The Pursuit And Suspicion On The State Of Loss

Due to the special historical background in the twentieth century, "self" was one of the question that attracts most attention among writers, philosophers, psychologists. As one of the most influential writers in the west of twentieth century, Virginia Woolf expressed her deep concern on the question of "true self" in her works. From the consciousness of loss of self, to the engagement of self-exploration, and to the suspicion of uncertainty, Woolf appeared to us her complicated knowledge on this topic.This body of paper is mainly divided into three parts. Chapter one, is to illustrate Woolf's worriment on the loss of self from three parts. First, from the analysis of personae such as Clarissa, we realize that self always wanders between the illusive social identity and full inner self, and so that, bear the uneasiness and suffering brought by this conflict. Then, the analysis of character Septimus, well illustrate that the extremity of loss of self will result in Self-splitting. Finally, alongside with feminist thought, Woolf held the conception of "women's loss of self under the patriarchal system" in her works.Chapter two is to study Woolf's self-exploration in her works. On one hand, from the feelings of important moments, character gets the sense of exist, and then gets the affirmation of true sate of life. On the other, only if the emotion and reason co-exist, that is, on the state of androgyny, can one personality avoids insularity, and gets into the integral self. Yet these efforts fail to attain the true self eventually.Chapter three, the experience of mystery of universe and the feeling of peace under the fusion of self and universe, reveal the elemental mystery brings along mysterious self and then leads to the uncertainty. Also, in her most works, Woolf was fascinated and frustrated by the power and limitations of the language. Combined with modern linguistics to the critique of language, we found, as language cannot sufficiently refer to a true meaning, true self also cannot be successfully constructed.