Critical Analysis of Stream of Consciousness in Virginia Woolf's to the Lighthouse

Abstract

The stream of consciousness technique discussed in this study is used by Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse. The paper examines the impact of the narrative style on character and subject matter in Woolf's work and its relation to the cultural and historical context of early-twentieth-century England, using modernist literary theory and a close, interpretive reading. The analysis is based on eighteen representative passages, numbered and coded according to focal character, content of the narrative, and type of literary device, and is arranged in a thematic framework which covers seven recurring concerns. The results suggest that Woolf's disjointed associative style of narration creates psychologically realistic characters and foregrounds themes of subjectivity, memory, gender, loss and existential doubt, the latter of which are formally enacted by the post-war modernist disorientation. The study also places Woolf's technique in the context of her contemporaries, including James Joyce and William Faulkner, and suggests that her attention to interiority in the home and free indirect discourse makes her work unique in the modernist canon. Overall, the study demonstrates how Woolf's method plays a key role in the novel's manifestation as a modernist masterpiece and proposes continued study into the psychological impact of the novel upon readers as well as a comparative examination of its treatment in Woolf's other novels.