![]() One could claim that although Mabel is the sole point of view in this story, she has two separate focalizations. This being said, it is quite noticeable that dramatic shifts periodically take place in the orientation of the narration. Barnet’s innocent gesture as a marked insinuation of her inadequate appearance. It is Mabel’s self-conscious feelings that lead her to perceive Mrs. Barnet, handing her the mirror and touching the brushes and thus drawing her attention, perhaps rather markedly, to all the appliances for tidying and improving hair, complexion, clothes”. One of these is noticeable at the very beginning of the story: “Mrs. This may be established with various examples, in which people’s actions and words are interpreted in a manner that corresponds with Mabel’s feelings. ![]() Because of this, it is possible to have third person narration but internal focalization, as Rimmon-Kenan explains: “In so-called ‘third person centre of consciousness’ the centre of consciousness (or ‘reflector’) is the focalizer, while the user of the third person is the narrator.” This is the case in “The New Dress”, as the entire story is narrated in third person, but it is quite clear that the focalization is that of Mabel’s the whole way through. According to Rimmon-Kenan, focalization is a literary construct separate from narration, as “speaking and seeing, narration and focalization, may, but need not, be attributed to the same agent”. ![]() This multiplicity is impressively illustrated through representation of speech and focalization in the story, both of which are the focus of this paper.Īs both of these literary concepts are not uniformly characterized by all literary researchers, my arguments regarding focalization and speech representation will rely on Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan’s definitions of these in her book Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. By symbolically dressing the heroine, Mabel, in different articles of clothing, Woolf conveys the multiplicity of personality. Through this story, Woolf explores the fragmented and fluid nature of human consciousness and the complex relations with its surroundings. ![]() Mabel bewails her decision to wear her new, tailored yellow dress while reproaching herself for her “vacillating character” and inability for authenticity. Woolf’s short story “The New Dress” depicts a self-conscious heroine, Mabel Waring, as she attends a party hosted by Clarissa Dalloway. ![]()
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