How Does Virginia Woolf’s Use Of Stream Of Consciousness Contribute To The

Viewing Of Pain And Suffering As Something Universal?

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Word Count:4083
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English Language and Literature HL
Category 1
Table of contents

Introduction

Pain and suffering

The paradox of happiness

Utilitarianism

Conclusion

References

Introduction

For centuries mankind has turned to expressing their emotions through the use of art,

whether this be in the form of a painting, dance or literary piece. How this whole “custom”

first began is not quite certain yet, however the one thing that is certain is that we write or

create works of art merely because we wish to express how we feel at the moment of its

creation. Throughout a person’s lifetime various feelings can arise due to the events that

take place and although the latter can vary all of us feel the same emotions at one point or

another. Further explaining what was mentioned, if one were to ask different individuals

whether they’ve felt a particular emotion before they will most likely all say they have

regardless of age, for a child can experience pain when his favourite toy breaks just as an

adult can experience pain over heartbreak or any other aspect of their lives. The reason

behind this is that although some of us may feel certain emotions more than others or at

different points we still feel them at some point.Although a lot of the emotions we feel are

felt by others such as happiness and love this essay will not focus on these due to life
consisting of things other than happiness. The emotions or aspects in particular that will be

the area of focus this time will be both pain and suffering, which are quite notable within

the novel, “Mrs. Dalloway” due to the fact that almost if not all of the characters feel a

certain degree of pain. As a result of this one could begin to consider both as something

universal because we can indeed confirm how the characters feel due to the use of

stream of consciousness. This is why the essay will explore this possibility by analyzing

other aspects like those mentioned before.The reason why one could deem these good

analysis choices is not only due the literary style being greatly experimental,innovative,

interesting and engaging but also because of the magnitude and influence of what it

researches or what could be researched from it. In other words it’s important not only

because of how much one can learn or discuss around the novel’s main ideas, writing

style and character’s most inner thoughts but also because of what one could apply to

future endeavors due to this being such a broad topic. What I mean by this is that one

could further research on the topic from different areas in the future such as psychology,

basing themselves on the conclusion from this essay.

Now regarding the context of the author and the novel in itself, (“Mrs. Dalloway”)

which was written by Virginia Woolf in 1925. The setting being post-world war one,

England. Woolf was born on January 25 1885 and underwent mania and severe

depression after her mother’s death in 1895 as well as her half sister’s death two years

after. These aspects of Virginia’s life have greatly influenced her writing of Mrs. Dalloway

to the point where many critics believe that the novel seemed to be more autobiographical

than anything. Another impactful moment for Virginia was when she moved to

Bloomsberry in 1904 after her father’s death, for it was then that she began publishing

literary pieces and met young artists with whom she would talk with about certain topics

such as pain, homosexuality, religion amongst many others which are also discussed or

mentioned within the book.

 The main character in the novel is Clarissa Dalloway, a 51 year old mother who

loves to throw parties and finds herself remembering and reminiscing about past memories.

The storyline from the novel revolves around her and the thoughts of not only her but also

those around her, in particular those she deemed important in her life such as; Peter

Walsh the man she almost married, Sally Seton the woman she was drawn to and Richard

Dalloway her current husband.We can also see throughout the novel the struggles and

daily life of Septimus Smith a man with shell-shock, seeing as it wasn’t yet called PTSD

(Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and his immigrant italian wife, Lucrezia. Because of this

as well as what Virginia had to go through one can infer that not only was she trying to

make a difference in the society by writing about such important topics but that she also

wished to express the miserable way she felt, how she suffered after her mother’s death

and by doing so trying to create more consciousness in general as to how others feel.

The overall objective that will be fulfilled throughout this essay is that of carefully

analyzing ways in which pain and suffering could be considered universal as well as how

Virginia utilizes stream of consciousness as means for doing so. For those of you who

don’t know, stream of consciousness is a literary style which portrays the character’s

thoughts and feelings in a sort of flow without conventional dialogue. It surged in 1980 as a

psychological concept at first and has since then been introduced as a literary style used

by many renowned writers other than Virginia such as James Joyce and Marcel Proust.

Anyhow the essay will go in depth within these aspects and explore certain areas

such as pain and suffering seen from Friedrich Nietzsche’s view of things, the paradox of

happiness and utilitarianism.

Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering. Such unpleasant but oddly everlasting things. The amount of

times a person can suffer throughout their lifetime can vary from countable to never
ending yet despite this, rather than distancing or avoiding such themes we humans seem

to approach them. It’s almost as if we believe that if we manage to tame or subdue the

suffering that goes within us that there will be a moment where we won’t experience it

again. We are driven to explain our suffering because it seems so different to what life

should be about. Overall we could potentially see pain and suffering as part of the

universal human experience and feel compelled to explore and explain both the sensation

and effect something that can be proven by the novel due to it’s peculiar narrative.

Whilst exploring how stream of consciousness could demonstrate the universal

aspect of pain and suffering there will be certain lenses or perspectives that will be

explored as something more plausible and will set a frame for the analysis, one of these

being Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas on pain and suffering as mentioned before meanwhile

the other is the concept of the paradox of happiness1.

To clarify Nietzsche’s posture, he considers happiness as a pursuit done in vain,

stating that “Mankind does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does”. This quote

does reference to the english theory of utilitarianism, a concept that will also be further

discussed throughout the essay and shows how actions tend to be done based on what

benefits us. Having said this, the reason I chose pain and suffering as the main focus in

particular is because they give a different perspective of life and portray it as it is, imperfect.

With the passing of years mankind has had the tendency of setting happiness as their

1
The paradox of happiness despite not being stated by Nietzsche himself is something that can be
linked to his beliefs and states how although one can obtain a certain level of happiness from
small actions that are in one’s comfort zone, one could feel more pushed to go through pain
because the reward is much greater.
ultimate goal just as Aristoteles2 himself has stated. However many forget that life doesn’t

consist of only happiness but also pain and suffering alike.

We all know that we suffer whenever there is pain and that these are unfathomable

things that go hand in hand. These can be explored throughout the novel Mrs.Dalloway

due to the use of stream of consciousness as well as the fact that each of the characters

suffer in different ways. Meanwhile Peter Walsh severely suffered from an unrequited love,

Septimus Smith suffered due to the war.

Before going more in depth within the analysis I will express the definitions of pain

and suffering that will be used in order to avoid relativity the essay.

The way in which pain is defined within the essay is the following “An unpleasant sensory

and/or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or

described in terms of such damage”. Meanwhile the perspective I take as to the difference

regarding pain and suffering is that pain is a feeling meanwhile suffering in a sense is like

agonizing,you are not dead nor are you just being attacked but rather you’re in what

seems like an eternal state of pain. Pain is what causes suffering but it isn’t suffering in

itself.

Throughout the book we get a look into both Clarissa’s current and past affairs as

she plans a party and meets old friends such as Hugh Whitbread and Peter Walsh, a man

whom she once loved and almost married. Parties have always been an important part of

Clarissa’s life, however despite this both Peter and Richard Dalloway (her husband) find

her parties quite unnecessary and in the first man’s case, absurd. As we get to meet those

whom she invites to the party we also take a look at a couple, who despite not being

related to Clarissa whatsoever have a certain link that is made during the end when

2
One of Aristotle's theories states that all of our actions are just ways or things we do in order to achieve
happiness which according to him is our absolute and number one goal.
Clarissa says the following “She felt somehow very like him—the young man who had

killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away. The clock was striking. The

leaden circles dissolved in the air. He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun. But

she must go back. She must assemble.” Clarissa sees herself as Septimus and realizes

how alike they are, the way in which their thoughts mirrored each other throughout the

novel finally linking together and making sense to the reader. Mrs. Dalloway sees this

commitment, the clock that chimes and pressures forevermore to the point where one

must either plunge to life or death. In this sense both Clarissa and Septimus could be seen

as a juxtaposition, for the first plunged into the early june morning meanwhile the latter

plunged out of his window to the unknown world of life after death if there is such.

All of this contributes to the idea of pain being something we must all go through which is

something Nietzsche talks about within his theory of the three metamorphoses (camel, lion

and child) which can be found in a literary piece written by himself called thus spoke

zarathustra3. What Nietzsche states is that we must all go through the camel phase, in

other words we must all welcome problems with open arms and confront them in order to

become a lion or else we will never evolve and as a consequence of this we wouldn’t

become the overman.

At the near end of the novel after having contemplated and reflected upon Septimus’s

death Mrs. Dalloway had to decide whether she would remain a camel and die just as

Septimus had or whether she would open herself to the pain she felt and rather than hide it,

embrace it. Whether she truly transformed or not is quite questionable as whole due to the

fact that some believe that when she said she must go back that she merely returned to

her old ways meanwhile others believe that it was this what made her move on to the next

3
NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM. THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA. BLURB, 2018.
phase because they believed she had suicidal tendencies which were visible through her

admiration towards Septimus.

In this sense the stream of consciousness aspect of the novel once again allows

us to make this connection something which could lead us to believe that Virginia’s

intentions were to indeed show this in order to demonstrate the universal aspect of pain

and suffering and have others reflect and be aware of this. Whereas Nietzsche gives way

for a in depth analysis in regards to the concepts as a whole.

Further explaining how the novel’s stream of consciousness aspect touches this

subject, a particular quote that demonstrates how we suffer and feel pain in different ways,

“ Clarissa had a theory in those days . . . that since our apparitions, the part of us which

appears, are so momentary compared with the other, the unseen part of us” What I mean

by this is that within this particular quote Virginia goes into this subject of what we decide

to show to the world and how we can still feel pain even if we decide not to show it and

thus pain could indeed be proven to be universal unbeknownst to us.

The Paradox Of Happiness

Happiness, such a broad and complex theme due to the general overview we have

of it. This being that of it being only positive. In other words we falsely try to make

ourselves believe that only good things can bring good rewards and as a result

happiness.In other words if something causes even the slightest amount of pain then it

doesn’t bring happiness and isn’t worth doing, however this is where the paradox lies. If

one starts to analyze things one can realize or note how there is more to pain and

happiness that meets the eye for there’s different types and degrees of both pain and

happiness. We can get an immediate sense of happiness by doing something we love but

as stated already by the use of the word “immediate” this is only temporary and a in the

moment joy whereas if we do something whose process is painful but result rewarding
then this happiness lasts longer because the mere fact of our hard work paying off makes

us happy. All of this has been constantly put into discussion due to the fact that many

question to what point is all of the pain we might feel worth it?

This paradox can be found throughout the novel within the character’s thoughts,

this being even more evident because of Virginia’s use of stream of consciousness. The

point being that Clarissa questions whether doing small things such as her parties, smiling

fakely amongst many others are seen by her as immediate pleasures for she only feels

happy for a moment whereas if she were herself and tried to make friends by just being

herself she could find a friend that’s closer to her or live a life that’s not built on a throne of

lies. The latter scenario would perhaps take longer than the first one but regardless of this

isn’t the latter far more rewarding? That is the paradox of happiness, one must ironically

go through pain or an upsetting moment in order to achieve happiness or at least what

could be considered as greater happiness.

A quote in particular that demonstrates this paradox within Clarissa is the

following “Mrs Dalloway is always giving parties to cover the silence”. This means that

despite how full her house is what with her husband and daughter, she still feels lonely. No

matter how many parties she has she doesn’t ever feel satisfaction but just partially better

because she forgets about how lonely she feels even if it’s just for a moment. However at

the end of the day it all comes rushing back and not just this but also the fact that she’s not

even remaining true to herself for Clarissa let herself change in order to please others

meanwhile Septimus killed himself because he couldn’t please others. Both of their pains

and the way in which they suffer is quite different however there’s always a small link that

keeps them together almost like a thin thread who despite how different both the surfaces

are it still manages to keep them together this in itself could show the universal aspect

because regardless of how weak the thread that links them is there is still a thread and

that alone can indicate a universal aspect due to the fact that if two very different
individuals share pain and suffering in common despite their difference then wouldn't there

be the chance that this is the same for others. In a way it’s similar to when you take

statistics based on certain individuals and not the whole population in other words if you

find a trend this will most likely also take place in others. Something worth noting is that

despite both Septimus and Clarissa going through pain neither of them ever truly feels

happy for in Septimus’s case we all know that he didn’t truly want to die but just didn’t

want to lose his identity to the doctor’s who tried to take him meanwhile Clarissa’s only

moment of happiness is once she reflects upon Septimus’s death however after this long

lived moment he returns to who she once was and her happiness is cut short. Some of you

may think differently in regards to whether Septimus truly wanted to die or not and there’s

no issue with that but I will explain in a short manner why I believe he didn’t want to die.

The reason behind this being that moments before his death he seemed to be happy and

was enjoying life with Rezia up until the arrival of the doctors. Anyhow because of this one

could start to question whether the paradox of happiness and Nietzsche’s view as a whole

truly happens or perhaps all pain brings is even more pain.

Utilitarianism

As we live and go by our day to day life we find ourselves making a series of

decisions which in most cases are beneficial to us one way or another. The definition of

utilitarianism comes from this, the definition that will be used being “a theory that the aim of

action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest

happiness of the greatest number”4

A character in particular that represents a utilitarianist stance per say is Lucrezia

better known as Rezia. She’s an italian immigrant who met Septimus through a friend of

4
“Utilitarianism.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/utilitarianism.
hers, eventually they both married each other and have been living together ever since.

However Rezia was at unaware of the shell shock or PTSD that Septimus had been going

through, this was due to the fact that Septimus himself had been trying to hide his

struggles in an attempt to regain who he once was and was using Rezia in order to do

so.However once Septimus’s behavior worsened and he himself could no longer contain

this series of thoughts and abrupt memories he snapped and so his suffering originated

one of Rezia’s “pain sources” per-say. There is quite an irony to this whatsoever for Rezia

herself states two contradicting phrases where she expresses her internal battle with her

“pain source” for just as this is that, it is also her source of joy; “nothing could make her

happy without him! Nothing!” and “for rather would she that he were dead! She could not

sit beside him when he stared so and did not see her and made everything terrible”.

Rezia’s struggles can be represented throughout this statement, her desire for him to both

remain and be eliminated from her life.What the quotes represent is that she could either

love Septimus to the point where she can’t end the toxic relationship and wishes to instead

have him not be part of her life because she can’t eliminate him herself or she never truly

loved him and was merely using him but feels guilty about it and thus tries to convince

herself that she can’t live without him and potentially confusing this mindset with love. As

a result of this we can see her trying to make attempts to recover who he once was, her

motive however being clouded. On one hand it is could be that she does this because she

loves him however on the other hand the motive that might be above all is what other

people think of her. The quote also represents in a way how toxic their relationship was

because he used her to end his suffering, just as she did the same. Because of this her

potentially selfish desires clash between each other, this in itself shows the utilitarianism

stance due to the fact that they were both using each other as means for being happy,

however this did not work for either of them and only resulted in their own breaking. This in

itself is quite ironic due to the fact that utilitarianism aims to have both pleasure and pain
over happiness something that doesn’t happen in their case and so although their motive

or mindset was that of an utilitarianist their actions represented the opposite.

Nonetheless we can once again see how Virginia uses stream of consciousness to

demonstrate Rezia’s pained and conflicted state of mind which once again shows another

thread or link between her and the other characters.One can also note the themes in the

sense that no matter what happens she remains in that agonizing state, not finding a way

out just as her husband can’t seem to escape the war and haunting memories of his

beloved friend, Evans.

The following quote represents this stance once again “Here is nature once more

at her old game of self-preservation.” We as humans seek what brings us happiness, we

act upon what’s best for us however one could believe that because we act in such a way

we will eventually fall into a pit of just as Rezia and Septimus did. This is due to the fact

that whenever we seek happiness we are bound to find other things along the rode

something that is a clear tendency within the characters. Woolf used said literary style of

stream of consciousness in such a way that we saw ourselves within the characters and

inclusively saw them as entities of their own, as human beings who fell into said pit of pain

just as we do. We might even find ourselves empathizing with the character’s because of

how humane they’re portrayed and because we too know that pain is eventually and that

something tragic would eventually occur. I found as I read the novel that no matter how

happy Septimus and Rezia seemed at some point because they could be considered

utilitarians that they would eventually reach a point where pain and suffering strike, for

happiness is and will never be something permanent.

Conclusion

To start I will do a short commentary and recap on certain aspects such as if the novel had

been written differently the ideas that would’ve surged in regards to pain and suffering
would’ve been quite vague due to the fact that we wouldn’t be able to learn about the other

character’s emotions or thought and thus would’ve gotten a slightly biased and subjective

perspective. Virginia’s writing as a whole is known for representing human nature with a

certain level of depth and that’s because she uses stream of consciousness in itself

within some of her novels in order to demonstrate this.

Many of us could find ourselves relating to their situations as well as emotions and

because of this one could consider them to indeed represent a certain level of accuracy

when it comes to determining certain aspects such as the universality of pain and

suffering.As mentioned before, each of the character’s experience said emotions the only

difference being what made them feel that way and whether they openly express their pain

and suffering.

To summarize because Virginia herself went through hardships we could deduce

that she chose to use stream of consciousness in order to demonstrate how pain is

something we will encounter on our path to happiness and that even after reaching said

happiness we will experience pain once again just as Rezia and Septimus experience pain

even after their wedding. In other words pain and suffering are both universal and an

inevitability.

References

“Analysis.” Mrs. Dalloway, projectdalloway.weebly.com/analysis.html.

Lohnes, Kate. “Mrs. Dalloway.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,

27 July 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Mrs-Dalloway-novel-by-Woolf.

scotty-hendricks. “Man Doesn't Want Happiness, Says Nietzsche.” Big Think, Big Think, 5

Oct. 2018, bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/man-doesnt-want-happiness-says-nietzsche

NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM. THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA. BLURB, 2018

Popova, Maria. “Friedrich Nietzsche on Why a Fulfilling Life Requires Embracing Rather

than Running from Difficulty.” Brain Pickings, 6 Feb. 2018,

www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/15/nietzsche-on-difficulty/.

“Utilitarianism.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/utilitarianism.