A CRITIQUE OF SOCIAL SYSTEM IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY

Virginia Woolf knew that the patriarchy suppressed both women’s mind and freedom; however, she could not ignore male power which was at the helm of everything. Woolf crafted her novels in such a way that while not attacking the social system, she made her female readers aware of their entrapment with her perfectly projected female characters. Mrs Dalloway, a ‘simple’ story according to her contemporaries’ values, becomes one of the best examples in which Woolf synthesised her anger against the social system with the art. Woolf achieved her quest and showed to the reader ways to obtain meaning in life and to realise their identities not through a feminist propaganda but through her buried modernist stories embroidered with her subtle use of narrative techniques, innovative language and use of irony. Whilst her writing superficially maintained the status quo, it also destroyed the masculine discourse and created a revolutionary writing, becoming the vehicle to expose the subjection of women