The Mark on the Wall

Stream of consciousness is a narrative mode. As opposed to linear narrative, which formulates and formalizes traditional narrative into a coherent and structured arc, with hallmark touchstones such as conflict and denouement—or beginning, middle and end—stream of consciousness narration resists formalized narrative structuring in order to depict and formally replicate the anarchic nature of thought, cognition, and consciousness. “The Mark on the Wall” utilizes stream of consciousness narration in order to accomplish an indictment of the prevailing intellectual and scientific norms of twentieth-century Humanist British society. One of Humanism’s central tenets is man’s capacity to use reason and rationality to understand the world around him. Stream of consciousness, in its freewheeling and unstructured form, therefore poses a direct challenge to Humanism’s conception of staid and disciplined reason as the paramount human virtue and key to attaining knowledge. Too, under Humanism’s ideological formulations, men are seen as the true possessors of reason, while women—who are stereotypically prone to fits of emotion—are traditionally seen as less ideal human subjects due to their perceived lack of reason. Woolf’s choice to utilize stream-of-consciousness narration, then, poses a direct act of rebellion against the manner in which Humanist patriarchy seeks to discipline and control the woman’s psyche and intellect.