ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the common expression 'stream of consciousness' to express the manner in which Virginia Woolf presents the experiences of her characters, but, as previous critics have often emphasized, the term, though virtually indispensable, covers a multitude of devices. Her argument is set out in two notable texts - the various versions of 'Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown' and the essay, 'Modern Fiction'. The first of these was provoked by Bennett's review of Jacob's Room in which he declared that the creation of character was the foundation of good fiction and that the characters of Virginia Woolf's novel 'do not vitally survive in the mind'. The chapter explains satirical jab at a political wife, and focuses on Clarissa's character. It also discusses the remembered experience of Mrs Ramsay.
