by Serdzhan Ibryam Hasan
The Waves (1931) is widely regarded as one of Virginia Woolf’s most significant experimental modernist novels. Published in 1931, the novel traces the experiences of six characters, Bernard, Jinny, Louis, Neville, Rhoda, and Susan, from childhood to adulthood as they confront the death of their friend, Percival, who is “allusively present, as he does not have a voice of his own and he is not directly included in the narrative, but only present through the memories, stories, and desires of all the others” (Dimovska, 2021, pp.136). Their experiences and lives are revealed through monologues presented by each of the six protagonists at various phases of their lives. Hannah Murdock points out in her essay “An endeavour at something spiritual”: Queer Spirituality in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves that “[u]sing a stream of consciousness narrative, Woolf gives insights into the inner thoughts and feelings of each character, including what could be considered their spiritual experiences” (Murdock, 2021, pp.5). This technique reveals the inner emotions and thoughts of the characters, blurring the boundaries between individual identity and collective experience. It also engages with the subjective conditions of the individual, thereby challenging fixed gender roles and enabling the exploration of queer desire. In reading The Waves through the lens of utopian queerness, I draw on José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of queerness, specifically through the recurring door metaphor that concisely represents Neville’s perpetual longing for the definitive arrival of Pervival, which is always anticipated but delayed. For Muñoz, “[q]ueerness is not yet here. Queerness is an ideality” (Muñoz, 2009, pp.1), implying that queerness cannot be fully recognised in the present; instead, it involves rejecting current limitations, yearning for greater potentialities, and imagining a hopeful future. Muñoz conceptualises queerness not as a fixed identity, but as a horizon, a desire for an unattainable world; always drawing near but never fully achieved. This “ecstatic and horizontal temporality” (Muñoz, 2009, pp.25) of queerness, as Muñoz claims, signifies a movement towards grand openness and a refusal of the limitations of the present. In the novel, this is embodied through Neville’s persistent longing for Percival in Woolfian fashion; repetition, anticipation, and metaphor convert everyday things and situations into realms of queer desire. Therefore, by focusing on the door metaphor, this paper explores how Woolf’s use of language constructs queerness as a utopian form of emotion that resists conclusion and dwells within the brilliant world of what is yet to come. I argue that the utilisation of the door metaphor stands as an expression for Woolf in which she speculates on a future in which queer individuals can freely express their identities and desires without being bound to the conventional gender assumptions.
In the early chapters of the novel, where they are in the school chapel, Neville’s affection for Percival is illustrated by a modest, seemingly insignificant act that becomes charged with depth. What is mundane to others becomes emotionally complicated for Neville: when Percival merely “flicks his hand to the back of his neck” (Woolf, 1931, pp.21), Neville suggests that “[F]or such gestures one falls hopelessly in love for a lifetime” (Woolf, 1931, pp. 21). This minute gesture captures the intensity of Neville’s affection, demonstrating how his desire is manifested through silent observation, startling emotion, and mental attachment to someone who remains distant. Nevertheless, in the farewell dinner, organised for Percival, queer longing of Neville is depicted through the door metaphor. “The episode begins with Bernard’s soliloquy, who announces the reason for the characters’ meeting” (Dimovska, 2021, pp.174). Bernard says, “[w]e shall dine together. We shall say goodbye to Percival, who goes to India” (Woolf, 1931, pp.75). Neville’s obsessive anticipation of Percival is conveyed through the metaphor of a door, a liminal space that constantly opens and shuts without revealing the awaited figure. The narrator writes:
I have taken my place at the table ten minutes before…to taste every moment of anticipation; to see the door open and to say, ‘Is it Percival? No, it is not Percival.” There is a morbid pleasure in saying, “No, it is not Percival. I have seen the door open and shut twenty times already. (Woof, 1931, pp.82; emphasis added).
This instance does not centre on arrival but on repetition, fixation, and postponement, transforming the door into queer temporality where time elongates and circulates instead of concluding. Muñoz’s argument of “queerness is not yet here” is delineated through Neville’s anticipation; he pursues not a resolution, but preservation of possibility. Whenever the door opens, Neville expresses his negation, stating, “No, it is not Percival” (Woolf, 1931, pp.82), echoing the queerness of Muñoz, as “ecstatic and horizontal temporality” — a continuous process maintained by absence rather than existence. This persistent absence mirrors the “not yet” of queerness: it is precisely in what is missing or deferred that desire and potential are sustained. This negativity does not alleviate desire; rather, it intensifies it. Neville resides in the “not yet”, which is where queerness exists for Muñoz. Therefore, the door transcends its architectural function, altering to a symbolic one which divides the present from the utopian “then and there” (Muñoz, 2009, pp.29), where queerness exists in anticipation rather than fulfilment. Woolf’s use of the repeated metaphor of the door creates a rhythmic pattern that amplifies Neville’s emotional state; it suggests that his desire is not completely resolved, but remains ongoing and deferred.
Consequently, Woolf, in her modernist and experimental novel The Waves, not only narrates the lives of different characters, but also provides the possibilities and openness for queer individuals where they can live their lives. Neville’s longing and desire for Percival is articulated through the metaphor of the door; Woolf’s rhythmic repetition and the door’s motion embody Muñoz’s queer horizon, where passion defies resolution and queerness persists as an ideal, not yet actualised but glimmering like a light glimpsed through the crack of the door, defined by absence rather than consummation. Thus, her literary production urges the reader to immerse themselves in the aesthetic of the not-yet, offering a queer temporality that emphasises sensation over fulfilment and potential over achievement, resulting in further potentialities for queer people.
References
Dimovska, I. (2021). QUEER(ING) TIME IN MODERNISM AND HOW TO READ IT: JAMES JOYCE’S ULYSSES AND VIRGINIA WOOLF’S THE WAVES [PhD dissertation, Central European University].
Hannah, D. (2021). An endeavour at something spiritual”: queer spirituality in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves [Brigham Young University]. http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd11838
Murdock, Hannah, (2021) ““An endeavour at something spiritual”: Queer Spirituality in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves” Theses and Dissertations
Muñoz, J. E. (2009). Cruising utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. NYU Press.
Woolf, V. (2000). The waves. Penguin UK.
Serdzhan Ibryam Hasan is currently pursuing a Research Master’s in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. His academic interests include gender and feminism in relation to revisionist myth-making; queer studies, particularly queer gothic theory and its relation to the uncanny and abjection; and monstrosity studies, with a focus on how cultural constructions of the monstrous intersect with questions of identity, power, and representation.
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