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The purpose of this paper is to explore Virginia Woolf’s “The Mark on the Wall”(1917) for its connection not only to the writer's own personality, but also to the changing circumstances of the times. The latter’s examples are notably seen in the emergence of both psychoanalysis and Post-Impressionism as well as the effects of World War I(1914-18). In particular, I would like to investigate as to what the short story’s title suggests.
There is something psychologically and aesthetically interesting about “The Mark on the
Wall.” The title evokes both the Rorschach inkblot test and Leonardo da Vinci’s theory of painting. Interpretation of inkblots had been the subject of much attention since before Hermann Rorschach. It was this Swiss psychiatrist, Woolf’s contemporary, who developed a systematic approach to using inkblots and devised the inkblot test. In 1921 he published Psychodiagnostik, which was to form the basis of the inkblot test. Leonardo da Vinci also described his theory of painting to his disciples using the idea of what a mark on the wall looks like. Interestingly, the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud analyzed Leonardo da Vinci and published “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”(1910) preceding Woolf’s “The Mark on the Wall.” In her “The Modern Essay”(1925), Woolf highly estimated Walter Pater, both critic and author, for his “Notes on Leonardo da Vinci”(1869). Before writing “The Mark on the Wall,” Woolf must have been aware of Freud because his work had already been introduced to England in pre-World War I days. Her husband Leonard wrote a review of Freud’s The Psychopathology of Everyday Life in 1914, but according to Woolf, she herself had not read Freud’s works at that time. However, these developments occurring at the same time is an intriguing coincidence that should be noted.
One further important point is that what initially appears to be a mark on the wall finally turns out to be a physical snail. This mundane creature, which can be seen in daily life, plays an important role in “The Mark on the Wall,” although it appears only once at the very end. A snail is biologically a hermaphrodite, an organism that secretes its own protective shell. Since these features are directly related to Woolf’s favored “soul,” “creativity,” “peace” and “androgyny,” it is likely that a snail was purposely placed at the end of a series of associations, as an essential part of the work.
Research papers (academic journals)
