GK+Essay

**Exposing a Mind: The Use of Stream of Consciousness in Virginia Woolf's "The New Dress"**  Ana Luiza, Camila , Juliana and Natália  (INTRODUCTION)

====**When it comes to any kind of story, it is noticeable that the way it is told influences greatly on the way it is perceived, and this is why different  strategies and techniques are  used by the author s depending on which perspective they want their story to have . T he chosen option will be crucial to the way occurrences will be comprehended, since it is the lens through which they will be portrayed: a ll the information we obtain about the events in a story and how we respond to them are very much dependent on the perspective we have. Some authors like to tell a story from a third-person narrator’s perspective, others like to write from a first-person narrator’s perspective. Each kind of point of view has its own ‘formulas’ in order to create particular effects on the readers and there is one technique used in third-person narratives that deserves some special attention: the stream of consciousness technique. It was developed by modern writers such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, William Faulkner and Dorothy Richardson. These writers “have created a fiction centered on the core of human experience” (Humphrey, 1954, p. 22), which means that they deeply focus on what is happening inside a character’s mind. **==== ==== **According to Bowling (//1950, p.334//), the stream of consciousness technique can be defined as **** "that narrative method by which the author attempts to give a direct quotation of the mind - not merely the language area but of the whole consciousness". This means that the use of the aforementioned technique implies in narratives that "have as their essential subject matter the consciousness of one or more characters" (Humphrey, 1954, p. 2). The stream of consciousness "intends to render the flow of myriad impressions - visual, auditory, physical, associative, and subliminal - that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of his awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts" (Britannica Encyclopedia). That is to say that the narrative is "filtered", according to Patel (//2010, p. 1)// through "perceptions, emotions, feelings and observations": it is, therefore, a very particular narrative, filled with all sorts of personal impressions of one (or more) character(s). ** ==== ==== **This is precisely the reason why writers use this technique: it can be used to add depth to the narrative and focus on a single point of view to achieve a certain effect. According to Humphrey (1954, p. 7), through the stream of consciousness novelists can "enlarge fictional art by describing the inner states of their characters", which is exactly what Virginia Woolf, known for using this technique, believes: "for her, the process of inner realization of truth could only be find on the level of the mind that is not expressed" (Humphrey, 1954). ** ==== ==== ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The idea of truth in the hidden level of the mind is shown by Woolf in her short story "The New Dress" <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(//1927//) //,// in which the central themes are made clear to the reader through the use of the technique. ** __** The use of stream of consciousness in Virginia Woolf’s “The new dress” helps building the social aspect of the story through the exposition of the character’s conflicts which would be oblivious to the reader. It shows how Mabel’s struggles are related to her social condition and how she is bothered by it, even though it is clear that the insecurities she has are only in her mind. **__** By exposing Mabel's mind, Virginia Woolf exposes conflicts, truths and delusions. **====

=== __In the story, the stream of consciousness reveals something hidden inside Mabel that is caused by external aspects.__ Mabel Waring’s thoughts and feelings are central to the narrative. The focus is more on character than on plot, which is revealed as the readers learn about the protagonist. At the beginning of the story, we already find traces of the stream of consciousness technique. When Virginia Woolf presents us the situation, and, most of all, Mabel, she gives psychological descriptions of what is going on in her mind and from that the reader is capable of knowing what is wrong with the character's behavior: “the sense she had had, ever since she was a child, of being inferior to other people” (p. 3). The conflicts Mabel has are only in her mind. It was herself who thought she could not be fashionable, it was herself who compared her with a fly, and it was herself who felt that the yellow dress was a penance she had deserved. Thus, i <span style="color: #0bb4e0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">f Mabel's feelings had not been exposed through stream of consciousness, the causes of her strange conduct <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(she goes to a party and excludes herself in the drawing-room; she pretends to observe a pai n ting because she was feeling like a fish out of water and did not want people to notice that ; she lies to the other guests pretending she is interested in what they are saying) would not be clear, for what is happening to her has a different interpretation than the one the reader would have only by his/her own impressions of the story. ===
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(1) **

====<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** As briefly mentioned on the previous paragraph, Mabel frequently refers to herself as a fly in the saucer. It is one struggle (among others) that the main character deals with. When she does not feel comfortable in a situation, it is said that she uses lines from books she read in the past in order to use them as a kind of spell to wipe out the feeling of agony. __This fly metaphor she uses, revealed trough the stream of consciousness, reflects that Mabel feels inferior to other people because of her social condition.__ First, Mabel tries to think that all people are the same, saying that all people “are like flies trying to crawl over the edge of the saucer” (p. 4). However, she quickly changes her mind, coming to the conclusion that she could not be on the same level of others: she sees other people as “dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects” (p. 4), but she sees herself as a simple fly drawn in the saucer. Her feeling of inferiority and the comparison she makes between her and other people supports the idea that her complex is connected to her social status: since people who belong to upper social classes have a better condition of buying expensive garments, they can be represented by more attractive insects like “dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects” (p. 4). On the other hand, people who have a lower status do not possess much money to invest on beautiful outfits, thus they can be represented by flies. That is exactly how Mabel feels – as an “dowdy, decrepit, horribly dingy old fly” (p. 4), because she thinks that she does not have a good condition to afford a new, stylish dress that would make her feel fashionable and comfortable enough to fit in at the party. ** ====
 * (2)**

====** Furthermore, __Mabel’s opinion about parties reinforces her awareness of her own social condition.__ After Robert Haydon’s “quite polite, quite insincere” (p. 4) comment on Mabel’s feeling dowdy, she reflects upon the fact that “a party makes things either much more real, or much less real” (p. 4). From one point of view, parties make things more real because differences are evidenced. A great example is related to the guests’ clothes. The way a person dresses may reflect a lot what he/she is, his/her status and social condition. Parties are social events in which the participants pay attention to the way each other speaks, eats, talks or walks. However, this fact is, most of the time, unconscious. People do pay attention to them and are influenced by them, but are not aware of it. With Mabel it is different. She could see the truth. She paid attention to details, specially to herself and to how people would see her: “she saw in a flash to the bottom of Robert Haydon’s heart; she saw through everything” (p. 4). This conscious mind is a sign that she sees herself in this kind of society, but feels that she does not belong to it. She does feel inferior to other people, ever since she was a child, and the reader knows that because of the kind of narrative used. **====
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(3) **

====**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(4) <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Another sign that leads us to think that Mabel is influenced by society but wants to hide this fact from others is that <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">she takes other people's opinions into account very often and very easily. __ When Mabel is indirect about the picture she was looking at (actually trying to talk about her dress), her self-esteem is based on what everybody at the party thinks about her. __ By saying that the picture is old-fashioned, she actually talks about her own dress in order to gain Charles Burt’s attention, since she feels the need to be praised by others and is fully conscious of it: “one word of praise, one word of affection from Charles would have made all the difference to her at the moment” (p. 6). This means that Mabel expects positive acknowledgment from the society and from the people surrounding her in order to make her feel comfortable in her own skin, for she herself cannot do it: she sees herself as old-fashioned and only other people’s opinions are able to make her feel more secure about herself and raise her self-esteem. Her own opinion is not enough: positive reactions from other people “would have changed her life” (p. 6), but not positive thoughts from herself. Having such low self-esteem, she is unable to believe not only her own thoughts about her looks, but also seems to find it difficult to agree with positive comments and consider them in detriment of negative ones. Because of her feeling inferior, she sees irony when a person compliments her. Miss Milan is the one who makes Mabel feel more comfortable about herself, making “an extraordinary bliss shoot through her heart” (p. 4) as she looks herself in the mirror with her new dress, and the consequence of this is that she feels “suddenly, honestly, full of love for Miss Milan, much, much fonder of Miss Milan than of any one in the whole world” (p. 5). This feeling, however, is not a long-lasting one, for the thoughts of inadequacy and inferiority arise again, especially when Charles Burt does not praise her. At this point, we realize that not only she is dependent on other people’s opinions, but she also has a tendency to accept negative reactions more easily: “‘Why,’ she asked herself, ‘can't I feel one thing always, feel quite sure that Miss Milan is right, and Charles wrong and stick to it?’” (p. 6). She is unable to feel quite sure that Miss Milan is right because of how low she thinks of herself and feels that Charles is right for the same reasons. She is eager to know what other people think about her in the hopes that she will then feel secure and comfortable, but she is unable to hold onto a single opinion. Upon trying on her new dress, she feels beautiful. However, when she does not receive the praise she expected, her opinion of herself changes: Mabel holds onto society’s opinions, no matter what they are. **====

====__ ** Still, with all the mixed feelings of uneasiness and disbelief about what others say of her, Mabel pays attention to her own thoughts, which are being continuously reported to the reader. While talking to Mrs. Holman, Mabel sees their image in the looking glass, which can be a representation of her thoughts: a playing of social roles.** __** The mirror plays a very important role in this story : i t appears to show that Mabel sees herself. She is aware of her condition. She knows who she is and she knows she is not like those people who are around her at the party. In the mirror, the buttons represent both women. The yellow one, Mabel, was solitary, self-centered and detached, while the black one, Mrs. Holman, was leaning forward and telling a story, playing her role of being sociable. The way Mabel describes the buttons is important, specially in relation to the focus that she gives on the colors: yellow, which may represent cowardice, and black, which may mean sophistication and convention. From this point of view, it is clear that Mabel is detached, not interested in keeping their talk, but is not courageous enough to leave the conversation, while Mrs. Holman is talking to her only because of the so-called social contract. Mabel’s description of what she sees lets us, readers, know what she is feeling and thinking. The access to her mind and thoughts is free through the looking-glass. It reflects her heart. It is unnecessary to explain her feelings, since it is clear which they are. **====
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(5) **

====**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(6) __Once again, looking at the mirror, Mabel sees herself as an oppressed woman who deserves such fate, though it was not her fault to belong to an inferior part of society__. Keeping her eyes on the mirror, Mabel is detached. She does not pay attention to the conversation she is having with Mrs.Holman. Her own reflection makes her realize that she was despised for being “a feeble, vacillating creature” (p. 7) at the same time she understands that the yellow dress she wears is a penance she deserves for being that way. Mabel sees the whole situation as inescapable: if she was a better, more beautiful person, she would be dressed like Rose Shaw, “in lovely, clinging green with a ruffle of swansdown” (p. 7), but she is not and will never be Rose. For her, she is feeble and deserves a punishment which comes in the form of a dress, while Rose Shaw, a beautiful woman always dressed “in the height of the fashion” (p. 4), deserves such beauty. She realizes, however, that her condition is not her fault: the way she was raised, in a rather poor environment, has turned her into what she is now. Her family has never had money enough and there was “no romance, nothing extreme about them all” (p. 7) : being lost in such a huge family, one child in the middle of so many others, has made her uninteresting, a girl who had done the same as the rest of her family and was just like her aunts. Mabel realizes that her family and the environment she was raised in have made her mediocre and boring, “nothing very clear or very bold” (p. 8). She has become just like the rest of her family, “poor water-veined creatures who did nothing” (p. 8), not free of punishment, but also not guilty: it was not her fault that she belonged to an inferior part of society since she could not be blamed for being born into such a family. Considering herself “a fretful, weak, unsatisfactory mother, a wobbly wife" (p. 8), being "like all her brothers and sisters” (p. 8) , Mabel understands her flaws but feels herself free from any guilt: she is a victim. **====


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(7) **

**<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> After this long struggle with her own thoughts and self image, i ****<span style="color: #800080; display: inline ! important; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">n the final scene of the story Mabel decides that “she would become a new person” <span style="color: #2199ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(p. 9). She convinces herself that she would change, that she would not need to worry about clothes again. However, when she is leaving the party, she says: __“I have enjoyed myself enormously” <span style="color: #2199ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(p. 9) __. One more time, i t __is a sign that Mabel cares about what other people think about her.__ We can see that even after her decision to be transformed, she says she enjoyed the party, but <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">it is clear for the reader <span style="color: #800080; display: inline ! important; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> that this is not true. We know the truth because we have access to Mabel’s mind through the stream of consciousness - right after her saying goodbye to Mrs. Dalloway, she says to herself: “Lies, lies, lies!” <span style="color: #2199ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(p. 9). It is clear that the fact that she pretends to like the event is related to her acting according to the conventions of the society. Mabel’s attitude is different from her real feelings, <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">and <span style="color: #800080; display: inline ! important; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> this means that she is willing to hide what is inside her because she cares about her acceptance in a social environment. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(CONCLUSION)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The exposition of all these thoughts and conflicts dealing with social condition and self-image turns a story about a woman in a party into a complex narrative about the character's oppressed mind. The exhibition of Mabel 's conflict s and behavior would be alien to the reader if the stream of consciousness technique had not been used. In simple words, this short story would not be the same, for the reader would not have access to the root of the character's complexes: her mind. Many times in the story, the reader knows what Mabel feels through the image she describes at the looking-glass. It can be considered a symbol of her mind, a strategy that Woolf used to externalize the main character's impressions . Virginia Woolf chose to expose Mabel's feelings and struggles through the stream of consciousness technique , in order to let the reader know what is happening and why this is happening. Because of the fact that we have access to the mind of the character, we are able to notice how her struggles are related to her social condition in general: she worries about other people's impressions upon herself - her origin and her clothes' style, for instance. The only way of understanding Mabel's behavior is through her mind, and the stream of consciousness technique is the key that enlightens the reader.   **