ABSTRACT
Virginia Woolf is an outstanding writer in the 20th century, and her main contribution to the literature in that period is her renewing of techniques for novel writing, especially her development of writing techniques of stream-of-consciousness novels. This paper first makes an introduction of the stream of consciousness novel .It then discusses Virginia Woolf’s theory about novels, particularly her concept of character portraying on the basis of former scholars’ research , and points out that Woolf’s theory about character portraying is new and a challenge to the tradition. It finally discusses deep about the techniques that used in her mature stream of consciousness work Mrs. Dalloway when portraying characters, including indirect interior monologue, shift of perspectives, symbolic imagery, and some cinematic devices and the unity of structure, together with a summery of Woolf’s contribution towards modern fiction through her technical innovation in her stream of consciousness novels.
Keywords：characterization; interior monologue; shift of perspective;
symbolic imagery
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Virginia Woolf’s view on characterization 2
3. Techniques of characterization in Mrs. Dalloway 3
3.1 Indirect interior monologue 3
3.2 The shift of perspective 4
3.3 Symbolic imagery 5
3.4 Cinematic devices 6
3.5 The unity in the structure 8
4. Virginia Woolf’s major contribution to modern fiction 9
4.1 Intricate crisscrossing patterns 9
4.2 Multiple-level mode of characterization 9
4.3 Unique techniques 9
5. Conclusion 10
Acknowledgements 11
References 12
