Brian Dillon on What Virginia Woolf’s The Waves Means to Him
In time he will say that The Waves by Virginia Woolf has been the most important novel in his life; but at twenty he does not use the word of this or any book, and would think it pompous, embarrassing,.
Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves, published in 1931, is described as one of the most abstract and poetic works in her literary career. The novel’s origins trace back to Woolf’s reflections in her diary on November 28, 1928, where she mentioned the image of “a fin in a waste of water” while finishing To the Lighthouse. Woolf also explored ideas about time and memory in earlier works like The Voyage Out, where a character expresses the desire to write a novel about silence—the unspoken aspects of life. The novel’s structure is unconventional, blending poetic language with abstract imagery and minimal presence of traditional plot or parental figures. Woolf’s drafts, initially titled The Moths, show her experimenting with giving the narrative voice to her characters, who are barely distinguishable from one another, and to an impersonal narrator that describes scenes without direct commentary.
The Waves is characterized by its extensive use of metaphor and figurative language, where one thing is constantly transformed into another. Woolf’s writing suggests that everything can be something else, reflecting a secular form of transubstantiation—where ordinary objects or experiences take on new meanings. For example, the narrator describes the sea and sky in terms of fabric, light, and human gestures, such as “the arm of a woman couched beneath the horizon had raised a lamp.” This technique is not merely decorative but central to the novel’s structure, creating a web of connections between seemingly unrelated elements. Woolf’s approach contrasts with the more deliberate metaphorical style of Roland Barthes, who treats metaphor as a playful or subversive act rather than an inherent quality of language.
The six main characters in The Waves share a collective voice that mimics, repeats, and echoes one another, creating a hypnotic and almost telepathic effect. This unity of voice is a distinctive feature of the novel, blurring the boundaries between individual identities. The characters’ soliloquies often revolve around shared imagery, such as the recurring motif of waves, which appear nine times throughout the book. This technique contributes to the novel’s dreamlike quality, where time and individuality seem fluid. The characters’ childhood and youth are depicted with minimal parental presence, resembling the distant, droning adults in Charlie Brown cartoons, which sets The Waves apart from more conventional coming-of-age narratives.
The Waves is often considered Woolf’s most experimental and challenging work, embodying the principles of modernism—such as the dissolution of traditional narrative structures, the focus on subjective experience, and the use of stream-of-consciousness techniques. Some critics, particularly male writers and academics, have dismissed the novel as unreadable or pretentious, questioning its value as a literary experiment. However, younger readers and students often find it more accessible and innovative, appreciating its formal audacity and democratic approach to voice. The novel’s perceived weirdness and youthfulness, even in its portrayal of aging characters, contribute to its polarizing reception.
The author, Brian Dillon, reflects on how The Waves has shaped his understanding of literature and life. He first encountered the novel at age twenty but did not fully grasp its significance until decades later. Reading it in 1989 during a summer in his garden, he experienced a profound immersion in the text, feeling both thrilled and lulled by its language. Unlike other difficult works he had read, The Waves did not merely engage his intellect but induced a state of reverie or stupor, raising questions about the nature of literary experience. Dillon also notes that the novel made him consider the form of a human life for the first time, prompting him to reflect on his own childhood and the role of literature in shaping personal identity.
Virginia Woolf’s personal experiences, such as the early death of her mother in 1895 when she was thirteen and her father’s death when she was twenty-two, may have influenced the themes of loss and transience in *The Waves*. Dillon initially overlooked these biographical details but later recognized their potential significance. The novel’s depiction of childhood, youth, and adulthood resonated with Dillon’s own reflections on his past, particularly his mother’s death, which he had previously avoided considering. Woolf’s exploration of time, memory, and the fluidity of identity in *The Waves* reflects her broader literary preoccupations, which extend beyond fiction into essays like *On Being Ill* (1929), where she examines the intersections of illness, perception, and creativity.
