Topic- ‘Art of the essay’ by Virginia Woolf
Discuss Virginia Woolf as a modern essayist with special
reference to the Art of the essay.
Or, Offer your perspective on the essay as a literary
form on the basis of Woolf’s analysis in “Art of the Essay.’
Or, what are the main characteristics and objectives of
an essay discussed by Virginia.
Answer:
Widely considered one of the finest essayist
of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf composed “Art of the Essay” as a
review of Earnest Rhy’s five volume of anthology of “Modern Essay” (1870-1920).
The review is originally appeared in Times Literary Supplement, Nov 30, 1922
and Woolf included the essay with a slightly revised version in her first
collection of Essays “The Common Reader”.
“A good essay
must draw its curtain around us but it must be a curtain that shuts us in, not
out.” According to Virginia Woolf the goal of the essay is simply that it
should give us pleasure. It should lay us under a spell with its first word and
we should only wake refresh with its last word. Virginia Woolf initiates the
discussion on the subject of the essay as a literary genre by referring to the
wide extent to the form, to the variety and diversity of its examples,
suggesting that it is the richness of the present state of things in the form
that makes it an interesting style. There is an important point emphasized by
Woolf at the beginning of the discussion that ‘Present’ state of the form and
its practice is of greater than a historical survey of how the essay develops
over the period.
One of the
best practitioners of the art of writing essay, Virginia Woolf analyzed
perfectly the art that involved composing an essay and she displayed her essay
writing skills across a wide range of subjects with all the craftsmanship,
substances and rich allure like of her novels. Her emphasis on the poem that
the essay is written during a particular period can provide enough resource for
the growing of the dominant features associated with the genre. In other words
she argues that the essay is a literary form and its character can be examine
on the basis of the study of its practice in a particular time, for example in
her case the immediate present in which she was writing, that is the last phase
of nineteenth and early part of twentieth century. So, the contemporary
projection is a prominent characteristic of an essay.
The primary
objective to an essay as a literary form is to provide pleasure. The term
pleasure can have different suggestion depending on the context in which it is
placed. Here Woolf draws attention to the way it impacts and it’s received by
the reader. The distinction made by Woolf is significant and she considers it
to be a special figure of the essay form. She does not often nor perspective on
the role of pleasure that plays to create on attention as a literary type. As
her essay deals primarily with the form and its practice of her own time, he
focus is on the modern examples of the essay. Though she referred to in her
initial phase about Francis Bacon, Charles Lamb and Mark Pattison each one
separated by time, style and orientation but the common thing is that they all
give pleasure to their readers by their essays and this pleasures are also of
different types.
According to
Woolf the nature of the subject may be varied and completely different from one
another but the essay as a literary form thrives by generating an ambiance
which draws the reader within its frame. It may be hard to find the perfect
essay but a skillful essayist will always be able to the reader’s interest by
the magic of the writing. This magic is not something that can be pinned down
easily but it is that special quality of the essay which makes it possible for
the writer to transfer the knowledge through its various knowledges.
Virginia
Woolf provides the examples of Macaulay Froude, who excelled in making use of
the essay to communicate to their subjects with remarkable clearity.
Unlike novels
or poems which one aided by story and rhyme respectively, the essay wins the
reader by the power of the craft. The importance of discipline in an essay
cannot be undermined. So, the essay must be tight, precise and properly
organized. In this matter Woolf use the word ‘Pure’ to indicate how important
it is for the essayist to take proper care in writing an essay which will not make
a mess of it. Woolf considers adherence to a strict discipline to be one of the
major features of the essay form. That is why she puts so much emphasis on the
condition of purity implying that it is the responsibility of the essays to
ensure that the subject is transformed with expertise and craft.
When Woolf
refers to knowledge as one of the conditions that constitute the essay
objectives, she is not focusing on providing information through the essay. It
should be the representation of a particular vision should contain the stamp of
the author’s way of looking on the issue. In this respect she gives the
examples of Walter Peter’s essay on Leonordo Da Vince, which transforms the
limits of the medium to present the subject with intensity and conviction. An
essayist must be alert to the conditions of his style while writing an essay,
otherwise even a good subject fall fled and may appear to be a collection of
facts and figures unnecessarily ornamented.
So, Virginia
Woolf concluded her essay by saying that all essays irrespective of the age in
which they appear, they must contain the permanent quality which will stand at
the taste of time. The essay must draw the reader into it and hold him in its
gripe. Only then the reading experience of an essay will be worthwhile and
rewarding.
Note: This note is
only for a little help and better understanding, you should add some more to
get score marks & advised to read the main text. By P.B.