Solid Objects is a short story written by Virginia Woolf. I have read enough of Woolf’s work now to pick up any story of hers without hesitation. Solid Objects follows the story of John, who finds a piece of glass in the sand one day and becomes obsessed with collecting and finding similar objects.
John finds a piece of glass in the sand one day. This leads to him obsessively searching for pieces of glass, china, and iron on beaches or around London. Though he says he is disinterested in politics at the beginning of the story, he enters the Parliament. However, he is more interested in collecting objects and displaying them in his house than in his career or even his life.
In the beginning, John and his friend Charles are talking on the beach, and everything seems normal. Then, John starts digging up the sand. John believes that these objects he collects will bring him some miracle, and they might turn out to be very valuable. In his drive to collect things, he removes himself from his career and society. He spends most of his time wandering around, collecting objects. Towards the end, his friend Charles realizes that John has completely lost touch with reality and leaves him.
Woolf showcases John’s journey from a promising political career to withdrawal from society due to obsession. He starts placing more importance on his fantasies about the objects he collects and their value and detaches himself from reality. What starts off as an escapist hobby turns into a full-blown obsession that removes him from the reality of life. The psychological element of his descent into such tendencies is shown through a gradual fall that seems extremely real. At the start, it is just his curiosity about things, that have an innocence to it, but then he gives in to his fantasies, leaving his social life and career behind.
There is an interesting journey John goes through in the story. You sympathize with him at times but sometimes you have trouble understanding his behaviour or rationalizing it. He has isolated himself in life giving in to his collecting things hobby. He does it to find a purpose and believes that this is something different in life that he is pursuing. It’s like an escape from reality and existential crises combined. It seems like he wants to stand out and has made collection objects his purpose, but in doing so, he has isolated himself. He gives up on people in his life and his promising career in his search for a miracle. It is sad in a way if you think about it.
Virginia Woolf has a distinct style of writing, and Solid Objects is no exception. The writing style is descriptive and has so much depth in the way it reads; I find it difficult to explain her work properly because there is so much in it. This short story was easier to read than her full-length works like – Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse. It is an interesting story with so much packed into such a short length. I enjoyed reading the Solid Objects.
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