Last week, we watched 'The Hours', a film based on Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway' in class.
The movie was easily one of the most intriguing movies I've ever seen, and I think I can speak for a good majority of our class.
The one thing that really had me thinking is how Virginia Woolf considers life as death and death as life. Her different outlook on life was condemned as an effect of 'insanity' because it was something others simply could not comprehend, nor accept. Acceptance has been a concept that is growing in its capacity to apply to more and more 'different' behavior. They say that there is a fine line between genius and madness, fascination and obsession, but I believe Virginia Woolf sought to cross the fine line between existing and living. Virginia must have felt out in the open and vulnerable in the deathly quiet atmosphere of the states. She must have found comfort and a sense of life in loud London, drowning out every sound and isolating herself in her own thoughts about things that others would never understand, not that they wouldnt, but that they could not. We are afraid of the things that we do not know and those that we cannot control. However, most of us believe that life can be controlled, to avoid and delay the uncontrollable that is death. Thats why Woolf was diagnosed as 'insane' as a label to control the situation, prescribed medication to alter the situation into something more familiar, more 'normal'. What one does not realize is that Virginia was indeed taking control of her life, through her writing. Her ability to give and take away life from her book characters, to decide what their life revolved around, to decide who was in their life, and how long their life was, gave her control. Just existing for Virginia, probably was never enough, so she sought out life by taking her own.
Of course, it all seems crazy, but what really is 'crazy'? Is it an obsession? An unrealistic ability to do, achieve, know? Is it someone extremely quiet or extremely loud?
Things like life, death, beauty, normalcy, and so much more are subjective and different to different individuals. Virginia had her perception of the world and others had theirs. Whether they were right or wrong- Right or wrong? Isnt right and wrong subjective and different to each their own?
But then again, this is just my perception.
"Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent." - Virginia Woolf
The movie was easily one of the most intriguing movies I've ever seen, and I think I can speak for a good majority of our class.
The one thing that really had me thinking is how Virginia Woolf considers life as death and death as life. Her different outlook on life was condemned as an effect of 'insanity' because it was something others simply could not comprehend, nor accept. Acceptance has been a concept that is growing in its capacity to apply to more and more 'different' behavior. They say that there is a fine line between genius and madness, fascination and obsession, but I believe Virginia Woolf sought to cross the fine line between existing and living. Virginia must have felt out in the open and vulnerable in the deathly quiet atmosphere of the states. She must have found comfort and a sense of life in loud London, drowning out every sound and isolating herself in her own thoughts about things that others would never understand, not that they wouldnt, but that they could not. We are afraid of the things that we do not know and those that we cannot control. However, most of us believe that life can be controlled, to avoid and delay the uncontrollable that is death. Thats why Woolf was diagnosed as 'insane' as a label to control the situation, prescribed medication to alter the situation into something more familiar, more 'normal'. What one does not realize is that Virginia was indeed taking control of her life, through her writing. Her ability to give and take away life from her book characters, to decide what their life revolved around, to decide who was in their life, and how long their life was, gave her control. Just existing for Virginia, probably was never enough, so she sought out life by taking her own.
Of course, it all seems crazy, but what really is 'crazy'? Is it an obsession? An unrealistic ability to do, achieve, know? Is it someone extremely quiet or extremely loud?
Things like life, death, beauty, normalcy, and so much more are subjective and different to different individuals. Virginia had her perception of the world and others had theirs. Whether they were right or wrong- Right or wrong? Isnt right and wrong subjective and different to each their own?
But then again, this is just my perception.
"Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent." - Virginia Woolf
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