The Mark on the Wall Summary
Before discussing the summary of the short story, let's know about the author. Woolf (1882–1941) was a British author and journalist, and The Mark on the Wall is her short story. She wrote modernist classics like To the Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway. Also, she wrote pioneering feminist texts as A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. Besides, she committed suicide, and it happened due to Bipolar disorder perhaps.
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Now let's come to the main point. The Mark on the Wall summary has some important segments that are:
A woman's recall for observed things in January:
An anonymous lady, in her room, shares her experience about seeing a strange mark on the wall in the first-person account. Plus, she expresses her views according to the stream of consciousness. Well, stream of consciousness is a method of narration that explains events in the flow of ideas that come in the minds of fictional characters. So, she says that she first saw the black spot on the white wall in the middle of January. Then, she tries to recall the date when she saw that mark by remembering her noticed things during that period. Further, she says that she observed the fire, the film of yellow light on her book's pages, and three chrysanthemums in a bowl on the mantelpiece. Then, she tells the reader that she perceived the smoke of her cigarette as well.
Fancy about the crimson flag and red knights:
Then, she fancied about the crimson flag which was flapping from the castle tower on seeing the burning coals in the fireplace. Also, the narrator imagined the formal procession of red knights which were riding up the side of the black mountain. Afterwards, her imagination got interrupted by a mark on the wall for which she felt relaxed. Perhaps, she felt relaxed for those ideas were reminding her of that era's war. She narrates that this fancy resulted in her childhood probably.
Her talk with some person about art:
After, she tells that the spot was a small round black mark. Also, its location was six or seven inches above the mantelpiece. Then, she thinks about the source of that spot very carefully. Firstly, she supposes that the mark could have been resulted by a nail for a miniature from the former resident of her house. Then, she recalls a conversation about art between her and one of the people living before them in that house. She finds that person's belief very interesting which was that art should raise ideas in the minds of people by its outlook. For some time, she thinks that the details about that mark are not important enough for her to get up from her seat. Besides, she assumes that once a thing gets done, no one can ever know how it happened.
Ideas about time's ignorant humans and fastness of life:
Further, a reader gets to know that the narrator is tense due to the ignorance of humanity in the era of civilization. Next, she thinks that life is passing fast. Also, she believes that humans have very little control over their possessions in this short period of existence. So, humans lose many properties during their brief lifespan according to her.
Her attention to Shakespeare and future writers' works:
Then, it happens that the narrator's attention gets distracted from human life and shifts to Shakespeare by the tree's tapping at her window. She imagines that Shakespeare is sitting near the burning fire in some room, and creative ideas are coming into his mind. Next, she starts predicting after thinking about historical literature. She says that writers would stop creating those characters who do not reveal their inner reality. So, the future writers would focus on the characters' inner selves according to her.
Author's disturbing thoughts about her social norms:
Plus, it continuously happens that she lets divert her attention from the wall's mark on unpleasant thoughts about social life's standards. After, those disagreeable thoughts provoke her to focus on that mark again. For example,
She remembers that there were rules for everything in her childhood. For example, there were rules for tablecloths, Sunday luncheons, and Sunday walks etcetera. So, those tablecloths were not standardized for the society which do not have little yellow marked compartments with tapestry as their fabric.
Later, she points out that society views anybody's action against its fixed rules his/her unfair freedom. Also, she is against her male-dominated society's norms, Whitaker's Almanack, or Whitaker's table of precedence because she thinks that these entities exploit women in general. So, she is in favour of feminism (feminism is a worldwide movement which came into being for the protection of women's rights).
Then, the narrator imagines that her desire to define the wall's mark is similar to society's urge to limit everybody's life to its rules. Also, her belief says that such living is against natural living because nature does not bound humans in those ways. Therefore, she hopes that if freedom exists, one day England society would accept it, and her people would no longer follow men's rules blindly.
Also, she thinks that England can become a better place if English people may leave their superstitions and respect the beauty and health of mind enough. After, her attention again goes to that wall's mark due to the phrase, if. It happens because that uncertain mark becomes a source which makes the narrator remind of her life's doubts.
Her sense of self-protection:
Suddenly, she realizes that it is her instinctive desire which is forcing her to investigate that mark. Besides, it is better for her to get up and see that spot herself because she is letting it play the role of a catalyst for independent thoughts. Also, the author feels that those ideas are against her social traditions; therefore, she is at risk of collision with England's reality and its dominant masculine powers around. Then, she starts thinking about being a tree for the arrival of peaceful thoughts in her mind to escape that moment's irritation.
Snail:
However, she feels lost after some time and forgets thinking about the tree. Later, she realizes that everything seems to her as moving, slipping, falling, and vanishing. Then, she finds an unknown second person in her room telling her that he is going to buy a newspaper. It may be that the person is her husband. Also, he mentions that buying newspapers is not good because these papers have mostly war-related news articles these days. Later, he tells that there is a snail on their wall which is a disturbing thing. At last, she knows that the mark on the wall was a snail that she saw last time.
Conclusion:
So, that's all about The Mark on the Wall summary. Thanks for being here. Subscribe my blog for more such updates.