Virginia Woolf’s Temporal Representation Of Reality In To The Lighthouse

One of the most compelling and problematic paradoxes of human existence is the concept of reality, which people endeavor to perceive and represent. Our perception of time changes with the way in which we perceive the world. Writers show their ideas oi’ time and reality through literary works. Virginia Woolf explores a new perception of psychological reality, which is different from traditional writers; the latter ones celebrate the idea of objective reality. Besides, she seeks new narrative tools in novels in order to represent her idea. This paper will study her perception of reality, explore how she represents it in her novel To the Lighthouse, and examines the association between her idea with Henri Bergson’s life philosophy.The Introduction offers a sketch of Virginia Woolf and her work To the Lighthouse. This part also briefly presents the previous studies both at home and abroad, and the thesis statement. As each age has its own method of seeing and understanding reality, the temporal representation in To the Lighthouse is rooted in a long history of ideas. Chapter one focuses on the development of perception of reality and time and manifests how they are represented in literary works. This chapter highlights three representative perceptions of reality and time from ancient Greece to modern times and selects three literary works accordingly to find out their interactions.Time’s significant role in To the Lighthouse partly owes to the general development in people’s understanding of the world. But more importantly, it is decided by Virginia Woolf’s perception of temporal reality. Chapter two closely examines Woolf’s perception of psychological reality, and investigates the temporal representation in To the Lighthouse. In her opinion, reality is characterized by changeability, internal exploration, and multiplicity. By distinguishing mind time from clock time, she finds out the close link between mind time and the reality she pursues. In order to meet her goal, Woolf adopts new narrative skills in her novels, such as controlling the narrative speed, stream of consciousness, internal focalization and so on, which are embodied in To the Lighthouse.Virginia Woolf’s understanding of reality and perception of time are affinitive to Henri Bergson’s life philosophy. Bergson’s theory of duration coincides with Woolf’s perception of psychological reality. They both resort to individual’s psychological world to seek reality. Besides, Bergson examines the close relationship between time and duration in his monograph, a view shared by Woolf as well. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf shows the importance of memory through her own past and that of the characters. The third resemblance lies in their preference for the method of intuition. Bergson is opposed to rationality, and he regards intuition as the only method in order to understand reality. Woolf does not show her idea explicitly, instead, she implies her attitude through characterization in novels. Despite the fact that their ideas have a lot in common, they express their thoughts in different ways. Bergson offers a systematic analysis on his theory while Woolf conveys her views mainly through her characterization and novels. Chapter three shows that Bergson’s life philosophy can, to some degree, theorize what Woolf represents in her novels.To conclude, the temporal representation in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is a product of the interaction of the long literary development and Woolf’s own exploration. The unconventional representation in To the Lighthouse is closely connected with Woolf’s perception of psychological reality.