The Self

Today we alluded to the theme of the universal vs. the singular self, which is brought up throughout the book, and which I would argue is the "main idea" of the novel. Although I am sure this will be discussed in more detail in class on Tuesday, I want to address the role Bernard plays in this theme (at least so far). At first glance, it may appear as if Woolf favors Bernard since his passages are usually the longest and most in-depth in that they reveal the most about the surroundings and the relationships between the other characters. I do not think this is the case. I personally view the characters of the story as representative parts of a whole consciousness, and although I am not completely sure what the "center of the flower" is yet, I do think the petals have been pretty laid out for us. Neville, for example, is passion. He is consumed by his love, tortured by it, obsessed, and writes poetry in order to communicate his inner feelings. Similarly, Rhoda is the present external, Louis is the sum of past experience, Jinny is awareness of the physical self (especially in relation to others), and Susan is raw animal instinct...maybe. The analogy may not be perfect yet, but I'm working on it. Bernard, being the storyteller, is what I would call cognition. He is always processing, analyzing, "making things concrete." His passages are the longest, because it is cognition that gives rise to insight and understanding. He is not favored, and I would argue that in no way is any individual favored as he even  says, "I do not believe in separation...we are not single, we are one." By "seeing through" the perceptions of these different characters, these different aspects of consciousness, we get a whole picture that is not representative of any one of them, but rather the group as a whole.