Interior-monologue内心独白

Interior- monologue

内心独白

Interior

monologue

is

a

phrase

closed

related

to

the

stream

of

consciousness

novel.

Unlike

external action, the movement of consciousness is a psychological process which we can not see.

So

an

objective

description

of

it

is

impossible

and

interior

monologue,

which

can

register

the

slightest

wavering

of

or

the

world

that

surrounds

consciousness,

is

the

best

way

to

illustrate

it.

Almost all the stream of consciousness novelists use this technique in their works.

Stream

of

consciousness

is

a

very

complicated

psychological

process.

According

to

the

Austrian

psychoanalyst

Sigmund

Freud,

it

can

be

divided

into

three

levels:

the

Id

(the

unconscious), the Ego (the subconscious) and the Superego (the conscious). Of the three levels,

the unconscious mind is the most primitive state of

mind. To show the

different levels of one’s

consciousness, interior monologue is also divided into different types.

Generally

speaking,

interior

monologue

can

be

divided

into

two

types:

direct

interior

monologue and indirect interior monologue. When direct interior monologue is used, the author

adopts the first person to narrate and is not involved in the narration by making no explanation or

remark on the character’s thought and

experience. This device enables the character to thoroughly

reveal

his/her

complex

psychological

activity

and

particularly

it

enables

a

display

of

the

character’s unconsciousness. The display of the unconscious part of the character gives the reader

a chance to a fuller and deeper understanding of the character. When indirect interior monologue

is used, the author will use the third person to narrate and is partly involved in the narration by

making some explanation or comment. This device enables the writer to show the workings of the

conscious and subconscious mind but not that of the unconscious mind since the movement of the

character's consciousness is controlled surreptitiously by the writer.

Both Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are masters of the stream of consciousness novel and

both

adopt

the

technique

of

interior

monologue.

However,

Woolf

tends

to

use

indirect

interior

monologue

while

Joyce

usually

uses

direct

interior

monologue.

Examples

of

indirect

interior

monologue can be found in many parts of Mrs.

Dalloway written by Woolf:

So she would still find herself arguing in St. James's Park, still making out that

she had been right

—

and she had too

—

not to marry him. For in marriage a little

license, a little independence there must be between people living together day in

day out in the same house; which Richard gave her, and she him. (Where was he

this morning for instance? Some committee, she never asked what.) But with

Peter every thing had to be shared; everything gone into. And it was intolerable,

and when it came that scene in the little garden by the fountain, she had to break

with him or they would have been destroyed, both of them ruined, she was

convinced; though she had borne about with her for years like an arrow sticking

in her heart the grief, the anguish; and then the horror of the moment when

someone told her at the concert that he had married a woman met on the boat

going to India! Never should she forget all that! Cold, heartless, a prude, he

called her. Never could she understand how he cared. But those Indian women

did presumably

—

silly, pretty, flimsy nincompoops. And she wasted her pity. For

he was quite happy, he assured her

—

perfectly happy, though he had never done

a thing that they talked of his whole life had been a failure. It made her angry

still. (10)

Peter is Clarissa's former love. Compared with her husband, Peter is fantastic, a little

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