How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
If things had been a little different from what they were, one would not have seen, presumably, a cat without a tail [...] something seemed lacking, something seemed different. (1.7)
A cat without a tail as an image for the world after World War I. Quite a choice. Does Woolf ever manage to tell us what the "something" might be that's different after the war? And does it twitch right before it pounces?
Quote #2
Was that what men hummed at luncheon parties before the war? And the women? [...] Was that what women hummed at luncheon parties before the war? (1.9)
We left out the poetry Woolf quotes here, by the way. Do you hum poetry at luncheon parties? No? Blame World War I.
Quote #3
When the guns fired in August 1914, did the faces of men and women show so plain in each other's eyes that romance was killed? (1.22)
Is romance an illusion? Can truth kill it? Is Woolf saying that we need romance in order to write well? And is part of "romance" the idea that men and women are fundamentally different?