Monday, June 23, 2008
Virginia Woolf
After reading Virginia Woolf's biography, I realized she had a very troubling childhood. She had so many breakdowns, I guess she just couldn't take it anymore and decided to take her own life. In her writing, "The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A reflection," I believe she was actually speaking about her own reflection, or her life's experiencing may have influenced her greatly in this piece of work. For me this story was quite vague, and I was not quite sure what Woolf was talking about. She first talks about a mirrow and the place where the mirror was located. Then she finally introduces Isabella Tyson, a rich woman, who seemed to have all the riches of the world. Although she had all these nice possessions, as she looked into the mirror, "she stood naked in that pitiless light. And there was nothing. Isabella was perfectly empty." she may have all the riches in the world, but it does not buy happiness. Woolf may have been searching for peace and happiness within herself for so long, and it may have helped her to write how she was feeling about herself in this story.
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Thao,
You certainly select a challenging story (or essay, or whatever genre it belongs to) to discuss! I don't think you are on the right track at the start, though. Woolf (if she is the narrator, which is a claim that needs support) is not describing her own reflection, but that, as you say later, of Isabella Beeton. More than that, though, she is discussing the whole process by which we create and project onto others our assumptions about them, which have little connection to reality.
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