Virginia Woolf's Literary Contributions
Virginia Woolf was a well-known English novelist who made important literary contributions through her books and essays. (Neelam 1). The Mark on the Wall and Modern Fiction are two of her works that are renowned for their quality.
The Evolution of Writing
She critiques authors from the group that came before her in Modern Fiction. Woolf believed that writing should constantly evolve and change over time, even if it is getting better. Literature students must determine whether contemporary books have improved over time. The author exhorts contemporary fiction writers to follow their inspirations and avoid plagiarizing other authors' work. Writing should not be pressed to a particular technique since everyone has their way of thinking. In the past writers used to work within their limits and fully exploit their first and straightforward materials yet their work was just okay. However, in the modern world, they are constrained since they want to work to please their publishers and earn cash from the sale of their work. A good writer should be open and write what he/she feels or their experiences or life lessons, not what the society or a publisher ask them to put down. The soul of a novel, story, poem or book is more important than the body of the same piece of work.
The Twist of Closure in Virginia Woolf's Works
Virginia tended to let her readers think. She always left a conflict of closure. In the Mark on the Wall, the writing ends with a fiction which depicted 'the mark' to be a snail. It was after digression f various aspects including the society, life, the reality as well as history. One can say that Woolf is playing a trick on her audience by messing with their minds. Severally, a reader can see an unexpected sequence of scenes or events. Some people expect closure, that is what gets given or what is thought to get given. Many individuals can argue on how the mark ended up being a snail. Still, whatever the 'mark' is or is not may not matter to a great extent (Cyr 197). Also, she was writing the story months after its occurrence. Some people may argue that Woolf was open by letting her audience know the symbolism of the mark which was the snail. "Ah, the mark on the wall! It was a snail" (Woolf 83). Regarding verb tense, various possibilities get established from many writings of this author. In this particular text, the whole piece of work is written in present tense apart from the first and last paragraph (Cyr 198). It makes it difficult for the absence or the presence of 'the mark on the wall' which she says symbolized 'the snail' to get justified.
The Importance of Originality in Modern Fiction
Originality is essential in any piece of work, and modern fiction is not an exception. Woolf hopes that writers will write what interests them and avoid being materialistic in the modern world just like excellent authors used to do back in the day (Neelam 2). They should not only write anything with the idea of making money in their heads. In her case, she did not base any of her works on any systematic or scientific method when doing her writing. Instead, she always followed her feelings and intuition. According to Woolf, modern psychological novelists will only grow so much if they write about their life visions. Her essay, 'Modern Fiction' tries merely to show her fellow writers how and what she hopes they would write. Every method is correct, and there should not be a standard technique for writing so that authors in the modern world can be free to express themselves through their works. People should not just write for the sake of literature and fiction but should be inspired from within themselves (Neelam 4).
Freedom from the Publishing Industry
Woolf in her essay the "Modern Fiction" Virginia criticises several authors including Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy and Wells H.G. blaming them for being materialistic instead of being free-spirited writers. She praises Conrad Joseph, Thomas Hardy among others for not losing their heads and being original in their works. Being a modernist writer, she is not of the opinion of writers being slaves to publishing firms and book managers who direct you to what and how to write just to enrich them. Writing should be one's passion first before being a career. Literature is quickly decaying because of these tyrants who are more interested in writers' knowledge to earn money for their benefit. A good writer should not be driven by money instead by inspiration, personal experiences, and visions.
The Ambiguity of "The Mark on the Wall"
The mark on the wall might be the snail, but again, this might not be the case. "Nothing is proven, nothing gets known" (Woolf 81). The good thing about this doubt is the fact that it breaks the monotony of the story as well as breaks the normal sequence of the novel (Cyr 204). It leaves the reader with so many questions. In my view, I feel the conclusion of Virginia's novel "The Mark on the Wall" offered more of an opening rather than closure since it gives the audience a clue of what has gets talked about all through the story.
Writing Based on Inspiration
In Modern Fiction Woolf clarifies upon what she knows about modern fiction. Woolf argues that authors should base their writings on their inspirations and they are not bound to observe or follow any method. She had the belief that the current writers are obsessed with publishing business, in which the contemporary society believes that writing should be based upon. Therefore, that means that the society is trying to dictate and determine what literature should look like. Woolf has the conviction that it is upon the writer to write his work on what pleases him or her such as complexities of life, unknowns as well the things that society thinks are not important.
The Indefinable Nature of Storytelling
In the story, Woolf describes how dull fiction when it is a type of writing that only presents to the audience an external illustration of an individual character. Woolf says "if that person can be observed by others, then the audience world will look like airless shallow atmosphere." Woolf argues that human beings are multi-dimensional shells and the future writers will cherish more the significance of the reflections just as those who look at themselves in the mirror for indeed the reflection is infinite(Brown 9). Such is the intensity of what they will have to expose to the audience which in turn will leave the definition of reality more out of their stories. When she talks about reality, she means the inner self of external character. However, the Mark on the Wall is a model that tries to explain the same.
The Impressionistic and Circuitous Style of "The Mark on the Wall"
The styles used in the Mark on the Wall is a decisive break away from what people consider to be a reasonably traditional fiction which she had written before. Undeniably, in one of her journal she said how Mark on The Wall showed her how she could embrace a wealth of experience in the manner that fit it and led the creation of Jacob's Room(1922) which is one of her novels(Brown 13). The writing approaches employed in the novels such as The Mark on the Wall is, in essence impressionistic as well as circuitous as her narration concentrates on revealing its characters while eventually is indefinable and describable by a concentric circle of involvements. Whether such diverse links belong to the description regarding the assigned character in correspondence to other characters as well as life is entirely express Woolf's belief that people are mutable.
The Incomprehensible Nature of Truth and Character
Woolf's enthrallment with the indefinable nature of storytelling and inherent difficulty of it is depicted in the manner she acknowledging character that gives the subject matter for most of her literature. In her Modern Fiction she illustrates the same theme through the impulsive minds of the author she encountered as she travels on a trail with a stranger while scrutinizing the aspects of the unknown woman's features as well as her behaviors to establish a story of her life(Parsons 76). In the end of the narration, the narrator is astonished to know that her summary is entirely untrue. In both narratives, she upturned conventional precepts which depended on visible details to discriminate veracity and show the incomprehensible nature of the truth including character.
Increasing Social Consciousness through Woolf's Works
In both fictions, she is devoted to increasing social consciousness of the audience. Woolf's disarming as well as prolific witty works are knowledgeable with pointed criticism about sexism and the issues of neglected female writers. For instant in Mark on The Wall, a society shows more than ten years who have often been meeting to debate about the convention of literature, arts, military and law achievements which are fields dominated by a male in the society. Woolf's Modern Fiction gives a detailed description of how modern literature writers are supposed to be independent. She explores how the ancient writers struggled to do what they could within their capabilities to give out their stories (Latham 208). Thus, the primitive tools they had coupled with primitive materials at their disposal, it could be said that some performed well while others excelled, a process which gives the current authors a challenge. That explains why writing does not just keep becoming better but as well keeps on having encroaching difficulties due to changes in the field. She states that authors do not venture into the field of literature to do better, but only come to move in a particular direction, change in another, however, do so in a circular motion. Both two writings talk about almost the same thing but with different approaches. Elements in discussion and the literature approach illuminate modern styles and circumstances of writing. They offer more than just advice to the prospective authors but as well talk about the challenges authors face in their writing careers.
Works Cited
Brown, Bill. "The secret life of things (Virginia Woolf and the matter of modernism)." Modernism/modernity 6.2 (1999): 1-28.
Latham, Monica. "Conclusion: New Kids on the Virginia Woolf Block." A Poetics of Postmodernism and Neomodernism. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2015. 208-213.
Marc, D. Cyr, A Conflict of Closure in Virginia Woolf's The "Mark on the Wall", Studies in ShortFiction; Spring96, 33(2), 1996, pp.197-205, Newberry College.
Neelam, Analysis of Virginia Woolf's essay"Modern Fiction", 2014. Pdf. Retrieved from http://anubooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Notions-2014-No-18-1.pdf
Parsons, Deborah. Theorists of the Modernist Novel: James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf. Routledge, 2014.
Woolf, Virginia. "Modern Fiction". The Broadview Anthology of British Literature" The Twentieth Century and Beyond. Ed. Joseph Black 2006.227 Print.
