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PARTISAN REVIEW
tendency to madness was acknowl edged, but onl y as a nuisance one
had to cope with , ra ther like ch roni c hay fever.
If
thi s was self–
deception , it was a useful , stra tegic self-decepti on whi ch enabled her
to
li ve a producti ve life. One can fi ght ex terna l socia l conditions and the
fi ght may be profita ble to o thers. On e can 't fi ght-o r couldn 't in the
yea rs before the war-a meta bo li c predi spos ition to psychos is. Far from
con sidering her madness the source of her depri va ti ons, she considered
it her chi ef compensa ti on , g iving her access to an underwo rld of
experi ence even more remo te from the tea la bl es of Brita in than were
the dance ha ll s of France o r the brothels of German y. It was h er ti cket
to chaos, her pass port out of the strangleho ld of ordinary percepti on .
As epil epsy was fo r Dos toevsky, madness was fo r Woo lf a quas i–
religio us experience, whi ch released her from the realm of the merely
ration a l and initiated her into th e sources of awe.
I would g ive a grea t dea l to know wha t her ha llucina ti ons in
madn ess were like. When the Devil appea red to Virginia Woo lf, what
shape did he take? In addition to passages in
Th e Voyage Out
and
Mrs.
Dalloway,
there arc glimpses, fru stra tingly meager. The docto rs and
nurses were in a conspiracy against h er. Her mother was in the
bedroom talking
to
her. T he birds san g to her in Greek. King Edward
sho uted obsceniti es, naked in the rhododendrons.
Doctors and nurses engaged in persecuti on , using magi cal, scien–
tifi c, or secret means to interfere with the pa ti ent 's body and mind, is a
typica l delusion of menta l pa ti ents, but surely onl y Virginia Woo lf in
her madness hea rd the birds sin ging in G reek. It seems a beni gn
eno ugh delu sion , a lmos t comi ca l, yet we know it must have a ppeared
to
Woolf sini ster, threa tening, a nd ho rrifi c. Were the Greek- speakin g
birds a kind of ca ba l, a cultura l set, a Cambridge-educa ted avi ary from
whi ch she was excluded and whi ch was mocking her? With the king,
the very symbo l of pa tri archa l a utho rity, the potenti a l fo r th rea t-the
threat o f ma le lust and ma le power-i s cl earer.
It
seems tha t the
o bsess io n with pa tri archa l tyrann y whi ch gave shape and meaning to
her conscious life penetra ted her unconscious as well. But wha t was her
mo ther say ing on tha t ho rribl e mo rning in 1915 when Virg ini a
suddenl y saw her by her bedside and began a nonstop res ponse? Was
she accusin g her of having wi shed her dea th ? Was Virgini a defending
herse lf? We know tha t to avo id hearing these vo ices, Virgini a Woolf
structured her life and fin a lly kill ed herse lf.
Yet madness taught her to know the self, in a li ena ti on and in
terror , and it taught her to o bserve, with sensuo us apprehen sio n , the
pass in g moment , unconn ected to o ther moments, leading now here, but
ba llooning palpabl y into a sp ace to be explored.
If
time becomes
