Hours/Dalloway #7

“But Proportion has a sister, less smiling, more formidable, a Goddess even now engaged - in the heat and sands of India, the mud and swamp of Africa, the purlieus of London, wherever in short the climate or the devil tempts men to fall from the true belief which is her own - is even now engaged in dashing down shrines, smashing idols, and setting up in their place her own stern countenance. Conversion is her name and she feasts on the wills of the weakly, loving to impress, to impose, adoring her own features stamped on the face of the populace. At Hyde Park Corner on a tub she stands preaching; shrouds herself in white and walks penitentially disguised as brotherly love through factories and parliaments; offers help, but desires power; smites out of her way roughly the dissentient, or dissatisfied; bestows her blessing on those who, looking upward, catch submissively from her eyes the light of their own” (100).

Through this passage, Woolf expresses her anger at others attempting to change one’s views. She personifies “Proportion” and “Conversion” to elaborate on this view. By describing Conversion as Proportion’s sister, she relates the two. Proportion is Sir William’s term for a “normal” perspective on life which, in his opinion, Septimus lacks. This relates to Woolf’s own struggle with being declared as abnormal due to her mental condition. There is a connection between Proportion and Conversion because someone can attempt to convert another person to their own sense of Proportion. Hyde Park is where Woolf was born and raised. Woolf uses this reference to Hyde Park to tell her audience that she herself is guilty of attempting to convert others. Paradoxes such as this one are commonly found in Woolf. She is known for being an egotist even though she said that she did not like egotists. She may have hated people who attempted to convert others, but this is most likely because she had strong beliefs herself and thought others should believe the same thing as her. 

Works Cited:

“Virginia Woolf.” Introduction to Comparative Literature. 2004. Colorado College. 3 Oct. 2010 <http://ats.coloradocollege.edu/co100-04-b1/author/page.php?autPage=3>.

Lee, Hermione. “Virginia Woolf.” The New York Times. 1997. The New York Times Company. 3 Oct. 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lee-woolf.html>.