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ANALYSIS ON THE NEW DRESS

by Virginia Woolf

(A Requirement in Literature 2: World Literature)

Submitted by:

ARNEL B. DITAN JR.

A.B. Political Science

Submitted to:

IRENE LARGO

Professor

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About the Author

An English novelist , critic, essayist, short story writer, diarist, autobiographer andbiographer

Was born in London on 25 January 1882, the 3rdof four children of Sir Leslie Stephenand Julia.

Virginia did not receive a formal education, but access to their fathers extensive libraryprovided a rich source for their private learning

Her life was not easy because her mother died early, her brothers and sisters as well In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf, a writer and socialist political figure A member of Bloomsbury Group Included of the circle of friends are:

John Maynard Keynes Clive Bell Lytton Strachey

Her famous works include the novels: To the Lighthouse Mrs. Dalloway A Haunted house An Unwritten Novel

Virginia had a subsequent mental breakdown since she was a child, despite her successes,Woolf feared the onslaught of another breakdown, from which she believed, it would be

impossible to recover and in 1941, she took her own life by drowning.

In her last note to her husband she wrote:I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of

those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can'tconcentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the

greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don'tthink two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any

longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you

will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is Iowe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and

incredibly good. I want to say that everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved

me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of yourgoodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have

been happier than we have been.

About the Story

Virginia Woolfs short story The New Dress was written in 1924. The story waspublished in the May 1927; it is about the feelings of a woman towards herself and her reaction

to the behaviors of others when they meet her. It is also about the agonies and human experience

in fashion. It was said that the author had ambivalent complex relationship with fashion.Meaning she gets a hard time of choosing what fashion that will fit on her. Probably, she wrote

this short story to put her feelings when she experience being criticize by others to her fashion.

Characters

Mabel Wari ng- A middle-aged woman with two children- Since she was a child, she has the feeling of

Inferiority to other people

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- She was invited in a social gathering. Mrs. Barnet

- Maidservant in the Dalloway household Clar issa Dal loway

- The hostess of the party that Mabel attends Mrs. Dalloway

-invited Mabel to the party Other guests in the party: Robert Haydon- try to cheer up Mabel but insincere way Rose Shawdressed in the height of the fashion Charles Bur tguest in the party that can change the life of Mabel Mrs. Holmanthe one share her family story and not detached to the

party