Option A
The first impression a reader has when he faces Virginia Woolf's texts for the first time is confusion. Nothing seems to make sense, nothing seems obvious, sentences are short and they are short and they are not linked by a chronological thread. But isn't it exactly how our mind works? Does anything make sense in our "stream of consciousness?" That is why Virginia Woolf's writing is so difficult to understand. It makes the reader reflect on his life, on his inner part, on his unconscious and, as we all know, it's always easier to reflect and judge other people rather than ourselves.
A very good example of stream of consciousness and deep thinking person is given by Clarissa Dalloway, the main prootagonist of Mrs. Dalloway.
The extract I am going to consider is the one where Clarissa is going to the florist and, while she's walking, she falls into a river of thoughts.
At the very beginning of the novel Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa is walking in Bond Street and she's going to the florist. While she's walking she stops in front of a glove shop and from that point on her thoughts start running. By the time she gets to "Mulberry's", the florist, the reader will know about Uncle William, Elizabeth ( Mrs. Dalloway's daughter), Grizzle (Elizabeth's dog), Miss Kilman ( Elizabeth's firend), Mrs. Dalloway opinion about Miss Kilman,...A simple action, something that everyone can do everyday without even thinking becomes for Clarissa a chance to reflect on her life. This is an example of a new narrative technique: moment of being. It is a moment that allows the character to see life in a clearer way.
The language Virginia Woolf uses in moments of bein and the stream of consciousness is very detailed and accurate, almost poetic. It is because the moment of being is such a moment of extreme feelings that needs to be written in a perfect and vivid way. Moreover the sentences are short, often interrupted by commas. All the previous elements togethr give the idea of something that is either breaking down or is not done yet.
Last but not least, there is one more innovation in Virginia Woolf's style: the two narrators. In Mrs. Dalloway's extract the intelligent reader notices that there is a narration of actions and a narration of thoughts. The first one is hidden behind an impersonal narrator and it is shown by the use of pronouns such as "she", "he", "her", "its",..and verbs of action. The second one, on the other side, is given by a free association of Mrs. Dalloways' thoughts and ideas.