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Stream Of Consciousness In Virginia Wolff's The Mark On The Wall

Decent Essays

Storytelling Through the Use of Stream of Consciousness Telling a story through the stream of consciousness has been practiced by several authors in their works, however it is neither new to this time or a common form of writing. It is a complex take on what would seem like an easy writing style as the author sometimes has to put themselves into the mind of their character to describe their thoughts, or the author may draw inspiration from their own thoughts. Virginia Wolff’s The Mark on the Wall is an example of stream of consciousness writing as the narrator goes through her own thoughts, trying to figure out what could have made the mark on the wall. It is believed that Wolff wrote the story based on the thoughts within her own mind as if it is taking place in real time as she wonders what the mark on the wall could be. Wolff tells the story by breaking from traditional writing, which brilliantly captivates the audience by often times distracting them from the original intent of the story.
***While stream of consciousness is common, …show more content…

The story’s plot changes from paragraph to paragraph as the woman’s mind and her ideas change and go from one thought to the next. For instance, the woman goes from thinking that a nail caused the mark on the wall above the mantle to thinking that it is a “wonder is that I’ve any clothes on my back.” (Wolff) The distraction is partly due to Wolff’s use of intonation aides in this distraction from shifting from rises and falls as the story progresses (Durban, 2011). Wolff successfully told a story that takes place almost completely in someone’s thoughts and that figuring out what the mark on the wall is not the priority of the story. Wolff created a real character with a mind that is seldom explored through the use of stream of consciousness

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