Woolf: Questions for Discussion and Further Research
Jacob’s Room marked a shift in Woolf’s writing, and is an example of the modernist style she is now known for. Her stylistic choices also raise intriguing questions about truth, subjective experience, and whose version of a story is the most authentic or reliable.
Discuss:
- For a novel named Jacob’s Room, Woolf’s book contains very little of Jacob’s perspective. Rather, his story is told through a series of female narrators — the various women in his life. What effect does this shift in conventional perspective have? Explain.
- What relational choices does Jacob make in the novel? Do they reflect or subvert conventional social mores? How do they affect the narrators? Does he have a responsibility to do things differently, or does the text refrain from evaluating his choices?
- What happened to Jacob at the end of the story? What clues within the text support your interpretation?
Do further research:
- Woolf’s novel is set in England, just before World War I. What were Woolf’s wartime experiences? Using your college library’s resources, research Woolf’s early life. How do you think it shaped Jacob’s Room? Is the war an explicit or an implicit presence in the novel? (Or, does it vanish altogether?)
