Subjective Reality Rooted In Objective Reality

Virginia Woolf is an important novelist from early twentieth century England. She is also a famous western literary critic. She forms her unique literary concept and literary theory in her innumerable comments and essays. Her reputation has soared somewhat, especially since the 1960s,and she has been placed among the major writers of English fiction of early 20th century and eulogized for her realistic and critical interpretation of politic-social life in Britain particularly in the 1920s and 1930s. Mrs. Dalloway (1925) is considered her first great novel. The novel's stream-of-consciousness style is an exercise in technical mastery, capturing the subjective reality of the characters and the objective reality refracted from it in post-WWI London.Chapter One primarily elaborates the core of Woolf s subjective reality, which explains that reality differs with the change of the environment of the times and the person who appreciates it. The social condition and cultural development of the early 20th century need a new literary form to reflect the social reality of that time, especially the complicated psychological reality of the modern people. Then it goes on to introduce that subjective reality is not equal to the external, objective reality and it must truthfully display subject's various feelings, impression and mood. However, Woolf's subjective reality is the product of western irrational ideological trend, so it inevitably carries some limitations of irrational ideological trend. Woolf's theory includes a kind of exaggeration, that is to say, she exaggerates the differences of the times and discrepancy between the 19th century and the 20' century. While Woolf puts forward her literary theory she forms her own unique creative method. She firstly creates the indirect inner monologue to make the readers easily grasp the connection between the characters' consciousness and the reality. And another uniqueness of her novels is to employ concrete objects to symbolize abstract ideas.Chapter Two tries to explore the subjective reality reflected by Mrs. Dalloway. The complicated political, economic, military and cultural background of the 20th century brings up modern literature's displaying the characters' spiritual crisis and feeling of alienation. In the novel, Woolf goes deep into the mysterious territory of the characters' inner world inlyrical style and shells out layer upon layer the oppression of the characters" souls, their disappointment with life and various morbid psychologies. The heroine Clarissa in the novel does not love her commonplace but promising husband. On the contrary, she hopes to possess Peter's enthusiasm. In order to obtain the quietness of her soul, she meticulously plans the family party. However, the failure of the party makes her weak soul hidden by her enthusiastic and optimistic appearance unable to sustain her belief for life any longer.Obviously, "embrace in death" only reflects the sub consciousness of the heroine who is eager to free herself in a distorted way. Another hero Septimus bears the severe hurt caused by the war to his soul. The bleeding massacre deprives him of his normal reason. He cannot stand that his human dignity is insulted, but he has no ability to protect himself and he has to commit suicide by throwing himself out of the window in the end. Another theme that the novel conveys is the feeling of alienation that exists everywhere. Clarissa finds that emotion lacks between her and her husband. It is difficult to communicate with her lover. She and her daughter have nothing in common. She drifts apart from her friends and her relatives day by day. She has hatred for her daughter's tutor. She looks around the desolate world and bewails that she has no one to depend on. Her lamentation fully transmits the indifference and loneliness of modern society.Chapter Three attempts to explore the objective reality refracted from the novel. Woolf thinks that first of all the novel is about man and man can't exist independently without the social environment. Man's consciousness refle...