A Room of One's Own

On pages 37-39 of A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf begins to describe the importance of a woman having an individual income by explaining how the state of mind of the narrator changed upon receiving an inheritance.
The narrator says that she received news of her inheritance shortly after women had finally succeeded at acquiring the right to vote. However, even to the narrator, a thoughtful, world-wise woman, the money seemed the more important of the two discoveries. The sum, 500 pounds a year, was not extravagant, but merely enough to live comfortably and free from worries of poverty. This security was of the utmost importance to the woman as it allowed her the freedom to move beyond the day-to-day struggle to make a suitable income, and truly consider her own ambitions.
At this point, the narrator takes a moment to criticize the working world for women, mentioning how incredibly few possibilities exist for the semi-respectable woman. Her options are constrained to menial supportive tasks or nurturing children. The only jobs that were deemed fit for women were those that perpetuated the stereotype of women as nurturers or inferior assistants to men. The narrator describes the bitterness that these jobs engender by in women by forcing them to work in demeaning tasks, and also forcing them to use flattery instead of merit to excel at a position.
But as soon as the narrator had a fixed income, she said that this bitterness faded. When she was no longer directly confronting the issues faced by poor women, she forgot about them and was more content to accept the circumstances as regrettable but immovable. In some ways this seems like an indictment of Virginia Woolf herself. Woolf was not poor, and did not have to work to support herself. Therefore it is possible that in this passage she is really examining her own feelings, and wondering if her isolation from working women keeps her from working towards women’s reform as arduously as possible. It seems that she is urging all women to pay more attention to the plight of working women, instead of letting their own circumstances veil the bitterness that all women should feel.
Even when the narrator has gained her independence, she is still not truly an accomplished person. She did not do anything to earn her income, and therefore is still owes her independence to someone else. But Woolf seems to be saying that this kind of good fortune is necessary for a woman to excel in her own direction and follow her own ambition. She needs the freedom to think and act on her own accord. Also, it is only when the narrator has been liberated from daily labor that she begins to tolerate men without resentment, and only when she is free of that resentment that she is able to ‘see the sky’, or look at the world through a clear, unaltered perspective.

Excerpt from A Passage to India

A Passage to India, pages 206-08:

“Heard about Miss Quested’s servant?” reinforced the Major.

“No, what about him?”

“Heaslop warned Miss Quested’s servant last night never to lose sight of her. Prisoner got hold of this and manager to leave him behind. Bribed him. Heaslop has just found out the whole story, with names and sums—a well-known pimp to those people gave the money, Mohammed Latif by name. So much for the servant. What about the Englishman—our friend here? How did they get rid of him? Money again.”

Fielding rose to his feet, supported by murmurs and exclamations, for no one yet suspected his integrity.

‘Oh, I’m being misunderstood, apologies,” said the Major offensively. “I didn’t mean they bribed Mr. Fielding.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“They paid the other Indian to make you late- Godbole. He was saying his prayers. I know those prayers!”

“That’s ridiculous…” He sat down again, trembling with rage; person after person was being dragged into the mud.

Having shot this bolt, the Major prepared the next. “Heaslop also found out something from his mother. Aziz paid a herd of natives to suffocate her in a cave. That was the end of her, or would have been only she got out. Nicely planned, wasn’t it?

Neat. Then he could go on with the girl. He and she and a guide, provided by the same Mohammed Latif. Guide now can’t be found. Pretty.” His voice broke into a roar. “It’s not the time for sitting down. It’s the time for action. Call in the troops and clear the bazaars.”

The Major’s outbursts were discounted, but he made everyone uneasy on this occasion. The crime was even worse than they had supposed—the unspeakable limit of cynicism, untouched since 1857. Fielding forgot his anger on poor Godbole’s behalf, and became thoughtful; the evil was propagating in every direction, it seemed to have an existence of its own, apart from anything that was done or said by individuals….”

This lengthy passage is illuminates the nature of the racial divide in Chandrapore. Only a few hours after the scandal occurred, the battle lines are already drawn between the races. The Anglo-Indians have gathered together at the Club to decide what to do to avenge Miss Quested.

The situation has escalated from involving only Miss Quested and Aziz, to encompass the entire community. Major Callendar accuses Mohammed Latif, Professor Godbole, the unnamed servant, and the entire group of servants of being involved in the affair. Ronny, Fielding, and Mrs. Moore have all become victims of the conspiracy. The speed at which the hatred spreads indicates the extremity of racial divides, as the Angol-Indians are ready to accept the guilt of any and all Indians without any evidence at all.

In considering this passage, I split it into four sections. The first and third sections are similar. Major Callendar is making brash accusations toward Indians, to which the others in the room make no direct response. As I mentioned, The situation has escalated and split the community down the middle, between the Anglo-Indians and Indians. The men in the club are all Anglo-Indians, and therefore are willing to accept Callendar’s remarks passively.

The second section is interesting, because it contrasts the other two I mentioned. When Major Callendar hints that an Englishman might share the blame, there is an immediate reaction. The others do not particularly like Fielding, but still he is on their side (this will change in a few moments when Fielding expresses doubts that Aziz is guilty, but that is a different matter). The mere fact that Fielding is English means that he deserves the benefit of the doubt and cannot be blamed in such an off-handed fashion. As soon as Callendar clarifies his statement to direct guilt toward an Indian, the crowd is again silent.

In the final section we see that while the crowd does not necessarily accept Callendar’s accusations they do accept the generalization that the evil of the situation spreads farther than they originally thought. The door has been opened to a greater level of suspicion. Fielding is apparently the only character that realizes that the situation is getting out of hand, growing beyond anyone’s control. He seems to realize that this situation has sparked deeper tensions in the community.

The reference to 1857 is a reference to the mutiny that Professor Steele described in class. By alluding to such an event Fielding is worrying about the possibility of a similarly violent event that would occur on a smaller scale, but would be equally devastating to race relations in the community. By this passage we see that any isolated scandal can become a major event if it crosses the strict racial boundaries of the community.

Big Ben is an important character in Mrs. Dalloway. He marks out the passing hours of the day as Mrs. Dalloway and the other characters move throughout various locations and patterns of thought. The specific language used when referring to the chiming of the clock is interesting because it occurs several times throughout the book. Some, but not all, references to the striking of the clock include the phrases ‘the hour, irrevocable,’ and ‘the leaden circles dissolved in the air.’
-the hour, irrevocable: this represents the permanence of passing time. Once a moment is gone we cannot get it back. The phrase has a hint of regret to it, as if the character wishes to retrieve a long lost moment.
-leaden circles: this description reinforces the permanent nature of time. Leaden connotes solid, unmovable principals. Time moves at a constant rate that no human can change. Describing the circles, however, implies that time is continuous. As the hands move around the face of a clock, so the earth moves around the sun. Days and nights constantly cycle through, bringing each day.
-dissolve in air- this references the fading nature of each moment. While time itself is firm, each moment is fleeting. Memories, even those of the most important moments in our lives, fade over time.
All of these themes appear throughout the novel, the presence of the clock merely underscores them.

I found several instances where Big Ben appears in the novel. He usually interrupts the thoughts of one of the characters, and several times those thoughts are about love or longing. For instance, Big Ben strikes just as Peter Walsh is leaving Mrs. Dalloway’s house after their first encounter. He doesn’t directly declare in his thoughts that he loves Clarissa, but it is implied. In his thoughts he is nostalgic, considering who Clarissa was and what she has become. There is a hint of bitter resentment as he contemplates the life she has created. One gets the feeling that he begrudges time for being always moving forward, never allowing one to return and change the past.
Only a few paragraphs later Peter hears the tolling of the clock of St. Margaret’s, which he compares to a polite hostess. This an obvious connection to Clarissa. The hostess he envisions is smart and full of life, yet holds back her individuality in order to maintain her role as a polite hostess.

To finish off, I did a little bit of research about Big Ben, just so we can get to know this important character a little bit better:
-technically, Big Ben refers only to the bell inside the tower. The clock tower itself is actually called St. Stephen’s Tower
-no one knows for sure exactly why the tower is called Big Ben, though several plausible theories exist

-the face of each clock is 23 feet in diameter
-the minute hands of the clock are each 14 feet long
-the clock first struck on May 31, 1859
-when the Commons chamber was destroyed in World War Two, Big Ben continued to chime away the hour

**I got this information from http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/culture/big-ben

Omega Workshops Bibliography

This was a really fascinating subject to research. I felt like there was so much interesting information, I had trouble distilling it into a short presentation. Also the artwork produced is so fascination and so voluminous, I could only show the class a few of my favorite pieces. There is definitely enough information available to do a larger research project on, if someone is in an art hsitory class or anything like that. Our library has some great books too, three of which are listed in my bibliography. I'll also include some examples of their artwork for you to enjoy.

The Omega Workshops: Bibliography

Andersen, Wayne, . "Why Disinterest is Still Interesting: The Case of Roger Fry." Common Knowledge. 14.2 (2008): 258-69. Web. 22 Sep 2009.

Anscombe, Isabelle, . Omegea and After: Bloomsbury and the Decorative Arts. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981. Print.

Collins, Judith, . The Omega Workshops. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984. Print.

Culture 24 Staff, . "Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19." Culture 24. 11 Jun 2009. Culture 24, Web. 22 Sep 2009.

Fry, Roger. "Post Impressionism." A Roger Fry Reader. Ed. Christopher Reed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996. Print.

Leonard Woolf: Coming to London

At the end of his memoir, “Leonard Woolf: Coming to London,” Woolf wrote, “I do not propose to say anything about either, because, as Montaigne said so many years ago, it is not the goal, not the destination, not the arrival which is interesting, but the journey.” As was mentioned in class, this saying seems somewhat cliché to us now. But I think Woolf was being very intentional when he situated this quote at the end of his essay. Throughout the essay he reveals to the reader several experiences in his life that contributed to his eventual inclusion in the Bloomsbury group. Here are the steps that Leonard Woolf indicates as a part of his journey:
1. A chance encounter in a Putney barbershop
2. St. Paul’s
3. Trinity College
4. The Strachey’s
5. The Sitwell’s dinner parties
6. The embarrassing dinner party
All of these experiences contributed to Woolf’s passion and respect for literature. Reading about these experiences makes it clear to me that Leonard Woolf really does belong in the literary world of England. For instance, most young boys would not consider a chance encounter with a well-known author something of any great importance. But Woolf remembered the exact details of the scene even years later. The fact that he felt a deep connection with literature even at St. Paul’s is also significant. At this point in his life, Woolf considered his passion something that needed to be hidden, yet he could not extinguish it. When he got to Trinity College he discovered that he fit in with fellow students that enjoyed intellectual pursuits. Up to this point it seems clear that Leonard Woolf has great potential to become one of the great members of British literary society.
But the final two stepping stones indicate why Woolf did not consider himself to be a part of true literary society. With the Sitwells, which was a series of small scale dinners, Woolf said that he felt inferior to the other members—that he felt like a small time amateur. In Woolf’s mind one must be a respected, established writer to be considered a member of a ‘literary world’. The later dinner party that Woolf described is a social disaster for himself and Virginia. They do not fit in with the sophisticated, religious people that make up the British literary elite. Since he does not fit this particular mold, Woolf considers himself to be a permanent outsider in the literary world of England. Today we do not have such a limited view of what it means to be an important member of ‘literary London.’ In fact the reason we remember Leonard Woolf and other members of the Bloomsbury group is because they set out to be different. They had their own ideas and based literary merit not on age and prestige, but on the originality of ideas. I think that Leonard Woolf would be pleasantly surprised to learn of the respect that admirers have for him today.

Florence Nightingale did NOT want to get married...

The passage that struck me when I was reading Strachey’s work is on page 115. It is a quote from Florence Nightingale and she is referring to the idea of marriage.
“To be nailed to a continuation and exaggeration of my present life… to put it out of my power ever to be able to seize the chance of forming for myself a true and rich life-“
Marriage would be a continuation of her life of society, parties, vacations, and other frivolities of life. It would be an exaggeration because as the matron of a household she would have even greater responsibilities, including raising her own children to follow the same code of conduct.
If that is how Nightingale felt about marriage it is easy to see why she found it difficult to find common ground with other Victorian women. This was an age where matrimony was the most important goal. For women especially it was where they would find their identity for the rest of their lives. In fact only a few pages earlier, page 111, Strachey wrote, “It was only natural to suppose that Florence would show a proper appreciation of them by doing her duty in that state of life unto which it had pleased God to call her- in other words, by marrying.” This statement reveals the rigid structure of Victorian structure, as it dictated the path of the lives of its citizens based on class, wealth, and gender. Strachey’s implied criticism is easy to pick out here, and it seems that this may be one area in which Strachey applauds Nightingale. For while other women in her position looked on to the prospect of marriage as not only inevitable but also desirable, Nightingale considered to marriage to be similar to death. Strachey quotes her as saying, “What is to become of me? A desirable young man? Dust and ashes! What was there desirable in such a thing as that? In my thirty-first year, I see nothing desirable but death.” Since marriage was the highest ideal for Victorian women, and Nightingale looked on the institution with such disdain, it follows that she would find many women intolerable. In fact on page 150 Strachey references the letters in which she berates women for being stupid and inept, among other things.
Nightingale’s unhappiness at the thought of marriage reveals her single-mindedness. At this point in her life she had not yet realized her dream of being a nurse and a powerful woman of influence, but she knew that she wanted something other than the norm. She knew that whatever life she was seeking, it would not be found in conventional Victorian society. Whatever other faults Florence Nightingale had, she always knew what she wanted and was willing to sacrifice all social orthodoxies to get there.

Hey my name is Kristin and I'm a sophomore here at TCU. Hmmm what would you like to know about me? Well I love to write, and I have a nice stack of spiral notebooks, most of which I purchased for about a quarter at Wal-Mart, that hold just about any thought or musing I have ever had. I love football and I am a huge Denver Bronco fan. Unfortunately this season is going to be pretty dismal, but life goes on. I am from Colorado, and I absolutely love it there. I love snow and mountains and high altitude. My family now lives in Las Vegas, however, so I spent my summer there. Las Vegas is definitely NOT my favorite place. Oh- one more random thing about me: I don't wear matching socks. I don't really know why. One day when I was in about seventh grade I just decided that it was boring to wear two socks that are exactly the same, so I decided to wear two different ones. It saves me the trouble of matching my socks after I do laundry.