STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

“… refers to a style of fiction that takes as its subject the flow of thoughts, responses, and

sensations of one of more characters. A stream-of-consciousness narrative is not structured as a coherent, logical presentation of ideas. Rather, the connections between ideas are associative,

with on idea suggesting another.

from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce)

“… and it was unjust and cruel and unfair. He could not eat the blackish fish fritters they got on Wednesdays in Lent and one of his potatoes had

the mark of the spade on it. Yes, he would do what the fellows had told him. He would go up

and tell the rector that he had been wrongly punished. A thing like that had been done before

by somebody in history …” (Chapter I)

A character’s stream of consciousness is often expressed as an interior

monologue, a record of the total workings of the character’s mind and emotions. An interior monologue may reveal the inner

experience of the character on many levels of consciousness, often represented through a sequence of images and

impressions. “

from To the Lighthouse (Woolf)

“The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and

softly in the evening. Now—James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the

white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing

spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it?

No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was

true too.” (Chapter VIII)

from The Sound and the Fury(Faulkner)

Thinking it would be nice for them down at New London if the weather held up like this. Why shouldn’t it ? The month of brides, the voice that breathed She ran right out of the mirror, out of the banked scent.

Roses. Roses. Mr. and Mrs. Jason Richmond Compson announce the marriage of. Roses. Not virgins like

dogwood, milkweed. I said I have committed incest, Father, I said. Roses. Cunning and serene. If you

attend Harvard one year, but don’t see the boat-race, there should be are fund. Let Jason have it. Give Jason

a year at Harvard.

Why?

What is consciousness?

Is the universe orderly … or chaotic?

What is the purpose of the novel?