Feminist reinterpretation of female identity and agency in Virginia Woolf’s novels with emphasis on patriarchal resistance
Author(s): Bhavna
Publication #: 2605045
Date of Publication: 15.12.2025
Country: India
Pages: 1-8
Published In: Volume 11 Issue 6 December-2025
Abstract
The present study examined “Feminist Reinterpretation of Female Identity and Agency in Virginia Woolf’s Novels with Emphasis on Patriarchal Resistance.” The research focused on selected works of Virginia Woolf, particularly Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and A Room of One’s Own. The study explored how Woolf challenged patriarchal structures that limited women’s identity, creativity, education, emotional freedom, and intellectual independence. Through feminist literary analysis, the study found that Woolf did not present women as passive victims of male-dominated society. Instead, her female characters emerged as complex, self-aware, and resistant individuals who struggled to define their own identities within restrictive social systems. The analysis showed that female agency in Woolf’s fiction was expressed not only through direct rebellion but also through memory, silence, artistic creation, psychological awareness, gender fluidity, and intellectual self-expression. The study also highlighted Woolf’s modernist narrative techniques, such as stream of consciousness, interior monologue, fragmented time, and symbolic imagery, as important tools for representing women’s inner lives. The findings concluded that Woolf reinterpreted female identity as fluid, evolving, and resistant rather than fixed by patriarchal norms. Her works remain significant in feminist literary criticism because they expose the visible and invisible operations of patriarchy while imagining new possibilities for female freedom, creativity, and self-definition.
Keywords: Virginia Woolf, Feminism, Female Identity, Female Agency, Patriarchy, Patriarchal Resistance, Modernism
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