It seems that one cannot make it through a Woolf novel without being confronted in some way by the gender issues of her time. This is not to say that they are in any sense unwelcome of irrelevant to today’s reader, for instead of directly addressing the politics of her day, Woolf instead infuses her ideas into the lives of the characters themselves, making them in some sense living examples of these tensions at work. But Woolf carefully avoids archetypes in her work, which works to her advantage: While Susan ultimately chooses to lead a domesticated, family-oriented life, we do not have any hyper-masculine character to which she can e compared, and even Susan herself contemplates her loss of individuality as she chooses what she sees as a stereotypical lifestyle for a woman. Also to this effect Susan compares herself to the other women in the novel. Jinny has a completely superficial, externally-oriented personality, and is closest to what could be considered a “man’s woman” because she is obsessed with physical beauty and plays up to men’s desires. The other extreme is Rhoda, who, unlike the other two, is more of a recluse and very internal. Her near constant depressive state questions her role in the world. In many ways her concerns are more humanistic than sexual, and despite her attraction to Louis, she expresses little in terms of sexual desire. Feeling lost and shut out of the world, she often looks to Susan and Jinny to know how a woman should even act, as they seem to her to be much more in touch with their womanness.
Such a questioning of gender identity is seen again in the lives of the male characters. Aside from Neville, none of the male narrators are overly concerned with sexual pursuit. Louis and Rhoda’s relationship is more about their internal and personal development than it is about expressing their love for each other, which is one of the reasons their relationship ends. What concerns most of the men is the intellectual aspect of life, as all of them have strong ambitions for intellectual achievement, yet once again only Neville is the exception in their collective success. While one may argues that despite his failure to produce a novel Bernard achieves a rather fulfilling intellectual life, his love for words and his never-ending pursuit of new ways to express himself serves as a model for the other male protagonists. Louis is constantly self-conscious of his perceived social status, and seeks to appear smarter and more refined than how the others see him. Neville is also in constant intellectual pursuit, and is ultimately successful in becoming a writer. It is slightly ironic that Woolf would create a group of male characters with such academic endeavors, as she often portrays women as having a suppressed intellectual superiority, such as Mrs. Ramsay and Clarissa Dalloway. However, Rhoda is probably the most self-reflective character of the group, and possibly overly so, as it ultimately drives her to commit suicide. There is something to be said for the way Rhoda constantly feels as if she must keep such thoughts and emotions internal, which might be Woolf commenting on the social norms which determine what kinds of thoughts men and women are allowed to express. In a final ironic move, only Bernard is allowed to discuss her death, suggesting that Rhoda’s death does not lead to any definite resolution, instead leaving the reader to ponder its significance.
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