ABSTRACT
The Voyage Out, written between 1907 and 1913 and published in 1915, reflects the mood and spirit of the Edwardian period. Through its central story the theme of love and marriage is explored, and through, in particular, the emergence of a young woman from the confines of a restrictive Victorian household into a freer world of the 'New Woman', the theme of the changing social role of women is opened up. Virginia Woolf explores Rachel's feelings, traces the development of her mind, and above all charts the fluctuations of her awakening consciousness. She traces her psychological development through the events which shape the course of her life and in which relationships develop, and these events are balanced by instances of solitary reflection and introspection. Woolf has also a new awareness of what it is to be a woman associating socially for the first time in her life with men of her own age who take her seriously.
