Looking specifically at “Time Passes,” Virginia Woolf uses narrative style in a particular way to mirror the experience of time for those living during and after World War I. As we’ve read throughout the semester, those involved with the War (especially soldiers) experienced intense detachment and disillusionment. Section II, “Time Passes,” screams detachment and disillusionment.
The detachment is particularly obvious in Chapter 4, where the narration describes the house gradually falling into decay. The narration speaks as if the house, now without the presence of the Ramsay family, is part of a different world. In this world, there is no vitality, no fertility, and no humanness. The house is a dead, hollow image of a former life, as the following sentence conveys: “What people had shed and left—a pair of shoes, a shooting cap, some faded coats and skirts in wardrobes—these alone kept the human shape and in the emptiness indicated how they were once filled and animated.” The lack of human vitality in the house mirrors the experience of many soldiers after the War. They experienced profound emptiness, feeling cut off from the world of their past, the world of the living.
Similarly, the narrative technique conveys a sense of disillusionment in this section of To the Lighthouse. Some major plot points occur in this section, including the death of Arthur, Prue, and Mrs. Ramsay. However, these significant events barely get a passing glance in the narration. All of them occur within brackets, suggesting that they are an afterthought of secondary importance. By presenting plot points in this manner, Woolf unnerves her readers. She gives us the information in brief, unexpected fragments, creating a sense of unreality. Again, these feelings are similar to those of people involved in the War. As we know from personal accounts, many soldiers found it impossible to process the grotesque massacre that was World War I. The War held so many horrors that it seemed unreal. People simply could not process it.