Interior-monologue内心独白.doc

Interior monologue is a phrase closed related to the stream of consciousness novel. Unlike external action, the movement of consciousness is a psychological process which we can not see. So an objective description of it is impossible and interior monologue, which can register the slightest wavering of or the world that surrounds consciousness, is the best way to illustrate it. Almost all the stream of consciousness novelists use this technique in their works.Stream of consciousness is a very complicated psychological process. According to the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, it can be divided into three levels: the Id (the unconscious), the Ego (the subconscious) and the Superego (the conscious). Of the three levels, the unconscious mind is the most primitive state of mind. To show the different levels of ones consciousness, interior monologue is also divided into different types. Generally speaking, interior monologue can be divided into two types: direct interior monologue and indirect interior monologue. When direct interior monologue is used, the author adopts the first person to narrate and is not involved in the narration by making no explanation or remark on the characters thought and experience. This device enables the character to thoroughly reveal his/her complex psychological activity and particularly it enables a display of the characters unconsciousness. The display of the unconscious part of the character gives the reader a chance to a fuller and deeper understanding of the character. When indirect interior monologue is used, the author will use the third person to narrate and is partly involved in the narration by making some explanation or comment. This device enables the writer to show the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind but not that of the unconscious mind since the movement of the characters consciousness is controlled surreptitiously by the writer.Both Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are masters of the stream of consciousness novel and both adopt the technique of interior monologue. However, Woolf tends to use indirect interior monologue while Joyce usually uses direct interior monologue. Examples of indirect interior monologue can be found in many parts of Mrs.Dalloway written by Woolf:So she would still find herself arguing in St. Jamess Park, still making out thatshe had been rightand she had toonot to marry him. For in marriage a littlelicense, a little independence there must be between people living together day inday out in the same house; which Richard gave her, and she him. (Where was hethis morning for instance? Some committee, she never asked what.) But withPeter every thing had to be shared; everything gone into. And it was intolerable,and when it came that scene in the little garden by the fountain, she had to breakwith him or they would have been destroyed, both of them ruined, she wasconvinced; though she had borne about with her for years like an arrow stickingin her heart the grief, the anguish; and then the horror of the moment whensomeone told her at the concert that he had married a woman met on the boatgoing to India! Never should she forget all that! Cold, heartless, a prude, hecalled her. Never could she understand how he cared. But those Indian womendid presumablysilly, pretty, flimsy nincompoops. And she wasted her pity. Forhe was quite happy, he assured herperfectly happy, though he had never donea thing that they talked of his whole life had been a failure. It made her angrystill. (10) Peter is Clarissas former love. Compared with her husband, Peter is fantastic, a littlebit dominant but not practical. Though she finally chooses Mr. Dalloway as herhusband, she still loves Peter. That is why she feels horrible when she is informed ofPeters marriage with an Indian girl. Like any other sensitive woman, she becomesjealous of the Indian girl and calls her silly, pretty, flimsy nincompoop(10). Aftermany years of peaceful but dull marriage life with Mr. Dalloway, her mood is stirredby the news of Peters returning to London from India. So she is trying to convinceherself that her choice of Mr. Dalloway as her husband is right. This is a subtledescription of the psychology of a sensitive woman. This is not a one-hundred-percentindirect interior monologue but more like a kind of internal analysis made by thewriter. In this sense, Virginia Woolf is unique in using the technique of indirectinterior monologue.Compared with indirect interior monologue, direct interior monologue is not soeasy to understand. The forty-five-paged description of the unconscious mind ofMolly Bloom, one of the main characters in Ulysess written by Joyce, is a celebratedexample of direct interior monologue:Now make him want me thats the only way a quarter after what an unearthly hourI suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for theday well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in tospoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office or the alarmclocknext door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can dozeoff 1 2 3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars thewallpaper in Lombard street was much nice the apron he gave me was like thatsomething only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so as Ican get up early(642)This is only a small part of the forty-five-paged direct interior monologue of Molly Bloom at the end of the novel. It is a depiction of the stream of consciousness of Molly in a trance when she is woken up at midnight by her husband and feels it difficult to fall asleep again.Ulysess begins records the experiences of an Irish Jew Leopold Bloom within one day. He his one-day activity with his getting up in the morning and ends up with his bringing home the drunk Stephen Dedalus at midnight.His wife Molly, a singer, from whom he has been estranged since their son died, has been cuckolding him with her concert manager. These external events decide the stream of consciousness of Molly above. From this part, we learn that Molly wants to arouse her husbands love of her once more; when she hears the striking of the clock, she can not help thinking of the Chinese who are used to getting up early at such an early hour; since her sleep is interrupted, she begins to be jealous of those nuns whose sleep is not interrupted; when she knows the alarm clock next door will ring in no time, she grows worried about her sleeplessness and tries hard to make herself fall asleep again by counting numbers; when she sees patterns on the wallpaper, she recalls the nice wallpaper in her old house in Lombard Street and the apron her husband has bought her and she thinks of as nice as the wallpaper; then she tries once more to force herself to fall asleep by lowering the lamp. Here by using direct interior monologue together with other devices like ellipsis of punctuation, economy of wor