1. “MRS. DALLOWAY: VIRGINIA WOOLF’S REDEMPTIVE CYCLE” by Douglas L. Howard Literature & Theology, 12. 2 (1998): 149-58. Presented by Sarita Chuang

2. Virginia Woolf was taught from a very early age to deny religious dogmatism and to reject the spiritual offerings of Christianity. (Howard 149) 1893, Agnostic’s Apology by Leslie Stephen (Howard 149)

3. Christianity and the Bible, with its patriarchal power structures, were unacceptable alternatives to her in this ongoing spiritual journey. (Howard 149) Her consistent use of Christian symbolism & Biblical history in her novels suggest that they provide her with a point of departure through which she could define the nature of her own beliefs. (Howard 149)

4. The Edenic State the state of youth and human potential, the equal capacity for future greatness or failure that is fulfilled through the exercise of choice and that exists beyond the confines of death and time. (Howard 150) ex.) Elizabeth Dalloway The young Septimus Smith

5. The limitless potential of youth, for some of the other characters in the novel, is connected to an actual Earthly Paradise. (Howard ) ex.) Lady Bruton daydreams of her childhood in the fields of Devonshire ex.) For Peter Walsh and Clarissa, the Eden that they would recover is recalled through comparable visions of Bourton. (Howard )

6. Oneness If solitude & isolation constitute existence in the fallen world, then the Edenic state is defined by the union or communion of consciousness into “oneness” (Howard 151) :

7. “That summer at Bourton” brings together a group of distinct personalities with different backgrounds. (Howard 151)  The dreary loneliness of the present  The group is reunited in Edenic oneness in Clarissa’s party.

8. The Fall * for Clarissa: her fall into experience & loss of innocence (Howard 153) * the First World War (Howard 153-54) Along with the loss of potential, the fall initiates the unrelenting progress of time. (Howard 154) * another kind of falling: The protagonists descend into a world of isolation and into a sense of modern alienation. (Howard 154)

9. Christ & Christess “Septimus Christ” comes to repair the damage that is caused by the fall.  Death is not the end of life. (Howard 155) * The figure of Christ is not only split, but feminized. In the final scene, Christ becomes Christess. (Septimus’ vision completed by his double Clarissa. He dies so that Clarissa may live.) (Howard 156)