Virginia Woolf's Political Awareness In Mrs. Dalloway

Virginia Woolf, who is one of the pioneers of modern fiction in 20th century, occupies a unique position in the history of British literature. Since she published her first novel in 1915, Virginia Woolf's writing has received much critical attention from reviewers and essayists. Feminism and Modernism are the two central strands of academic critical enquiry. However, with the publication of Alex Zwerdling's book Virginia Woolf and the Real World, critics began to realize the social political concern of Woolf for British Empire. Woolf's political view is fully reflected in the novel Mrs. Dalloway. Thus the analysis of this novel helps readers understand her political view. But few have made a systematical and comprehensive study in Woolf's politics reflected in the novel Mrs. Dalloway.This thesis is a tentative endeavor to discuss Woolf's political awareness by analyzing the novel Mrs. Dalloway. A brief survey of her family tree reveals an ancestry deeply involved in the government and administration of the British Empire. This background must have influenced Woolf's understanding of current political and social issues. At the meantime, Woolf is involved in Feminist Movement, writes in support of pacifists and socialists, and becomes a social thinker. Therefore, it is unreasonable to say that her political view is radically revolutionary or conservative, because she stands in the middle space between and writes in a balanced state. This thesis consists of three chapters apart from introduction and conclusion, which are as follows:Chapter one focuses on Woolf's political awareness in domestic politics. It can be proved that Woolf, with the ambiguous political identity both as an upper-middle-class aristocrat and a social thinker, on one hand, accepts to a certain extent the social system as a well-organized one and expresses confidence in the stability, orderliness and continuity of British government. This can be indirectly reflected by Woolf's intended depiction of the interior movement of several main characters in Mrs. Dalloway; on the other hand, sharply criticizes the corruption, the bureaucracy and the decay of the governing class in political system by fully portraying such characters as Hugh Whitebread, Lady Bruton and Sir William Bradshaw who embody the imperial dominance over British people at home.Chapter two discusses her political awareness in the political policy of British Empire abroad. In terms of Woolf's complex relation with British Empire, she holds an ambivalent imperialist attitude interwoven with that of anti-colonialism. Woolf advocates the justice and reasonableness of the relation between the metropolitan states and its colonies by reproducing in Mrs. Dalloway the London city as the center of imperial territory and the marginalized India as "the Other". But Woolf constantly refuses the idea of the eternity of British Empire, which is described in Mrs. Dalloway as a decaying image represented by Lady Bruton. She strongly opposes to imperial policy such as Britain's participating in the First World War which has greatly affected its people like Septimus.Chapter three concentrates on her political identity in social life. Woolf to some extent has accepted the traditional value of Victorian family life, but she also forms modern mores in her later life. The constant struggle between two divided sets of values can be found in Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf creates such a group of characters as Richard Dalloway, Sir William Bradshaw and Hugh Whitbread to represent "Reason"—the stiff, patriarchal quality of conservatism; another group including Peter Walsh, Sally and Miss Kilman, to indicate "Romance"—passionate, reformative quality of radicalism. However, Woolf blurs the borderline of the two extremes by creating a balanced figure—Clarissa—who stands in the middle space between reason and romance.This thesis dialectically analyzes Woolf's political awareness in her novel Mrs. Dalloway from the aspects of political system at home, political policy abroad and political identity in social life. These three chapters from different standpoints illustrate Woolf's political view as demonstrated in her novel Mrs. Dalloway. Theories from Disciplinary Power and Cultural Hegemony, Post-colonialism are applied to analyze the theme, characterization and symbolism in this novel. Through the analysis of Mrs. Dalloway, we can have a comprehensive understanding of Woolf's political awareness.