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Zoidze Natia, Candidate of Philological Sciences Tbilisi State University E-mail: zoidze.nt@gmail.com
ETERNITY VS TIMELINESS IN WOOLF'S NOVEL "JACOBS ROOM"
Abstract. The article aims to explore the perception of time in Virginia Woolf's novel "Jacobs Room". As in all of Woolf's novels, time is of a dual nature in this novel, subjective and objective, however surprisingly here the reader comes across with the eternity versus time theme. The ideas of eternal beauty and eternal existence where time is abandoned, where time does not function, are contrasted with life which is always defined and functions within it, as being alive is being in time. These themes are echoes of St Augustine's ideas, which he expressed in book eleven of "Confessions". The main purpose of the article is to find and underline possible links and correspondences between Virginia Woolf's ideas of timeliness and eternity and St Augustine's eternity - time juxtaposition. Keywords: Eternity, Timelessness, moments of being, being.
Introduction room is similar to the perception of time in Augus-
Virginia Woolf in all ofher novels displays unique tine's "Confessions". Augustine in the eleventh book
interest towards the issue of time and of all human existence in time. Her "special moments" are in other words demonstrations of the psychological time. We can rightly put her ideas on a par with Bergsonian durée. However, the subjective perception of time and its expression slightly varies from novel to novel. "Jacobs's room" is Woolf's third novel published in 1922. The novel offers a poly-perspective narration. This is a story about Jacobs Flanders, who in the most part of the novel is a student. Nothing important or exclusive ever happens to him and in the end, he dies in the war. In other words, there is not a development or even a set of events which rise actions and eventually build up the climax. Jacob Flanders's death is present in such a trivial manner that the reader really needs to read twice in order to get it clear.
IfWoolf explores anything in this novel, it by all means, is time. I will try to connect the reflection of time issue in this novel with the ideas of St Augustine, which he expressed in his "Confessions".
St Augustine's eternity in "Jacob's Room"
As I mentioned above the nature of eternal time, which is present in Virginia Woolf's novel Jacob's
of "confessions" discusses the theme of the eternal creator and the creation in time. St Augustine says that there is eternity which is god, that there is time which was created before there was a man. Therefore, he contrasts eternity and time. His philosophical belief is founded on the Christian religion. According to him, God is an eternity and beyond time:
"For time itself you made. And no time is co-eternal with you" (Augustine [1, P. 242]).
On one hand, Augustine says that time does not depend on the consciousness of humans (as human existence is only possible with being in time), however, on the other hand, he approves the existence of subjective time. Time past is what no longer exists, which cannot be continued. The present moment is linked to and dependent on duration. Time consists of three elements: past, present and the future. All of them are changeable. Time past ceased to be, the present cannot continue forever, and the future goes through the stages of being present and then becoming past.
What is surprising is that Augustine also mentions that time lives in the minds of people, moreover it is
measured by humans. Past is connected to the remembrance, while the fUture is linked to the expectations. Past is not a reality, we can only capture the past by the power of the mind, who remembers. We carry past in our heads. Echoing Henry Bergson, past for Augustine is a partly psychological dimension.
In "Jacobs Room" we come across with the contrast of the eternity and timeliness. Two themes discussed in the novel, are especially connected to them. The first is the nature of beauty and the second is death and a marsh, in which everything vanishes.
Jacob loves life and for him being alive is associated with the perception of beauty. For Jacob beauty is the part of eternity and it can endure centuries. The sense of eternity and the vanity of time is what he experiences when looking at Parthenon. Its columns look equally brilliant no matter what time one looks at it. Jacob thinks that the vision of Parthenon gives birth to the ideas of durability, which exist in this world by means of spiritual energy.
"this durability stands quite independently of our admiration" (Woolf, Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 148]);
As Augustine notes, when we see the element of eternity, it cannot be perceived within the frames of timeliness, but beyond it. Behind the time-captured human admiration.
On the level of human beings, beauty can even weaken us, stir our memories, regrets and sentimental adorations. The mightiness of Parthenon is beyond these. It stands still for ages, for centuries and this can make humans think that:
"Perhaps it is beauty alone that is immortal... Parthenon appears, on the contrary, likely to outlast the entire world" (Woolf, Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 130]);
Parthenon is contrasted with everydayness, the duration of time which passes and never stops, just like strangers, who pass by or sounds of music which we hear all the time. Opposed to this, Parthenon excites us with its eternity and silent composition.
Sandra Wentworth Williams, who is one of the admirable women for Jacobs, speaks about time. It
should be underlined that particularly this character raises this issue and not someone else. In a novel we see that Jacob is pretty popular among women, however, his feelings for married woman Sandra is different. It started when he went to Greece for seeing Parthenon and there he got familiar with her. This is a woman who herself is very beautiful, thus carrying the part of eternity with her. It was with Sandra that Jacobs first saw Parthenon, and this is not an accidental coincidence. Despite being adored by Jacobs and despite the fact that there truly is a chemistry between them, Sandra never takes it seriously. Time spent with Jacobs is partly compensation for whatever is already lost for Sandra, most importantly it's the youth, as she is not as young as Jacob. She does not admit that she has a feeling for Jacobs. Sandra knows that all human feelings are destined to cease and can only be explained by youth. Time changes everything:
"The flight of time which hurries us so tragically along" (Woolf, Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 140]);
According to her time hurries us and drags us along to death. The death as a determent of human's existence in this world. And she says: "Kisses on the lips that are to die." (Woolf,Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 141]).
Eternity VS Time
The opposition of eternity and timeliness, which we see from Sandra's narrative is also expressed in a short story of Woolf "the haunted house", which presents the changeable and continual picture from the perspective of eternity. The deceased couple visit their house and recall their moments of being [1]. Seeing their house they remember every detail and happy moment when they were a part of a transient, mortal world. They recall: "kisses without number", kisses which as Sandra mentions, in the end, are swallowed by the death. They died and therefore they entered the timeless world. They remained as shadows who are going to roam in their pasts, in order to find their buried treasure.
The juxtaposition of time and eternity is seen in other passages too. In the third chapter of the book,
Woolf describes nineteen years old Jacobs Flanders who studies at Cambridge. It is night and Jacob stands in front of the window. He heard the sound of the clock as if someone addressed the educated young generations. Jacob stood still and: '' the last stroke of the clock purred softly round him. The sound of the clock conveying to him a sense of old buildings and time; and himself the inheritor, and then to-morrow (Woolf, Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 36]). In this citation, Jacob feels how the bonds of time surrender him and how he becomes one more element and descendant of eternity. He feels old buildings and time. Old building here carries the meaning of all the educated generations that lived and died, just like Jacobs, one more descended, who will cease as well.
XXII chapter
It will be no exaggeration to say that the eleventh chapter for the investigation of time bears extreme importance. The main heroes of this chapter are Jacob and his mother Mrs Flanders. We see stories of two different people at different locations united by the special attitude towards time. Two scenes are described in this chapter, they progresses one after another. On the one hand, we see Mrs Flanders who is walking up the hill with her friend, Mrs Flanders and Mrs Jarvis make up the leading scene. On the other hand, there is Jacobs, who is in France, he is debating among his friends on the greatness of Shakespeare. It is mentioned that the dialogue had started in a bar and continued at eleven o'clock at home. The mentioning of the time does not have any meaning, it is absolutely not important for the reader to know at what time the dialogue started when it stopped and when it started again. These facts have no purpose in a novel, except for the indication on the trivialness of time. This complementary scene ends with friends leaving for Versailles. Woolf shifts to the main scene and describes Mrs Flanders. The shift from one scene to another is very catchy as Woolf writes that Jacob did not use to retell his mother about his life as a student: "No Mrs Flanders was Told none of these" (Woolf, Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 114]). With this words scene is cut and Woolf
narrates the future ofJacob's friends- their fates, their despairs, unfortunate events that will happen around them. Woolf describes reality which is a sharp contrast to Jacob's French student life and his "present". ProbablyJacob was right for not writing long letters of excitement to her mum, as life progresses differently when years surround people and in the end prevails them.
The major scene is returned again and the reader sees Mrs Flanders and Mrs Jarvis, climbing up the Dodge Hill. There is a church and the cemetery there. The conversation of friends is rendered and divided by the sound of the church bells. The scene progresses from ten to twelve. Woolf says that Mrs. Jarvis was not loved among villagers. Mrs Flanders does not understand her either. It is not a mere coincidence that while mentioning Jacob, Mrs Jarvis discusses the dead and walks towards the cemetery: '' I never pity the dead, they are at rest, and we spend our days doing foolish unnecessary things without knowing why" (Woolf, Jacobs's room [3; 4, P. 115]). These words resemble Macbeth's monologue: "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" (Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, and Page 2); Woolf writes about the period in the history when the world was waiting for the war, in which Jacob dies. Mrs Jarvis sees his death. She knows that the emotional excitement experienced among young people in Paris is "Much Ado about nothing", Jacob will die and his life filled with "sound and fury" will be ceased. Woolf constantly reminds us that the church divides time in quarters. Mrs. Jar-vis and Mrs Flanders stand near the moor. Jacob's mother loses her Broche among the graves, which joins the eternity forever.
The cemetery is the vision of eternity for Mrs Jarvis. Woolf by describing cemetery and contrasting it with the fussiness of young Jacobs's life and its possible death gives us the hint on the dimension which is no longer restricted by timelessness, which is beyond it. There are the names of the deceased written on the graves. Only names and passages from
the bible, this is what remains of them from being in time. Everything else is covered by the moor. The moor is another example of eternity and timeless-ness. Moor swallows everything.
Woolf implies: "Timbers strain to hold the dead and the living" (Woolf, Jacobs Room [3; 4, P. 116]);
Mrs Jarvis considers that the absolute silence covers the moor. There is no point in asking questions what, why to the moor... Silence is the quality of eternity, Despite the fact that timelessness rules the Doge Hill: The church clock, however, strikes twelve" (Woolf, Jacobs Room, [3; 4, P. 117]);
The contrasting word "however" is juxtaposed with eternal timelessness, which is silence. This chapter can be viewed as an example of eternity versus temporal. This contrast even gets sharper if we recall another novel by Woolf ''Mrs. Dalloway" in which the sound of the clock resembles life:" Like the pulse of a perfect heart, life struck straight
through the streets" ' (Woolf, [3] Mrs Dalloway, [6,
P. 6]).
In this contrasting example reader realizes whatever was expressed at the beginning of the article. As St Augustine said time is never co-eternal with god (eternity). The clock which is measurer of time is absolutely useless when it faces the eternity (the moor), however in the second example, where we see the humans (Mrs Dalloway) [6] being in time (in the streets of London). The clock is like a pulse of a heart, has a driving force and optimism. It is active and source of action.
Conclusions
Taking into consideration the above given analyses of "Jacob's Room," we can rightly assume that the ideas of St Augustine, his eternity versus time approach is not only reflected and experienced throughout "Jacob's Room" but also is a leading theme of the novel.
References:
1. Augustine, Confessions, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2006.
2. Bergson Henri. Time and Free Will. Mineola,- New York: Dover Publications INC., 2001.
3. Woolf, Virginia. Moments of Being. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1985.
4. Jacobs Room, Hogarth Press, 1922.
5. Haunted House. The Hogarth Press, 1985.
6. Mrs Dalloway. Penguin Books, 1996.
7. Online source: Shakespeare, Macbeth. URL:http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html
