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Virginia WoolfA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Rachel Willoughby is the central protagonist of the novel. Her character undergoes the most significant character development throughout the novel. Her bildungsroman is at the heart of Woolf’s messages about love, adventure, self-discovery, and happiness. At the beginning of the novel, Rachel is a sheltered young woman whose musical whims have been nurtured at the expense of a more practical education about the world around her. Her mother died when she was a baby, and she was mostly raised by her older aunts as her father traveled for business. Rachel’s financial privilege kept her in a naïve state of mind for years, so at the age of 24, she is as immature as a child. She knows nothing about human connection, friendship, love, sexuality, or the larger world around her. A major moment of character development occurs when Richard Dalloway, an older married man, kisses her. Rachel is titillated by the kiss even though she knows it was wrong. Rachel doesn’t know how to contextualize the kiss because she knows nothing about sexuality or why the kiss is so pleasurable to her. Helen takes Rachel under her wing, which is one of the best things anyone could have done for Rachel because it means that Helen sees Rachel’s potential to be a mature young woman of the world.
By Virginia Woolf
A Haunted House
Virginia Woolf
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories
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A Room of One's Own
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Between The Acts
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Flush: A Biography
Virginia Woolf
How Should One Read a Book?
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Jacob's Room
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Kew Gardens
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Modern Fiction
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Moments of Being
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Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
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Mrs. Dalloway
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Orlando
Virginia Woolf
The Death of the Moth
Virginia Woolf
The Duchess and the Jeweller
Virginia Woolf
The Lady in the Looking Glass
Virginia Woolf
The Mark on the Wall
Virginia Woolf
The New Dress
Virginia Woolf
The Waves
Virginia Woolf
Three Guineas
Virginia Woolf