth and character’s true essence. The benefit this offers for readers is that it gives them an opportunity to consider themselves as they look so intimately into the minds of various characters. To become so intimately involved with another characters thought, feelings, wishes, desires, or secrets encourages a person to become more intimate with their own thoughts and to consider his or her own self.
A final consideration on why authors like Joyce or Woolf utilize stream of consciousness is it allows characters a brief escape from real life.

Virginia Woolf demonstrates this idea in her short story “The Mark on the Wall” Before the unnamed narrator comes to the realization that the mark on the wall is a snail, (and it’s important to note this realization comes by happenstance rather investigation), the narrator rolls out a series of random thoughts seemingly to help him forget the reality around him. He at one points starts with the seemingly random thought, “Wood is a pleasant thing to think about. It comes from a tree; and trees grow, and we don’t know how they grow…” (53). The statement that “Wood is a pleasant thing to think about” suggests a deliberate transition from his previous unpleasant organized thoughts to random inconsequential ones. In the previous thought, the narrator made the observation that in life a person desires something to real to grasp onto. “Thus, walking from a midnight dream of horror, one hastily turns on the light and lies quiescent, worshipping the chest of drawers, worshipping solidity, worshipping reality, worshipping the impersonal world which is a proof of some existence other than ours. That is what one wants to be sure of…” (53). James Harker on this point made the observation that “For Woolf, the modern literary experience derives from the nature of the faculties of perception, the tenuous points of connection - and disjunction -

between the inner and the outer worlds.” There is truth that in a frightening and confusing world, people desire solidarity. Brief armistices from the hustle-bustle of real life can be achieved by escaping into inconsequential thoughts. Yet, even while living in the present, people are sometimes jostled back into worry about the future or past, despite efforts to avoid that. When the narrator in “The Mark on the Wall” finally discovers the mark on the wall is snail, that reality brings back the reality of the war to his mind. “Thought, it’s no good buying newspapers…Nothing ever happens. Curse this war; God damn this war!” (54). Thus despite distractions, reality as it is perceived by each of person individually returns again in the present as people are reminded of real world matter.
Stream of consciousness and interior monologue also needs to be considered in relation to time. In reading the short stories from Virginia Woolf’s compilation Monday or Tuesday, she demonstrates modernist’s concern with maintaining a present tense, or “artistic manifesto of an emerging concept of time and perspective” (Wayne, 37). Kern discussed this idea saying that “Modernists did not deny the influence of the past on the present but refused to have their character overwhelmed by [event in the past or future]” (105). Even Woolf’s title of her compilation Monday or Tuesday suggests a disconcertment with time. As far sequence of events in story is concerned, Woolf does not follow a natural sequence of events chronologically, but her stories seem to have a consistent in-the-present feel without real resolution, much like stream of consciousness conveys in a narration. Marc D. Cyr in his essay, “A Conflict of Closure in Virginia Woolf’s ‘The Mark on the Wall,’” said “[i]n fiction, it is a traditional comfort to know that closer will follow at story’s end, that we will be able to say ‘Ah’ (204). Yet, this resolution is not a real resolution to the narrator’s problems, with seemed centered on the war. The Mark while appearing to be the focal part of the short story is actually a momentary distraction, keeping a person grounded in the present rather than worrying about the future, particularly of the war. The narrator even says “there is no harm in putting a full stop to one’s disagreeable thoughts by looking at a mark on the wall,” (53) but earlier acknowledges that even if he were to stand and ascertain for certain what the mark on the wall really was, what would he gain? “Knowledge? Matter for further speculation? I can think sitting still as well as standing up” (52). This suggests to that the narrator is not so concerned with ascertaining what the mark on the wall is, but grounding himself in the present, even for the moment by inquisitive thought without being too concerned what the answer is. This is a method to seemingly pause time for a moment. However, despite this effort time continues onward.
It is significant that in both the “Kew Gardens” and “The Mark on the Wall,” Woolf uses a snail as a central figure or symbol in both stories. A snail while being an incredibly slow creature, nevertheless continues onward, even if but slowly. In regards to time, this suggests that while the present is always…present, the past will continue to influence the present and the future will continue to roll into the present. So while some would sometimes like to pause time and forget things past and not consider the future, time continues to roll forward, even as a snail will move forward around obstacles. This often times is done by becoming lost in one’s thoughts. Edward Bishop likewise in this article about “Kew Gardens” made the observation that Woolf incorporates very little external action. For example, the snail in the flower bed might seem to have little significance of interest to the casual reader, but it in fact symbolically portrays the passage of time, while remaining systematically in the present moments.
The sketch is carefully constructed …[with] four couple, and among them they constitute a cross-section of social class (middle, upper, and lower), age (maturity, old age, and youth) and relation (husband and wife, male companions, female friends, lovers); and their appearances are nearly interspersed among four passages which describe the action in the flower bed. (271)
This passage along with others offers important insights of Woolf’s portrayal, not only of time but in the portrayal of stream of consciousness.
Stream of consciousness for modernist writers as it relates to present time creates a unique perspective into the view of characters who thoughts readers have the privilege of viewing. The writing styles, with the inclusion or exclusion of punctuation can suggest mindsets of intense concentration or casualness, anger or boredom, sadness or unconcern or as John Oakland called a harmonius [sic], organic optimism (264) was portrayed in Joyce’s and Woolf’s works. Stream of consciousness likewise can be a defense mechanism utilized by characters to avoid present realities as was portrayed in Woolf’s “The Mark on the Wall” and “Kew Gardens.” Thus, the seemingly lengthy and inconsequential ranting of many characters thoughts allows readers a unique perspective into the human soul that might have otherwise have been lost had modernists not adopted this approach in writing.