The Waves

The Waves Book Review

The Waves (publ. 1931 in the midst of Woolf’s decline into the irrevocable madness that eventually led to her eventual suicide) was, I must say, one of the most difficult reads I’ve been faced with in a long time. Its dense structure entails a consistent use of the stream of consciousness technique throughout by each of its six principle characters as they try to cross the sea of life, one of the most difficult seas there is. Accompanying this main section is a reoccurring metaphor, that of the sun’s rising and setting (meant to illustrate the path of life) and the life that it brings until darkness (death) conquers all,  ‘[abrading the] pinnacles of the mountain where the snow lodges forever’. This extended metaphor is often inferred to in the main text, the main characters often likening their circumstance to ‘[a] flocks of birds migrating to see the summer’ for instance, a group of birds being secondary subjects somewhat of the metaphor. Woolf also employs a frequent use of leitmotifs (which according to Wikipedia are “short, constantly recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea,”) meaning that the six protagonists are easily separable with distinct personalities. Examples of these in use are phrases such as ‘I cannot boast, for my father is a banker in Brisbane, and I speak with an Australian accent’, Louis frequently repeated phrase of his deep shame and humility, and ‘come’ for Jinny reflecting her promiscuity arising from her insatiable need for something fresh, something new and inability to stay focused on one object for long. Despite the difficulty I found in reading the experimental novel (there was A LOT of page re-reading) on the whole I found it a heavily rewarding read which, like all of Woolf’s novels, posed some interesting questions.  

One of the main sources of contention in The Waves is the question of whether the creative mindset and process benefits or is hindered from interactions with others. The characters of Rhoda and Louis support the argument of hindrance somewhat (being described by Bernard as ‘authentics’ for their fitting the traditional norm of the solitary artist) whilst Bernard stands on the other side, placing great emphasis in his soliloquys on the ‘stimulus of other people’. Indeed Bernard goes so far as to claim that ‘to be [himself]…[he] needs the illumination of other people’s eyes’, posing the argument that without people around us we are nothing, we don’t really exist, we’re merely in a state of limbo. Through having people around him Bernard believes his creative ventures to be distinctly benefitted noting how ‘different people draw different words from [him]’ and indeed throughout the novel Bernard is constantly viewing the ordinary people around him making up their stories, people are the fruits, the compulsory tools for his art. Whilst it is true that ‘authentics’ such as Rhoda and Louis may still yet achieve artistic greatness, Bernard noting how ‘when Louis is alone he sees with astonishing intensity, and will write some words that may outlast us all’, it is notable how Rhoda ends up committing suicide in the novel whilst Louis lives a sad life of solitude and depression like a ‘great beast’ whose ‘foot is chained’. Although they might be able to achieve a greater sense of artistic greatness that artists of the people such as Bernard, the ultimate fact is that they get no sense of joy or passion for their art thanks to their solitary lifestyles and thus ultimately their creative process is stunted and undermined. Woolf further enhances her supporting of ‘team-Bernard’ as it were through using the first person plural in phrases such as ‘we make this day’ and ‘we make life’, together, only together, can we as humans garner meaning from this life.

Another frequent theme in the novel is the desire for order, the desire for something concrete. The character who perhaps defines this sense is Neville. For instance his decision to devote much of his life to the study of Latin results from his love of the language’s ‘exactitude’ and he is constantly noting his wish to ‘oppose the waste and deformity of the world, its crowds eddying round and round disgorged and trampled’, in other words he wants to calm the waves of confusion. This thus somewhat explains his falling in love with the character of Percival, described by the critic Winterson as ‘the hero, the sun-god’ through his perfect, almost theistic, singular one track mind, something that Neville ‘whose mind is far too complex to be roused by and single activity’ longs for. However Woolf’s frequent demands for a sense of order throughout the book are by no means one-sided, lines such as ‘what a symphony with its concord and its discord, and its tunes on top and its complicated base beneath’ link to the occasional sense of wonder that disorder can bring about, meaning that disorder in the right amounts is almost desirable. I was also particularly taken by the presentation of the creative process in the novel, as epitomised by Bernard. For years he struggles to gain his own sense of an identity as an artist, often being noted as Byron or ‘Tolstoi’s young man’, he also struggles to create the definitive work, something that all creators must fear and despair over, as seen in the line ‘I who am perpetually making notes in the margin for some final statement’. As old age approaches and he begins to look back on his life he is also faced with the inevitable question that must face all of those that chose a career in the arts as he notes  how ‘[he is] not an authority on law, or medicine, or finance. [he is] wrapped around with phrases, like damp straw’, the impact of the arts in life being less clear than say that of creating a new medicine or entering the world of politics.

Critic Jeanette Winterson noted The Waves to be ‘a book of constant reorientation’ through the prominence of the themes of transience and death throughout. This is seen in the landscape, as well as the characters, the ‘great clouds’ being noted as ‘always changing’ and perhaps most blatantly showcased by the blunt quote ‘life passes’. The character for whom this sense of ageing and decay affects the most has to be Jinny, an individual whom relies on the admiration of others almost as if it is the needed nutrition she lives on. Thus the line ‘there is my body in that looking glass. How solitary, how shrunk, how aged!’, has an extra poignancy for the reader. Jinny eventually challenges this sense of decay and transience by, despite her reduced physical state, joining the ‘triumphant procession’ of older women showcasing pride in her looks and adding a rather feminist note. Death arises as a theme early on in the novel as Neville, overhearing a conversation about death in his young years whilst staring at some foreboding apple tree, comes to associate the piece of nature with death leading to his frequent leitmotif of phrases along the lines of ‘we are domed, all of us, by the appel trees, by the immitigable tree which we cannot pass’ and indeed death is one obstacle that try as we might we as humans are unable to conquer. Ultimately however, as previously exemplified by Jinny’s ‘triumphant’ stance, the characters do try to tackle death, the ending words being those of Bernard noting how ‘[he] will fling [himself], unvanquished and unyielding’ against the common enemy that is death. How is this to be done, perhaps through his literature by which a sense of immortality can be gained, perhaps through his children and family by which a part of him will always live on? On another note, through their reactions to the death of their mutual friend Percival one is able to further identify the character’s distinct ways, Neville mourning the loss of his one true love begs pain to ‘bury [its] fangs into [his] flesh’ whilst the only mater on Jinny’s mind was whether the recently deceased loved her. Bernard on the other hand, never wishing to isolate himself from the circle of life, makes the point that ‘one cannot live outside the machine for perhaps more than half an hour’.

The crashes of waves are heard throughout the novel and thus the question becomes what quality of these domineering forces did Woolf aim to accentuate through this? There is the sense that waves act as a sense of immortality, a sense of continuity, something that Bernard in his ending defiance towards death seeks to attain, after all the last sentence of the novel involves the waves continuing on as they always will in ‘the waves broke on the shore’. There is also the suggestion that the waves represent death itself or at least a means to meet the end, as seen in the sad news that ‘last Christmas a man was drowned sitting alone in his cart’. They could represent this constantly shifting nature of life as aforementioned as seen in the line ‘it seems as if [they] were flowing and curving’ or a tool to measure to mental stability, hence Rhoda the least stable of the characters ‘feel[ing] the waves of [her] life tossed’. Furthermore some will be able to ride the waves of life whilst others will sadly sink, as exemplified by the contrasting sentence ‘Jinny rides like a gull on the wave…but I lie, I prevaricate’. Perhaps the waves are meant to represent all of these facets and many more, representing life with all its difficulties, dangers and joys.

Woolf, in her novel A Room of One’s Own criticises those who write literature ‘[merely] for the sake of breaking’ rather than ‘the sake of creating’ and the question becomes whether she practices what she preaches. Did I find the novel to be overtly experimental just for the sake of experimenting or did I find this exotic approach to the novel refreshing and worthwhile? The novel admittedly was extremely dense and difficult to read, the stream of consciousness technique being rather non-tangible and I venture to say frustrating. However as Winterson notes, although as the reader we somewhat yearn for a solid passage by a solid character such as Percival, ‘which one of us can say that our emotions are solid things which we can hold in our hands?’ meaning that despite its difficulty to read, the technique is realistic and the right way to portray matters. Indeed I found Bernard’s passage right towards the end when he became ‘selfless’ for a brief while, magical rather than needless and thus even though The Waves is overtly experimental, it does so with a firm goal in mind, to explore all the ways and whims of the human mindset throughout the process of life, something that the experimental structure suits. A slight critique I would have in addition to this however is the overall predominance of Bernard as a character, meaning that intriguing individuals such as Jinny and Louis were not given the full time to develop and be explored as individuals and at times the tale did border on repetition what with the incessant use of leitmotifs and the turning back to early events in Bernard’s soliloquy at the end. These are however minor complaints for yet another astonishing work by Woolf.

I will conclude with evaluating the interesting primary source of contention of the novel, that of whether it is a book with six principle characters or whether it only follows the tale of one who has six multifaceted personalities. Critic Gillian Beer notes how 'the Waves was imagined as the story of a single woman ‘a mind thinking’’ so surely it would not be too much to assume that it still is the story of one individual. Throughout the novel several hints as to this being the truth as dropped, Bernard (the principle individual to whom these six facets would belong if it were to be true) often notes how ‘[he is] not one, but complex and many’ and how he has ‘to cover the entrances and exits of several men who alternately act their parts as Bernard’. Indeed, one gets a sense through the occasional meetings of all six in the novel that it is as if several parts are returning into the main body, ‘the globe whose walls are made of Percival’, Percival being mutually adored by all six. Indeed there are many interweavings between the main six characters such as their literary mindsets and overall lack of confidence that make this possible. Furthermore, many of the characters are complementary as it were, Louis’ isolation and Bernard’s need for people around him, Rhoda’s abstract nature and Jinny’s being a slave to the norm, Susan’s desire for the rural lifestyle and Jinny’s love of all things in the main city, Bernard’s empathy and Louis’s coldness, Neville’s desire for order and Jinny’s love of the disorder of the ballroom…seeming to suggest that together they can form one well-rounded whole. Towards the end these implications become more and more overt, Bernard noting the sensations felt by the others in ‘here on the nape of my neck is the kiss Jinny gave Louis. My eyes fill with Susan’s tears. I see far away…the pillar Rhoda saw’ and even more clearly stating that ‘[he is] not one person; [he is] many people; [he does] not altogether know who [he is]– Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda or Louis; or how to distinguish [his] life from theirs’. I found it even more revealing when the image of ‘an elderly man, rather heavy, grey above the ears’ was mentioned, feeling as if the master of all these personalities had at last been uncovered. Therefore to finish, although one of Woolf’s more difficult reads, The Waves is an interesting insight to the workings of the human mindset and the definition of the self.