Mrs. Dalloway's Free Indirect Discourse The emergence of modernist writers in the twentieth century brought many changes to literature. They rejected the romantic focus on nature and being and were instead inspired by the impersonal, capitalist feelings brought by machines and the First World War. Soldiers sent to war saw death and pain in entirely new ways. These experiences, which only worsened with World War II in the 1940s, prevented many soldiers from mentally returning home. Enlisted writers and those at home who saw the shocking effects of war used that horror in their writings. Modern writers have also experimented with subject matter, form, and style. They eliminated character summaries, used second half time instead of linear plots, developed stream of consciousness, and rejected a single authoritative narrator. These deliberate changes have produced a type of literature very different from any previous literature. There were many prominent writers during the modernist period and each of them developed their own style. One writer who was at the forefront of modernism was Virginia Woolf. She was an English writer who played a significant role in London's writing society. Woolf experimented with modernist techniques, but the one she was best known for was her use of free indirect discourse. This new type of narration adds a deeper level to the story and conveys the character's thoughts directly. Woolf's Story Mrs Dalloway was well known for this. Free indirect speech was used throughout Mrs Dalloway and gave the story many advantages over standard direct and indirect speech. Free indirect speech is a combination of direct and indirect speech. Modernist writers developed this form of...... middle of paper ......isie Johnson positively felt she had to cry Oh! (Because that young man sitting on the seat had shocked her. Something was wrong, she knew.) Horror! horror!" (Woolf 2351). Since free indirect discourse is exactWorks cited Faini, Paola. "The challenge of free indirect discourse in Mrs. Dalloway." Translating Virginia Woolf. Ed. Oriana Palusci. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2012. 39- 47.Gingerich, Jon. “The Benefits of Free Indirect Speech.” LitReactor, LLC, 23 August 2012. Web. 15 April 2014. “Traffic, Gender, Modernism.” ): 175-189. SocINDEX with full text. 22 April 2014.Woolf, Virginia. Dalloway.” The Longman anthology of British literature. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin JH Dettmar. Boston: Longman, 2010. 2338-2437. Press.