By taking one or two characters from either novel, consider the ways in which Woolf and Cunningham explore the conflict between the inner self and social role.

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English Literature

By taking one or two characters from either novel, consider the ways in which Woolf and Cunningham explore the conflict between the inner self and social role.

Virginia Woolf once said that since 1910 "all human relations have shifted those between masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children. And when human relations change, there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics and literature". With these changes arises a conflict or indeed a friction within us, within people. Since we human beings are so versatile we adapt naturally to our environments, we change.

Unfortunately it is not always a comfortable change. In 1923 Virginia Woolf had just experienced a substantial and radical change in society after the First World War and an alteration in people's social roles towards the conformist world we know today. She realised that our personalities or selves consist of our inner self and social persona. It also became apparent that it is in our character to stubbornly persist in trying to achieve a harmony between these two faces. And thus she wrote an original - Mrs Dalloway. In doing so she laid out