I haven't been able to read as much as I imagined I would, though I suppose that's all for the best, considering I have been thoroughly enjoying Belgium! I have enjoyed Woolf's The Waves, too, though, whenever I do read. Six characters, three female and three male, grow up from children to old age. There are Louis, Bernard, Neville, Jinny, Susan, and Rhoda. At the opening of the novel, I was pretty confused by the style of writing. There's no dialogue or real narrative, but instead each character has monologue-style speeches that illuminate desires, fears, impressions. You get the inside feelings and thoughts of each, but, as they are young children, at the beginnjng everything is a little fantastical, imaginative, exaggerated. I didn't really know they were children, so learning that made it easier. I have recently re-read the beginning; I believe it's vital to the rest of the book, for it is here that each character begins to realize, as we all must have done as children, that he/she is an individual, in control of himself and no one else.
They grow older, go to school together, and eventually graduate and go their own way of life. Susan becomes a mother, Louis a successful businessman, Neville and Rhoda lovers.
The most interesting part of the novel is how unique each character is. I found it difficult to differentiate between each of them at first, as by the time the sixth character spoke it was hard to remeber the first one, but they truly grow and differentiate. Susan is a lovely, homely girl, who prefers her farm and land, who is maternal and simple. Neville is a poet, doomed to search for perfection and the company of one. Bernard, perhaps the character whose presence is strongest in my mind, as well as perhaps the central character, if there is one, is a teller of stories and a collector of phrases. Rhoda, contrastingly the hardest character for me to grasp, is full of sorrow and despair, preferring night to waking day, solitude to company; (spoiler) in the end she commits suicide. Louis is very self-conscious about how he fits in with the group, and is referred to as the one possibly able to "add up" the six friends. Jinny is a society woman, beautiful and seductive, dancing and arresting.
The novel's essence, I believe, is this difference between the friends. As mentioned earlier, I really believe the first section, when they are all children, establishes this theme of individuality amongst company. It is a beautiful book, about life and living, about choices and memories, about emotions and the ways we deal with our desires. This idea, going full circle, is cemented in the very end of the novel, which closes with a final monologue of Bernard, remembering, as if trying to summarize, his life. He goes back the beginning, to their childhood, and recalls the pain of understanding individuality. He does, however, also brings up the opposite notion: the likeness of each character. Remembering Neville, Susan, and others, Bernard thinks that he is them. This duality, being ones own person while also being part of those you love and sometimes hate, is the crux of the novel. As different as each section is, there are phrases and ideas running throughout all that connect not only the passages but the characters themselves.
There is a character named Percival, a friend from their school days, who plays an important role in the novel. The summary on the back of the book opens with "The Waves introduces six characters...grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival." Truthfully, I'd say that as a character, Percival does not add much to the novel. It is more what he makes them think and realize, what he introduces to their lives, that matters.. Neville, for example, really cares about Percival and finds him to be a sign of completion. Around Percival, the jealousies and complexities of the six friends' relationship become unimportant and the group becomes complete. There is also the matter of Percival's death, which occurs when he is traveling to India around the middle of the novel. It marks a change in their lives, the beginning of adulthood, and the introduction of death and loss. This is important when seeing how death, on a grander scale, is a central element of novel.
Death is introduced quite early in the novel, actually--in the first section, Neville recalls when "I heard about the dead man through the swing-door last night when cook was shoving in and out the dampers. He was found with his throat cut, the apple-tree leaves became fixed in the sky; the moon glared; I was unable to lift my foot up the stair. He was found in the gutter. His blood gurgled down the gutter. His jowl was white as a dead codfish. I shall call this stricture, this rigidity, 'death among the apple trees' for ever." And indeed, Neville often remembes this event throughout The Waves. This passage, found on page 24, not only shows the clear introduction of death in the lives of the characters, but also how these characters carry impressions with them throughout their lives.
To finish off this post, I want to share a just few excerpts from the novel:
"Like a long wave, like a roll of heavy waters, he went over me, his devastating presence--dragging me open, laying bare the pebbles on the shore of my soul. It was humiliating; I was turned to small stones. All semblances were rolled up. 'You are not Byron; you are your self.' To be contracted by another person into a single being--how strange...For I am more selves than Neville thinks. We are not as simple as our friends would have us to meet their needs. Yet love is simple." 89
"I do this, I do that, and again do this and then that. Meeting and parting, we assemble different forms, make different patterns. But if I do not nail these impressions to the board and out of many men in me make one; exist here, and now and not in streaks and patches, like scattered snow wreaths on far mountains...then I shall fall like snow and be wasted." 170
"The structure is now visible; what is incohate is here stated; we are not so various or so mean; we have made oblongs and stood them upon squares. This is our triumph; this is our consolation." 163
"...yet after all, the problem remains. The differences are not yet solved. Flowers toss their heads outside the window. I see wild birds, and impulses wilder than the wilder birds strike from my wild heart. My eyes are wild; my lips are tight pressed. The bird flies; the flower dances; but I hear always the sullen thud of the waves; and the chained beast stamps on the beach. It stays and stamps." 58
P.S I'm happy I waited to post about The Waves; I haven't stopped thinking about the novel since I finished it while still in Paris, and this post has given me a good excuse to keep it fresh in mind. I've even been keeping it stashed in my boyfriend's glove compartment so I can read it to him every now and then. It's such an amazingly beautiful book, every page is filled with literally stunningly beautiful poetry; it is one of those books that is frustrating to read because it's too nice to enjoy alone, or to not really think on some pages. I highly recommend this book, especially as it is short and a quick read! The novel explores themes such as the nature of identity, wether it is singular or multiple, and how it is affected around company; the nature of makind; the absurdity and, contrastingly, the progress that is modern life; and how time and age changes a person. It is a deep and insightful novel, a study of life.
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