A feminist reading of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway and To the lighthouse

Cilj ovog rada je pokazati da se romani Mrs Dalloway i To the Lighthouse Virginije Woolf mogu analizirati kroz feminističku perspektivu. Uporište za nju pronalazim u eseju A Room of One’s Own Virginije Woolf te u djelu Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Najprije istražujem odnos između ženskih likova V. Woolf i društva te postavljam tezu da su njezini ženski likovi uglavnom konformisti (iznimke su Elizabeth Dalloway i Lily Briscoe). Zatim analiziram odnos između muških likova i društva te tvrdim da većina njezinih muških likova nastoji zadržati tradicionalne rodne uloge. Septimus Smith u Mrs Dalloway jedini je lik koji odbija prihvatiti tradicionalni pogled na svijet. Posljednji dio mojeg rada posvećen je problemu nemogućnosti komunikacije i osamljenosti koji, tvrdim, osobito pogađa ženske likove V. Woolf.My aim in this thesis is to show that Virginia Woolf‘s novels Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse can be read through feminist lenses, and I draw on Virginia Woolf‘s essay A Room of One’s Own and on Simone de Beauvoir‘s work The Second Sex. I first explore the relationship between Woolf‘s female characters and society, and I argue that the majority of Woolf‘s female characters reveal themselves as being conformist (with the exception of Elizabeth Dalloway and Lily Briscoe). I then move on to an exploration of the relationship between Woolf‘s male characters and society, and I contend that the majority of her male characters act as preservers of traditional gender roles. Septimus Smith in Mrs Dalloway can be seen as the only character who refuses to conform to the traditional world-view. The final section of my thesis focuses on the problems of the impossibility of communication and of loneliness, and I suggest that they affect Woolf‘s female characters particularly acutely