Treatment of Time in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse

This paper investigates the concept of time in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse through the exploration of non-linear techniques she uses to represent the passage of time in this novel. Virginia Woolf is considered as one of the most significant writers in modern fiction. Utilizing the technique of stream of consciousness, Woolf wrote innovative novels in which time was not experienced in the traditional and conventional sense of the word. She is regarded as a pioneer in breaking away from chronological form of narration in her novels, especially in To the Lighthouse. As a modernist author, Woolf revolutionary novels that perplexed mediocre readers. Such readers could not measure time and create linear segments, such as days, minutes and seconds in Woolf s works, because unlike realist authors, Woolf refuses to depict objective reality. Since she is going to portrait the subjective reality of her characters, Virginia Woolf uses stream of consciousness to show the flow of myriad impressions as perceived by the mind of characters. Therefore, time is a problematic concept in Woolf s novels which requires technical analysis

Keywords:

time , stream of consciousness , narrative , analepsis , prolepsis