Lack of Progress in Modernity in the Mark on the Wall - Desklib
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Added on 2020-05-16
Lack of Progress in Modernity in the Mark on the Wall - Desklib
Added on 2020-05-16
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Running head: LACK OF PROGRESS IN MODERNITY IN THE MARK ON THE WALLLACK OF PROGRESS IN MODERNITY IN THE MARK ON THE WALLName of StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note
1LACK OF PROGRESS IN MODERNITY IN THE MARK ON THE WALLVirginia Woolf is regarded as a major figure in the history of modern literature and isknown for her innovative techniques in fiction and her literary contribution to criticism. Inher short stories, she has explored themes like the reality and truth, portrayal of women in thesociety and the nature and techniques of storytelling. Her works are known to be highlysubjective and detailed in addressing the perceptions and the workings of the mind. In ‘TheMark on the Wall’, Woolf has used the technique of the interior monologue to demonstratethe inner musings of the narrator. ‘The Mark on the Wall’ is underlined with multiple layersof meaning especially when it comes to pointing out the problems within the society. Thethesis statement of this paper is to state that Woolf’s ‘The Mark on the Wall’ has deepundertones of the problematic progress of the society in the modern age especially regardingthe imposed gender roles and the treatment of women in a patriarchal society.Like most of the writers of the modernist age, Woolf had always favored the use ofthe stream of consciousness technique. ‘The Mark on the Wall’ was published first in 1917,in the near end of the World War I, a year before the women in England were given suffrage.Woolf’s short story explores in the midst of the hollowness of the war, themes like genderroles, religion, trust and uncertainty. The story revolves around the musings of the narratorwho wonders about a mark on the wall of her drawing room. Even though she is able toresolve the issue of the mark on the wall as a snail, she contemplates on the other issues andproblems of the society of which she is uncertain that they would ever be solved. The narratoris unable to find any logical reason as to why her world is dominated as if generically bymen. Moreover, the narrator is deprived of any religious faith on male-dominated churchespecially in a hollow world that is cursed by the war. The fact that the narrator is so inclined on the belief that “nothing ever happens”demonstrates her disappointment in the fact that her position and role in the society as womanis permanent and would never change (Woolf, 1997). She will forever be stuck in the role of
2LACK OF PROGRESS IN MODERNITY IN THE MARK ON THE WALLa dutiful wife that the society has decided for her and there will be no progress in her identityor state of being. The moral hollowness of the war has developed in her a feeling of paralysis.Her life and her role in the society is predefined and has rendered her in a paralytic statewhere she does not have any say or anything to do to help the cursed war to stop. Throughoutthe short story, the feeling of uncertainty for the hollowness of the war and the society lingerson. In fact, the feeling of uncertainty is evident from the very beginning of the short storywhen the narrator is uncertain about the time when the incident had occurred: “Perhaps it wasthe middle of January in the present year that I first looked up and saw the mark on the wall.In order to fix a date, it is necessary to remember what one saw” (Woolf, 1997).‘The Mark on the Wall’ establishes the foundation of Woolf’s position as a feminist –herviews on the World War I, patriarchal order and Victorian conformism. Woolf is of theopinion that men set the standards of the social order. This is demonstrated through“Whitaker’s Almanack” metaphor. The “Whitaker’s Almanack” represents what Woolf callsthe “impersonal and impartial authority” or a system that stands for the bias and prejudice ofthe patriarchy against the women in the professional sectors (Woolf, 1997). Woolf’s narratorpredicts that the war would soon triumph over the patriarchy since it had discredited the“Whitaker’s Table of Precedency” which she believes has degraded to being “half aphantom” from the time the war has begun (Woolf, 1997). In a moment of anticipation, thenarrator opines that women would love to find “the masculine point of view which governsour lives” to be discarded “into the dustbins where the phantoms go” (Woolf, 1997). This shebelieves would lead to disappearance of the male traditions, power and religion and offerwomen an “intoxicating sense of illegitimate freedom, if freedom exists” (Woolf, 1997).Hence, it can be argued that Woolf finds the woman’s position as being confined only withina culture that is fundamentally dominated by the men. There are several other instances in theshort story when Woolf had emphasized on the contradictory gender roles prevalent in the
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