Oriental View of the Cosmos Seen in V. Woolf's The Waves : Bernard, the Idea of "Brahman-Atman Identity" and Vedas

This paper attempts to examine the significance of Virginia Woolf's Orientalism; that is, the presence in her work of the foundational idea of "Brahman-atman identity" in Indian philosophy and Buddhism. Some of Woolf's central characters experience moments of revelation ("moments of being" in her words) in which they intuit that one's 'real' or 'authentic' self is not diminished even by physical death, but becomes omnipresent by becoming attached, as spirit, to other people or places. This "transcendental theory" (Mrs Dalloway 219) is most clearly expressed by four important characters, Clarissa Dalloway (Mrs. Dalloway), Lily Briscoe (To the Lighthoue), Bernard and Neville. In her memoir, Moments of Being, Woolf writes, 'I reach what I call a philosophy; … that behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern' (72). I would argue that these fictional characters speak for Woolf herself. If we look at Woolf's transcendental theory in the context of the history of religion, it corresponds with that of the Hinduism and Buddhism, as seen in such books as Rigveda, Upanishad, and Bhagavad Gita. We actually find in her works the mention to 'the image of Buddha' (Voyage Out 22) and 'Vedas' (The Waves 132). And when we consider that Woolf was one of the main members of the Bloomsbury Group, whose common mentor was G.E. Moore, and that her father, her literary mentor, was an atheist, it seems reasonable that the Oriental thoughts invoked her interest and affected on her view of human beings and the cosmos, hence on her literature. In conclusion, the examination of Woolf in terms of the Oriental thoughts has enabled us to appreciate her literature in quite new light.