A review by booklooker
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 

‘Between the Acts’ is V. Woolfs last novel. The main plot circles around a play and the brief intermissions and tries to explore the undertones of every encounter. As such it’s a very minute study of that which isn’t obvious. The writing pace is slow and sometimes the style can be somewhat dry. Thus, it could prove a tricky read for people, who are not interested to explore that which hasn’t and cannot be said. 

Two, not entirely unrelated, present themes are a) Uncertainty and the Unsaid, that-what-has-not-been-said/that-which-cannot-be-said and b) time and history. 

Uncertainty and Sorrow 

The whole novel presents itself with a permanent undertone of sorrow and uncertainty marked most notably by the weather, the ongoing war, which is rarely referred to directly as well as the music machine used in the play. Whenever the weather (and the war, expressis verbis referred to only by the young, virile man Giles) comes up, it has a ring of uncertainty to it and it’s not hard to see how the weather and the war relate to each other. Will the weather change? Will it be “safe” t hold the pageant and the play outside? Or should we hide from the rain right away? Throughout the novel the reader feels as if he/she engages with an iceberg: what you see is only the bare minimum - under the surface seems to be a lot more to engage with, which emphasises the undertone of uncertainty and sorrow. 

This can also be captured by the music machine, which never seems to work quite as the director has envisioned it. The audience never really knows - or at least that’s the feeling that Woolf summons - what’s the matter with the music machine: Is it broken? Is t supposed to work that way? What will happen next? 

Time and History 

The play in the pageant is a play about England’s history and it’s impact on contemporary culture. While the main historical events are replayed on stage, the main characters also feel indebted to history and institutions that hold some form of tradition, be that the church (Lucy), history of ideas and philosophy (Bartholomew and Lucy), pictures on the wall (Isa) etc. It seems like every item in the house can be read as something that ties in with the very personal history and at the same time shows how much we are indebted (and even determined by?) our past. Personal history/story/narrative is juxtaposed to the history of the whole country. Throughout the novel a nostalgic feeling is evoked and contrasted with the uncertainty of the future.