Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown

“Most novelists have the same experience. Some Brown, Smith, or Jones comes before them and says in the most seductive and charming way in the world, ‘Come and catch me if you can.’ And so, led on by this will-o’-the-wisp, they flounder through volume after volume, spending the best years of their lives in the pursuit, and receiving for the most part very little cash in exchange. Few catch the phantom; most have to be content with a scrap of her dress or a wisp of her hair.”

Instead of stating her argument, Woolf tells stories and employs figurative language to convey her meaning. She uses direct quotation, giving her “characters” (who are only named in general terms as “Brown, Smith, or Jones”) a voice. She also uses metaphor to create an atmospheric sense that the character is elusive: they are described as a “will-o’-the-wisp” and a “phantom.” Character is not an abstract term but has substance with “a scrap of her dress or a wisp of her hair.”

“My first assertion is one that I think you will grant—that every one in this room is a judge of character. Indeed it would be impossible to live for a year without disaster unless one practised character-reading and had some skill in the art. Our marriages, our friendships depend on it; our business largely depends on it; every day questions arise which can only be solved by its help.”

Woolf employs rhetorical devices to persuade her audience. The passage begins, clearly and decisively with the announcement of her “first assertion,” which Woolf then explains through appeals to the reader’s experience and a list of three items: marriages, friendships, and business. This listing of three is a standard rhetorical device and perhaps reflects the fact that this essay was first delivered as a speech.

“But now I must recall what Mr. Arnold Bennett says. He says that it is only if the characters are real that the novel has any chance of surviving. Otherwise, die it must. But, I ask myself, what is reality? And who are the judges of reality?”

Woolf engages with Bennett’s argument that characters should be “real” and echoes his language of “surviving” or dying, language that raises the stakes of the discussion and makes it clear that Woolf considers it crucial.