On Virginia Woolf’s Ecological Awareness In The Waves

Virginia Woolf was regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of20th century. Throughout her life, she has created so many talented works, such as Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, A Room of One s Own and The Waves. Many critics viewed The Waves as her most gifted work, representing the pinnacle of her art life. Exactly speaking, this book is more a prose poem than a novel, although it is universally regarded as a novel. It not only embodies Woolf s unconventional narrative skills, but also reflects her ecological awareness.Woolf lived in an age of chaos and anxiety. At the beginning of20th century, capitalism developed faster into imperialism which caused the world war, the damage of nature, and the tension of human relations. Under such circumstances, she paid much attention to the existence of human beings in that time. Generally speaking, her ecological awareness in The Waves can be summarized as a pursuit for harmony and balance of ecology from three aspects:natural, social and spiritual ecology. She has explored a series of relationships, such as the relationships between human and nature, individual and society as wells as spirit and nature. Among those relationships, the relationship between human and nature is fundamental and crucial. In Woolf’s opinion, only when human beings handle all those relationships well and make them balanced can they live harmonious and happy lives. The ecological thinking of Woolf coincides with the ideas of ecocriticism, a new form of literary criticism. Thus, based on this theory, the thesis aims to explore Woolf’s ecological awareness from the above three aspects. Accordingly, the whole thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter one mainly probes into nature, human and the relationship between them. As for the relationship, there can be two opposite views in general:ecocentrism, which is nature-centered, regarding human as a part of nature; anthropocentrism, which is human-centered and regards human as the master of nature. It is obvious that Woolf supports the former one. In The Waves, she believes that human being is part of nature and should follow the rules of nature, like the rise and fall of the waves. The life of human being accords with the rhythm of nature. Besides, human and nature can co-exist harmoniously. Human beings can merge into nature. However, such harmony between human and nature is to some extent disturbed by human behaviors. There are also conflicts between them. One of those conflicts lies in human’s damage to nature. Although Woolf advocates the nature-centered views, it does not mean that she denies human’s creativity. Human beings are not slaves of nature. They can make use of nature and create their life in nature.Chapter two mainly analyzes social ecology in The Waves. As a relatively independent part of biological chain, human beings themselves also encounter with the problems of ecological balance. Faced with those problems, social ecologist aims to construct a harmonious society. This chapter mainly discusses the social crises represented in The Waves from the aspects of industrial civilization, the British Empire and the relationship between individual and society. Firstly, Woolf s attitudes towards modern civilization are dialectic. She recognizes the bright side of it, but denounces the dark side, such as environmental pollution. Then, her ironic critique of the British Empire is analyzed mainly through the death of Percival, the silent character in The Waves.. Finally, individual’s attitudes towards society are presented. Through analysis, it’s clear that Woolf is sensitive about social crises in her time and dreams of social harmony.Chapter three explores spiritual ecological crises of the characters in The Waves. The imbalance of natural and social ecology must lead to that of spiritual ecology. Therefore, spiritual ecology is supposed to be in the scope of ecocriticism. In a time of anxiety, a great many people suffer from various crises in spirit. Spiritual crises in The Waves mainly lie in two aspects:the loss of self and the confusion about the meaning of life. With Rhoda and Bernard as representatives, Woolf reveals the spiritual crises that people may encounter at that time. At the same time, Woolf also implies the approaches to solve those problems, one of which is to return to nature. Nature is the best healer.In sum, Woolf’s writing of The Waves demonstrates her prescient awareness of ecology. Her ecological awareness can be concluded as the pursuit of balance and harmony of natural, social and spiritual ecology. The three aspects are interdependent and interrelated. Woolf’s ecological wisdom is conducive to solving ecological problems nowadays.