i am dedicate my presentation to department of English.

1. Stream Of Consciousness
To The Light House
By
Virginia Woolf

2. Definition
• Stream of Consciousness is a literary technique
which was pioneered by Dorthy Richardson,
Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce. Stream of
consciousness is characterized by a flow of
thoughts and images, which may not always
appear to have a coherent structure or cohesion.
The plot line may weave in and out of time and
place, carrying the reader through the life span
of a character or further along a timeline to
incorporate the lives (and thoughts) of
characters from other time periods.

3. Death of the author

4. Features
• Use of informal, colloquial language
• Focalization on inner thoughts and
feelings.
• No first-person but figural narrative
mode.
• The flow of thoughts is represented by
means of long-winding, interconnected
sentences.

5. Stream of consciousness
The breaking of Grammatical rules.
Punctuation is neglected.

6. Interior Monologue
• A stylized way of thinking out loud. (Technically: thinking ‘on the
page’.)
• Unlike stream-of-consciousness, an interior monologue can be
integrated into a third-person narrative. The point of view of
character’s thoughts are woven into authorial description, using
their own language.
• This is the essential difference between interior monologue and
straight narrative :
:
• Narrative = the narrator talking ( ‘the narrator’ – that made-up
character who sounds like the author.
• Interior Monologue = a character talking/thinking, using words
,specific to that character, making assumptions, mistaken
judgments, .

7. Stream of Consciousness
• Another stylized way of thinking out loud.
• The term ‘stream of consciousness’ is very similar to
interior monologue – and used interchangeably by
some – but this refers more specifically to a first person
narrative which mimics the jumble of thoughts,
emotions and memories passing through a character’s
mind. (Interior monologue is not necessarily written in
first person.)
• Stream of consciousness tends to be less ordered than
interior monologue. Consciousness has no beginning
and no end – thoughts flit quite randomly from one
thing to another.

8. The Window Chapter 1
• “Had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any
weapon that would have gashed a hole in his
father’s breast and killed him, there and then,
James would have seized it. Such were the
extremes of emotion that Mr Ramsay excited in
his children’s breasts by his mere presence;
standing, as now, lean as a knife, narrow as the
blade of one, grinning sarcastically, not only
with the pleasure of disillusioning his son and
casting ridicule upon his wife, who was ten
thousand times better in every way than he was
(James thought)”

9. No first-person but figural
narrative mode.
“Who was ten thousand times better in every
way than he was (James thought)”
•
“there and then, James would have seized it.”

10. The Window Chapter 1
• “Yes, he did say disagreeable things, Mrs.
Ramsay admitted; it was odious of him to rub
this in, and make
• James still more disappointed; but at the same
time, she would not let them laugh at him. ‘The
atheist’, they
• called him; ‘the little atheist’, Rose mocked him;
Prue mocked him; Andrew, Jasper, Roger
mocked him;
• even old Badger without a tooth in his head
• Had “bit him

11. Stream of consciousess
• Virginia Woolf’s distinguishing technical
features of stream of consciousness are
examined in relation to devices used by many
contemporary write
• stream of consciousness, and monologue
interieur" have been employed, but reflect
the "author’s attitude toward the reality of
the world he represents."

12. Stream of consciousness
• Woolf’s uniqueness begins with an "attempt to
render the flow and the play of consciousness
adrift in the current of changing impressions."
• Woolf’s technique is achieved through "[t]he
design of a close approach to objective reality by
means of numerous subjective impressions
received by various individuals (and at various
times)is important in the modern technique."
•

13. Stream of consciousness
• " Woolf’s use of the "multipersonal
representation of consciousness" is unique
through its combination with "treatment of
time.“
• This relation is not new to modern literature;
however, narration is not devoted to an
external occurrence, rather internal processes.

14. Stream of consciousness
• This relation is not new to modern literature; however,
narration is not devoted to an external occurrence,
rather internal processes.
• "In Virginia Woolf’s case the external events have lost
their hegemony, they serve to release and interpret
inner events, whereas before her time… inner
movements preponderantly function to prepare and
motivate significant external happenings."

15. Stream of consciousness
• Although there is no temporal relation between
external framing and internal impressions, each
share a common element.
• The important aspect to remember regarding the
uniqueness of Woolf’s representation of
consciousness is that "insignificant external
occurrence releases ideas and chains of ideas
which cut loose from the present of the external
occurrence and range freely through the depths
of time"

16. Stream of consciousness
• Instead, the consciousness is constantly
changing due to present impressions
integrating with past experiences (68-71).
• Woolf’s characters seem to be constantly
reminded of the past through their present
experiences.

17. Stream of consciousess
• Therefore, the term stream of consciousness
may be too general when describing Woolf’s
work.
• Woolf’s probing into the human
consciousness in TTL is not so simplistic that
it can be attributed to any particular
narrative technique.

18. Stream of consciousness
• What really distinguishes her novel is the
aesthetic effect of her exploration of the
minds of her characters.
• Only an artist of Woolf’s stature can present
the mental worlds of her characters with an
unprecedented depth and intensity.

19. Stream of consciousness
• By virtue of her depth and intensity, Woolf
creates a novel with an unconventional
"plot", In fact, the imaginative power of her
language tunnelling the minds of her
characters translates her novel to the level of
poetry.

20. Stream of consciousness
• Reading and writing about the book was a huge
undertaking (and challenge). I was struck by the many
literary techniques, but did not comprehend – and
would not have necessarily – picked out all of the
aspects as a recreational reader (should be left to
academics who actually analyse the language, phrases
and expressions individually). Still, one thing that I did
not include in the below points was on Lily and James
(how, at the end of the novel, they develop more
balanced and holistic impressions of Mrs and Mr
Ramsay respectively, and reinforces the point about
competing perspectives).

21. Stream of consciousness
• “To The Lighthouse” and the use of the stream
of consciousness technique.
• The use of the stream of consciousness
technique is a defining literary aspect of “To
The Lighthouse”, along with the use of
flashbacks-recollections, as well as the
changing perspective and narrative voice from
character to character.

22. Stream of consciousness
• . The last book I read which used the stream
of consciousness narrative style was William
Faulkner’s “The Sound And The Fury”; and like
the present text, the narrative style allows for
more in-depth character understanding
(without the bias from a third-person
perspective), and enriches the relationships
between the members.

23. Stream of consciousness
• The broadest conjunction of the narrative world
with the sub-atomic is epistemological. In the
limited perspective of the internal narrator,
literature had already a principle of limited
knowledge. The stream-of-consciousness novel,
investing itself fully in the dynamic mind of the
narrator, denies still more absolutely the
possibility of absolute knowledge and sees the
world change under observation. In To the
Lighthouse, where questions of perception,
perspective, and knowledge press, the limits and
uncertainties are sometimes poignant. Of