The Waves

The first section of The Waves establishes the innovative, flowing stream-of-consciousness style of the six interwoven narratives. The style, even to modern sensibilities, is highly poetic, rather oblique, and potentially challenging as the reader finds themselves in such an experimental stylistic landscape. It demands that the reader “give themselves up” to the prose-poetry style, entering into a relationship with the novel with an open mind. This innovation is key to the novel’s theme of The Existential Human Condition: Identity and Meaning, as it involves the reader in new and personal process of absorption and meaning-creation. The stream-of-consciousness narration helps Woolf depict her characters’ more intimate feelings and ways of being while highlighting the complexity of the human experience and is bound up in the theme of The Role of Language in Shaping Reality.

The shape of The Waves becomes clearer in these first sections, as the timeframes shift with the characters’ life progress, interpolated by the poetic interludes. Starting with the characters’ childhood is essential to the lifespan plan of the work and also allows Woolf to explore ideas around how personalities and identities grow; the characters are shown developing sometimes away from the children they once were because of various external conflicts and pressures, and sometimes in tandem with their childhood identities. The child is a revealing subject for stream-of-consciousness narrative styles because children are more likely than adults to give themselves up to the minute sensations and distractions that occur throughout the day. Children live in the moment; therefore, their stream-of-consciousness narrations are prone to seeing the small and beautiful details of the world around them, details that start to get more lost to more serious stimuli as the years go by and they grow up. These elements introduce the themes of The Passing of Time and The Existential Human Condition: Identity and Meaning.

Another innovative design in Woolf’s narrative becomes apparent in these opening sections: the flowing, rotational nature of the narrators’ inner voices within each part. Woolf mixes these narrations together so that each character is living in tandem with their friends. This group narrative that is depicted through smaller individual narratives shows how communities help to determine who we are. The individual stream-of-consciousness narratives helps the reader get to know each character, but it is in the depictions of each character through the eyes of the other characters that reveals layers to them that they might not know themselves, which therefore aren’t expressed in their individual narratives. This creates a form of dramatic irony and explores an aspect of human nature and relationships: While we may see ourselves differently than the way others see us, there are some qualities about us that are indisputable and indicative of an external and internal personality. For example, Louis’s narrative shows that he tends to intellectualize to protect himself from emotion but it’s Neville’s observation that Louis is “cold” that helps to confirm this characterization. The characters also compare themselves to the others and sometimes reject what they consider to be the others’ perception of them. Also through this section, Rhoda starts to perceive a lack of self-identity by comparing how Susan and Jinny interact with the world around them. In this way, the narrative raises possibilities about what constitutes identity, the inner sense of self or the outer projection and perceptions of others. The novel asks the question “Who are We?” as the characters ask this of themselves, exploring The Existential Human Condition: Identity and Meaning.

Woolf’s characterizations of her characters highlight how certain things about individual personalities are unchangeable throughout the years. This emphasizes the themes of The Passing of Time and The Existential Human Condition: Identity and Meaning. In every individual, there is a core personality that follows them throughout their lives. As a child, Louis reveals a sharp sense of not fitting in. Because of his Australian accent, he worries that he will not be accepted. Louis assuages his own self-conscious low self-esteem by leaning into his intelligence. While, or because, he may be different from others socio-economically and culturally, he seeks to prove himself worthy by being the smartest person in the room. Louis also often dismisses the emotional viewpoints of others because he is so insistent on controlling his own emotional responses, his sense of himself and others’ sense of him. Another example of this is Rhoda, whose first experience with a lack of meaning happens when she’s just a child. Rhoda loses the thread of meaning in math class, which is a metaphor for the greater loss of meaning her narrative increasingly reveals. This foreshadows Rhoda’s future depression and lack of identity, which emphasizes the theme of The Existential Human Condition: Identity and Meaning. Woolf’s narrative style thus enables her to show how her characters “really” feel and the difference between this and what they show outwardly. This includes feelings of unhappiness and emotional struggles, especially as these were still largely taboo in upper-class English society between the wars.

The first sections of the novel introduce the complex web of the characters’ personalities, creating a vibrant, diverse, and richly human community. Rhoda and Louis are on journeys that are sharply contrasted to Jinny, whose life revolves around her looks, material things, and fantasizing about getting attention. Bernard also has a less serious approach to life than Rhoda and Louis. Bernard is extroverted and enjoys storytelling because being a storyteller helps him get closer to others. While Louis is serious, Bernard is his antithesis, finding humor and inspiration in everything. Bernard is comfortable with himself and secure in his future, which is opposite to Louis and to Neville. Neville experiences his own crises as he falls in love with Percival, a love that is passionate and oppressive, and a love that is secret because it is both socially transgressional and personally unrequited. He also doesn’t yet know how to articulate his chaotic and overwhelming love for Percival to himself, and his narrative reveals this inner turmoil. In terms of personality, Susan is closest to Bernard because she doesn’t dread others, and she has a firm sense of self and a clear path forward in her life. Susan’s passion is the countryside and her commitment to return to her family’s land highlights that she has already found where she wants to spend her life. Both Bernard and Susan are shown benefiting from an apparently natural sense of their place in life, which broadly matches what society expects of them. The novel suggests that this is an accident of birth and personality that makes some people’s life paths easier than others.

These differing personalities, journeys, and ways of viewing the world emphasize Woolf’s message that the world is a vibrant, complex, multi-layered place and human consciousness imitates that complexity. This highlights the themes of The Existential Human Condition: Identity and Meaning.