Comment by the end of Chapter 12 of "Jacob's Room" by Virginia Woolf ("The Clock Struck The Quarter" to "The church clock, however, strikes twelve.")

Résumé du document

Time has always been an irresistible fascination in literature. The great authors who wrote about time, such as Yourcenar, Proust, Joyce or Woolf have all offered their unique perception of time. For some, it was a way to self-introspect, for others, a tool to describe the world in which they lived. Yet, they all have one thing in common, writing about time implies a movement, a progressive, but constant flow of the action. There is no doubt that tension is a part of time, no matter that one wants to crystallize it, to split it up, to slow it down or even to speed it up. The feat of ingenuity will be to carry the reader into another dimension. The writer will have to use all his potential to build a universe as coherent as possible in order to keep the reader in rapt attention. This vivid description excerpted from Virginia Woolf's 'Jacob's Room' dips us into the bewitching atmosphere, not to say disturbing, of the vast moors of England. The way these landscapes are described, the influences of time and place, the interaction between humanity and nature are part of a singular style that we will try to explain. Much more than being a simple landscape description, these are the lineaments of a new relation with the world. Thus, we will analyze how V. Woolf wrote the description of this landscape and explain the literary issues raised by such a powerful prose.

Extraits

[...] We are very far from a morbid atmosphere: moors take care of men To conclude, we have seen that this text played on the perception of time in the way of writing the story, but especially on how to mix past and present, and how this will affect the very elements of the text. In spite of the temporal shake-up of this text, we were able to see that an essential tension of the action remained, were it hazy and disparate. I particularly appreciated this extract, because it has the capacity to dive the reader into a completely dazzling temporal universe. The multiple elements of the text all partake of this surge of brilliant realism. [...]

[...] That is why we could speak about an anthropomorphisation of the moors, which even seem to be superior to men (have we ever something?). The influence of time about which we previously talked will allow us to make a link between the moors and time. The very detailed description of these moors makes them look alive. The narrator indeed talks about “stiff gorses and the hawthorn”, bramble [that] stirred”, moonlight”, fox [that] steals etc. All these elements form a kind of personality of the moors, raising it to the status of a unique character. [...]

[...] First, we will try to analyze the writing of time in this extract and then try to systematize it. The first thing that strikes the reader when he starts reading is the way this excerpt is built. Far from being a single block of text, this passage is split into a multitude of paragraphs. One cannot help but notice that their sizes are extremely variable. However, how does it partake of the temporality of the text? In my opinion, the first and last sentences form a temporal bracket in which "one singular moment" is contained. [...]

[...] In this respect, we can point out all the natural elements scattered in the description and which have no major relevance, apart from setting up an exceptionally realistic description. This combination of periods is also developed on a much shorter time scale. The narrator describes the different moments of the day: he talks about the night moonlight falls like a pale the day (“Quiet at midday”), etc. If time is a main element in the text, something remains unsaid. Another breath, not temporal this time, wanders in this description. Could not we see a real personification of the moors? [...]

[...] While the moorlands are actually a character, it could not be anything but an extra temporal character. Indeed, although the narrator makes us navigate through ages by a subtle literary process, an element remains unchanged: the moors. They constitute the common point in all these eons of time. There is a very intimate relation between time and the moors: the abundance of paragraphs is not only a proof of the segmentation of time, it is also a kind of blend between present and past. [...]