Multiplicity WITHIN Singularity

I feel like rather than favoring multiplicity or singularity, The Waves is more about multiplicity within singularity. Throughout the book, there are several examples of parts of a whole, and parts as a whole: six speakers make up a core group of friends, one flower (page 91) is described by the details of its petals, its parts. On page 74, Jinny drinks "drastic" tasting wine and observes her crowded setting, thinking that "the single and the solitary mate, tumble and become many." She is referencing the words she hears, but perhaps also the people with her in the room. They all mass together and turn into one kind of shape. The words jumble and lose their clarity, and because of this they lose their independence, "tumble and become many." Rhoda speaks/ thinks something similar but with a more abstract idea: color. She lists the light and all colors she sees (but she still begins with both “look” and “listen”), ending with “queer ambiguous tints, which yield like veils and close behind them, and one thing melts into another.”

In a long paragraph on page 84, Bernard states explicitly that he needs his people, “they retrieve [him] from darkness,” he finds solace and stability in his friends. (I do feel comfortable calling them all friends, though I also understand how it is up for debate.) He needs them for their individual attributes, Bernard lists “fantastic pictures. . . visions of friends in absence,” but he needs all of them, because they are important together, because they have this great whole they need to make up, with themselves as critical parts.

Another thing, I think the quotes used through all of the non-italicized sections serve as a visual representation of Woolf’s concept for The Waves. They, rather than dashes or other forms of distinguishing who is speaking or thinking, contain all text. This containment parallels the speakers’ thoughts: contained in their mind rather than spoken aloud, and not available for conventional conversation or discourse between traditional characters.