3rd Year
Read the short stories, ‘The Mark on the Wall’ by Virginia Woolf and ‘She Gave Me Hyacinths’ by
Janette Turner Hospital, and answer all of the following questions.
1. Compare and contrast the narration of the two stories. How does the choice of narration affect the overall meaning of each story?
2. Discuss the importance of setting OR figurative language OR character construction in
establishing the theme of each story.
The narrative shared within these two short stories varies; Virginia Woolf’s “The Mark on the Wall,” published in 1917, offers a first-person experience through a strong, introspective, stream-of-consciousness narrative as it explores the internal monologue of a potent personal philosophical conflict. This form of narration allows the reader to engorge themselves with the fragmented monologue or thoughts of the protagonist as she questions her reality and the realities of her philosophical, personal internal journey whilst pondering the mark on the wall, creating a thematic read that forces the reader to comprehend the internal confliction provided by the narrator.
While Virginia Woolf explores narration through first-person internal monologue, Janette Turner explores her protagonist’s narration through third-person yet limited narration, which, like Virginia Woolf, delves into the protagonist’s thoughts and emotions as she contemplates her friendships and relationships while living in a small town in northern Queensland. Although a personal account of two characters, the third-person narration still explores the protagonists’ thought processes, memories, and ultimately, the complexity of human emotions, which are conveyed through Gian’s sexual exploration of both Dellis and the narrator.
Virginia Woolf’s “The Mark on the Wall” and Janette Turner Hospital’s “She Gave Me Hyacinths” explore the protagonists’ subjective natures through distinct narrative techniques. Woolf’s use of first-person internal dialogue and stream of consciousness creates a more significant connection between the protagonist and the reader by strongly emphasising the protagonist’s internal perception of the world and exploring philosophical questions.
Janette Turner Hospitals ‘She Gave Me Hyacinths is far less abstract about philosophical questions that plague Woolf’s protagonist, yet due to the third-person narration and use of characters, Janette Turner creates an intensely emotional story as she explores sexuality, conflicts with rural living, and a strong connection between the protagonist and her student Dellis. The use of Dellis concerning Gian creates a strong yet subtle theme within the story, using figurative language to connect Dellis and the protagonist, linking the strong motif of hyacinths to the protagonist’s sexual relationships of the past via Dellis’ description of her sexual encounter with Gian and her loss of virginity. As a result, both stories create a strong connection between the characters whilst using separate narrative techniques, demonstrating that separate narration can establish the same emotional connection between the character and the reader.
Virginia Woolf employs figurative language to convey the complexity and fleeting nature of the protagonist’s reality. The protagonist’s narration flows in a stream-of-consciousness form, incorporating figurative language such as the mark on the wall, which represents the ambiguity of reality as the details spark an inner conflict between reality and her internal philosophies. Influenced by specific figurative language, this seemingly insignificant motif creates a profound conflict within the protagonist’s psyche.
Like the above, Virginia Woolf portrays time as a motif throughout the short story, depicting the fleeting realities of human existence and connecting how human history may have perceived the mark on the wall. This demonstrates that not only is time a reality of human existence, but culturally, throughout the history of human existence, the perception of reality, or the mark, is perceived uniquely and subjectively, further complicating the protagonist’s internal philosophical debate.
The core predominant symbol within the short story is the mark on the wall, symbolising life’s ambiguity and unknowable aspects of the human experience. The narrator’s inability to distinguish what the mark on the wall represents is a metaphor for the philosophical conflict the protagonist suffers and a reflection of the limits of understanding reality.
Woolf’s figurative language underscores the perception of reality and its unknowable features. This is expressed by the uncertainty of the mark on the wall, which underpins subjectivity and her ultimate philosophical conflicts. By framing the mark on the wall for the protagonist’s philosophical deliberation, Woolf notes the complexities of human existence as the fundamental core of the story itself.
Whilst Virginia Woolf’s use of figurative language is predominantly linked to the protagonist’s philosophical self-debate, Janette Turner explores the fleeting concept of time through the beautiful motif of hyacinths. The discussion between Dellis and the protagonist shares an emotional connection with the male character Gian, who, through figurative language, triggers the protagonist’s memory of love, as Gian represents attraction, sexualization, and the protagonist’s unfulfilled love in the small town.
Hyacinths represent beauty, love and the fleeting nature of desire and time. They represent the beauty of life and the fleeting nature of existence itself; they introduce the qualities of nostalgia while retaining the qualities of ephemerality, transience, and evanescence of life. A core theme of the short story, which embodies the nature of nostalgia and memory, is also linked to the smell of the hyacinths explored in the short story, which depicts the memory the human senses can precipitate, demonstrating how such a small symbol, the hyacinths can result in such an intense emotional response.
This use of figurative language illustrates how a small symbol within a story can convey such a profound, impactful, and influential quality in literature. The use of figurative language creates an intense juxtaposition between happy and sad motifs, including the protagonist’s nostalgic memories of the past and the decay that pervades all aspects of life. The Fragility of the Hyacinths explores these aspects of the protagonist’s life, highlighting the depressing or negative elements of memory, age, and life.
Virginia Woolf and Janette Turner use figurative language to dissect the protagonist’s perception of reality. The figurative language used by Virginia Woolf is used to undertake a philosophical reflection of the main characters’ worldly opinions. The mark on the wall is presented as a representation of the unknown qualities of human existence, as she debates the potentialities of the mark, creating a strong notion of the ambiguity of human existence and the limitations of the human mind.
The use of figurative language is relatable when comparing Virginia Woolf and Janette Turner’s short stories. They both use a vital motif that controls the emotional aspects of the two protagonists; whilst Virginia Woolf uses the mark on the wall as an ambiguous understanding of the protagonist’s philosophical conflictions, Janette Turner uses the hyacinth flowers to depict the fleeting time of human existence, nostalgia through senses and the memories which are rediscovered.
References:
Woolf, V. (1917) The Mark on the Wall
Hospital, J.T. (1995) She Gave Me Hyacinths
