Solid Objects Virginia Woolf Essay Example for Free

Solid Objects Virginia Woolf EssayVirginia Woolf The only thing that moved upon the vast semicircle of the beach was whiz sm on the whole(prenominal) black spot. As it came nearer to the ribs and spine of the stranded pilchard boat, it became unmistakable from a certain tenuity in its blackness that this spot possessed quatern legs and moment by moment it became much unmistakable that it was composed of the persons of two young men. Even thus in insinu take in once morest the sand in that respect was an unmistakable vitality in them an indescribable vigour in the approach and withdrawal of the bodies, slight though it was, which proclaimed some violent argument issuing from the tiny m byhs of the be weenydr polish up heads. This was corroborated on closer view by the repeated lunging of a walkingstick on the right(a) hatful side. You mean to tell me . . . You actually believe . . . thus the walkingstick on the righthand side next the waves seemed to be asserting as it cut long straight stripes upon the sand. politics be unholy issued clearly from the body on the lefthand side, and, as these words were uttered, the m come inhs, noses, chins, little moustaches, tweed caps, rough boots, shooting coats, and check stockings of the two speakers became clearer and clearer the smoke of their pipes went up into the air nothing was so solid, so living, so hard, red, hirsute and virile as these two bodies for miles and miles of sea and sandhill.They flung themselves spate by the half a dozen ribs and spine of the black pilchard boat. You know how the body seems to shake itself free from an argument, and to apologize for a humour of exaltation flinging itself down and expressing in the looseness of its attitude a readiness to take up with something nakedwhatever it may be that comes next to hand. So Charles, whose stick had been slashing the beach for half a mile or so, began skimming flat establishs of slate over the water and toilette, who had ex claimed Politics be damned began burrowing his fingers down, down, into the sand. As his hand went further and further beyond the wrist, so that he had to hitch his sleeve a little high gearer, his eye lost their intensity, or rather the backg fat of thought and experience which piddles an inscrutable astuteness to the eyeball of grown people disappeared, leaving only the clear transparent surface, expressing nothing but interview, which the eyeball of young children display. No incertitude the act of burrowing in the sand had something to do with it. He remembered that, after archeological site for a little, the water oozes round your fingertips the hole then becomes a moat a tumesce a spring a secret channel to the sea.As he was choosing which of these things to make it, comfort workings his fingers in the water, they curled round something harda full drop of solid matterand little by little dislodged a large irregular hood, and brought it to the surface. When the san d coating was wiped kill, a green tint appeared. It was a lump of glass, so thick as to be close to opaque the smoothing of the sea had completely worn off any edge or shape, so that it was impossible to say whether it had been bottle, tumbler or window back breaker it was nothing but glass it was almost a precious stone. You had only to enclose it in a rim of gold, or pierce it with a wire, and it became a jewel part of a necklace, or a dull, green light upon a finger. Perhaps after all it was really a gem something worn by a dark Princess trailing her finger in the water as she sat in the stern of the boat and listened to the slaves singing as they rowed her across the Bay. Or the oak sides of a sunk Elizabethan treasurechest had split apart, and, rolled over and over, over and over, itsemeralds had come at last to shore. John turned it in his hands he held it to the light he held it so that its irregular mass blotted out the body and extended right arm of his friend. The green thinned and thickened slightly as it was held against the slash or against the body. It pleased him it puzzled him it was so hard, so concentrated, so definite an object compared with the vague sea and the hazy shore. Now a sigh disturbed himpro plunge, final, making him aware that his friend Charles had thrown all the flat stones within reach, or had come to the conclusion that it was not price while to throw them. They ate their sandwiches side by side. When they had done, and were shaking themselves and rising to their feet, John excessivelyk the lump of glass and looked at it in silence. Charles looked at it too.But he saw immediately that it was not flat, and filling his pipe he said with the vital force that dismisses a foolish strain of thought To return to what I was byword He did not see, or if he had seen would hardly have noticed, that John, after looking at the lump for a moment, as if in hesitation, slipped it inside his pocket. That impulse, too, may have been the impulse which leads a child to pick up one pebble on a path strewn with them, promising it a life of warmth and security upon the nursery mantelpiece, delighting in the sense experience of power and benignity which such an action confers, and believing that the heart of the stone leaps with joy when it sees itself chosen from amillion standardized it, to enjoy this bliss instead of a life of cold and wet upon the high road.It might so easily have been any other of the millions of stones, but it was I, I, I Whether this thought or not was in Johns mind, the lump of glass had its place upon the mantelpiece, where it stood heavy upon a little pile of bills and letters and served not only as an excellent paperweight, but also as a natural stopping place for the young mans eyes when they wandered from his book. Looked at again and again half consciously by a mind thinking of something else, any object mixes itself so profoundly with the stuff of thought that it loses its actual form and recomposes itself a little differently in an nonpareil shape which haunts the brain when we least expect it.So John found himself attracted to the windows of curiosity shops when he was out walking, merely because he saw something which reminded him of the lump of glass. Anything, so long as it was an object of some kind, more or less round, perhaps with a dying flame deep sunk in its mass, anythingmainland China, glass, amber, rock, marbleeven the smooth oval egg of a prehistoric bird would do. He took, also, to keeping his eyes upon the ground, especially in the neighbourhood of waste land where the household refuse is thrown away. Such objects frequently occurred therethrown away, of no use to anybody, shapeless, discarded. In a few months he had collected four or five specimens that took their place upon the mantelpiece. They were useful, too, for a man who is standing for Parliament upon the brink of a lifelike life has any number of papers to keep in orderaddresses to c onstituents, declarations of policy, appeals for subscriptions, invitations to dinner, and so on. One day, offset from his rooms in the Temple to catch a train in order to address his constituents, his eyes rested upon a remarkable object lying halfhidden in one of thoselittle borders of grass which edge the bases of vast legal buildings. He could only touch it with the point of his stick done the railings but he could see that it was a piece of china of the most remarkable shape, as more or less resembling a starfish as anything shaped, or broken accidentally, into five irregular but unmistakable points. The coloring material was mainly blue, but green stripes or spots of some kind overlaid the blue, and lines of crimson gave it a richness and lustre of the most attractive kind. John was determined to possess it but the more he pushed, the further it receded. Atlength he was forced to go back to his rooms and improvise a wire ring attached to the end of a stick, with which, by dint of great care and skill, he in the long run drew the piece of china within reach of his hands. As he seized hold of it he exclaimed in triumph. At that moment the clock struck. It was out of the question that he should keep his appointment. The meeting was held without him.But how had the piece of china been broken into this remarkable shape? A careful examination put it beyond doubt that the star shape was accidental, which made it all the more strange, and it seemed unlikely that there should be another such in existence. Set at the opposite end of the mantelpiece from the lump of glass that had been dug from the sand, it looked like a creature from another worldfreakish and fantastic as a harlequin. It seemed to be pirouetting done space, winking light like a fitful star. The contrast between the china so intense and alert, and the glass so mute and contemplative, fascinated him, and wondering and amazed he asked himself how the two came to exist in the uniform world, le t alone to stand upon the same narrow strip of marble in the same room.The question remained unanswered. He now began to haunt the places which are most prolific of broken china, such as pieces of waste land between railway lines, sites of demolished houses, and commons in the neighbourhood of London. But china is seldom thrown from a great height it is one of the rarest of human actions. You have to convalesce in conjunction a very high house, and a woman of such reckless impulse and passionate prejudice that she flings her jar or pot straight from the window without thought of who is below. Broken china was to be found in plenty, but broken in some trifling domestic accident, without purpose or character. Nevertheless, he was often astonished as he came to go into the question more deeply, by the spacious variety of shapes to be found in London alone, and there was still more cause for wonder and speculation in the differences of qualities and designs. The finest specimens he wo uld bring home and place upon his mantelpiece, where, however, their duty was more and more of an cosmetic nature, since papers needing a weight to keep them down became scarcer and scarcer.He neglected his duties, perhaps, or discharged them obliviousmindedly, or his constituents when they visited him were unfavourably impressed by the appearance of his mantelpiece. At any rate he was not elected to represent them in Parliament, and his friend Charles, taking itmuch to heart and hurrying to condole with him, found him so little cast down by the disaster that he could only suppose that it was too serious a matter for him to realize all at once. In loyalty, John had been that day to Barnes Common, and there under a furze bush had found a very remarkable piece of iron. It was almost identical with the glass in shape, massy and globular, but so cold and heavy, so black and metallic, that it was evidentlyalien to the earth and had its line of business in one of the dead stars or was itself the cinder of a moon.It weighed his pocket down it weighed the mantelpiece down it radiated cold. And yet the meteorite stood upon the same ledge with the lump of glass and the star shaped china. As his eyes passed from one to another, the determination to possess objects that even surpassed these tormented the young man. He devoted himself more and more decisively to the search. If he had not been consumed by ambition and convinced that one day some newly discover rubbish heap would reward him, the disappointments he had suffered, let alone the fatigue and derision, would have made him give up the pursuit. Provided with a bag and a long stick fitted with an adaptable hook, he ransacked all deposits of earth raked beneath matted tangles of scrub searched all alleys and spaces between walls where he had learned to expect to find objects of this kind thrown away. As his standard became higher and his taste more severe the disappointments were innumerable, but incessantly some gleam of hope, some piece of china or glass curiously marked or broken lured him on. Day after day passed.He was no longer young. His careerthat is his political careerwas a thing of the past. People gave up visiting him. He was too silent to be worth asking to dinner. He never talked to anyone about his serious ambitions their lack of understanding was apparent in their behaviour. He leaned back in his chair now and watched Charles lift the stones on the mantelpiece a dozen propagation and put them down emphatically to mark what he was saying about the conduct of the Government, without once noticing their existence. What was the truth of it, John? asked Charles suddenly, turning and facing him. What made you give it up like that all in a second? Ive not given it up, John replied. But youve not the ghost of a receive now, said Charles roughly. I dont agree with you there, said John with conviction. Charles looked at him and was profoundly anxious the most extraordinary doubts po ssessed him he had aqueer sense that they were talking about different things. He looked round to find some relief for his horrible depression, but the disorderly appearance of the room depressed him still further.What was that stick, and the old carpet bag hanging against the wall? And then those stones? Looking at John, something fixed and yon in his expression alarmed him. He knew only too well that his mere appearance upon a platform was out of the question. Pretty stones, he said as cheerfully as he could and saying that he had an appointment to keep, he left Johnfor ever.