A Study Of The Theme Of Death In Virginia Woolf's Works

This thesis mainly discusses the death theme of Virginia Woolf and her five novels.Through the detailed analysis of the death complex in The Voyage Out,Mrs.Dalloway,Jacob's Room,To the Lighthouse,and The Waves,the author elaborates the alternative expressions of Woolf's public and private selves in her fictitious texts,and reveals her unique understanding of the death and the pressure caused by her tragic life experiences and the patriarchal society,and finally attributes Woolf's suicide to the all the factors mentioned above.This thesis is divided into four chapters:The first chapter briefly accounts the psychological base of the Freud theories used in analyzing Woolf's works.In this part,Freud's theories of personality,daydreaming and death instinct are introduced to interpret her works.Chapter Two focuses on the different forms of death appearing in Woolf's works.There are two forms of death in her works: the natural death and unnatural death.The differences of the forms of death reflected the different mental states of Virginia Woolf.She uses her writing as a way of releasing her depression in life and her works is closely related to her life.Chapter Three elaborates the death complex of the five novels of Virginia Woolf and digs out the reasons behind those expressions.Chapter Four specifies Woolf' s attitude toward death both in her life and in her works.In conclusion,this dissertation,through the analysis of the death complex expressed in Woolf's works and the reality of her suicide,profoundly reveals the fundamental reasons in her irresistible self –depression in her mental life,and how she related the description of death with her mental state.