A Study Of Loss In Jacob’s Room

Jacob s Room is Virginia Woolf’s third novel. Written in a series of episodes, the novel mainly traces a young man named Jacob Flanders from his childhood, through college, love affairs and a trip to Greece, to his untimely death in war. The novel was written in the aftermath of the Great War, and published in1922. The same year witnessed the publication of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and James Joyce’s Ulysses. The three books hand in hand mark the beginning of the peak era of Anglo-American Modernism. However, compared with the works of Woolf’s male contemporaries and her own recognized masterpieces, Jacob s Room fails to catch due critical attention and praise. This thesis aims to interpret Jacob’s Room as a novel of loss both formally and thematically, and disclose Woolf’s philosophy of life and its enlightenment on the contemporary human condition.First, Woolf’s personal loss and collective loss in the modern context are her primary sources to write the book. Her brother Thoby’s death is a heavy blow to Woolf, which gives her an impulse to commemorate him in the novel. Meanwhile, in modern society, people feel increasingly lost, lonely, and alienated, which impels Woolf to lay bare the modern predicament.Second, Woolf breaks the form of the realistic novel and creates a distinct form to express loss. On the one hand, the author abandons conventional plot and offers a fragmentary narration of loss. Disconnected scenes are presented to reflect a chaotic modern world, and an incomplete account of Jacob is given to indicate an incomplete life. On the other hand, Woolf deserts traditional characterization and constructs Jacob as an absent presence by employing negative spaces. Jacob’s presence is frequently canceled out in physical, aural and visual spaces, shaping the central loss of the novel.Third, the theme of loss is unfolded and explored. Modern predicament as loss is reflected in people’s uncertainty about the self and failure of communication with others. Death as the ultimate loss finds its central embodiment on Jacob, whose death is not singular but representative of a generation of young men wiped out in war. With a revelation of the brevity of life and the universality of death by Woolf, Jacob’s death and war losses manifest both significance and triviality. Through the creation of the novel, Woolf copes with loss in real life, achieves her artistic poiesis, and prompts the reader to gain a philosophically co-existence with loss beyond the text.