What role do friendships play in Virginia Woolf novels, particularly
The Waves and Mrs. Dalloway?

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Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 31 Oct 2002 01:25 PST

Are you looking for ideas/help to get you started? Or do you want an essay?

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Clarification of Question by triciagibney-ga on 31 Oct 2002 05:23 PST

I'm writing a paper on friendship in these two books.  I think I'm
just looking for thoughts on how Woolf uses friends and friendship. 
My own thoughts are 1) following WWI women and men (post-Victorian)
were friends for the first time on a broad social context meaning her
thoughts and books would be accepted, 2) in Mrs. Dollaway we see her
seeking friends (Richard and to a certain extent Sally) who allow her
to be herself and rejecting those who don't (Peter) and 3) in The
Waves all six characters are really different facites of friendship. 
I think both of these books helped Woolf deal with her own issues
(psychiatric) and expressed (as in MD) what she knew was best for her
(her relationship with Leonard) and allowed her to work through (TW)
her thoughts on how life really played itself out.  So I guess I want
to know if these thoughts make sense or other thoughts on this.  Thank
you.

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Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 14 Nov 2002 03:16 PST

Hello again triciagibney

Thanks for responding to my query - you're obviously off to a good
start with great ideas. I didn't answer this question at first because
I felt uncertain about the characters as facets of friendship in The
Waves. To me, they are more like facets of humanity or aspects of a
single human being.
Now time has gone by, no-one has answered your question and I don't
know where you've got to. Do you still want an answer? If so, would
you be happy with one that concentrated more on 'Mrs. Dalloway'?
I hope you're not disappointed that you didn't get a quicker answer.
Woolf is not the easiest of authors to write about. (Though lots of
people have!)

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Clarification of Question by triciagibney-ga on 14 Nov 2002 05:18 PST

Thanks for your response.  To be honest, I have finished the project
-- it concentrated on Mrs. Dalloway and The Waves.  As you obviously
know, friendships are portrayed very differently in each -- with Mrs.
Dalloway being realistic and The Waves -- well, that's a horse of a
different color as they say.  With much struggle and thought I was
able to write about -- and amazingly enough did very well.  Thanks
again but no need to do anything further on it.