The Challenge of Free Indirect Speech in Mrs. Dalloway

1183 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Previous studies have found on stream of consciousness

Mrs. Dalloway’s Free Indirect Discourse

Modernist writers emergence in the twentieth century brought many changes to literature. They rejected the Romantic focus on nature and being and instead were inspired by the impersonal and capitalistic feelings brought on from machinery and World War I. Soldiers who were sent to war saw death and pain in completely new ways. These experiences, which only worsened with World War II in the 1940s, prevented many soldiers from mentally coming home. Enlisted writers and those back home who saw the shell-shock effects of war used that horror within their writing. Modern writers also experimented with subject matter, form, and style. They did away with character summaries, used moment time instead of linear plots, developed stream of consciousness, and rejected single authoritative narrator. These deliberate changes produced a type of literature that was vastly different than anything before it. There were many prominent writers during the modernist period and they each developed their own style. One writer who was at the forefront of modernism was Virginia Woolf. She was an English writer who played a significant role in the London writing society. Woolf experimented with the modernist techniques but one that she was most known for was the use of free indirect discourse. This new type of narration added a deeper level to the story and injected the character’s thoughts in a direct way. Woolf’s story Mrs. Dalloway was well known for this. Free indirect discourse was used throughout Mrs. Dalloway and gave the story many advantages over standard direct and indirect discourse.

Free indirect discourse is a combination between direct and indirect discourse. Modernist writers developed this form of...

... middle of paper ...

...isie Johnson positively felt she must cry Oh! (For that young man on the seat had given her quite a turn. Something was up, she knew.) Horror! horror!” (Woolf 2351). Since free indirect discourse is the exact

Works Cited

Faini, Paola. “The Challenge of Free Indirect Speech in Mrs. Dalloway.” Translating Virginia Woolf. Ed. Oriana Palusci. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2012. 39-47.

Gingerich, Jon. “The Benefits of Free Indirect Discourse.” Lit Reactor. LitReactor, LLC, 23 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 April 2014.

Thacker, Andrew. "Traffic, Gender, Modernism." Sociological Review 54.(2006): 175-189. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Woolf, Virginia. “Mrs. Dalloway.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. Boston: Longman, 2010. 2338-2437. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Theme Analysis of Killings by Andre Dubus

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.

    Read More

  • The Colonization of Hawaii and Tourism

    4432 Words  | 9 Pages

    To examine various discourses, it is crucial that the idea of discourse and the way in which discourses operate is clear. A discourse is a language, or more precisely, a way of representation and expression. These "ways of talking, thinking, or representing a particular subject or topic produce meaningful knowledge about the subject" (Hall 205). Therefore, the importance of discourses lies in this "meaningful knowledge," which reflects a group’s ideolo...

    Read More

  • James Joyce's The Dead - Gabriel's Search for Self

    3564 Words  | 8 Pages

    3 Woolf, Virginia:  A sketch of the past , Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2 , sixth edition

    Read More

  • Modernist Literature in Krapp´s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    was not directed towards the audience but to himself. The usage of an internal monologue led

    Read More

  • Confrontation of Gender Roles in the Works of Mill, Tennyson, and Woolf

    1976 Words  | 4 Pages

    Woolf, Virginia. "A Room of One's Own." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000. 2153-2214.

    Read More

  • Memory in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

    1972 Words  | 4 Pages

    Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. A. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2005.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Ethics in Psychology

    1957 Words  | 4 Pages

    Parker, I. (2005). Lacanian discourse analysis in psychology: Seven theoretical ​elements. Theory & Psychology, 15: 163–82.

    Read More

  • Existential Crisis In Mrs Dalloway

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    The extensive descriptions of Mrs. Dalloway’s inner thoughts and observations reveals Woolf’s “stream of consciousness” writing style, which emphasizes the complexity of Clarissa’s existential crisis. She also alludes to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, further revealing her preoccupation with death as she quotes lines from a funeral song. She reads these lines while shopping in the commotion and joy of the streets of London, which juxtaposes with her internal conflicts regarding death. Shakespeare, a motif in the book, represents hope and solace for Mrs. Dalloway, as his lines form Cymbeline talk about the comforts found in death. From the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dalloway has shown a fear for death and experiences multiple existential crises, so her connection with Shakespeare is her way of dealing with the horrors of death. The multiple layers to this passage, including the irony, juxtaposition, and allusion, reveal Woolf’s complex writing style, which demonstrates that death is constantly present in people’s minds, affecting their everyday

    Read More

  • Exquisite Moments And The Temporality Of The Kiss In Mrs Dalloway Analysis

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    Early twentieth century author Virginia Woolf was fixated on the ideas of philosophy and time. Woolf believed that people were only here for a short period of time. She also believed that everyone’s life was made up of moments. Those moments could either be expanded upon or pass by; once a moment passes by, then it is gone forever. When a moment is expanded upon, then that means the moment feels as though it is more than just a second. That moment holds a special meaning or event. Woolf often incorporated these ideas about the temporality of time into her works; it is most apparent in her novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Mrs. Dalloway was written in 1925, around seven years after World War I ended. In the novel, time plays a major factor for the many

    Read More

  • Female Relationships in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    Clarissa's relationships with other females in Mrs. Dalloway offer great insight into her personality. Additionally, Woolf's decision to focus at length on Sally Seton, Millicent Bruton, Ellie Henderson, and Doris Kilman allows the reader to see how women relate to one another in extremely different ways: sometimes drawing upon one another for things they cannot get from men; other times, turning on one another out of jealousy and insecurity. Although Mrs. Dalloway is far from the most healthy or positive literary portrayal of women, Woolf presents an excellent exploration of female relationships.

    Read More

  • Critical Discourse Analysis: The Representation Of Language And Language Advertisement

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    As stated by Fairclough (1955), this model consists of three dimensions of discourse concepts, giving a three-dimensional method for discourse analysis. Fairclough (1995, p.97) assigns three dimensions for every discursive event. The first one is a written or spoken text, the second is a discursive practice which involves production and interpretation of a text, and the third a piece of social practice. Furthermore, Fairclough also assumes that discourse can be found in the sociocultural practices at personal level – at different stages, at institutional level, and at societal level (Fairclough,

    Read More

  • Power and Discourse Analysis

    1805 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stoehr, Louise E. “Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice.” ebscohost.com. 20100825. Literary Reference Center. 20 December 2011.

    Read More

  • Essay on Pride and Prejudice as Romantic Novel and Romantic Criticism

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reidhead, Julia, ed. Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 7, 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.

    Read More

  • Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: Women and Fiction

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... Woolf’s experience with mental illness may have led to this distinct style, as she saw writing as a way to express and explore her mental depression. Talk more about style. Mary’s journey begins on her visit to “Oxbridge,” where Woolf is said to give her lecture on “Women and Fiction.” Woolf then provides the reader and Mary with her thesis: a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction (1).

    Read More

  • Semantics

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    Discourse: this is the anaphoric linkages transversely the sentences, rhetoric, the structure of the topic

    Read More

More about The Challenge of Free Indirect Speech in Mrs. Dalloway

Open Document