Patriarchal Dominance in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves: A Study of the Female Characters

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze and clarify patriarchal dominance in the Victorian era as described by Virginia Woolf's three
novels, Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Waves (1930). Woolf revolts against the patriarchal behavior of
dominance that treats women as prisoners during that age. The view of the feminist approach is that women are portrayed as socially
and economically dependent in a society with male hegemony. Moreover, society has dealt with gender in a way that harms women into
which men are trained to believe that they are superior to them. Woolf declares her revolt against women as prisoners of reality. Woolf
stands against the popular image of her age _ the woman is devoted to be submissive to her husband. The female characters struggle
to free themselves from restraint, seeking purpose and agency in the world through interaction with men. Throughout the analysis of
female characters, Woolf contested the inferior situation of women in the Victorian age. The female characters' words, speeches, and
interior monologues reveal that their pain, sadness and loneliness are because of the patriarchal dominancy.