By Backseat Betty

As an inspirational writer of prose fiction, using lyrical imagery of her own style, Virginia Woolf shone as a major modernist and feminist luminary during the early 1900s. Her work embodied the classic example of what Modern English literature strove to achieve. Riddled with interior monologues and stream of consciousness narration, she encouraged both men and women to look within themselves and find a deeper meaning within their own personal identity and within their own personal relationships. Frequently she addressed social concerns of the time, including the position of women in society, and advocated the illustration of women’s unique experiences. Her reading is uncanonical, literary-cum-historical and, feeling somehow obscure herself, she takes a lively interest in obscurities (Woolf, Common, 13). Woolf’s unparallel style of writing can be seen in “The Mark on the Wall,” where her informal and playful tone are largely apparent and which helped her to achieve a reflection of the “real” and how to capture that view of the world in her works. She had an overriding concern for the need for a new aesthetics as the traditional narrative form was inadequate in the attempt to describe the unobserved world; literature was, therefore, in need of new forms for new sensations (Woolf, Crowded, 7) and Woolf believed she had the aptitude to demonstrate it.

It’s clear to see the path Woolf draws out for us in her short story as mimicking the way in which we encounter things in our own daily life. The mark on the wall awakens her imagination to introspection, “how readily our thoughts swarm upon a new object, lifting it a little way, as ants carry a blade of straw feverishly, and then leave it” (Woolf, Norton, 2082). One idea leads to the next, which bleeds into the next, and so forth, much like our own internal thought processes behave. Woolf moves away from the use of plot and structure (Merriman) as we see the narrator stumbling along and struggling to maintain grasp of her own thoughts, “Where was I? What has it all been about? A tree? A river? The Downs? Whitaker’s Almanack? The fields of asphodel? I can’t remember a thing. Everything’s moving, falling, slipping, vanishing. . . “ (Woolf, Norton, 2086). Thoughts interrupt each other and her mind strays, analyzing the rapidity of living life just as her rapid thoughts fold onto one another, “Yes, that seems to express the rapidity of life, the perpetual waste and repair; all so casual, all so haphazard. . . “ (Woolf, Norton, 2083). The speculation of what the mark on the wall could be proves the story’s nearly plotless experimentation into which develops detailed musings on the nature of life, history, and writing.

Fragmented viewpoints show a dislocation of rearranged order that takes the reader for a spin, becoming swept up in the flourish of “thinking in the moment.” We’re taken on this ride and join the narrator while she digresses from one topic to another. Woolf’s free-flowing, yet comprehensible, perspective is undeniably a tribute to Modern writing, perfecting the single person point of view that spirals off into countless directions.

The story goes on to question the reality of the world and, therefore, nobody really knows what reality is. As time goes on, society isn’t sure what it considers real, as one idea will eventually be replaced by another, “What now takes the place of those things I wonder, those real standard things?” (Woolf, Norton, 2084). The narrator is brought to the ultimate conclusion that nothing is ever known or can be known, leading into the question of whether or not knowledge is useful, “No, no, nothing is proved, nothing is known. And if I were to get up at this very moment and ascertain that the mark on the wall is really – . . . what should I gain? – Knowledge? Matter for further speculation?. . . And what is knowledge?” (Woolf, Norton, 2085). Woolf pursued a different kind of realism, i.e., a realism of emotion, rather than surface, what it feels like from the inside of the mind in the process of the deconstruction of the meaning of reality.

The final descent of the story itself ends quite abruptly, lacking any rising or falling action, no climax, barely even a beginning or ending. She believed in the momentary insight, the sudden recognition, a property of conversation (and of poetry) (Woolf, Common, 11). The conclusion that it is just a snail on the wall seems unsatisfying at first until its realized that Woolf was successful in her attempt to portray what is really important in life. It’s not the snail or the mark on the wall that matters; it’s the internal perceptions of each individual that truly define reality. The goal of the entire work was to “arouse emotions which are usually dormant, to evoke our latent perception of things and enable us to grasp their imaginative significance” (Woolf, Crowded, 4). What is important within the story is the attention being paid to the digressions of the narrator, spending time following her through her thoughts on history, reality, society, art, writing, and life itself, “. . . and if you can’t be comforted, if you must shatter this hour of peace, think of the mark on the wall” (Woolf, Norton, 2086). Focusing on the “thing” itself makes an immediate impact and it creates clear images that engage and involve the reader, making the art of the prose happen by itself. Woolf writes: “If he [the writer] could base his work upon his own feeling and not upon convention, there would be no plot, no comedy, no tragedy, no love interest or catastrophe in the accepted style” (Woolf, Crowded, 9).

This story defines the Modern literary techniques that incorporate a break away from conventional fiction and experimenting with a gradual development of individual style. Disengaging from social conventions and challenging tradition in writing, served as a form of separating out the individual. Only the protagonist’s thoughts serve as the only real “action” in the story, while she appears to be in a contemplative daydream. Woolf held that Modern fiction should find a way to reveal the unobserved world, “the flickerings of that innermost flame which flashes its messages through the brain” (Woolf, Crowded, 11). Employing interior monologue, detailing poetic narratives, depicting the perceptions of the human mind, and embodying a highly impressionistic style makes Virginia Woolf one of the major figures of Modern literature, with “The Mark on the Wall” showcasing all of her prime techniques culminating in the focus of every minute physical detail.

Works Cited

Merriman, C. D. “Virginia Woolf.” The Literature Network. Ed. Jalic Inc. 2007. 20 May. 2008 <http://www.online-literature.com/virginia_woolf/>.

Woolf, Virginia. The Common Reader: Volume 1. London: Vintage 2003.

Woolf, Virginia. The Crowded Dance of Modern Life. Penguin Books, 1993.

Woolf, Virginia. “The Mark on the Wall.” Norton Anthology of English Literature. Fifth Edition, Volume Two. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986. 2082-2087