Critical Article

Jane Marcus’s article, ““In the Circle of the Lens”: Woolf’s “Telescope” Story, Scene-making and Memory, explores Virginia Woolf’s inspiration behind The Searchlight. Marcus’s article also examines other critical articles that have discussed the short story. Marcus reveals in the beginning that Woolf wrote in one of her diary entries that she had finally written a story that had been forming in her mind for the past ten years. Apparently, there were fourteen drafts written before the final draft! Marcus says that the manuscript was loosely based on the Isle of Wight where her great aunt and Alfred Tennyson lived in the mid nineteenth century. There are many discussions about when the final draft was published, and Marcus believes that Jane de Gay stopped the argument with her revelation that the last publication was in 1941. Marcus is interested in the differences of the two stories The Freshwater and The Searchlight. There are differences to the two texts that Marcus believes help to reveal how Woolf would set up scenes. Marcus is interested in the choices that Woolf made about what to keep and discard. She says her choices form “frames” that reveal the inner Woolf. Marcus thinks that by closely examining both texts much can be learned about Woolf’s narration style and choices. Woolf’s writing forms a series of scenes that generate from her own personal life and experiences. Her writing resembles a camera in the way that she can depict such vivid snapshots of life. Marcus shows how Woolf’s writing is closely linked with photography.

Marcus, Jane. "“In the Circle of the Lens”: Woolf’s “Telescope” Story, Scene-making and Memory." Journal of the Short Story in English 50 (2008): 1-13. Print.