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Example research essay topic: Mysticism In A Room Of One Part 2 - 1,851 words

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... knowledge or belief are gained by an act or process akin to feeling or faith and it adds: The doctrine of the Mystics, who professed a pure, sublime, and wholly disinterested devotion, and maintained that they had direct intercourse with the divine Spirit, and acquired a knowledge of God and of spiritual things unattainable by the natural intellect, and such as can not be analyzed or explained (Brainy Enciclopedia. com) As we read Virginias essay, we realize that its filled with mystical experiences. Right at the beginning, in Chapter 1, where Virginia finds itself sitting on the rivers shore when being confronted by the cat without tale. Normally, person whos not inclined to give mystical interpretation to various everyday occurrences, wouldve probably ignored that cat altogether, but not Virginia a lady whos being bored with her daily academic routine and who thinks of herself as visionary of some kind: The sight of that abrupt and truncated animal padding softly across the quadrangle changed by some fluke of the subconscious intelligence the emotional light for me.

It was as if someone had let fall a shade I watched the Manx cat pause in the middle of the lawn as if it too questioned the universe, something seemed lacking, something seemed different. But what was lacking, what was different (Woolf, Ch. 1). We clearly see Virginia attaching a far more importance to meeting this cat then there really wasnt. Such attitude towards seemingly unimportant daily experiences is very usual among people who suffer slight forms of schizophrenia.

There is no doubt that Virginia probably thought of this cat as an omen and it prompted her to come to certain conclusions of universal magnitude. In this respect, it appears very likely that if wind had brought a piece of paper to Virginias feet, shed also think of it as having a deep meaning. Peter Buckley, in his Mystical Experience and Schizophrenia draws a very strong connection between two states of mind: The appearance of a powerful sense of noesis, heightening of perception, feelings of 'communion' with the 'divine', and the exultation may be common to both mysticism and schizophrenia (Buckley, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7; 1981. p. 517). There are strong ties can be found between Wolfs mystical experiences and certain Buddhist teachings. A few times, throughout her essay she hints of her belief in concept of reincarnation: There are the people, I feel, among whom Shakespeare will be born if he is ever born again (Woolf, Ch. 5) It appears that Virginia was well familiar with concepts of Rudolf Shteiners Theosophic Society, which used to enjoy an enormous popularity among intellectual elite at the time.

Steiner has developed teachings of Madam Blavatsky, with her notion of powerful but secret forces behind political and social events that only those who are worthy can get to know. Apparently, Virginia was a very idealistic person and she needed to find a way to apply its subconscious belief in supernatural. Many people at the that time felt just the same way, but they could find a religion that would correspond to their inner drives. Christian concept has been effectively destroyed by Nietszhe and latest scientific discoveries, yet people refused to turn materialistic, so it resulted in immense popularity of various para-religious and occultist doctrines at the beginning of twentieth century. Virginia was also subjected to their influence. Later in her essay, Virginia let us understand that her perception of nature is very mystical as well: A single leaf detached itself from the plane tree at the end of the street, and in that pause and suspension fell.

Somehow it was like a signal falling, a signal pointing to a force in things, which one had overlooked. It seemed to point to a river, which flowed past, invisibly, round the corner, down the street, and took people and eddied them along, as the stream at Oxbridge had taken the undergraduate in his boat and the dead leaves (Woolf, Ch. 6). We can now say that Virginias mystical perception of nature very closely resembles a literature method, called Symbolism, which was very popular at the time in Europe. Just as Virginia, symbolists strived to find a greater reason behind everything. Having assumed that supernatural causes are behind all of the events, they used to attach a great importance to their manifestations. We cant really refer to Virginia as religious person, as intellect and religion cancel each other out, yet there is no doubt that Virginia was a spiritual person.

Again and again she demonstrates her belief in reincarnation and karma, when referring to an imaginary Shakespeare's sister, who never wrote anything great but always had a potential of doing so, Virginia says: Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh (Woolf, Ch. 6). It wouldnt be too daring to suggest that Virginia probably thought of herself as Shakespeare's sister, reincarnated in twentieth century. If we to assume this then itll become obvious that Virginia strived for nothing less that beginning of a new era, when women geniuses will be universally recognized as equal to man.

If this is the case, than we need to recognize the fact that Virginia has failed its own objective we think of her as talented writer, but not a genius. Womens emancipation movement that had especially gained momentum in sixties, has never produced a female writer of poet or composer that would gain a universal recognition, although it shouldve happened as women became equally treated in modern Western society. Schizophrenia and mysticism have similar qualities yet they are not the same thing. But how do we distinguish one from another? If one claims to have been in touch with divine it wouldnt be right to disregard such claim out of hand.

Still, when there is a suggested supernatural manifestation, it always seems to come as an instruction or message or revelation of some sort that has to do with how person will act in real life, after having received such revelation. In another words, mystical revelations suppose to elevate the worthy individual over the crowd by enabling this individual to have information, to which others dont have the access. Person with such information will inevitably prove to be superior to others, as there are powerful forces behind him. Yet, if person claims to have a mystical experiences, but they dont enable such person to prove it on practical level chances are that we deal with a case of disillusionment, if not worse I seem already to have lived many thousand years (Woolf, Ch. 6) says Virginia in the last chapter of her essay. Some scholars say that the reason for Virginia Wolf to be engaged in mysticism is that she used to be terribly afraid of death.

The Christianity could no longer comfort Virginia without insulting her intelligence, so she accepted Buddhist ideas of reincarnation, making herself to believe in it by adopting a mystical outlook on life. 3. To conclude this, we can say that Virginias engagement in in Mysticism comes as something very natural in her work. The room of ones own was being conceived as an argumentative and literature piece in one. But it appears that its fiction attributes come at much greater value in this essay.

Given the nature of argument, womens equality with men would be much more effectively argued in form of a journalist article. Yet Woolf chooses another form to lay down her argument. She also makes reading of her masterpiece as difficult as possible. It is clearly an elitist kind of literature that only so many people might be interested in reading. Mystical aspects of her logic seem to get it even more tangled. It looks like Virginias need to make her essay to be engaged in mysticism, only comes as a result of her inner insecurity about her argument.

Comparing to her other writings, The room of ones own seem to have a mysticism as a supplement. By 1929 Woolf wasnt quite as enthusiastic about validity of her supernatural experiences, yet it appears that she tried to cultivate this feeling artificially. In our present time Modernism in literature has lost much of its positions, but mystical motives resurfaced now in what we call a New Age literature. Oddly enough, New Age philosophy is tightly associated with feminism.

Apparently, mysticism appeals to very core of womens nature. Virginia Woolf inside that it is possible to write in androgynous manner, while retaining the quality of produced fiction pieces. Yet while saying that, she contradicts her own thesis that womens and mens cultural values are different. The unisex approach to writing fiction will result in mediocrity as best. The best proof of that is the fact that writers, men and women, who had deployed Woolf's principles in writing their books, never gained much popularity. Substituting reason with mysticism will lead to situation when classical structure of every fiction book might be dropped as gender biased.

There is certain degree of self discipline is to be applied when it comes to creative process. In Virginias opinion every rule and every element of heroic vision of literature must be effectively disposed of for the sake of security. Yet it doesnt take a scientist to realize that overall quality of literature will me lowered if we were to mix these principles. Even though that The room of ones own claims to be counted among great philosophical works of twentieth century, I think it is to be forgotten in very near future. Woolf's essay doesnt appeal to women because its overly engaged in logic and it also doesnt appeal to men because of being overly engaged in mysticism. These are two things that cant be combined.

Virginia Woolf went a long way, trying to convince us in validity of her point. Yet, this simple rule seems to have skipped her attention. Nevertheless, Woolf's works need to be studied, as they have value for the History of English Literature. Bibliography: Buckley, Peter. "Mystical Experience and Schizophrenia. " Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7; 1981: 516 - 521 Blavatsky, H. P.

The Key to Theosophy. 1889. Abr. Ed. Joy Mills. Wheaton, Illinois: Theosophical, 1972... Bell, Quentin.

Virginia Woolf: A Biography. 2 vols. New York: Harcourt, 1972 Deikman. A. "Bimodal Consciousness and the Mystic Experience. " Understanding Mysticism. Image Books: Garden City, 1980 Maslow, Abraham. "Religious Aspects of peak-experiences. " Personality and Religion. Harper & Row: New York, 1970 Schizophrenia. Brainy Encyclopedia.

web 17. 09. 04. Stahlman, Sandra. The Relationship Between Schizophrenia & Mysticism A Bibliographic Essay web 17. 09. 04 James, William. "A Suggestion about Mysticism. " Understanding Mysticism. Image Books: Garden City, 1980 Veininger, Otto. Character and Gender web 16. 09. 04 Woolf, Virginia. A room of one's own web


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Research essay sample on Mysticism In A Room Of One Part 2

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