Postmodern Philosophical Themes in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves
A Summary of The Waves
The Waves is composed in 1931 and it can be considered as Woolf’s most experimental work. In the incidents in The Waves have gone through six different characters; three men (Bernard, Neville and Louis) and three women (Jinny, Rhoda and Susan). Bernard is thoughtful, Neville is meditative and he focused on beauty which turns him a poet and Louis’ character is a combination of Bernard and Neville. He possesses the practical aspect of those characteristics. Jinny is more interested in social issues whereas Rhoda is more tend to imagination rather than real life. Susan is attached to the nature.
In the The Waves, there are nine different sections which represent different phases of the six characters’ lives. The first section describes their childhood and the memories of the school. The second section deals with the adolescence and their lives in the boarding school. The third section is about understanding themselves better and the fourth section describes a dinner party which all the characters get together. Particularly, fifth and sixth sections deal with their learning of death and they settle into their lives even better. The seventh section describes their middle age. In the eighth section the friends meet again. Ninth section is also about the more personal relationships. Although this shows that this novel has written an orderly manner which is obviously a characteristic of modern literature, in The Waves the six characters are disconnected from each other and isolated from each other which is apparently a characteristic of postmodern literature.
Postmodern Themes in The Waves
In postmodern literature themes like non-linearity, incoherence, fragmentation, multiplicity, multiple truths, multiple forms and functions, free play, discontinuity, fluidity, pastiche, uncertainty, multiple selves, obliteration of meta-narratives and inter-textuality can be traced in the Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Although she has written this book in 1931 (before postmodernism emerged), she has been a precursor of postmodernism as it has included postmodern themes. The postmodernist themes that can be identified in The Waves can be discussed as follows.
Woolf has created six different characters which express the multiple narratives. But the transition of one narrative to the other narrative has not been indicated. Through the six characters, Woolf has expressed six versions of narratives and six versions of realities.
There is no absolute truth in post modernism according to Paul Feyerabend, the only absolute truth that can be seen in postmodernism is that there are no absolute truths. And there are only multiple truths. The characters of The Waves are isolated with their own truths which are overlapping with the truths of others. The way that Jinny and Rhoda perceive the outside world is a good example of multiple truths that can be seen in The Waves. Rhoda perceives the outside world as a cruel one, whereas Jinny sees it as a friendly one. Rhoda knew that there are multiple truths instead of one absolute truth. In the beginning, she says, ‘I am left alone to find an answer. The others are handing in their answers, one by one. Now it is my turn. But I have no answer’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 15). Absence of meaning is one of the characteristics of postmodern literature. Rhoda has understood this and says in the beginning of the book as ‘The figures mean nothing now. The meaning has gone’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 15).
The six characters represent multiplicity. Neville focused on order and beauty whereas Louis experiences insecurity. Jinny is interested in physicality; satisfaction of physical drives. Rhoda’s character is emphasized as a dreamlike abstraction from ordinary life. Susan is defined with her dissatisfaction of the modern industrially changed society. Bernard draws reader’s attention to the changing nature of the multiplicity. he says, ‘I changed and changed; was Hamlet, was Shelley, was the hero, whose name I now forget, of a novel by Dostoevsky; was for a whole term, incredibly, Napoleon; but was Byron Chiefly’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 177).
Uncertainty and the unknowability of the self can be defined as postmodern characteristics. Postmodernism opposed with scientific method because the scientific method searches for certainty. Uncertainty and the unknowability of the self can be seen in the character of the Bernard. He says,
‘There are many rooms-many Bernards. There was the charming, but weak; the strong, but supercilious; the brilliant, but remorseless; the very good fellow, but I make no doubt, the awful bore; the sympathetic, but cold; the shabby, but- go in to the next room- the foppish, worldly, and too well dressed. What I was to myself was different; was none of these’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 184).
This shows that Bernard posses many selves. It leads to a plurality. In postmodern literature, there can be recognized a transition from epistemology to ontology. In The Waves, it is possible to find various types of ontological aspects that are both uncertain and unknowable of the self. Bernard stressed it as ‘I am not one and simple, but complex and many’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 55). Anthony Giddens has mentioned in his book Modernity and Self Identity that postmodernism is pluralistic. Bernard’s character shows that pluralistic characteristic of postmodernism.
The obliteration of metanarratives is one of the main characteristic of postmodernism. Lyotard rejects grand narratives because it could mislead people. According to him, the contemporary world needs micro narratives. He defines postmodernism in his book The Postmodern Condition as ‘incredulity towards metanarratives’. In The Waves, the death of the grand narratives has been symbolically mentioned. Percival is the symbolical metanarrative in The Waves. Percival is the only character which is not revealed both to the reader and to other characters. It is an unapproachable character in the book. Louis says, ‘Yet it is Percival I need; for it is Percival who inspires poetry’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 29). However, the death of grand narratives can be identified in the death of the Percival. It has been mentioned that, ‘he fell. His horse tripped. He was thrown’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 107).
Postmodern characters are defined as unstable, commonness and inaccuracy. Although The Waves is written in 1931 (years before postmodernism emerged), the six characters in The Waves is also a reflection of postmodern characters. Bernard is in an ontological dilemma. He searches his identity among others. He says, ‘And now I ask, ‘who am I?’ I have been talking of Bernard, Jinny, Susan, Rhoda and Louis. Am I all of them? Am I one and distinct?’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 205). Then he comes to know that he is a representation of many selves. He finally accepts that he is a combination of multiple selves. He stressed that as ‘what I call ‘my life’, it is not one life that I look back upon; I am not one person; I am many people; I do not altogether know who I am-Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda or Louis; or how to distinguish my life from others’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 196).
According to Derrida, postmodernism is about fragmentation, conflicts and inconsistency. The characters in The Waves also experience the same as the conflicts and frustration that occur as a result of the failure to identify their self-identity. Bernard sees life as an unfinished one with unaccomplishment and separation, whereas Rhoda sees herself as ‘nobody’.
The uncertainty which is obviously belongs to postmodernism is in every part of The Waves. Bernard says, 'I have made up thousands of stories; I have filled innumerable note books with phrases to be used when I have found the true story, the one story to which all these phrases refer. But I have never yet found that story. And I begin to ask, Are there stories?” (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 133).
Bernard speaks about the unexpected nature of this world. He fails to find the true story. That failure results in the instability of his consciousness. He questions, ‘what am I? There is no stability in this world. Who is to say what meaning there is in anything? To speak of knowledge is futile. All is experiment and adventure’ (Woolf, The Waves , 1960, p. 84). According to him, we are engaged with unknown quantities. Therefore, it is possible to assess The Waves as a postmodern novel, by referring above mentioned brief discussion.
Postmodern plot is constructed as non-linear and incoherent. Woolf uses the same way of reflecting the human mind. She has rejected literally traditions of the earlier periods along with cultural values. Although Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is written in 1931 (in the modern period), it has included postmodern themes. The postmodern themes in The Waves have been mentioned in detail in this assignment. Woolf can be considered as a precursor of postmodernism as she has presented postmodern features before postmodernism emerged. Therefore, The Waves can be assessed as Woolf’s attempt to create the background that is needed to introduce postmodern themes. In that sense, Woolf’s The Waves cannot be merely considered as a modern fiction because it contains postmodern literature themes.
Works Cited
Nicol, B. (2009). The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. Cambridge University Press.
Watkin, C. (2011). From Plato to Postmodernism: The Story of Western Culture Through Philosophy, Literature and Art. London: Bristol Classical Press.
Woolf, V. (1960). The Waves . London: The Hogarth Press.
Woolf, V. (2017). The Waves 1931 [Leather Bound]. Facsimile Publisher.
Woolf, V. (1950). The Waves. California: Harvest Books.
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