The Legacy

Modernism in “The Legacy”

(1944)

Maria Sabbah

Sally Shouman

2018

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This story is a work of Virginia Woolf, the editor of the Little Review.  The review published
was published in 1994 which is in the 20th century. This research includes how women were
treated. All education students can benefit from the research because of the concepts that are
discussed in it. The concepts discussed behind this paper are women who are seeking for their
liberty and trying to eliminate the patriarchal society.

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I. Introduction

Virginia Woolf was considered as an important English modernist author. She was the
pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness which is a method that depicts the thoughts and
feelings that pass through the mind.

The Legacy by Virginia Woolf is a short story about a woman who left her diaries for her
husband before she commits suicide. Angela was a good wife and a helpful person. Her
husband used to care about his work more than to her that let her pen down her feelings into a
set of 15 volumes of diary. Because of this marriage, she became unhappy and wishes to die.
This single scene story is based on the aftermath of her death when her husband finds the
diaries, starts to read them and discover something that shakes him up.

One day, Gilbert found a brooch marked with the name of sissy miller in his wife’s
belongings. Angela must have known about her death. She had left a token of affection for all
of her friends and for him her diaries. She was unwilling to show him how she felt, so after
her death she left them with his name on it, as her legacy. Gilbert read some pages in the
diaries. Angela wrote every single detail in each day of her life, and also wrote everything
about Gilbert’s life. While he was reading, Sissy arrives and gave her the gift from Angela
inquiring if she needs any help financially. Then he started reading about B.M. This B.M
seems to have a highly dramatic effect on Angela’s life. She also cheated on him, which hurt
his ego. B.M turned out to be Sissy’s brother and had died in an accident two weeks ago.
Realizing that Angela had an affair with B.M, she committed suicide to be with her love
(B.M).

Modernism is depicted in Virginia Woolf story “The Legacy” through the discussion of
“Feminism”.

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Discussion:

Feminism in the 20th century transformed women’s life. This movement emphasized the
advocacy of equal rights and rising generation of female artists, photographers (…) by trying
to eliminate the idea of Patriarchal society where men dominate. At this period, women were
tightly closed to the domestic sphere while public life was reserved for men. Too many
writers talked about Feminism in their writings.

Modernism in the Plot

The movement of Feminism in “the legacy” was present. It tackles the relationship between
husband and wife from the point of view of gender’s inequality, women’s right and identity. It
discusses women’s position and unhappy marriage. The Legacy points out how women during
this period were imprisoned by men. They weren’t free.

The action takes place in Angela and Gilbert’s house after the death of Gilbert’s wife. It was 6
weeks after Angela’s death.

Concerning the plot, it’s often listed as one of the fundamental elements of fiction. The plot
starts with the exposition where Gilbert after the death of his wife “Angela”, gives his wife’s
gift to Sissy Miler (Angela’s secretary) and starts to read the diary.

It develops through the rising action which its purpose is to build suspense all the way up the
climatic finish. The rising action appears when Gilbert realizes that there was less about him
in his wife’s diaries, and the mention of a man, called B.M, appears several times. It shocked
and infuriated him.

The story continues to show us the climax which is the moment of recognition for the main
character. Gilbert discovers the truth about his wife’s death (she didn’t get hit by a car and
died by accident) and that he didn’t know that his wife wasn’t happy with him.

Later on, the story shows us the falling action that leads up to the denouement. It appears
when Gilbert knows who B.M is and what the relationship between B.M and his wife is.

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Finally the story ends with the denouement that shows us that Gilbert knows the truth of her
wife’s decease. She died because she wanted to rejoin her lover (B.M) and escape from him.
He understands that his legacy is the truth.

Modernism appears in the story through Angela’s thoughts that are written in the diaries. We
can see that her diaries give us an overview into her life and reveal the complexities of her
own concerns as a woman trapped in a marriage where her role is just to serve and be beside
her husband.

Angela’s internal conflict appears when she starts to love B.M secretly. She doesn’t want to
divorce and to go live with B.M. she commits suicide because of him. During the modern age,
the idea of divorce was rejected. In addition to that, Angela’s external conflict was with the
environment. She can’t reveal her secret because Gilbert is a famous politician. Modernism
was characterized by the importance of a person’s reputation. It’s important to value Gilbert’s
reputation and position because he is a politician.

Stream of consciousness is present in the story when long passages appears in Angela’s
diaries and shows us her thoughts, memories and feelings. Virginia Woolf insists in the story
on the importance of Angela’s thoughts. Angela wanted show her husband that she wasn’t
happy and that she was deprived from liberty.

Modernism in the Characterization

Gilbert: He is an arrogant and patriarchal person. Reading his wife’s diaries faced him
with the reality. While he was reading the diaries, we have seen that he is a self-
centered person. He thinks that he is not like other man (very distinguished man). We
can notice that he sees himself as more superior than his wife because he thinks that
Angela’s conversation is unintelligent “If only she had discussed the matter with him,
instead of puzzling her poor little head about questions that were much too difficult for
her to understand” (Woolf, 1944) He describes her physically so we can say that
physical beauty is important. He is insensitive to what happened to his marriage and
his wife. We can see that his political success and his upper-class position has made
him scornful of others and increased in him self-importance.

Angela: Throughout the story we have discover that she has a relationship with another
man because Gilbert was absorbed in his work. She didn’t want to tell the truth to her

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husband because she knows that what she has done is wrong. She tries to respect his
position as a politician man. In addition to that, she’s a woman who is seeking for her
liberty. She doesn’t want to be controlled by her husband. She wants revenge because
she was disappointed by her husband, so she killed herself. Although she wanted to
escape from him, she acted as a helper by reinforcing his ego and his vanity. According
to her, her diaries were sources of truth and self-revelation.

B.M: he’s from a lower class. He has lot of features of a communist or a socialist. We
can observe that he is an obsessive lover because he wants that Angela divorce Gilbert.
He threatened her. he is narrow-minded. At the end of the story, he can’t stand waiting
Angela so he decides to commit suicide.

Sissy miller: we can notice that she is upset because her brother and Angela, her boss
and best friend, are gone. Her appearance is not distinguishing. She’s silent,
trustworthy. She is an independent woman because she said that she can handle herself
without any help from Gilbert.

Modernism in the Themes

According to the themes in the story, we have ego, jealousy, feminism (gender roles/identity),
troubled marriage and the heritage.

Throughout the story the theme of ego (idea/opinion of yourself and feelings of your own
importance) appears. Gilbert is focused on himself than on others, especially on his wife. He
realized this when he read Angela’s diaries. Angela wrote many events in her diaries. Once he
read them, he started to think about his behaviors. As we noticed in the story, the most
important person in Gilbert’s life is himself. Gilbert was self-centered and it’s shown when he
was thinking about Sissy’s offer of assistance as she was in love with him. In addition to that,
the theme of ego is emphasized to the reader when Gilbert looks at himself in the mirror and
discovered that he is a “very distinguished looking man”. All of these suggest that he isn’t
able to exclude his own ego from a situation.

Jealousy appears in the middle of the story when he sees B.M’s name regularly in Angela’s
diaries. Gilbert feels threatened by B.M and Angela because they had a relationship. Gilbert
and B.M are two different characters. Gilbert is a Member of Parliament and comes from an
upper class. He sees himself better than others and he lacks any ability to think how others

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may live their lives. Whereas B.M is a socialist and he appears to be cut from another type of
cloth. He is from a lower class.

Virginia Woolf introduces feminism or gender roles/ identity as something that can be
challenged in her story. Angela doesn’t accept to depend on her husband. She seeks her own
social, economic, and educational independence. She is challenging the fact of being a female
in a patriarchal society by not accepting to be a domestic wife. She takes the chance and talk
to her husband saying that she wants to work and help others. He ironically says by ridiculing
her that she “had enough looking after him, after her home”. (Woolf, 1944) He mocks from
her work. Moreover, feminism appears in the story through the character of Gilbert who
considers his wife just as a person who should take care of her husband and serves him.
Woolf is highlighting how men see their roles in society as being superior to women. So
Angela tries to remove the image of Patriarchal society that prevents women from having
their liberty. She takes her own decisions and decides to go with B.M. She establishes her
own identity. In addition to that, Angela doesn’t depend on her husband.

The most important theme in “The Legacy” is troubled marriage. It can lead to loneliness that
causes death. In this story, Angela didn’t have a good marriage and this destroyed her
personal life. Because of her husband’s careless who was addicted to his work, Angela has a
discreet relationship with B.M. Angela was feeling that she’s alone and that Gilbert doesn’t
love her, because he was very focused on his work. B.M’s love satisfied her and she was
happy because her husband wasn’t able to make her happy.

The focus theme on Woolf’s story is the heritage. It was the recognition of Angela to her
husband by giving Gilbert her diaries. The heritage was the 15 volumes of diaries written by
Angela to Gilbert. By reading the diaries, the author was trying to open Gilbert’s mind and to
explore Angela’s feelings. Virginia wool explains the meaning of heritage by those diaries
that became valuable because of its content and the change of a character’s mind.

Modernism in the Style

The use of language emphasizes the themes of the story and its meaning.

There is symbolism that appears through the diaries written by Angela. The diaries are the
symbols that show us a description from Gilbert’s point of view. Those diaries have a
meaning and show us a secret that Angela has hidden from her husband. Moreover, the diaries

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are her legacy. It represents Angela’s voice and it’s an act of disobedience since she never
allowed Gilbert to read her diaries before.

Lots of irony appears in the story:

- The first one starts when Gilbert thinks that Angela is responsible and that he can trust
her. She says everything about her life, but he discovers that she has got a secret. So
she deceives her husband and he didn’t discover it until he read the legacy.
- Second, in her first diary, she said that how proud she is to be Gilbert’s wife and how
handsome he is. At the end, she deceives him by leaving him. She wanted to escape
from him to go with B.M, her love.
- Gilbert is a politician from an upper life. He describes himself a being superior to
others, especially from persons who are not in his same class, like B.M, he looks at
them in a negative way. The irony appears here when Gilbert discovers that his wife
has a relationship with a person from a lower class. He didn’t know what his wife was
thinking or doing until he discovers the truth through the diaries.

In conclusion, Woolf in her story calls for the freedom of married women in order to achieve
their liberty. Virginia Woolf is trying to represent women by overcoming the idea of
patriarchal society and moving from them through Angela’s diaries. She tries to write
intellectually and to refuse to be victim of men’s world. Finally, this story shows how the
norms of the society forbid Angela to abandon her husband for her lover. Virginia represents
women by the ability and desire to make their own life in their way.

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References:
Wool. V. 2015. The Legacy. Retrieved from http://sittingbee.com/the-legacy-virginia-woolf/

Woolf. V. 2014 Retrieved from

http://lang8.com/801212/journals/158038130314444084347374415148420669028

Woolf. V. Retrieved from https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Same-Theme-Different-

Development-in-of-Virginia-P3VVPC84C8BRS

Woolf. V. The legacy Retrieved from

https://www.academia.edu/17951410/The_legacy_by_virginia_woolf_character_analyses

 Woolf. V. 2017. Retrieved from

https://www.merrygoreviews.com/singlepost/2017/04/26/Review---The-Legacy-by-Virginia-
Woolf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_criticism

Woolf. V. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.lb/books?

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