A Study Of The Features Of Music In Virginia Woolf's The Waves

Virginia Woolf(1882-1941) is a great female writer of the 20^th century in England.The success that she made in literary creation is outstanding and she is both a representative of stream-of-consciousness and a forerunner of Western Feminist. Being a novelist,she completed 9 novels and caught the world's attention.Researches concerning her and her works have never been ceased.However.one of her conspicuous musical aspects has not been fully recognized.When the study comes to the musicality in her novels,there are only a few articles and sparse monographs.Against such a background,the present study is significant in three aspects:firstly,it helps recognize the means by which Woolf injected musical elements into the fiction:secondly,it helps reconsider the relationship between the fiction and music:finally,it eventually helps shed some light on the potentiality of the future of the novel.On the basis of the previous studies and critical researches,this paper concentrates on the means of musical elements assimilated into Woolf's The Waves.It explicates the application musical forms in her musicalized novel and gives a detailed analysis of leitmotif,then analyzes the functions of contents concerning music in this novel,and finally touches on the rhythmical language in The Waves.This paper is composed of a general introduction,five main-body parts and a conclusion.Chapter One is about Virginia Woolf and her novels.Then it looks back on the current literature on The Waves both at home and abroad.Lastly,it points out the significance of the study of musical features in The Waves.Chapter Two presents the historical origin and the development of musicalized novels,and then focuses on Woolf's means of attaining musical elements in The Waves.Chapter Three demonstrates the symphonic structure influencing The Waves.To achieve the effect of symphonic structure.Woolf simultaneously uses italics as interlude,polyphonic narration and sonata form.Each italic corresponds to each stage of the six friends' life from childhood to old age and well functions as the interlude to each chapter of this symphony of life.Polyphonic narration has allowed six lines of consciousness to fuse into others and complement and develop parallelly with each other,giving the effect of simultaneity.The application of sonata form gives the symmetrical beauty to The Waves and helps to exhibit its complicated theme of life and death,which is contradictory as well as unified.Chapter Four deals with the leitmotif in this musicalized novel.The concept leitmotif is defined in terms of musicology.Leitmotif can be classified into two kinds:the leitmotif of character and leitmotif of theme.The repeated use of leitmotif has created a cyclical effect and made the characters more typical and impressive.And leitmotif also helps to unify the theme of the whole novel. Chapter Five proceeds to argue that contents concerning music function in her writing. They can be used to create the atmospheres fitting the text,or to delineate the characters.Chapter Six goes on to analyze the rhythmical language in The Waves. Through skillful command of regular rhythm and harmonious rhyme of language and use of repetition.Woolf endowed her novel with rhythmic beauty.Chapter Seven summarizes the main results of this paper,namely.Woolf borrowed musical elements from the perspectives of musical forms,of leitmotif,of contents concerning music,of repetition,and of rhythm and rhyme and other musical factors.She brings some novelty to the novel,revealing the potential of the novel.It concludes that Woolf's literary practice to imbue the novel with musicality prophesies one tendency for the novelists to strive for.