Viringia Woolf -Or- Mansfield Park Term Paper

In Between the Acts, the idea of the general and disordered flow of things is suggested by the form of the narrative itself as well. The play that is set on stage represents the flow of history from its beginning to the present. The play is interrupted often by the audience itself or by the wind, to suggest that the continuum is broken many times. "The wind blew the words away."(Woolf) the words of the actors are completely unintelligible at times, and the wind only carries to the audience the few essential names. The wind itself is another element of the natural world that is effectively used in the imagery of the novel:

The words died away. Only a few great names -- Babylon, Nineveh, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, Troy -- floated across the open space. Then the wind rose, and in the rustle of the leaves even the great words became inaudible; and the audience sat staring at the villagers, whose mouths opened, but no sound came."(Woolf)

Thus, Woolf employs almost all the natural elements available so as to create the symbolic imagery of the text. The novel itself has a loose structure and an almost non-existent plot. All the ideas come from the imagery and the linguistic use of the text. The text is thus a compilation of impressionistic images and lyrical elements that leave enough for the imagination of the reader to complete. Both the text of the historical play that is staged and the action that takes part "between the acts" are incomplete, and the words are lost in the wind, therefore the author seems to imply that the rest of the text is to be recreated in the imagination of the reader: "The producer,' Mrs. Elmhurst read out for her husband's benefit, 'craves the indulgence of the audience. Owing to lack of time a scene has been omitted; and she begs the audience to imagine that in the interval Sir Spaniel Lilyliver has contracted an engagement with Flavinda; (Woolf)

As Woolf emphasizes, the plot does not matter only the emotion both in the play on stage and in the finished novel: "Did the plot matter? She shifted and looked over her right shoulder.The plot was only there to beget emotion. There were only two emotions: love; and hate. There was no need to puzzle out the plot. Perhaps Miss La Trobe meant that when she cut this knot in the centre? Don't bother about the plot: the plot's nothing. But what was happening? The Prince had come."(Woolf)

The imagery of the novel, is partly symbolic and partly merely impressionistic, that is, it serves precisely to create the atmosphere and the emotion of the text. The use of the natural world in Woolf's novels, usually aims at revealing the constant flow of all things in the world. The sky, the sea, the wind are images of transformation. In Between the Acts however there appears also the idea of the multiplicity of worlds in which we live in. The images of regression into the past, to the primordial times are the most important symbols in the novel, as they suggest the idea that the present and the past meet again. "The house had lost its shelter. It was night before roads were made, or houses. It was the night that dwellers in caves had watched from some high place among rocks." The primitive world also suggests the regression to the undivided, instinctual, unconscious world of the beginning, which has gradually transformed into the modern, divided and plural world.

Works Cited

Woolf, Virginia. Between the Acts. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91b/complete.html

Virginia Woolf. Between the Acts. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91b/complete.html.....