-
* *
IV. Portrait of an Actress
About the
author
Woolf ----
Virginia
(Stephen)
Woolf,
1882
–
1941,
English
novelist.
She
was
an
innovative
influence on the
20
th
-cent. novel. With her
husband, Leonard Woolf, she set up the
Hogarth Press in 1917. Their home was
the center for the BLOOMSBURY GROUUP
.
In
her
writing
she
concentrated
on
the
flow
of
ordinary
experience
through
the
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
technique. Her prose is poetic, symbolic, and
visual.
Woolf
’
s
novels include
Mrs. Dalloway
(1925),
To the Lighthouse
(1927),
Orlando
(1928),
The Waves
(1931), and
Between the Acts
(1940). Her criticism is contained
in
The Common Reader
(1925) and
volumes of essays, letters, and diaries. She also
wrote two feminist tracts,
A
Room of One
’
s Own
(1929) and
Three Guineas
(1938).
Virginia Woolf
revolted against what she called the
‘<
/p>
materialism
’
of major British
novelists
of the early 1900
’
s. By this
she meant their preoccupation with outward,
visible
events.
She
felt
it
was
more
important
to
show
the
inner
essence
of
a
character
in
fiction
by
revealing
the
character
’
s
thoughts
and
concentrating
on
precise, significant details about him.
She followed the path which James Joyce had
opened up, and then branched off in a
new direction. Virginia
Woolf
’
s stories often
reflect
her
concern
about
women.
She
suffered
in
her
own
experience
as
an
eminent woman
intellectual, and encountered special difficulties
as a woman writer,
* *
in
a
time
when
even
university
libraries
were
sometimes
closed
to
women.
Her
point
of
view
was
always
progressive
and
open-minded,
and
she
encouraged
others to liberate their minds
likewise.
In her works,
Virginia Woolf wanted to emphasize the continuous
flow of people
’
s
experiences in life, and to show how
external circumstances only affect a person to
the degree that he notices them or
takes account of them, each according to his
own type of character. She wanted also
to show the contradictions of time, which
always
exists
in
the
present
tense,
yet
flows
unbroken
through
the
years
and
centuries. In her most popular novels,
Mrs. Dalloway
and
To The
Lighthouse
, she
showed her technical mastery as a
writer. Both books have a tightly organized form,
in which the time of the action is very
short, allowing space for much detail, and in
which images recur like rhymes in a
poem. Her use of very long sentences, difficult
syntax and large vocabulary sometimes
make her books hard to read.
Background
notes
Bloomsbury
Group
----
Bloomsbury
is
a
section
of
London,
near
the
British
Museum and the
universities, with several squares and small parks
surrounded by
private houses. The name
was given to a number of British writers,
philosophers
and artists who lived
there and met for informal discussions at each
other
’
s houses
between 1907 and 1930. They discussed
questions of art and philosophy with open
minds, seeking the definitions of
‘
good
’
,
‘
true
’
and
‘
beautiful
’
. They examined
all
ideas commonly held by the society, looking for
elements of insincerity and false
* *
logic.
They
did
not form
a
single
school
of
thought, although
they shared
many
ideas. The
group
’
s importance lay in
the high number of brilliant, talented people
who made Bloomsbury the centre of
progressive new thinking in Britain. In general,
its
members
criticized
the
Victorian
conservatism
of
British
society
in
matters
of
religion, morality and art, and they
sought truth through the use of reason.
Virginia
Woolf
was
one
of
the
first
members.
Others
members
included
Lytton
STRACHEY, Leonard
WOOLF, E.M. FORSTER, V. SACKVILLE-WEST, Roger FRY,
Clive
Bell, and John Maynard KEYNES.
stream of consciousness
----
Literary
technique for recording the
thoughts and
feelings
of
a
character
without
regard
to
their
logical
association
or
narrative
sequence. The
writer attempts to reflect all the forces
affecting the psychology of a
character
at a single moment. Introduced by the French
writer Edouard Dujardin in
We
’
ll to the
Woods No More (1888), the technique was used
notably by James
JOYCE, Virginia WOOLF
and William FAULKNER.
About the text
come on ----
appear on or
move to (the stage)
When Lawrence
Oliver came on for the first time, the audience
applauded.
The next player came on five
minutes late.
People clapped and
shouted and made her come on again and again.
* *
?
Captain
Brassbound
’
s
Conversion
----
a
play
written
by
George
Bernard
Shaw.
?
the stage
collapsed like a house of cards
----
This is of course metaphorical.
The ides is that when Ellen Terry
appeared on the stage as Lady Cicely, it was as
if the stage had suddenly ceased to
exist. She was the central figure, casting all
the other actors into the shade.
?
a
ripe, richly seasoned
“
cello
”
----
A
‘
cello
’
< br>
made of elaborately seasoned
wood, that is, wood made specially hard
for use. Season
’
: -- to
harden (wood)
to
make
it
ready
for
use
by
drying
it
gradually:
These
days
wood
is
rarely
seasoned in the traditional way and is
treated with preservative instead.
?
it grated, it
glowed and it growled ----
Notice the
repetition of the letter
‘
g
’
which sounds a note of passion and
rage.
settee
----
a sofa
She
had
forgotten
her
part.
----
She
had
forgotten
her
lines
in
the
play.
(
She
forgot what the
character should say next. )
she filled the stage ----
She, when on the stage, became the attraction
centre of
the audience.
past her prime ----
her best
possible condition was over.
* *
uncongenial ----
unsuitable; unable to provide the right conditions
for ( happiness,
peace of mind, etc. )
?
Portia ----
heroine in Shakespeare
’
s
Merchant of Venice.
?
Desdemona ----
heroine in Shakespeare
’
s
Othello.
?
Ophelia ---- heroine in
Shakespeare
’
s Hamlet.
come upon ----
affect; happen to
?
Velasquez ---- Diego Rodriguez de
Silvay Velasquez (1599
–
1660): a leading
painter of
the Spanish school.
?
the beautiful
coloured canvas ----
the portrait
painted in oils on the canvas.
wavering ----
swaying;
swinging
It
’
s the
party
’
s last attempt to
persuade some of the
nation
’
s wavering voters
Fear came upon the boy.
This
thing has come upon me more or less unexpectedly.
Uncongenial
company/weather/surroundings
to support
them.
* *
a
verbal life on the lips of the living
----
only becoming a subject talked
about by
people ( after dinner )
?
Ellen
Terry
----
Ellen
Alice
Terry,
famous
English
actress
(1847
–
1920).
She
made her first appearance on the stage
at the age of nine. She joined Charles
Kean
’
s company
and remained with him until 1859. In 1863 when she
was only
sixteen, she was married to
George Frederick Watts, an elderly painter of some
reputation. The marriage was a failure.
She returned to the theatre for a short
time, but left it again for six years,
during which time she had two children by
the
architect
Edward
Godwin.
In
1878,
Henry
Irving
encouraged
her
as
his
leading
lady,
and
this
partnership
established
Ellen
Terry
as
the
most
celebrated actress of
her time.
?
Irving ----
Henry Irving
(1838
–
1905), famous English
actor who was engaged
as leading man at
the Lyceum in 1871. In 1878 he took over the
management
of the theatre, with Ellen
as his leading lady.
and
indignant at the caricatures of his detractors
----
Terry became very angry
with those people who criticized
Irving.
obsessed
----
very
worried
about
something;
unable
to
stop
thinking
about
something
The government
seems obsessed by the need for security.
Why are people so obsessed with money
today?
* *
scribble ----
write (
something ) quickly and carelessly
bubble off
----
flow out of ( her writings was
both smooth and full of passion.)
?
It is true, she
could not build a house with words, one room
opening out of
another; and a staircase
connecting the whole ----
it is true
that her writing is
not
always
well
constructed
(but
her
words
are
often
more
expressive
than
those of a professional writer).
take up ----
starting doing something
odds and ends
----
various items of different types,
usually small and unimportant
or of
little value. Here it refers to time, to
Terry
’
s spare time.
?
Academy
portrait
----
Usually
a
portrait
of
a
scientist
hung
in
the
Royal
Academy.
dash
off ----
do something quickly without
putting much effort into it
You
can
’
t expect to learn much
if you always dash your essays off at the last
We
’
re not very
good at French, we took it up recently.
She has just taken up cycling to work.
I
’
ll just
scribble Dad a note/scribble a note to Dad to say
we are going out.
* *
minute.
The stage was her cradle, her nursery.
----
She spent her childhood on the
stage.
?
pot-hooks ----
hooks for
hanging pot over an open fire, usually in the form
of
a
long
or
short
S,
meaning
here
written
characters
in
this
shape
used
as
an
exercise in
teaching beginners to write.
cuff ----
hit with
one
’
s hand in light way
buffet ----
〖
often
passive
〗
( of wind, rain,
etc. ) hit (something) repeatedly and with
great force.
sham ----
someone or something that is not what it pretends
to be
talk over her
head ----
talk about something which is
to difficult/professional for
her to
understand
It turned out that he
wasn
’
t a real doctor at all
–
he was just a
sham.
She appears to be rich with her
fine clothes, but it
’
s only
a sham.
The American dream is a sham.
The little boat was buffeted
mercilessly by the waves.
His brother
cuffed him playfully round the neck.
I
must dash off this letter before the post is
closed.
* *
?
sit to him
----
sit for her husband to paint her
portrait
she wanders over
the Downs ----
she reads
Tennyson
’
s poems and is
carried away
by them. (The Downs refers
to the little grassy hills in South-east England.
It
’
s a
place
often described by Tennyson in his works.)
?
Tennyson
----
Alfred
Tennyson
(1809
–
1899),
famous
Victorian
poet,
who
succeeded Wordsworth as
Poet Laureate in 1850. A spokesman for the values
of the Victorian age, and its most
famous poet, Tennyson is today recognized
for
his
mastery
of
poetic
technique,
superb
use
of
sensuous
language,
and
profundity of thought. (
Poet
Laureate:
British title conferred by
the crown on a
poet
whose
duty
it
is
to
write
commemorative
verse.
It
is
an
outgrowth
of
medieval custom and later royal
patronage of poets; the modern laureateship is
usually
a
lifetime
appointment.
Ben
JONSON
had
what
amounted
to
a
laureateship, but DRYDEN,
in 1670, was the first given the title. Among
later
laureates
have
been
WORDSWORTH
(1843
–
50),
TENNYSON
(1850
–
92),
John MASEFIELD (1930
–
67), John
BETJEMAN (1972
–
84), and Ted HUGHES
(1984 --
). In 1985 the U.S. Congress established an
American poet laureateship,
elevating
what
had
previously
been
the
position
of
poetry
consultant
to
the
Library of
Congress. The U.S. post is awarded yearly by the
librarian of Congress,
but a poet may
hold it for a series of years. The American poet
laureate is not
obligated
to
write
any
verse.
The
first
U.S.
poet
laureate
was
Robert
Penn
WARREN (1986
–
1987); Mona Van Duyn, the current U.S.
poet laureate, was
appointed in 1992.)
* *
incongruous
----
unusual
or
different
from
the
surroundings
or
from
what
is
generally happening
The
new computer looked incongruous in the dark book-
filled library.
Do you think it
incongruous that a woman should be the editor of a
man
’
s
magazine?
She lives in the depths of
the country, in the heart of domesticity. ----
She lives
far away from
London and from her dramatic world. Instead she
devotes herself to
the caring of her
children and to other domestic issues. In a word,
she becomes
‘
an
angel in the
house
’
. (Virginia Woolf)
in the depth(s) of
----
in the middle of; a long distance
from the edges
?
If you are
in the depth(s)
of
a negative feeling, you feel it
extremely strongly:
The
house is in the depth of the forest.
They live in the depths of the
countryside.
You are crazy to go out in
the depth of winter without a coat.
He
was in the depth of despair about losing his job.
?
If
something
happens
in
the
depth(s)
of
a
situation,
it
happens
when
the
situation is being most
strongly experienced:
The company was
started in the
depth of the recession
of the 1930s.
come off
----
cease being joined to