Night and Day by Virginia Woolf

[Alicia]

Virginia Woolf's Night and Day is a story of four young people at turning points in their intertwined lives. Katharine lives at home with her parents, spending her days mothering a flighty, irresponsible mother. Ralph likewise lives with his family, supporting them and trying to bring them up in the world. Rodney is an aspiring poet and writer who is in love with Katharine, and Mary is a suffragette in love with Ralph.<br> At heart this story is about each of these people struggling against the roles that society has set out for them. Each of them have moments of crisis where they question the paths their lives are taking. While sometimes this is clearly an external struggle, they also have to fight their own internalization of society's values. Thus for example, when Mary thinks about Ralph, she gets distracted from her feminist suffragette work and starts to think romantic, directionless thoughts instead.<br> The theme of individual freedom and independence from society is very well explored: each of these young people go after what they want, and get it in the end. However, Woolf makes this point at the expense of her feminist views: by the end of the book, each of the women have subjugated themselves to a man, either for love or for money. Perhaps Woolf was trying to make the point that no matter how modern her world had become (in the early part of the last century) a woman's best shot at freedom was still to attach herself to one man. But on the other hand, the end of this novel is so reminiscent of novels of an earlier era, where a happy ending is brought about by the marriage (or at least engagement) of one or more couples.<br> All in all, I was rather disappointed with this book, for knowing Woolf's feminist views, and considering the promising beginning of the book, I was expecting a much different ending. In fact, the book seems very uneven in this regard, and lacking in coherence.

[EdParkes]

Interesting...

.. but I feel that one of the reasons why Woolf's 'feminism' irritates you is because you don't fully understand how she feels about it. Leaving aside the fact that feminism is an umbrella term which covers a huge number of extremely disparate movements and ideas.... Early 20th century feminism was not about completely changing the world and woman's place in it over night, it acknowledged that the changes would have to be slow, and Woolf lived within a context where the changes were at a very much less advanced stage than they are now. The Marrying-happily-ever-after may seem like a cop-out... but you're forgetting how much each woman has achieved. Katherine has an education, and an extensive one, in an era in which the voice of the Victorian scientist (Professor X in A Room of One's Own?) maintains quite seriously that:academia undermines a woman's fertility; women have smaller brains and are temperamentally unsuited to thought. Let us not forget Victorian religion, or the social biases of the time either. Mary Dachet is likewise, a paragon of feminism... Woolf laments in A Room of One's Own, and then caustically criticises in Three Guineas, the masculine, patriarchal society in which women are compelled to find financial independece through marriage... but it is a fact of life, and there is no benefit to be gained by smashing one's head against an impenetrable wall. At least the protagonists find themselves sympathetic husbands, so that they may continue their work at their lesiure. They *are* women empowered, despite the apparent conventionality of their marriage arrangements in today's terms.

[curlyqlink]

I too was sort of surprised by the "happy ending" of the novel. It didn't seem like it was headed that way, it spent so much time emphasizing the near-impossibility of people ever communicating to each other what they mean. Or of even knowing themselves what they feel, what they want.

I didn't get the sense however that Woolf was betraying her feminist ideals. Firstly because I don't believe the book was intended to make that kind of social statement. Katherine wasn't a feminist, Mary was. They each had their own ways of dealing with the world. Mary continued her work, her social reform activism. She got what she wanted, that was her happy ending. Katherine married Ralph, so she too got what she wanted. And I find it hard to see how Katherine is "subjugating" herself to Ralph by marrying him; she pretty much pulls the strings in the relationship.

Katherine was not particularly interested in social reform. Since she is the main character in the novel, I supposed this can be seen as slighting the Votes for Women movement. Katherine found the whole business of activism alien and strange, even a little comical. She was however willing to experiment with the idea of open marriage, and chafed against the conventions of society, and ran into her father's (ineffectual and sometimes comical) attempts at masculine authority as head of household. It soon became clear, however, that it was Katherine's supposedly dotty mother who held the reins. That was a delightful surprise! It left me with the strong impression that masculine authority was going to be little in evidence in the Ralph/Katherine marriage.

[Melmoth]

Some thoughts on the novel...

I've just finished reading the novel and to me it's turned out to be a bit disappointing.
My impression when beginning the reading where like "Well, let's see how Woolf deals with love affairs from a Modernist point of view" but the truth is that as I read through some of the first chapters I got the sense that it had to be one of her first novels -indeed, it's her second novel as I later found out- thus stylistically it's quite far away from, let's say, the inner worlds described in 'To the Lighthouse'...
I must declare that by the end of the book, leaving aside some passages, I've concluded that one could take this text and, ignoring its author, think it could have been by some J. Austen... for instance... not to mention the already mentioned happy ending... though, to tell the truth, to what extent is it happy? In terms of reward/punishment, Mary doesn't get rewarded with love due to her feminist condition... is that what she really wnats? To remain a spinster??? On the other hand, in spite of her half-way rebellion against social conventions, esp. against his father and what the others might think of her, the shallow would -be-mathematician Katharine is rewarded with Ralph...
"Rewarded with Ralph" I said? Aren't the male chraracters in the novel described as mere objects at times???? I think so... It must be a matter of feminism....