Virginia Woolf’s Feminism In Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway is one of the most representative feminist works of Virginia Woolf. This paper explores the feminist factors in this book based on Woolf’s feminism theory.The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is the general introduction to the life of Virginia Woolf including her growing environment, by summarizing Woolf’s study in Western countries and in China in recent years. By doing so I intend to illustrate how far Western and Chinese Woolf scholars have gone in the field. Reasons are provided why author chooses Mrs. Dalloway as the very novel for this thesis, and an overview of researches is also given on this novel by introducing the background and plot of this novel. Chapter two is literature review which includes the definition of feminism, development of feminism and theories of Virginia Woolf’s characteristic point of view on feminism. Virginia Woolf is a self-conscious female writer, with her feminine thought systematically expressed in her theory and creation practice, in her critique and construction as well. She attaches more importance to spiritual construction of females themselves, by extending women desire from sole material to spiritual layers. She emphasizes harmony and coexistence between male and female instead of laying one-sided stress on opposition and difference between two. Chapter three discusses the way that feminists intend to fight against and subvert the masculine suppression. The paper offers an illustration on masculine suppression suppressing Mrs. Dalloway and others who had the same concerns. So Woolf argues that feminists should pursue equal social status and receive education from school to improve their self-conciseness in politics, economics and culture. Moreover, the value of the society is questioned on what it demands of a woman and how to improve their status. Chapter four analyses the themes from the perspective of feminism by exploring the topics of death, freedom and war. Chapter five is the conclusion of the thesis. In this chapter, findings and suggestion for the future study is made.