Stream of Consciousness

When used as a term in literature, stream of consciousness is a narrative form in which the author
writes in a way that mimics or parallels in a character’s internal thoughts. Sometimes this device
is also called “internal monologue,” and often the style incorporates the natural chaos of thoughts
and feelings that occur in any of our minds at any given time.

The term was initially coined by psychologist William James in his research, The Principles of
Psychology. He writes:

“… it is nothing joined; it flows. A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ is the metaphors by which it is most

naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let’s call it the stream of thought, consciousness,
or subjective life.”

The use of this narration style is generally associated with the modern novelist and short story
writers of the 20th century.

Stream of Consciousness by James Joyce:

James Joyce was a novelist of unique and extraordinary genius. He was a highly gifted man and
was acutely responsive to observe details. As a linguistic, Joyce looked upon language as a sixth
sense.

The important novels of the Joyce are The Dubliners, A Portrait of the Young Man, Exiles and
Ulysses.

Of these Ulysses in his masterpiece. Unlike great novels, Ulysses does not present truth to life, but
Joyce has introduced a new technique_ Stream of Consciousness in it, which was so far hidden
from the views of other novelists. So, it is considered as his magnificent work and because of this
stream of Consciousness Ulysses holds an important place in the history of modern novel.
James Joyce successfully employs the narrative mode in his novel Ulysses, which describes a day
in the life of a middle-aged Jew, Mr. Leopold Broom, living in Dublin, Ireland. Read the following
excerpt:

“He is young Leopold, as in a retrospective arrangement, a mirror within a mirror (hey, presto!),
he beholds himself. That young figure of then is seen, precious manly, walking on a nipping
morning from the old house in Clambrassil to the high school,

These lines reveal the thoughts of Bloom, as he thinks of the younger Bloom. The self-reflection
is achieved by the flow of thoughts that takes him back to his past.

Stream of Consciousness by Virginia Woolf:

Virginia Woolf_ another modern writer who used stream of consciousness, was the most
distinguished woman writer of her generation. She was greatly impressed by Ulysses, in which
Joyce had made an alternative to the well-made plot and external characterization. She made far
more exciting use of ‘stream of consciousness’ technique than that of James Joyce.

Her major in which he used the stream of consciousness are as follow:

The Voyage Out, Night and Day, Mrs. Dalloway_ explores the personality of a middle- aged
woman, TO the Lighthouse_ most successful novel in the new ‘stream of consciousness’, Orlando,
The Years and Between the Acts.

Following excerpt is taken from the Mrs. Dalloway as an example of ‘stream of consciousness’,
which shows that V. Woolf was far more expert than James Joyce in using stream of consciousness.

“What a lark! What a plunge! For so it always seemed to me when, with a little squeak of the
hinges, which I can hear now, I burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the
open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the
flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as I then was)
solemn, feeling as I did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to
happen …”