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Virginia Woolf – The Legacy

Life

 1882-1941, English

 one of the most influential Modernist writers

 one of the first to experiment with stream-of-consciousness technique

 her works are hailed as feminist works

 suffered from depression, mental breakdowns, psychotic episodes (now experts say she suffered from
bipolar disorder), attempting suicide a number of times before succeeding in 1941 (she placed stones in the
pockets of her overcoat and drowned in a river near her Sussex home)

 most famous for To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, The Waves, and the non-fiction book on the
disempowerment of women over time A Room of One’s Own

Setting

 6 weeks after Angela’s death

 in Angela’s drawing room

 London (reference to Whitechapel, Piccadilly, Tower of London, the East End)

 modern age (reference to cars)

 setting inside the setting: diary places a story inside the story, creating a flashback (place = same; time
changes)

Plot

 Angela Clandon stepped off the curb in Piccadilly and was killed by a car 6 weeks prior to the beginning of
the story

 her husband, Gilbert Clandon, is waiting for Angela’s secretary, Sissy Miller, to give her a pearl brooch Angela
left for her (among other things she left to various people)

 to him, she has left what he calls “nothing in particular”, her green leather-bound diary (15 volumes)

 Sissy arrives and after giving her the brooch he asks if there’s any way he can help her in future

 she offers her help if he needs it at any time with a meaningful look in her eyes which he takes to mean she
has a secret passion for him

 Gilbert reads his wife’s diary 

o volume 1:

a) she’s proud to be his wife

b) 1st year he was running for Parliament: she’d toured his constituency with him, was overcome by the applause he
received

c) trip to Venice: went on holiday after his election; ate ices at Florians; she was eager to learn because according to
Gilbert she was “still such a child” and according to Angela “terribly ignorant”, which Gilbert says was one of her
charms

o volume 2 
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  back in London: she was anxious to make a good impression on important men 

  Gilbert remembers her “making a conquest” of his chief, Sir Edward

  dinner at the House of Commons

  evening party at the Lovegroves: Lady Lovegrove asks her if she realizes the
responsibility she has as Gilbert’s wife

o  later volumes:

 Gilbert = more absorbed in his work, has a minor post in government

   she = more alone, no children, is sure Gilbert will become Prime Minister one day

  she begins to work in the East End after plucking up the courage to ask for Gilbert’s
permission

 he can’t understand why she would want to work there since she has her
hands full taking care of him and the house

 she wants to help there because she feels useless, idle 

 he hated clothes she wore to Whitechapel every Wednesday

  appearance of the letters B.M.

 Gilbert first supposes it’s a woman; then doesn’t feel threatened even when
he sees initials refer to a man

 Angela tries to convince B.M. he’s wrong about the upper class; calls him
narrow-minded

 she invites him to dinner; he shakes hands with Minnie the parlormaid
(Gilbert scoffs at this)

 they both go on outings together (Tower of London) + discuss politics,

 B.M. talks badly of Gilbert (Angela has scratched the name out of her diary):
this is the point where the relationship changes from platonic to more
personal; he tells her about his childhood

 gives her Marx to read 

 comes to dinner at the Clandon’s: “Luckily, I was alone.” (that night, Gilbert
was giving a speech at the Mansion House dinner)

o  volume 15 (last volume)

 at dinner B.M. presses her to make a decision: “He threatened that if I did not …”, rest of
diary page covered with “Egypt” (we assume he asked her to elope)

 Angela writes him a letter, which goes unanswered

 “He has done what he threatened.”

 “Have I the courage to do it too?”

  Gilbert understands she killed herself (“He could see her in front of him.”)

  Gilbert calls Sissy Miller: she tells him B.M. was her brother, asks if she can explain anything
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Characters

 Angela Clandon

o thinks of everyone and everything (left her affairs in order before committing suicide, marked what
she wanted people to have)

o she was “a genius for sympathy”

o loved beautiful things that came with status + living in luxury: had rings, necklaces, brooches

o had a passion for little boxes: could imply she was a person who kept secrets

o enjoyed having a distinguished husband

o adored Gilbert at first 

o naïve according to Gilbert

o innocent, shy, docile, submissive: blushes to ask her husband’s permission to volunteer to help
others

o trapped in an upper class milieu that hides the real world from her: she despises herself for living in
such luxury when she hears how B.M.”s mother worked as a charwoman

o changes as a character

 becomes resolute, mistress of her own fate

 draws away from Gilbert’s ‘education’ and learns about the world from B.M. 

 from devoted wife to assumed adulteress

o her suicide is for her an act of bravery and resolve

 Gilbert Clandon

o   politician

o  over 50 yrs old, distinguished-looking

o   has over-inflated ego / is self-centered:

 is only interested in reading about himself, skips parts where he’s not mentioned

 his mind wanders to his future as he’s reading his dead wife’s diary

 only remembers what he has said and done: can’t remember what the house looked like the
night Angela had had B.M. over for dinner, whether she had waited up for him, if the chairs
had been drawn close together

 thinks Sissy is secretly in love with him

o doesn’t realize what’s gone on around him for years

o doesn’t regret not having had children: believes his life has been full 

o still hopes to become important politically (Prime Minister even)

o demeans his wife (infantilizes her):

 believes Angela’s life is made up of trifles

 views her as naïve, a child, ignorant, feeble-minded

 describes her handwriting as “schoolgirl hand”

o   controlling: 

 wants to see what she was writing in her diary; she should ask for permission to volunteer in
the East End

 “If only she had discussed the matter with him, instead of puzzling her poor little head about
questions that were much too difficult for her to understand!”

o  the ultimate snob:

 tells Sissy he hopes she has “other clothes upon which a pearl brooch would not look quite
so incongruous.”

 “There were thousands of Sissy Millers – drab little women in black carrying attaché cases.”

 calls B.M. a “specimen”, formulates a tidy opinion of him without even knowing him

 hated the clothes Angela wore to go to Whitechapel

 sarcastically notes that B.M. “it seemed, wasn’t used to parlourmaids” 

 concludes B.M. had “never done an honest day’s work in his life”

 when he calls Sissy, he notes the “cheap clock ticking on her mantelpiece”

o  does he change? 

 the story ends with his epiphany, but will he change his ways because of what he has read?

 Sissy Miller

o Angela’s devoted secretary for many years: “Angela had been much more to her than an employer.”

o shared a special relationship with Angela: she left Sissy a pearl brooch with inscription “For Sissy
Miller, with my love.” (see Symbolism section below)

o she is the “soul of discretion; so silent; so trustworthy, one could tell her anything…”

o she was in tears over Angela’s death

o sister to B.M.

 B.M. 

o Sissy’s brother

o Angela’s lover

o working class radical / Socialist / revolutionary: hates the upper class but is open-minded enough to
fall in love with someone belonging to the upper class

o opens Angela’s eyes to the world + the plight of the working class
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o mother was a charwoman: story of his childhood makes Angela sick of her way of life

o commits suicide because Angela won’t leave Gilbert to go off with him (we assume he has asked her
to flee to Egypt with him)

Angela-Gilbert relationship

 parallel created between deterioration of their marriage and 

o   Gilbert’s increasing self-absorption

o  Angela’s need for companionship + food for thought (since Gilbert doesn’t have time to show her
the world, she is receptive to someone else’s guidance)

 story superposed by diary shows development of both characters

o Gilbert’s statements of certainty become infinite questions

o Angela’s openness + candor become secrets (i.e. she gains her independence/own space)

 Woolf’s criticism: 

o men & women enter marriage on uneven level (men are required to know more; women are
ornaments) which creates tensions when women strive to learn or express their thoughts

o men & women generally enter marriage not truly knowing each other; marriage = contract/marriage
of convenience

Tone

 ironic

o   situational irony: 

 readers are told of Angela’s accidental death ⇒ they realize she committed suicide

 readers + Gilbert see Angela’s admiration at the start of her diary entries ⇒ she died to
escape him

o  dramatic irony: 

 readers can see where Angela’s relationship with B.M. is headed, but Gilbert doesn’t: it’s
ironic that the man he detests and writes off turns out to be the one Angela died for

Themes

 marriage

o marriage of convenience: political image for Gilbert, better social status for Angela

o development of spouses means after years you don’t know who the other person is

o idea of partnership:

  at the start of the marriage, Gilbert + Angela were partners who ‘helped’ one another
create a good image (each reached their goal ⇒ Gilbert had a lovely wife he could show off
to his constituents and colleagues; Angela had all the fine dresses, jewellery, trips a woman
of her social class could want and dazzled Gilbert’s colleagues, e.g. old Sir Edward)

 Angela withdrew from the partnership once she saw Gilbert do so as well

  he reneges on his duty to father children

   he goes to dinners on his own

 Angela therefore turns to social work + partners up with B.M. 

 conclusion: marriage as a partnership is based on implicit or explicit mutual understanding

 when Angela can’t share, she has her diary to turn to

 suicide

o courageous act in Angela’s eyes: “Have I the courage to do it too?”

o is suicide a victory or defeat for Angela?

  victory = 

 she escapes Gilbert

 her suicide is a statement about what she thinks of being a successful man’s wife,
living a privileged life, having beautiful dresses, accessories, meals, influential
acquaintances

 has done sth without asking Gilbert about it first

 the act itself is an affirmation of her independence

   defeat =

 she dies: she doesn’t gain anything 

 she took the coward’s way out 

 she doesn’t stand up to Gilbert and society, but escapes it

 she doesn’t want to risk staying alone/ doesn’t believe she will eventually
meet someone else and fall in love again

 she might not feel herself worthy of being loved by someone else

o B.M.’s suicide

 too melodramatic: a revolutionary like him would keep on fighting, strive to bring about
change

 the courageous thing would be to stick to the plan of convincing Angela to leave her
husband

 how could he leave Angela behind with the weight of his suicide on her conscience?

 his suicide can only be seen as a defeat for him (based on the character clues we have of him
= the fighter gives in)

Symbolism

 pearl brooch

o in the 18th – 19th centuries:

 the Georgians and Victorians were intrigued by the concept of mortality and the after-life
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 mourning brooches were first worn to express bereavement

 later sweetheart brooches were given to loved ones as keepsakes + symbols of affection

o the significance of pearls:

 pearls take many years to form and, like Angela’s “passion for little boxes”, develop in time
in a small protective, shelled environment 

 being difficult to find, they were highly valued 

 they symbolize wisdom gained from experience, purity, integrity, loyalty

 diary

o the printed word when no words are able to be said = it is a legacy

 has the utmost value since it is bequeathed to someone; shows deceased’s feelings
regarding the heir

o diary = truth = freedom

 Angela’s only means of expressing her thoughts were through the diary

 it was the only thing she kept from Gilbert (the only reason they quarrelled, as Gilbert
noted) meaning it was the only thing Gilbert couldn’t control

 what she wrote in the diary was the truth of her existence

 she was free to write whatever she wanted

 in the end, by giving the diary to Gilbert she allowed him to see her for what she really was 

 alternative interpretation: diary is not vindictive

o it’s a way for Angela to share with Gilbert again ⇒ she is able to connect with him now, sth
impossible when she was alive (see above: theme of marriage)

o though there is an element of bitterness implied in it, it is Angela’s most prized possession where she
kept her innermost thoughts and feelings: the fact that she left it to Gilbert and not Sissy Miller says
sth

o her diary is there to help make Gilbert a better man: Angela is opening Gilbert’s eyes to his
narcissism, giving him the chance to see his faults and correct them

Title

 word “legacy” mentioned twice in the story: paragraph 3 & last paragraph

o creates a neat connection between beginning and end which reflects Angela’s desire for order (how
she labelled all the tokens she had left for those she cared about)

o the word is directly linked to the diary (focal point of the short story)

 “To him, of course, she had left nothing in particular, unless it were her diary… So she had
left it him, as her legacy.”

 “He had received his legacy. She had told him the truth. ”

 what truths are legated to Gilbert?

o Angela hadn’t shared everything with him as he believed

o Angela wasn’t so “terribly ignorant”

o her eagerness to learn was what drew her to B.M. once Gilbert stopped paying attention to her and
spent more time worrying about his political career (so the affair was Gilbert’s fault in part)

o Angela’s “trifles” were an affair (where he came out the cuckold)

o Angela found the lower-class people of Whitechapel more worthy of attention, care and respect
than Gilbert, their marriage, their home (i.e. Gilbert wasn’t the most important thing to her; the
lower class managed to get the better of him)

o what started out as adoration for her husband, ends with her terminating her life for another man

o a man who seemed so beneath him managed to be so alluring that Angela willingly gave up her life
to be with him

o Angela’s great love was B.M. & she committed suicide to escape from living a life with Gilbert
(existence with him was so insufferable, she had to escape)