Jesse’s Reviews > The Voyage Out > Status Update

The end of this novel isn’t exactly what I expected based on the intro. We are given the POVs of the hotel folk who are pretty far from grieving, the closest we get to catharsis being Hirst’s return from the villa, and even he is looking to merely disengage with the emotional drain of the past fortnight. We are spared the intensity of Helen’s and Terence’s grief.

This section encompasses the entirety of Rachel’s illness. It is not lost on me that Woolf authored a novel where she imagines the death of her semi-autobiographical female protagonist and then examines how all of the characters react to her death. Somewhere in here is an acknowledgment that existence did not begin nor end with Rachel, which is echoed in Terence’s heartbreak once the shock of her passing ends.

taking long book breaks sucks, lol. This section finishes up the river expedition, during which Rachel and Terence declare their love for each other, and then explores how they can be in love in distinctly separate ways while still consoling each other, in spite of not being “in sync”, because what two human beings could possibly be in such a harmony given Woolf’s outlook on us as utter individuals?

difficulties in establishing relationships. Hewet is so absorbed in Rachel to the point of depression; he is clearly in love for the first time. Rachel is meanwhile very interested in all people, not just Hewet, and this section has her calling and meditating on a variety of people, including some lesbian undertones with Mrs. Flushing, and a so far stilted conversation with Miss Allan.

this section covers the other part of the dance and its aftermath, with Hewet and Rachel obviously in the process of falling in love, and featuring a lovely romantic passage where Hewet returns the favor of the women spying on him, going to the Ambrose villa, and hearing and seeing Helen and Rachel talk, and while he is fond of Helen it is Rachel who he is focused on.

this span covers the two main young men of the piece, Hewet and Hirst, arranging first an expedition to the top of a local mountain for a picnic and then a dance to celebrate the engagement of two of the visiting English. I’m stoked to see how the self-styled intellectual young men perceive Helen and Rachel but Woolf is playing it naturally as they interact more with the hotel patrons they are familiar with.

what’s beautiful here: Rachel, never having conversated with men before, is enthralled by Mr. Dalloway, and at one point he impulsively kisses her. Woolf’s description of Rachel’s feelings—so intense that they’re painful, trying to steady her nerves, thoroughly having enjoyed the kiss but still terrified at the universe of gender relations that has opened before her, and her aunt Helen shepherding her.