Virginia Woolf

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

her own standards" (Bond 39). With the death of her mother Woolf used her novel, To the Lighthouse to "reconstruct and preserve" the memories that still remained. According to Woolf, "the character of Mrs. Ramsey in To the Lighthouse was modeled entirely upon that of her mother" (Bond 27). This helped Virginia in her closure when dealing with the loss and obsession with her mother.
Although Virginia clung to the relationship with her mother, she favored her father, Leslie Stephen. Virginia resembled her father uncannily in character traits, in her writing and self-doubts, in her great and malicious sense of humor, in her marriage, in her frugality, in her fear of aging, and in her social consciousness. (Bond 59) They were both extremely outspoken while sparing no one's feelings with their comments. Virginia and Leslie both had strong personalities and rapid mood changes. Woolf portrayed her father, like her mother, through characterization in To the Lighthouse. Mr. Ramsey ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

out, and wants to die� I shall do my best to ruin my constitution before I get to this age, so as to die quicker� I can not bear to become the wretch my father became when he reached my stage of life. (Bond 62).

Virginia had great difficulties writing towards that end, and she feared her work would only continue to worsen with age. At the age of fifty-nine on the eve of her birthday, Virginia drowned herself. Her father's death did not solely influence her suicide, but her identification with him was so strong that he was "instrumental in her choice of death" (Bond 62).

While Virginia Woolf's parents contributed greatly to her unstable life, her husband, Leonard, took ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: