Essay Example on Michael Cunningham's 'Virginia Woolf'

Michael Cunningham provides a riff from Virginia Woolf, and offers a literary work version of Woolf's meditation on her writing process. Virginia Woolf comes across a couple, a male and a female of younger age than herself, walking together hand in hand, leisurely, leaning towards each other in the soft lemon-colored glow of a streetlamp. Virginia Woolf says she hears the man, "told me something something something in this establishment, something something, harrumph indeed1" (Lee, 1977). Repeating of 'something' in this passage suggests that the characters had an imperfect experience in their conversation and that Woolf had a great brink of her perceptions. As long as the moment is conveyed in the perspective of the characters, the conversation cannot be complete. In Cunningham's passage, he points out that the sounded voice in this conversation has been given a character in the ears of a listener. This passage echoes that are famous in the first sentences of Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" when she says she will buy the flowers by herself. This text offers an implication that Mrs. Dalloway actually spoke but then did not identify it as a conversation. While the tone in the conversation of Cunningham remains, the narrator does not distinguish sound events from the narrative by using quotation marks. This quotation implies moments of indirect speech when discourse gets immersed into the texture of a narrative, failing to disappear entirely. "Mrs. Dalloway" is filled with many of these moments. An examination of the moments can offer clarity how the conversation changes during the period, and the changes in priorities in literary aesthetics (Lee, 1977). When the line between a narrative voice and speech lacks clarity, things become uncertain.

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In this way, Virginia Wolf manages to create literary allusions that acquaint the reader with the thematic content of the Mrs. Dalloway. Additionally, Virginia Woolf demonstrate a commanding posies and self-esteem proving that she is worthy of admiration by critics. Another reading that demonstrates Virginia Woolf's ability to use rhetoric to convince the reader is Angel in the House. In this piece, Woolf relies on extended metaphors to illustrate the diverse challenges that prevent women from exhibiting their true talents. Characteristically, Woolf uses the word "phantom" to represent the ghost's hostility toward Woolf. The shadow of her wings fell on my page". Here the writer emphasizes the phantom's power over Woolf which is metaphor for the writer's ability to create works that depicts the continuous supervision that the Angel in the shadow has over females (Lee, 1977). Subsequently, in Angel in the House, women derive their power from a multitude of opinions and societal norms that regard women as submissive and unproductive. As a result, Virginia Woolf use of rhetorical strategy helps fulfill the overall goals of her essay. For example, in the w1st century women are increasingly using positions of authority in the family, business and political sectors. Throughout her writings, Woolf manages to appeal to the reader's sense of passion to bring out the realization of the importance of dialogue in the context of the Angel in the House narrative (Lee, 1977). Moreover, the writer excels in the use of the three rhetorical devices ethos, pathos and logos innumerous places. In particular, these devices help her highlight the role of society in preventing her characters from obtaining too much power in their lives. In this way, Woolf presents the ongoing challenges that women across the globe are experiencing.

References

Lee, H. (1977). The Novels of Virginia Woolf (Vol. 612). London: Methuen.