THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008
Week IX
Collage of British WWI Propaganda PostersOr
Analyze a passage from the novel that deals with communication between characters or between one character and the larger soceity. Quote and cite the passage and then expand on how Woolf explores her ideas about communication as a creative and sometimes feminine way to bridge differences in contrast to the destructive and sometimes masculine way of resorting to violence - especially as it relates to WWI and critiques of the patriarchal autocracy.
"Was it to receive this gift from the past that the young man came to the window and stood there, looking out across the court? It was Jacob. He stood smoking his pipe while the last stroke of the clock purred softly around him. Perhaps there had been an argument. He looked satisfied; indeed masterly; which expression changed slightly as he stood there, the sound of the clock conveying to him (it may be) a sense of old buildings and time; and himself the inheritor; and then to-morrow; and friends; at the thought of whom, in sheer confidence and pleasure, it seemed, he yawned and stretched himself." (31-32)
Jacob, in this passage, is conveyed to us as something of a prodigy, someone in which an enormous amount of potential has been buried, and in which only a small matter of time is necessary before it will be unearthed. Particularly, it is Woolf‘s descriptions of the clock, and then essentially time as well, that give us such a vivid image of this. The clock, with it’s stroke’s purring “softly around him”, and it’s conveyance of a “sense of old-buildings and time; and himself the inheritor” portray to us a picture of Time itself being in reverence of him, almost as if in worship, wrapping itself around him, caressing him, supporting him, giving solely to him it’s secrets of past ages. And to speak of time alongside the pleasing, satisfied confidence being presented to us in Jacob’s visage tells us that something great is in store for him. And in turn, it is this confidence that is Jacob’s “heightened moment of awareness”. Not only are we shown that great things are in store for Jacob, but we also see that Jacob has realized this too. Standing there at the window, smoking his pipe with immense satisfaction, and looking out on the world in such fearlessness and audacity, with time by his side, speaking it’s guidance to him, Woolf demonstrates to us that Jacob is well aware that he is meant for grandeur and glory.
