MODERNIST FICTION

MOMENTS OF BEING AND EPIPHANIES

Modernist fiction is signed by significant moments, in which characters grasp life’s essence.

         Virginia Woolf speaks of moments of being, while James Joyce tells about epiphanies. They both convey the idea of a powerful experience but the differ from some aspects.

         Woolf’s moments of being, presented in Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Between the Acts are memorable events lived with intense feeling and conscious awareness. They are not themselves important but the individual is conscious of them, as a result they fix into one’s mind and are recalled. In addition, these “flashes of awareness” reveal a pattern hidden between daily routine and connect human lives, as in a work of art. The writer states “all human beings are connected with this; the whole world is a work of art”. For this reason Woolf thought that moments of being are threads of connection between the self and the surroundings. Therefore they are a common manifestation of human condition, Woolf says “we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself”.

Moments of being contrast with moments of non-being, events unconsciously lived, as if asleep.

Mrs Dalloway provides examples of moments of being, such as Clarissa’s experience walking in London streets (Life; London; this moment of being). The event is not epic itself, it is just a walk in the City but, since it is lived consciously, it is a moment of being. Language used to convey the moment (Life; London; this moment of being) approaches to poetry. It is precise, evocative, and powerful and there is perfect symmetry between the form and the content.

         J. Joyce’s epiphany is a narrative element revealing a sudden spiritual manifestation, which guides a deeper insight into the truth of things. It is a moment leading a decisive revelation for his characters. He also recognised that the moment of revelation could be lyrical, radiant and fully.

         Consequently Woolf and Joyce both tell brief moments of energy and awareness but they have different function in their characters. For Wool’s character they are a human connective element, a glimpse of vitality; for Joyce’s ones they are a deep, lyrical revelation.

All in all Modernist fiction communicates the essence of existence, which is briefly but intensively grasped.