STREAM
OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
“… refers to a style of fiction that takes as its
subject the flow of thoughts, responses, and
sensations of one of more characters. A streamof-consciousness narrative is not structured as a
coherent, logical presentation of ideas. Rather, the
connections between ideas are associative, with
on idea suggesting another.
from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce)
“… and it was unjust and cruel and unfair. He could
not eat the blackish fish fritters they got on
Wednesdays in Lent and one of his potatoes had the
mark of the spade on it. Yes, he would do what the
fellows had told him. He would go up and tell the
rector that he had been wrongly punished. A thing
like that had been done before by somebody in
history …” (Chapter I)
A character’s stream of consciousness
is often expressed as an interior monologue, a record
of the total workings of the character’s mind and
emotions. An interior monologue may reveal the
inner experience of the character on many levels of
consciousness, often represented through a sequence
of images and impressions. “
from To the Lighthouse (Woolf)
“The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking
tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly,
and softly in the evening. Now—
James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the
white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight;
he could see that it was barred with black and
white; he could see windows in it; he could even
see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that
was the Lighthouse, was it?
No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For
nothing was simply one thing. The other
Lighthouse was true too.” (Chapter VIII)
from The Sound and the Fury(Faulkner)
Thinking it would be nice for them down at New
London if the weather held up like this. Why
shouldn’t it ? The month of brides, the voice that
breathed She ran right out of the mirror, out of
the banked scent. Roses. Roses. Mr. and Mrs.
Jason Richmond Compson announce the marriage
of. Roses. Not virgins like dogwood, milkweed. I
said I have committed incest, Father, I said. Roses.
Cunning and serene. If you attend Harvard one
year, but don’t see the boat-race,
there should be are fund. Let Jason have it. Give
Jason a year at Harvard.
Why?
What is consciousness?
Is the universe orderly … or chaotic?
What is the purpose of the novel?