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Sunday, November 23, 2014

SUNDAY REVIEW / “A HAUNTED HOUSE” BY VIRGINIA WOOLF


FICTION FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Text Courtesy of www.world-english.org

“A HAUNTED HOUSE”
By Virginia Woolf

Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure--a ghostly couple.

"Here we left it," she said. And he added, "Oh, but here tool" "It's upstairs," she murmured. "And in the garden," he whispered. "Quietly," they said, "or we shall wake them."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  
Adeline Virginia Woolf, née Stephen (1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now termed bipolar disorder, and committed suicide by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

But it wasn't that you woke us. Oh, no. "They're looking for it; they're drawing the curtain," one might say, and so read on a page or two. "Now they've found it,' one would be certain, stopping the pencil on the margin. And then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for oneself, the house all empty, the doors standing open, only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm. "What did I come in here for? What did I want to find?" My hands were empty. "Perhaps its upstairs then?" The apples were in the loft. And so down again, the garden still as ever, only the book had slipped into the grass.

But they had found it in the drawing room. Not that one could ever see them. The windowpanes reflected apples, reflected roses; all the leaves were green in the glass. If they moved in the drawing room, the apple only turned its yellow side. Yet, the moment after, if the door was opened, spread about the floor, hung upon the walls, pendant from the ceiling--what? My hands were empty. The shadow of a thrush crossed the carpet; from the deepest wells of silence the wood pigeon drew its bubble of sound. "Safe, safe, safe" the pulse of the house beat softly. "The treasure buried; the room . . ." the pulse stopped short. Oh, was that the buried treasure?

A moment later the light had faded. Out in the garden then? But the trees spun darkness for a wandering beam of sun. So fine, so rare, coolly sunk beneath the surface the beam I sought always burned behind the glass. Death was the glass; death was between us, coming to the woman first, hundreds of years ago, leaving the house, sealing all the windows; the rooms were darkened. He left it, left her, went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky; sought the house, found it dropped beneath the Downs. "Safe, safe, safe," the pulse of the house beat gladly. 'The Treasure yours."

The wind roars up the avenue. Trees stoop and bend this way and that. Moonbeams splash and spill wildly in the rain. But the beam of the lamp falls straight from the window. The candle burns stiff and still. Wandering through the house, opening the windows, whispering not to wake us, the ghostly couple seek their joy.

"Here we slept," she says. And he adds, "Kisses without number." "Waking in the morning--" "Silver between the trees--" "Upstairs--" 'In the garden--" "When summer came--" 'In winter snowtime--" "The doors go shutting far in the distance, gently knocking like the pulse of a heart.

Nearer they come, cease at the doorway. The wind falls, the rain slides silver down the glass. Our eyes darken, we hear no steps beside us; we see no lady spread her ghostly cloak. His hands shield the lantern. "Look," he breathes. "Sound asleep. Love upon their lips."

Stooping, holding their silver lamp above us, long they look and deeply. Long they pause. The wind drives straightly; the flame stoops slightly. Wild beams of moonlight cross both floor and wall, and, meeting, stain the faces bent; the faces pondering; the faces that search the sleepers and seek their hidden joy.

"Safe, safe, safe," the heart of the house beats proudly. "Long years--" he sighs. "Again you found me." "Here," she murmurs, "sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure--" Stooping, their light lifts the lids upon my eyes. "Safe! safe! safe!" the pulse of the house beats wildly. Waking, I cry "Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart."

The End.


ANALYSIS: Virginia Woolf's Short Story, A Haunted House

This short story is story with meaning, by portraying to us
the treasure of life. When two ghosts are searching through their old house,
looking for their "Treasure," the treasure or meaning is revealed to us. The
joy and love shared between two people is the treasure, the treasure of life.
By using irony and stream of consciousness Virginia Woolf is able to reveal the meaning of the story.

Virginia Woolf uses a style called the "Stream of Consciousness", revealing
the lives of her characters by revealing their thoughts and associations. We
learn about the ghosts past by seeing what they thoughts and associated with
there pasts. For example when they were discussing death she put " "Here we slept," she said. And he adds, "Kisses without number." "Waking in the morning_" "Silver between the trees." "Upstairs-" "In the garden-" "When summer came-" "In the winter snowtime.-" Thaat quote shows us what
places and actions the ghosts associate with there joy and love. Using stream
of consciousness gives us a better feeling of what the characters are going
through, which in turn gives us a better understanding of the meaning.

We also see the use of irony, using a word or phrase to mean the exact
opposite of its literal or normal meaning. The irony is that the story is
titled "A Haunted House" which made us think that the house was an evil place.

The house ends up being where every thing good happens. The ghosts did not haunt the people, instead they make them realize the treasure they have. By seeing how much the ghosts valued finding their treasure it makes the people take a harder look at what their treasure is, the love and joy they share.

It is very evident when she says " Now they found it, one would be certain,
stopping the pencil on the margin. And then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for one self.”).

The irony draws use in by making us think that we are about read a trivial ghost story, but instead, gives us a deeper and more meaningful interpretation of ones life.

By Virginia Woolf's use of streaming consciousness and irony she is rather
dramatically able to portray her thoughts on the meaning of "A Haunted House".


That the joy and love shared between two people is the treasure of life.


Ouse River, Sussex, England


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