The Waves - Virginia Woolf

Hi everyone,

I've just finished writing a long and interesting essay on The Waves, and in studying the text there was a section which particularly interested me. It's the second paragraph of Bernard's first soliloquy after Percival's death, and it seems to be particularly fragmentary, very much a stream of consciousness:

Quote:

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‘Oh yes, I can assure you, men in felt hats and women carrying baskets—you have lost something that would have been very valuable to you. You have lost a leader whom you would have followed; and one of you has lost happiness and children. He is dead who would have given you that. He lies on a camp-bed, bandaged, in some hot Indian hospital while coolies squatted on the floor agitate those fans—I forget how they call them. But this is important; “You are well out of it,” I said, while the doves descended over the roofs and my son was born, as if it were a fact. I remember, as a boy, his curious air of detachment. And I go on to say (my eyes fill with tears and then are dry), “But this is better than one had dared to hope.” I say, addressing what is abstract, facing me eyeless at the end of the avenue, in the sky, “Is this the utmost you can do?” Then we have triumphed. You have done your utmost, I say, addressing that blank and brutal face (for he was twenty-five and should have lived to be eighty) without avail. I am not going to lie down and weep away a life of care. (An entry to be made in my pocket-book; contempt for those who inflict meaningless death.) Further, this is important; that I should be able to place him in trifling and ridiculous situations, so that he may not feel himself absurd, perched on a great horse. I must be able to say, “Percival, a ridiculous name.” At the same time let me tell you, men and women, hurrying to the tube station, you would have had to respect him. You would have had to form up and follow behind him. How strange to oar one’s way through crowds seeing life through hollow eyes, burning eyes.

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Out of context, it probably looks like usual Virginia Woolf, but i think this is one of the more unique passages in The Waves.

Thoughts?

My first impression was that it must be well into the book as it's quite long. I love the second half or the book or so when it's one long, elegant passage after another. I know, from reading biographies and her letters and diaries, that this book took a lot out of her, but I thank her for what she had to sacrifice in regard to mental health and time to read this book.