Maria Fernanda Arias T.

English literature
May 20th, 2015
SUMMARY ABOUT THE LEGACY BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an

English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the
twentieth century. As part of her life, Woolf was a significant
figure in London literary society and a central figure in the
influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most
famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To
the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the booklength essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous
dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own
if she is to write fiction." Woolf suffered from severe bouts of mental illness
throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now termed
bipolar disorder,[1] and committed suicide by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.
As part of her literary work, Woolf wrote certain tales, in which we find The
Legacy, published in 1944. But, why is it called The Legacy? Angela, a very
sincere, careful and helpful woman who is the main character of this story,
leaves ironically fifteen volumes of the diary she is never willing to share inside
her desk before she dies. One day Mr. Clandon, his husband, discovers it and
starts to read it. But more than just a notebook, it represents an evidence of
Angelas thoughts, detailed events and scenarios; the truth about the life Mr.
Clandon is never into. He is instead a busy man, worried about political issues
and work rather than his wife. He also discovers a little box with some letters on
it For Sissy Miller who is Angelas secretary, which contains a dolphin brooch.
In this way, Angela, before and as she knew she would die, leaves different little
boxes with special objects inside them for each of her friends.
As Mr. Clandon reads on Angelas diary, he realizes many details about her
intimate life, yet he does not pay attention to them and thinks of them as
insignificant and pointless facts, just until he finds a particular name: B.M.,
who is apparently a lower class radical with critical views on the upper class.
Gilbert instinctively disapproves of him and is shocked to learn that she had
invited BM to dinner on an occasion when Gilbert himself was giving a speech
at the Mansion House. Mr. Clandon gets more and more desperate, incensed
with retrospective jealousy and feels a shattering blow to his own ego at the
uncertainty of knowing the identity of those initials, as this man had become an
essential and permanent part of Angela's life, meanwhile he becomes even
more insignificant and invisible to her.

Finally, the diary records BM pressing Angela to make a sort of decision,

coupled with some sort of threat. Anxious to know the identity of BM, Gilbert
telephones Sissy Miller and demands to know who it is. Sissy reveals that it was
her brother, who committed suicide and Gilbert realizes that his wife Angela has
done the same thing.
Now, there are details that are worth highlighting. To begin it was pertinent that
Gilbert had a chance to read Angelas diaries to see how he had gotten lost in
his work and left Angela behind and she eventually found companionship
elsewhere. I found it very peculiar that even after her death and also reading
how he had emotionally abandoned her, he was still focused on himself and his
work. Additionally, the fact that while reading the diary he found himself
replaced by someone else, was the actual reason why he became that
obsessed and upset, above just knowing he was losing Angelas love and
affection, denoting a wounded male ego.
Overall, I believe when Gilbert found out about the emotional affair through
reading her diary, he still hasnt realized that he is self-absorbed and that his
wife was very unhappy. He had received his legacy and he didnt want to accept
the reality so that is why he resists to listen to any other explanations by Sissy
regarding Angela and his brothers affair.