The Waves by Virginia Woolf

 

The Waves

by Virginia Woolf

The Waves follows six characters throughout their lives from childhood to after middle age. Each section is matched with an introduction of a day's cycle of the sun, a metaphor for the rise and decline of a human life. Against all of this is the common theme of waves, a force in constant motion, forever overlapping and pushing forward.

The six characters (Bernard, Neville, Louis, Susan, Jinny, and Rhoda) often come together around a seventh character named Percival, who is the only one not narrating. The six alternate within each chapter, except the last which is narrated entirely by Bernard, standing forth with their impressions of their lives as individuals and as a part of the group. This stream of consciousness narrative shows each character's experience of both their interior and exterior world as events transpire throughout their lives, with each character having a distinct worldview and view of themselves that either changes or is reinforced as time progresses.

Bernard narrates the most, and his whole being is preoccupied with his need for the presence of others in order to be who he is. Neville, who is in love with Percival, is concerned with order and beauty. Louis, with being an outcast trying to make something of himself that will command respect. Susan wants to be one with nature always and eschews her relationships with the others. Jinny is a physical being who knows she is beautiful and revels in what is happening right now, delighting in everything. Rhoda, the only character who takes her own life before the story ends, is full of doubt and fear, not wanting to be seen, and living in her own imagination. These six go through life together, meeting at various times as they age and their own separate lives take precedence. Once they come together to remember Percival who has died in India.

The Waves is about life and death, about order and meaning in life, and about the influence others have on us and how we see ourselves. The characters continuously remark on themselves, their places within the group and society, and on how the others must be perceiving them. Some are quite comfortable with themselves, even though they are aware how they must look to the others, and others (particularly Louis and Rhoda) believe they do not fit in; they torture themselves with the notion that the others are judging them. Yet, even those who do seem to fit in are unsure of their place in the world to some extent. The characters themselves felt like incarnations of waves as they each held forth in succession, one leading into the next. I liked that feeling and structure.

This is a difficult book, but the language is beautiful. It is hard to comprehend all of Woolf's ideas with her specific style of writing. I'm sure this book needs many readings. The lack of narrative cues didn't bother me as much as the feeling of being lost on a tangent in someone else's mind did. What I was able to understand of the characters, I liked. They were distinct and their voices were clear from one to the next. I got the impression that these were aspects of Woolf herself, as they often referenced the woman writing in the window, which I took to be Woolf herself. 

For me, it is just a 3-star read, only because the style is difficult in its poetic narrative. If I had been able to grasp more of it, the rating would likely be higher.