英语本科毕业论文-An Analysis of the Music and Painting Characteristics in The Mark on the Wall.doc

XXXX本科毕业论文 An Analysis of the Music and Painting Characteristics in The Mark on the Wall Abstract: Virginia Woolf stands firmly among the best writers of stream of consciousness in the 20th century for her unique and penetrating ideas as well as her writing language, and her sensitivity and intelligence provides her an different spiritual world from her contemporaneous male writers. In her work, readers could smell the fragrance of nature, enjoy the journey of her floating minds, and appreciate the six movements cento performed by her words. In her work, writing is embedded into pictures, and music is flowing among the words. The Mark on the Wall is considered the first real work of stream of consciousness written by Virginia Woolf，so it is important to analyze the characteristics in this short story in order to know more about Virginia Woolf and stream of consciousness writing. In fact, in the short story, Virginia Woolf is not only writing a story for readers, but also painting and performing. Base on the analysis of the text and with the help of some painting and musical theories and skills, the paper aims at exploration and appreciation of the short story from the perspective of painting and music.Key Words: The Mark on the Wall; stream of consciousness; Virginia Woolf; music; paintingIntroductionAfter reading a story, readers may have a clear line about how the story starts , how it ends and may always remember the main characters or even paint the protagonists image in mind. However, in The Mark on the Wall readers could taste the flavor of a short story without character, plot and even exact drop scene. The sensitive female writer Virginia Woolf is one of the leading writers who opened the curtain to a new world in novel writingstream of consciousness, which is an literal trend in the early 20th century and regarded as the beginning of the modernist writing. The short story The Mark on the Wall is an experimental work and considered the first real stream of consciousness writing by Virginia Woolf, since the story is narrated without plot, protagonist, and exact end. In the short story, Virginia Woolf is not only writing a story for readers, but also painting and performing, she explores painting skills such as juxtaposition of colors of Impressionism, subjective reality of both literal writing and painting of Post-Impressionism in 20th century. Additionally, Virginia Woolf also builds up a bridge between her writing and music composing， and her exquisite language skills make her composition a piece of cento at the same time. Consequently, the story is not only a white and black stationary writing, but also a colorful vocal work which is like a river of Virginias floating mind. Words embody thoughts and feelings, and in Virginias The Mark on the Wall, her thoughts and feelings change the form which is different in approach but equally satisfactory in result. Virginia Woolf and The Mark on the WallVirginia Woolf (18821941), English novelist and critic, is born in London, and is a member of an upper middle-class family, which has a strong influence upon her and her writing. Virginia is educated for the most part by her parents, at home, and in her adolescence Virginia is given the run of her fathers library. Her hours of reading there are her real education. Virginia Woolfs writing career may be said to have begun when she is nine years old and starts a weekly paper, The Hyde Park Gate News. From about the age of fifteen she has been training herself to write professionally, keeping journal notebooks in which she describs her round of activities and acquaintances. Seven of these journals have been published under the title A Passionate Apprentice. Virginia marries the writer, Leonard Woolf in 1912 who supports her writing all her life. The couple share a strong interest in literature and in 1917 founds the Hogarth Press. Virginia wrote about literature for The Nation and in an article published in December, 1923, attacks the realism of Arnold Bennett and advocates a more “internal approach” to literature. This article is an important step in the development of what become known as Modernism. Virginia Woolf rejectes the traditional framework of narrative, description and rational exposition in prose and makes considerable use of the stream of consciousness technique to record the flow of thoughts and feelings as they pass through the characters mind. She concentrates all the efforts on digging into the human consciousness and presenting a fantastic picture of the disjointed, illogical, illusory, and mentalmotional life.Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative (and at times dissociative) leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a characters fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. In stream of consciousness writing, the speakers thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself), which is primarily a fictional device. The term is first introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology by a philosopher and psychologist William James, brother of the influential writer Henry James.This approach is explored in many of Virginias novels such as the most famous Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Waves (1931) , but the short story The Mark on the Wall is considered the first real stream of consciousness writing by Virginia.The short story The Mark on the Wall is an experimental work and considered the first real stream of consciousness writing by Virginia Woolf. At the time she write The Mark on the Wall,Virginia Woolf is quite enthusiastic about the new ability to reveal the flickerings of that inner flame which flashes its messages through the brain. In summarizing her own technique in The Mark on the Wall, she describs those messages as myriad impressions which she listed as trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel. Her efforts to record the flow or stream of consciousness is the revolutionary components of Modernism which is on two crucial factors. One is the work of the Post-Impressionist painters. The other was the theoretical work being done in particle physics and quantum. Virginia was much less directly familiar with the latter one so in The Mark on the Wall, readers could just notice the influence that painting makes upon Virginia Woolf s writing. The following part of the paper will aim at exploration and appreciation of the short story from the perspective of painting and music. The Painting Characteristics in The Mark on the WallA. The General View from the Perspective of Painting It can be said that almost everyone knows the world famous painter Leonrdo Da Vincis world celebrated oil paintingMona Lisas Smile. Over the years, experts tried hard to find out the archetype of this woman in order to know more about her mysterious smile. Some experts say that observation from different angles present different smiles, and even bring about a doubt whether she is smiling. This painting is full of mysterious stories, which brings itself such a high reputation all over the world. In Mona Lisas Smile, a typical painting skill named sfumato is used, which makes this oil painting become delusive. Sfumato is an Italian term for the painting technique which overlays translucent layers of color to create perceptions of depth, volume and form. In particular, it refers to the blending of colors or tones so subtly that there is no perceptible transition.Leonardo is closely associated with the technique sfumato, and one of the best-known examples is his Mona Lisa. Critics and art historians have argued over whether or not the Mona Lisa is smiling. This debate is due to the use of sfumato around her mouth, making it a mystery as to whether the shadows are a result of a smile or whether the smile is a result of the shadows. In Virginia Woolf s work The Mark on the Wall, her writing but her words have the same effect as what this painting brings to the smile.In The Mark on the Wall, Virginia shows her readers a mysterious world with her wild imagination. The mark is not only the clue of a 3000 words story, but also the clue for readers to appreciate Virginias writing talent. She uses lots of dont know to express her uncertainty. Everything about the mark is a mystery, even the date for what she writes at the beginning In order to fix a date it is necessary to remember what one saw”. From the first unsureness, her mind is in the way of floating which is like the first layer of color painted with the skill of sfumato. On the first layer, by using all these colors like yellow light,crimson flag,red knights and the black rock, and with the up and down of these magical brushes, Virginia s words become the tiny dots of the painting named The Mark on the Wall. Her words go fluently, from a mark which is ignored by everyone easily sliding to a fascinate world which is an old fancy, an automatic fancy.(Virginia Woolf, 2006:2) On the first layer of this painting, readers just obtain a smoky shape of everything. Then, flying with her vagarious imagination, the second layer is getting close to the readers.Subjunctive mood is used to stress that her mind is swimming and all these things are unsure as well. According to Virginia Woolf, if that mark was made by a nail, it cant have been for a picture, it must have been for a miniature - the miniature of a lady with white powdered curls, powder-dusted cheeks, and lips like red carnations. (Virginia Woolf, 2006:2) A white powered cheek with carnations red lip is in front of the readers which is also a mysterious portrait of a lady because one will never see them again, never know what happened next.(Virginia Woolf, 2006:3) Her readers have no choice rather to follow Virginias floating mind. On the second layer, more colors were jointed in but the smoke is still hovering up readers heads since Virginia said he was in process of saying that in his opinion art should have ideas behind it when we were torn asunder, as one is torn from the old lady about to pour out tea and the young man about to hit the tennis ball in the back garden of the suburban villa as one rushes past in the train.(Virginia Woolf, 2006:3) Everything is flowing, and from the first layer to the second one no perceptible transition could be noticed. Colors and Virginias words are the trace left by flying angels.Just as Critics and art historians have argued over whether or not the Mona Lisa is smiling, whether the shadows are a result of a smile or whether the smile is a result of the shadows remains unsettled and then just in such a short time the portrait of the lady has been melted. Virginia pushes down her guessing that Im not sure about it; I dont believe it was made by a nail after all; its too big, too round (Virginia Woolf, 2006:5) while since then, new blood is injected into the third layer. Then these abstract objects likeThree pale blue canisters of book-binding tools,bird cages, the iron hoops, the steel skates, the Queen Anne coal-scuttle, the bagatelle board, the hand organand jewels make readers completely puzzled about why these things appear together. In addition, Virginia directly jumps to the after life,which are trees, and which are men and women, or whether there are such things, that one wont be in a condition to do for fifty years or so. There will be nothing but spaces of light and darkrose-shaped blots of an indistinct color - dim pinks and blues - (Virginia Woolf, 2006:6) Readers are flying in the thick smoke nothing can be see, they wre blind, they were in stationary, they couldnt move, being unable to think so Virginia lead them a way as time goes on, become more definite, become - I dont know what. (Virginia Woolf, 2006:6) She has no idea either. The third layer seems to be more misty. However, with the story further going on, Woolf continues his painting. On the forth layer, Virginia leaves readers a way to wake up their minds. The mark may even be caused by some round black substance, such as a small rose leaf, left over from the summer(Virginia Woolf, 2006:7) The rose leaf becomes the substantiality on this layer but unfortunately,a shower of ideas fell perpetually from some very high Heaven down through his mind.(Virginia Woolf, 2006:7) He is Shakespeare as well as Virginia Woolf. Virginia borrowed Shakespeares mind to think since man has more freedom in the sea of wild thoughts. But no matter who is the principal figure, the picture is totally visional. There is not one reflection but an almost infinite number, those are the depths they will explore, those the phantoms they will pursue, leaving the description of reality more and more out of their stories”, Virginia has already driven us to a phantom world by the single mark. Following her thinking process, readers tried hard to taste the flavor of Virginias illegitimate freedom”. In this sense, she is such an excellent painter using skill of sfumato that time and space have been cancelled, and readers traveled from the first layer to the following unconsciously, and they really dont know how this journey continued.The skill of sfumato is also used to make a planar object tridimensional and that is why on the fifth layer, in Virginias eyes, the mark seems actually to be projected from the wall since nor is it entirely circular but it does no good to make sure something after came to visit tombs and taste the sweety cherry jam(Virginia Woolf, 2006:8), then readers would face the fifth mental break down: I really dont know what. No, no, nothing is proved, nothing is known. Virginia is in another round of struggle with her own mind. She is still overlaying translucent layers of color to create perceptions of depth, volume and form and there is still no outlet of her complicated mind. Since the painting comes to the final layer, no matter how deep colors and tones are,a result of her great mental work must be shown. I must jump up and see for myself what that mark on the wall really is - a nail, a rose-leaf, a crack in the wood? (Virginia Woolf, 2006:7) Ultimately, what is on the wall will be unveiled. While before she stands up, her minds always go faster than readers could imagine. The song of birds and their diamond-cut red eyes is full of peaceful thoughts, happy thoughts. (Virginia Woolf, 2006:7) But Virginias painting could never be such easy and she asks herself Where was l? What has it all been about? A tree? A river? The Downs? Whitakers Almanack? The fields of asphodel? I cant remember a thing. Everythings moving, falling, slipping, vanishing. There is a vast upheaval of matter. (Virginia Woolf, 2006:9) As a result, the roof of calmness has been smashed again and she couldnt find a way out of her own conflict again. She needs some exoteric forces to help her finding the way for her subtle mind. Im going out to buy a newspaper. (Virginia Woolf, 2006:12) Virginia has been interrupted at last. Ah, the mark on the wall! It was a snail.(Virginia Woolf, 2006:12) The result comes out.It is not easy to conclude that the mark is a snail for nobody knows how things become what they look like at last. Da Vincis colors are over layered for many times so experts cant be sure whether Mona Lisa is smiling or not, and similarly Virginia describes the mark and her uncertainty for several times so it couldnt become the snail in a sudden. Readers try to see through the smoke to get to the heart of Virginias work but the use of Sfumato makes the story a shy girl wearing a veil. Consequently, it is only a full stop for Virginias story, and she has only been interrupted. It is not a full stop for her floating thought so the following time is in the hands of her readers who could continue to appreciate the magical glamour of Sfumato used in The Mark on the Wall.B. The Detailed Painting Skills Used in the Storya. The Skills of ImpressionismImpressionism is a 19th-century art movement that begins as a loose association of Paris-based artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s. Characteristics of Impressionist painting include visible brushstrokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Just as Monas paintings, he painted the same haystack form different angles, then the different changes the sunlight made were on the canvas.The emergence of Impressionism in the visual arts is soon followed by analogous movements in other media which become known as Impressionist music and Impressionist literature.Generally speaking,when people talk about modernism painting ,they always start from Impressionism. When people talk about modernism literature, they always pay much attention to stream of consciousness writing. Both of them are the forerunners of modern arts.Stream of consciousness writing is a special mode of narration that undertakes to capture the full spectrum and the continuous flow of a characters mental process, while Impressionism focuses on the play of natural light and a close attention to capturing the momentary and transient effects of sunlight. In other words, the instantaneity is the core of this two different kinds of arts. The former highlights the instantaneity of mind, while the later highlights the instantaneity of light.It is easy to find the evidence in The Mark on the Wall to prove Virginias instantaneous change of mind. In the second paragraph, Virginia directly express her thought of the instantaneity by sa