(first section)
What does Woolf first remember, and how does she describe her early sensations? (sees through a film, feels ecstasy, rhapsody, 65-67)
What does she observe as the relation between visual perceptions and sound? (inextricable, 68)
How can moments of the past be more real than the present? (67, the pattern behind the cotton wool, 72)
What does Woolf believe about the relationship of thoughts to our physical selves? (the things we have felt exist outside our minds, 67) How may this relate to her major novels such as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse? (Clarissa Dalloway expresses a similar view) Is there a profound truth to this view? May it also lead to dangers?
Does Woolf feel that she possesses a fixed identity? (uncertain of boundaries--this is enlarging but could also be frightening) What is her relationship to the sensations she feels? (she is a container of emotions, 67, a sense also felt by Clarissa)
How has she responded to the sight of herself in a mirror? (feels sense of shame, 68--able to feel raptures but only those disconnected from her body) What may be some causes of this phobia, in her opinion? (what she terms her puritan forebears, shame at physical violation by her half-brother) What shocking act from her childhood does she narrate? (Gerald Duckworth had molested her, an act which filled her with shame and loathing, 69)
Why does she believe that to understand a person one must know the content of an entire day of their lives? (69) How does she attempt this in her fiction? (Mrs. Dalloway transpires over the course of a single day)
What two instances of helplessness does she remember from childhood? How had she responded to threatening or violent situations? (pummeled by brother, 71--does she blame him?; hears of suicide, 71, feels despair and helplessness--compare Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway)
What compensating perception has she had? (flower against earth in pattern, 71--sees things in relationship to one another and to their environment--one can create patterns out of chaos) Why would this be an important perception for a writer?
What does she see as her credo? (72, a pattern beneath the cotton wool, all of life is a work of art but not one created by an external deity or creator) What as a result does she see as the purpose of her writing? (to record/discern the moments of being behind externalities, 73)
Would you describe this view as a vision? What causes it to differ from the tenets of a conventional religion? (emphasis on perceiver who discerns/creates meaning)
Would these views have been appropriate for a novelist?
Leonard Woolf, The Journey Not the Arrival Matters
(sections from p. 61 onwards relating to Virginia Woolf's death)
Where does this fit in the sequence of Leonard Woolf's writings? How many years after Virginia's death was it written? (28)
What political background formed the context for her breakdown? (61ff., constant raids, bombing of their two former residences and the Hogarth Press premises, central London bombed out, 64)
Where were the Woolfs living at the time, and why had they chosen this residence? Was this choice wise? (their former home was bombed to rubble, 62, 63) What signs of war interrupted the privacy of their home? (bombers overhead flying to and from London; soldiers stopping for shelter)
What defense does Leonard make for his digressions? (69) Would Virginia have agreed? (yes, since her books are based on the premise that the less formally ordered parts of our minds bring forth truth)
What was at the time the pattern of their private lives? (simple; they wrote and gardened, read books, 71) Which of them tended to their practical affairs? (Leonard, and he traveled frequently into London, which of course was risky)
What services are performed for the Woolfs by others? (Louie, a maid, tends to domestic chores each morning, 71; she lived in one of Leonard's two cottages nearby, is paid about 78 pounds a year)
What are some features of the diary entries as reproduced, and how do these change? (in the first, misses London with its intensities, yet life at Rodmell is "so heavenly free and easy", 71) How do these entries compare with the inner thoughts of Clarissa Dalloway?
How does she feel on completing her last novel, Between the Acts? (74, elated and relieved) What pattern does Leonard find in this? (was usually happy at the completion of her book, then anxious at having to face reviewers and readers, 79)
Why does she reject an invitation to join the London Library committee? (75) What past incidents have framed her choice? Does Leonard believe she was correct in this? (76, yes; he tends to believe her decisions are correct) Would he himself have likely made the same choice?
What has happened by the later diaries from November 30th onwards? (77, resents the social obligations of Leonard lectures in Rodmell, 78 several allusions to death, "Look your last on all things lovely."; focuses on petty conversations with revulsion, 87-88) What seems to have happened to the sequence of her thoughts?
What does Leonard record as Virginia's attitude toward death? (72-73, had a constant sense of its immediacy; fears its imminence, "Shall ever I write again one of those sentences that give me immense pleasure," 88) How does this differ from his own view? (fatalistic, doesn't worry over what he can't control, 73)
Who are Octavia Wilberforce and Elizabeth Robins, and what do we learn about their lives? (Wilberforce a woman doctor of strong character and tact; Robins a former actress now old and cared for by Octavia)
What do Octavia and Leonard believe to be the only means of staving off a further mental breakdown? (79) Why is this difficult to execute? (Virginia resists, 86) What had happened on a prior occasion after a visit to the doctor in 1913? (Virginia had tried to commit suicide)
How is Virginia's response to this advice similar to that of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway?
What fear does Virginia express in her last entries? What new effort is she planning? (that she will cease to exist, 88; sense of pause; misses her sister; is planning another possible book)
What symptoms does Leonard observe? (her thoughts race, 91, sleepless)
In hindsight, what does Leonard think he/they should have done, and what complications would have ensued? (86) (they had not wanted to force surveillance lest this cause her further distress and deterioration, 92)
What is the content of her last letters? (93, 94)
What symbolism does he associate with her death? (the music played, "The Blessed Spirits" from Gluck's Orfeo; a tree blown down in 1943--and after his own death the second tree likewise blew down)
--- pp. 166-171 What answer does Leonard give to the question of why he devoted so much of his life to political and governmental activities (many with the Labour Party) with the aim of improving the world?
What appeals for improving the conditions of subject peoples has he seen rejected? (even Labour governments failed to implement policies in their platforms) In his opinion, would these have led to an improved outcomes? (166, yes, all these policies had to be attempted later and failed to achieve the results they might have if implemented earlier)
What does he claim has motivated him? (167, both an ethical and aesthetic response--opposes barbarity)What is his view of his present world? (168-69) Is this a recognizable view of events/conditions in 1968-69?
What have been his motives for work? (desire for improvement, 171, belief in importance of human relations, 172; for him these things were right and important)
What does it mean to say that "the journey and not the arrival matters"? (172)
Had Virginia not married Leonard Woolf (or someone equally supportive and capable), what might have been the effect on her writing?