A sponge of human emotions

female social roles in the narrative structure of To the lighthouse from the starting point of Frankenstein

Abstract

This essay aims to show how the narrative structure of Virginia Woolf’s To the lighthouse mirrors aspects of its character Mrs. Ramsay, considering the metaphor of “the sponge of human emotions” (WOOLF, 1992) as an image both for Mrs. Ramsay’s narrative function in the novel and her social function as wife and mother. The starting point for this discussion is a comparative approach to the structure of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, in which multiple narratives form concentric circles (LECERCLE, 1997) mirroring the maternity metaphors analyzed in the novel by feminist critics. Aspects such as the indistinction between markers of narrative voice in Frankenstein (NEWMAN, 1986) may be related to the dissolution of an objective narrative voice in Woolf’s work (AUERBACH, 1971), suggesting similarities between these authors who, separated in history by the nineteenth century realism, become key components in the development of the modern novel. The discussions surrounding the issues of women and Literature are not limited in Virginia Woolf’s work, as it has been established regarding Shelley’s, to female representation, but permeate the texts in stylistic and formal aspects.