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Jake Smith
Professor Watts
ENG110
13 December 2013
The Pattern of Existence in The Waves
The rhythmic lapsing of the waves, it can be a gentle wash or a violent crashing. No
matter how intense, though, the water will always return the ocean wherein it becomes a mess of
molecules among the literal sea of other molecules. This is Woolfs grand vision in her novel The
Waves. The novel, narrated in soliloquy by six characters (or ultimately one of the six), goes to
great lengths to assert the concept of a sort of cosmic rhythm, or pattern as Woolf called it in a
diary entry, by which all of humanity exists. Through her symbolic use of the ocean and waves,
and the interludes between acts, the six characters (especially Bernard) Woolf creates a work
that illustrates a great pattern that human existence follows for the reader.
The Waves, as one might expect, concerns itself very much with the ocean and waves.
This is because Woolf uses the rhythm of the waves as the model to which she compares the
pattern of existence. She draws the parallel between the waves washing across the shore to the
human experience of breaking oneself down in the process of self-discovery, and then between
the water receding back into the ocean and the reconstructed individual falling back into
harmonic existence among the others. This is the pattern that Woolf describes for the reader,
which is present in so many different aspects of the novel; the separation of bodies as they break
themselves down and their return to unity as they rebuild themselves through self-discovery.
The pattern of everything is the primary reason for the interludes between the acts in the
novel. Each interlude objectively describes a seascape at varying times during the day, in

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sequential order, starting at pre-dawn and ending at dusk. Not only do the interludes progress
through the day following the aging of the characters in the novel, upon a closer inspection it can
be seen that they also parallel the characters progression through the pattern on a larger scale
than they could ever experience it, which is to say how their entire life falls onto it rather than
instances within their lives. The first interlude begins with, The sun had not yet risen. The sea
was indistinguishable from the sky, (Woolf 1) and continues on to describe the separation of
the two as the sun begins to rise, bringing light to the differences. This is, then, paralleled by the
characters initial description of the scene in turn, as if they are a single consciousness, who
finally break apart into separate characters as the narrative begins. As the novel progresses the
interludes between the acts grow more vibrantly descriptive and violent until just before the sun
reaches its peak, the point at which, just as a ball being thrown into the air, the momentum slows
to a stop and everything begins its journey back to singularity. The reason that the suns peak
does not represent the greatest violence in the scenery is that the when the sun is at its peak,
everything is fully illuminated and there are no more shadows. This, as it relates to the
characters, would represent their journey through self-discovery and the point at which they have
become as broken down and fractured as they possibly could. That is why the fifth (middle)
interlude is so heavily focused on light and labor instead of scenery and interactions. It is a
purely introverted state, the only state at which one is truly one, in which one must focus
solely on themselves and work to re-create their being.
Following the rise, and eventual arrival at its peak, of the sun is its decent back into the
horizon. During this period of the novel the characters find themselves reuniting more and more,
slowly returning to their fully-constructed states and eventually unison. As this happens the
imagery in the interludes becomes increasingly peaceful and warm, symbolizing the

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intensifying peace in the atmosphere. There are also frequent mentions of things holding on to
other things in the later interludes. One such example is from the sixth interlude and mentions
that the clouds never dwindled as they bowled along, but kept every atom of their rotundity.
(Woolf 130) This image makes two distinct references to the idea of becoming rebuilt. The first
is that the clouds hold onto the atoms within themselves, which refers to the fact that they no
longer lose any of what makes them up. The second is the word rotundity, which brings circles
to mind, a shape that is symbolic of being whole. Following this interlude are two others and a
final italicized passage. The next one characterizes the sun being almost fully set, and the one
after that is when it finally dips back beneath the horizon. It is in this final interlude that Woolf
writes; Now the sun had sunk. Sky and sea were indistinguishable. (Woolf 167) This indicates
the final portion of the novel, in which peace is fully returned and resolution is given.
In a critical essay titled epinonimously after The Waves the author, Avrom Fleishman,
provides a critical analysis of the The Waves as a whole and explains many of the present themes
in the novel. One such theme is the role of the sun in the interludes as a symbol of progression.
Similar to the previous assertion, Fleishman states that the sun is meant to represent movement
through time in the novel, but relates it instead to the few concrete events that take place. This
connection leads him to the conclusion that the pattern present in the text is a purely linear, The
thrust of all sequences in this work is linear, tracing a sequence of changes through one cycle
whatever may come afterword. (Fleishman 155) This argument bears the same short-coming to
which Bernard falls victim to in the novel: the observation is made through too small of a scope
to see the larger picture. Just as when Bernard loses touch with the order of things around him
due to his inability to see the grander order of which he is a part, Fleishman has limited his scope
of the order which Woolf describes simply to the events that take place in the novel. By simply

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comparing the interludes to the events Fleishman has drawn a parallel in which one line
continues on infinitely and the other comes to an end. To explain, the final italicized passage in
the novel reads, The waves broke on the shore. (Woolf 211) Since this passage appears after
the resolution of the day cycle, it would imply that the cycle continues on past the single day that
was described. Rather than simply acting as a final push to impress the reader with the image of
the wave, it acts as a symbol to convey that the day may have ended but the waves continue to
break, regardless. As it would relate to the story, the events with which the novel are concerned
may have all occurred, but the cycle continues.
The co-operating means through which Woolf shares her message with the reader is
through the characters narration of their own thoughts. By this means, Woolf paints the same
pattern but on two scales. One that is on a smaller scale and goes through several oscillations
during the novel and another which exists on a larger scale and arches over the entirety of the
novel. Both of these operate in mostly the same way and follow the same structure, but manifest
themselves differently.
The smaller-scale version of this pattern is observable several times in each act. On this
level, the characters will go through smaller, more personal, cycles of disassembly and
rebuilding. One of the easiest characters to observe this in is Neville. Neville has a nearlyobsessive-compulsive need for order in the novel and a tendency to admire one person heavily
rather than many. This gives him a seemingly faster cycle of self-rebuilding as he is crushed
every time he and one of his lovers split up and must rebuild himself quickly to chase the next.
Although, Neville is never able to fully rebuild himself after Percivals death, he still continues
on with the cyclical pattern, just at a much slower pace.

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The larger scale version of this process, which is much harder to see initially, is that of
the characters initial one-ness and eventual convergence on the revelation the Bernard has
been narrating the entire story. Through this, Woolf applies the pattern of existence to people as
they interact with each other. This is the level at which the interludes act as a direct parallel.
Though it is not apparent while reading the novel, the characters grow increasingly introverted in
their focus as the story progresses up until the sun reaches its peak, at which point they begin to
drift back together. Furthermore, this is the level at which Percivals role as a symbol is most
apparent. Before the sun reaches its zenith, which coincides with Percivals death, all of the
characters are more-or-less broken down and use Percival as the means by which they define
themselves. His death is almost like the nail in the coffin that signifies their total loss of selfdefinition. During the section in which Bernard is grieving Percivals death he says, we have
made oblongs and stood them upon squares. This is our triumph; this is our consolation. (Woolf
116) The image of the oblong being stacked on the square is a strange image and is meant to
signify the level of discordance that the characters feel. Their relationship to Percival was what
defined their beings, having lost him they find themselves left awkwardly, no longer whole, like
an oblong on a square. The triumph in this case is that they have made it through the hardest part,
and the consolation is that the rebuilding can begin.
After the characters are sent reeling by the death of Percival, they find themselves drawn
together in grieving. This is the initial force that brings them back to their equilibrium. As they
rebuild themselves around the idea that Percival is gone a sense of unity within the characters
begins to resurface. In the second to last section, in which they all meet up in the Hampton
Courts, a curious thing takes place: the characters begin to speak as one again. It begins with the
usage of we instead of I and ends with them finally speaking in turn as if they are carrying

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on the same train of thought. This idea is carried through to last section in which it is revealed
that Bernard was the narrator of the novel all long. Through this section, Woolf finally brings
resolution to the novel as she returns order. By placing Bernard in this role she highlights the
idea of a sort of unity of being in which all humans are connected and in some way each person
is every other person. In a note from her essay Kristevan Themes in Virginia Woolfs The
Waves Chloe Taylor notes, Bernard questions whether the six characters of the book are not
all one, all him, and whether he is male or female, whether he is not, in being Jinny and
Neville, Susan and Louis, Rhoda and Bernard, both. (Taylor) This may have very well been
Woolfs purpose in writing this: to make readers ask themselves if they are not, at least in part,
everyone else around them.
The Waves was Virginia Woolfs most experimental attempt at a novel, one which strived
to convey an abstract message for which words do no truly do justice. She used an unorthodox
narrative method and writing to style to remove the concreteness of the story and put the reader
directly into the characterization. These stylistic choices, along with her inclusion of ten
italicized passages that did not interact with the narrative in any direct way, allowed her to create
a painting with words that illustrates a greater cosmic pattern upon which all humans exist and
interact.

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Works Cited
Avrom, Fleishman. Virginia Woolf: A Critical Reading. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University
Press, 1975. 150-171. Print.
Phillips, Karen J. Virginia Woolf Against Empire. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee
Press, 1994.Taylor, Chloe. Kristevan Themes in Virginia Woolf s The Waves. The
Journal of Modern Literature. 29.3 (Spring2006): 57-77.
Woolf, Virginia. The Waves. 10th. London: The Hogarth Press, 1963. 1-211. Print.