Virginia Woolf: A Novelist Who Expressed Female Sensibilities

In her essay "Professions for Women", Virginia Woolf said, "These were two of the adventures of my professional life. The first梜illing the Angel in the House桰 think I solved. She died. But the second, telling the truth about my own experiences as a body, I do not think I solved. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet."As a great English novelist, Virginia Woolf is not only a precursor of the modernist stream梠f梒onsciousness novels, but also a spokeswoman of the feminist novels. Female sensibilities are woven in nearly all of her major works, such as To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, and Orlando, etc. The passage in "Professions for Women" could be conceived as Virginia Woolf's life條ong search for expressing the female sensibilities in her novels. Everyone who is interested in Virginia Woolf and her literary works should not ignore the search. Therefore, the following thesis is aimed at analyzing Virginia Woolf's expression of female sensibilities from biographical and literary perspectives. The thesis is composed of five parts:Part One focuses on analyzing the experiences of Laura and Stella, the two half sisters of Virginia Woolf. The experiences of the two sisters reveal that the Victorian patriarchal family pattern and the inherent evil embodied in the family pattern are the cause of the tragic endings of the female figures in the family. With a deep sense of this, Virginia Woolf endeavors to expressthe female sensibilities in her novels.Part Two traces the female literature tradition and Virginia Woolfs position in this tradition, thus pointing out that it is Virginia Woolfs duty as a representative figure in a period of literary transition from the Feminist phase to the Female phase that makes her to engage in expressing the female sensibilities in her novels.Part Three makes a detailed analysis of Mrs. Ramsay, the image of "the Angel in the House" and Lily Briscoe, who kills the image of "the Angel in the House". The analysis shows Virginia Woolfs endeavor in expressing the female sensibilities in her novels.By examining homosexual act of Virginia Woolf and the representation of such act in her novels, particularly in Mrs. Dalloway, Part Four focuses on Virginia Woolfs expressing the female sensibilities through "telling the truth about my own experiences as a body."Part Five is about the androgynous vision advocated by Virginia Woolf, who holds that effective expression of the female sensibilities and true artistic creation can only be realized by a writer who has androgynous vision.