Abstract

Virginia Woolf, the famous British woman writer of the 20th century, killed herself by drowning herself in a river with stones in all her pockets. In almost all of her works, the idea of committing suicides and attempted suicides is recurrent. Hence, both Woolf’s life and her works reflect her death complex. The thesis aims at disclosing the mysterious veil of the famous woman writer’s death by analyzing the factors that contribute to her death complex, which include the social background, the family background she grew up, her life experiences and her feminist thoughts.

Key words: Virginia Woolf, death complex, factors

摘要

英国二十世纪著名女作家弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙采用在口袋里装满石头的方式把自己溺死。自杀或者倾向于自杀的情节几乎出现在她所有的作品中。因此，伍尔芙的生活和作品中都体现出她的死亡情结。本论文旨在揭示导致其死亡情结的各种因素，主要包括社会背景、其成长的家庭环境、个人经历和她的女权主义思想。

关键词：弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙；死亡情结；因素；

1. Introduction
Virginia Woolf (1882 ---- 1941) was an English author and feminist. Born in London she was brought up and educated at home. In 1895 following the death of her mother, she had the first of numerous nervous breakdowns. Following the death of her father —— Sir Leslie Stephen, a literary critic in 1904, she moved with her sister and two brothers to a house in Bloomsbury. She began writing professionally in 1905, initially for The Times Literary Supplement. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, a civil servant and political theorist. Her first novel, The Voyage Out, was published in 1915. Between the two world wars, Virginia Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury group. In March 1941, Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse, near her Rommel residence. She published ten novels and over 500 essays including: The Voyage Out (1915), Night and Day (1919), Jacob’s Room (1920), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), A Room of One’s Own (1929), The Waves (1931), Flush: A Biography (1933) and so on. Modernism and feminism are key terms in Virginia Woolf’s works. Modernism concerns with forms and aesthetics. Feminism concerns with gender, sexuality and subjectivity. The problems aroused by all the factors of feminism can not be solved by creating fictions; hence death is chosen by Virginia Woolf to be her perfect ending. Consequently, in almost all her works, her feminist thoughts and death complex are combined together. As we all see that the famous woman writer Virginia Woolf is considered as a very successful woman both by her contemporaries and by people of our time. She has a highly successful literary career, a wonderful husband, and is from a well-educated upper-class family. It is too hard for us to understand why she finally chooses to commit suicide and why she prefers to embed death complex in her characters and her works. This thesis focuses on the factors that contribute to the death complex of Virginia Woolf and aims at disclosing the mysterious veil of the famous woman writer’s death.