Themes and Issues

Abstract

The above sections will have given you the bare bones of the novel. You should now think about some of the issues which Woolf intends to raise by writing a novel lacking in a central narrative voice which will guide the reader’s responses to the characters. Firstly, she wants to show that all experience is subjective: each of the characters perceives life in a different way because each has had different experiences. Secondly, the reader is constantly asked to attend to ideas about human personality being fluid rather than fixed. As we know from our own experience, our behaviour with our friends is not the same as our behaviour with parents, teachers, or those that we are trying to impress in some way.