Beyond the fringe: a hidden pattern in Mrs. Dalloway's : moments of being

Abstract

As human beings, we are in constant awareness of our past and memories. We tend to attach significance to life events, places and people that make up our lives. Remembering a memory allows us to relieve that moment once again, nevertheless it never evokes the same feelings that the original did. Moreover we are not able to remember everything, but unconsciously, we retain specific moments in our mind. Aware of all of this, Virginia Woolf wrote “A sketch of the past” published in “Moments of being”, A Collection of Autobiographical Writings. In this work, Woolf tells us about her early years, and she describes and introduces people and places that build her life. She feels so connected to these situations, that she made them part of her memory. But she also discusses that certain things may get remembered, while others simply fade away. Because of this, she says that she does not control these moments and in the same way that she kept them in her memory, they came to her present reality, making her feel powerless. Although all of these descriptions Woolf never gives an accurate definition of “moments of being”, instead she asserts that these episodes of “ecstasy” are “embedded in a kind of nondescript cotton wool” (Woolf, ‘Sketch’72) forgotten in the everyday life were “a great part of every day is not lived consciously” (Woolf, ‘Sketch’70). These moments are called “moments of non-being”. Moments of being can be related to a moment of evocation, as they reveal something beneath the “cotton wool”.