![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I will be examining this theme in relation to two central characters of the novel, Mrs. In her diary Woolf expressed the desire to write a new form to go with the novelty of the age, and the word that came to her mind was “elegy.” In this essay, I will argue that To the Lighthouse is both an elegy to the lost time before the war, as well as a search for new meaning in an age when seemingly nothing can be certain. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is a novel that rises in response to this crisis. ![]() The simultaneous failure of European non-aggression pacts, previously thought to be unassailable, and the gruesome nature of trench war engenders an epistemic crisis, as old certainties could no longer be counted on. The breakout of the Great War in 1914 finalized this split between past and present. More importantly for Woolf, the standard for art was also changing, as post-impressionism gained momentum in Europe, either expressing the shift in human nature or rising as a symptom of it. By the 20th century, Victorian society and its rules for interpersonal relationships were in decline. Virginia Woolf once famously observed that “on or about December 1910 the human character changed” (Woolf, “Mr. Elegy to a Lost Time: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |