Psychological Novel
Psychological Novel
Psychological Novel
Psychological novel, work of fiction in which the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the
characters are of equal or greater interest than is the external action of the narrative. In a
psychological novel the emotional reactions and internal states of the characters are
influenced by and in turn trigger external events in a meaningful symbiosis. This emphasis
on the inner life of characters is a fundamental element of a vast body of fiction. William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is perhaps the prime early example of it in dramatic form.
In the psychological novel, plot is subordinate to and dependent upon the probing delineation
of character. Events may not be presented in chronological order but rather as they occur in
the character’s thought associations, memories, fantasies, reveries, contemplations, and
dreams. For instance, the action of Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) takes place in Dublin in a 24-hour
period, but the events of the day evoke associations that take the reader back and forth
through the character’s past and present lives. In the complex and ambiguous works of Franz
Kafka, the subjective world is externalized, and events that appear to be happening in reality
are governed by the subjective logic of dreams.
Although an overtly psychological approach is found among the earliest English novels, such
as Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, which is told from the heroine’s point of view,
and Laurence Sterne’s introspective first-person narrative Tristram Shandy, the psychological
novel reached its full potential only in the 20th century. Its development coincided with the
growth of psychology and the discoveries of Sigmund Freud, but it was not necessarily a
result of this. The penetrating insight into psychological complexities and unconscious
motivations characteristic of the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy, the detailed
recording of external events impingement on individual consciousness as practiced by Henry
James, the associative memories of Marcel Proust, the stream-of-consciousness technique
of James Joyce and William Faulkner, and the continuous flow of experience of Virginia
Woolf were each arrived at independently.
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf born on 25th January 1882 was an English writer, considered one of
the most important modernist 20th century authors and also a pioneer in the use of stream of
consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born into an affluent household in South
Kensington, London, the seventh child in a blended family of eight which included the
modernist painter Vanessa Bell.
While the boys in the family received college educations, the girls were home-schooled in
English classics and Victorian literature. Woolf's childhood came to an abrupt end in 1895
with the death of her mother and her first mental breakdown, followed two years later by the
death of her half-sister and a mother figure to her, Stella Duckworth. From 1897 to 1901, she
attended the Ladies Department of King's College London, where she studied classics and
history and came into contact with early reformers of women's higher education and
the women's rights movement. Other important influences were her Cambridge-educated
brothers and unfettered access to her father's vast library.
Encouraged by her father, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. Her father's death in
1904 caused Woolf to have another mental breakdown. Following his death, the Stephen
family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury, where they adopted a
free-spirited lifestyle. It was in Bloomsbury where, in conjunction with the brother’s
intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group.
During the interwar period, Woolf was an important part of London's literary and artistic
society. In 1915 she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, through her half-brother's
publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company. Her best-known works include the
novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928). She is also
known for her essays, including A Room of One's Own (1929), in which she wrote the much-
quoted dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Mrs Dalloway published on 14 May 1925 is a novel that details a day in the life of Clarissa
Dalloway, a fictional high-society woman in post–First World War England. Created from
two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister",
the novel addresses Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host that evening. With an
interior perspective, the story travels forward and back in time and in and out of the
character’s minds to construct an image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure.
In Mrs Dalloway, all of the action, aside from the flashbacks, takes place on a day in "the
middle of June" of 1923. It is an example of stream of consciousness storytelling: every scene
closely tracks the momentary thoughts of a particular character. Woolf blurs the distinction
between direct and indirect speech throughout the novel, freely alternating her mode of
narration between omniscient description, indirect interior monologue, and soliloquy. The
narration follows at least twenty characters in this way, but the bulk of the novel is spent with
Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith a character in the novel who is a World War I veteran
who suffers from "shell shock" and hallucinations of his deceased friend. Because of
structural and stylistic similarities, Mrs Dalloway is commonly thought to be a response to
James Joyce's Ulysses, a text that is often considered one of the greatest novels of the
twentieth century.
An important influence in Virginia Woolf's early life was the summer home the family used
in St Ives, Cornwall, where, in the late 1890s, she first saw the Godrevy Lighthouse, which
became central part of her novel To the Lighthouse. To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel that
centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910
and 1920.
The plot of the novel is secondary to its philosophical introspection. Cited as a key example
of the literary technique of multiple focalization, the novel includes little dialogue and almost
no direct action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. The novel recalls
childhood emotions and highlights adult relationships. Among the book's many tropes and
themes are those of loss, subjectivity, the nature of art and the problem of perception. The
novel is divided into three parts.
The novel lacks an omniscient narrator instead the plot unfolds through shifting perspectives
of each character's consciousness. Shifts can occur even mid-sentence, and in some sense
they resemble the rotating beam of the lighthouse itself. Unlike James Joyce's stream of
consciousness technique, however, Woolf does not tend to use abrupt fragments to represent
characters' thought processes; her method is more one of lyrical paraphrase. The lack of an
omniscient narrator means that, throughout the novel, no clear guide exists for the reader and
that only through character development can readers formulate their own opinions and views
because much is ambiguous. In 1998, the Modern Library named To the Lighthouse No. 15
on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, the novel was
chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels since
1923.
Throughout her life, Woolf was troubled by her mental illness. She was institutionalised
several times and attempted suicide at least twice. Her illness may have been bipolar disorder,
for which there was no effective intervention during her lifetime. In 1941, at age 59, Woolf
died by drowning herself in the River Ouse at Lewes. Woolf became one of the central
subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism and her works have since garnered
much attention and widespread commentary for "inspiring feminism". Her works have been
translated into more than 50 languages. A large body of literature is dedicated to her life and
work, and she has been the subject of plays, novels, and films. Woolf is commemorated today
by statues, societies dedicated to her work and a building at the University of London.
neglected pioneer in the stream of consciousness fiction. Richardson passed her childhood
and youth is secluded surroundings in late Victorian England. She was an educated daughter
of a grocer. At the age of 17, she had to take up job as a teacher and governess, when her
father went bankrupt. Later, Richardson devoted herself to her severely depressed mother,
who eventually committed suicide, when Richardson was 22 years old. This traumatic event
There are uncanny number of parallels seen between Virginia Woolf and Dorothy
Richardson. Both were tormented souls who did not conform to the social norms. Dorothy
commands her attention for her ambitious sequence novel “Pilgrimage”, published in
separate volumes from 1915 to 1938. The first volume of pilgrimage, called ‘Pointed Roofs’,
was published in 1915, wherein she had first used this stream of consciousness technique.
Though the term was coined by William James in 1890, it was Dorothy who pioneered it as a
The novel, which eventually stretched to 12 volumes, traces the development of a young
woman whose life paralleled Richardson’s. Although the length of the work and the intense
demand it makes from the readers kept it away from general popularity, it is a significant
novel of 20th century which introduced new means to represent feminine consciousness.
James Joyce
James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an Irish novelist noted
for his experimental use of language and exploration of new literary methods in large works
of fiction as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). He was one of the most influential
and innovative writers of the 20th century.
Joyce came from a big family. He was the eldest of the ten children born to John Joyce and
Mary Joyce. The family never had much money. However from an early age, Joyce showed a
gift for writing and a passion for literature. His family pushed him to get education and he
earned a degree in modern language.
Joyce was a modernist writer who wrote in a style that was known for its complexity and
content. He was one of the most revered writers whose book, Ulysses is often considered to
be one of the finest novels ever written. His exploration of language and new literary forms
not only showed he was genius as a writer but also gave a fresh approach for novelists who
were inspired by Joyce’s love of stream of consciousness technique.
After graduation, Joyce moved to Paris and after 1904 returned to Ireland. There he met Nora
Barnacle who later became his wife. In 1904, Joyce published stories in The Irish Homestead.
This publication picked up two more Joyce’s works but this start of a literary career was not
enough to keep him in Ireland.
Joyce moved to a Croatian city before settling to Italy. There he taught English and learned
Italian. All this time he continued to write and in 1914 he published his first book, Dubliners,
a collection of 15 short stories. Two years later, Joyce came out with a second book Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man which was serialized in the London magazine, The Egoist. He
began writing Ulysses during that time. Although the novel was not a success, it caught the
attention of the American poet, Ezra Pound who praised him for his unconventional style.
The year that Dubliners was released, Joyce began his work for his novel Ulysses that proved
to be his landmark novel. The story is about a single day in Dublin. On the surface the novel
is a story of three central characters, Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and Mary Bloom.
Ulysses is also a modern recounting of Homer’s Odyssey. In the novel, Joyce used advanced
interior monologue and he helped the readers to understand the character’s mind. It also
pioneered Joyce’s use of stream of consciousness as a literary technique.
In 1939, Joyce published Finnegans Wake which with its puns and new words proved to be
even more difficult read than his previous works.
James Joyce’s writing style included experimentation with structure, dialogue and
characterization. Joyce’s novels with their innovative language, use of dialogues, modern
forms and frankness were met with resistance when they were published. He even today
continues to inspire writers at all levels.
In 1940, Joyce fled to the south of France ahead of the Nazi invasion. He died at the of 58 age
on January 13, 1941.
A psychological novel does not state what happens, but goes on to highlight the motivation of
the action. In these novels the character and characterization are more important. In 20th
century, psychological novels became more prevalent with the writings of writers like
Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. One could say that the development of psychological
novels influenced the novel writing of the following century writers.