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Virginia Woolf a biography
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How Adeline Virginia Stephen became Virginia WoolfGood morning/afternoon
We are Ann-Sophie, Yaelle and Amélie and today we would like to introduce the famous
English writer: Virginia Woolf. The is a wide range of reasons why we chose her specifically.
First of all, we were impressed that she was a writer in a time where it was not very usual for
women to be writers. Another reason for choosing her is that she was a writer who put a lot of
emotion in her work, which results in a very deep and moving read and this we appreciated a
lot. The last and the most important reason for choosing her is that she uses a lot of personal
experiences in her literary work. We found this very appealing because we think it adds a lot
of perspective to the literary analysis of her masterpieces. It is rare that you get to see inside
the author’s head and get a look at their deepest thoughts and emotions and how they dealt
with these in their own life.
We will start by offering a general overview of her life. Afterwards we will elaborate further
on four biographical themes that are also incorporated in her work. These themes are sexual
abuse, marriage, feminism and bipolar disorder. We will discuss them and link them to her
literary work.
So first of all, we are going to give you a general overview of Woolf’s life. The story of
Virginia Woolf starts in Januari 1882. She was born under the name: Adeline Virginia Woolf.
She was born into a wealthy family was born into a wealthy family. They lived in London.
Virginia was the seventh child in family of eight. Her mother was Julia Prinsep Jackson. She
was a celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artist's model. Woolf's father, Leslie Stephen. It was a large
family since both parents had had children from previous marriages. Woolf's family situation
was rather complicated since she was born into an unconventional one. As she puts it, she
was: “born into a large connection, born not of rich parents, but of well—to—do parents,
born into a very communicative, literate, letter writing, visiting, articulate, late nineteenth
century world".
Her childhood came to an end in 1895 with the death of her mother. This also provoked her
first mental breakdown. Since the first one was followed by more, you could also say that this
moment was the end of her mental health. Later, her stepsister also dies. From 1897 to 1901,
she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College London, where she studied classics
and history. Here she developed her own character and ideas and this lead her to an
introduction of the early reformers of women's higher education and the women's rights
movement.
, Through education at college and at home, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. In
1905 her father dies and this caused another mental breakdown for Woolf. Following his
death, the Stephen family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury, where
they adopted a free-spirited lifestyle. It was in Bloomsbury where, in conjunction with the
brothers' intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group
She was married in 1912 to Leonard Woolf, they founded the Hogarth Press in 1917, which
published much of her work. As we mentioned before, throughout her life, Woolf was
troubled by her mental illness. She was institutionalized several times and attempted suicide
at least twice. Her illness is considered to have been bipolar disorder which was barely
known at that time and there was no treatment available. At age 59, Woolf committed suicide
by putting rocks in her coat pockets and drowning herself in the River Ouse.
We can conclude that Virginia Woolf was an English writer who was considered one of the
most important modernist 20th-century authors. She was tormented by her own personal life
but managed to transform pain into beauty and realise some really innovative and evocative
literary works which are still considered canon today. She was also a pioneer, both in her
works as in her life. She was one of the first authors who used the stream of consciousness as
a narrative device. In her life she was also a pioneer through her feminism and her writing.
So, since we are more familiar with her life, we can now elaborate on the four aspects of her
life, which we mentioned before. These themes are the ones we could find in certain parts of
her literary work. We will start with the theme of feminism. Then we will look at the illness
she was bothered by and that is bipolar disorder and lastly, we will look at the remaining two
themes side by side, which are sexual abuse and her marriage.
It is widely known that Virginia Woolf was a feminist. This started at an early age. It was
common during that period that the boys of a prominent household would go to school and
university, while girls would be tutored at home and would only learn to play an instrument,
sing and learn some French. So, while the boys in the family received college educations, the
girls were home-schooled in English classics and Victorian literature. This was not the case
for Woolf. She was educated in all kinds of fields of study. First by her mother who taught
her history and languages and her father thought them mathematics. Virginia also had a
hunger for knowledge in her character that was satisfied when she attended the Ladies'
Department of King's College London, from 1897 to 1901,where she studied classics and
history. Other important influences were her Cambridge-educated brothers and unfettered
access to her father's vast library. Her father also encouraged her writing and supported her in
her intellectual endeavors. She phrases it this way: “Even today there may be parents who
would doubt the wisdom of allowing a girl of fifteen the free run of a large and quite
unexpurgated library. But my father allowed it. There were certain facts – very briefly, very
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