July 15, 1997

Dear Tammy,

After having finished The Voyage Out, I am still drawn to the passage on p. 80 in which Richard Dalloway kisses Rachel. It becomes one of the hardest parts of the novel to deal with because it resonates so much through the novel. Is this a physical violation of Rachel, similar to rape? What impact does it have on Rachel afterwards? What exactly is Woolf up to with such an incident? The kiss does open Rachel up emotionally. She is able to communicate with Helen on a much more personal level than before. She wants to discuss her feelings and emotions connected to this kiss. In chapter six, she discusses life with Helen like she never has before. She doesn't ascribe to tradition as much as she used to. So this fact would seem to make the kiss positive; however, in the same chapter Rachel tries to visualize the image of "life" that Mr. Dalloway has now given her: "She tried to recall the image of the world as a live thing that Richard had given her, with drains like nerves, and bad houses like patches of diseased skin" (p. 88). This echoes all the imagery of sickness associated with the city that Nancy pointed out in class on Monday. Such a description undercuts any positive outlook one could assign to the kiss.

Also, the kiss really doesn't seem to draw her out of her shell. She does get to go stay with Helen, but how much integration does she actually get? For example, "Among the promises which Mrs Ambrose had made her niece should she stay was a room cut off from the rest of the house, large, private, . . . a fortress as well as a sanctuary" (p. 136). She is still quite isolated even in the house she is staying at. There are many other aspects of the novel that are fascinating, but like I said before, I keep coming back to the key "kiss." I'll quit rambling about it though.

Did you like the novel? I really enjoyed reading it. I don't know how much Woolf you have read before, but this novel is much different from the other ones I have read. First of all, it's much longer; however, it read a faster than I remember any of her other novels that I have read. The narrative technique used is also different from the stream of consciousness that she employs in novels like To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway. The way The Voyage Out is written, I can't pinpoint the major character. Instead, the story telling drifts from one circle of characters to another, allowing the reader to pull multiple ways of looking at the novel. We see the voyage in the beginning through the experiences of Rachel, Helen, Ridley, Richard, Clarissa, etc., - not just one of them. This develops a sense of freedom and structure, a hard balance to maintain. Perhaps reading the novel again will help me figure out the kiss. Who knows?!

-Jason Carter

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