An Analysis Of Victorian Complex In Virginia Woolf’s Fictions

Born and educated in a typical Victorian family, well-known as one of the most classical writers in British literary world, Virginia Woolf is nowadays taken into a tight attention on her complicated relationship with the past Victorian World, in which both conservative and radical elements have been represented in her creating. On the basis of the previous studies, this thesis explores Woolf’s Victorian complex in her literary creation by analyzing her two representative modernist novels:Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.Woolf articulates her complicated affection for the Victorian era in the above two fictions. The successful characterization vividly explores how profound and prolonged influence of the Victorian world which Woolf is born into and developed from, effects her literary creation. In the two novels, the women characters, especially "the hostesses" in Victorian domestic practice have been elaborately discussed, and their ingenious skill in the Victorian domesticity has been drawn to women’s creative power in artistic field.My first chapter takes an elaborate discussion of Woolf’s engagement with the Victorian world; her family, literary forebears are included. The second chapter probes into Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, claiming Woolf’s Victorian complex can be recognized in her characterization, structure-formation and text details. The last chapter explores Woolf’s cognition and reflection on Victorian women and their domestic life under the four headings---"The Rhythm of Women Knitting","The Dinner Party of the Hostess","The Victorian Angel of the House" and "The Reversibility of Victorian Domesticity". The thesis ultimately arrives at the conclusion that Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse work as good examples to help reflect Woolf’s subtle affection for the Victorian and combine her Victorian complex with her literary career.