Relationships

Woolf seems to make many references to people's relationships with one another, how we interact, why we interact the way we do, etc. For instance: "with one of those queer movements which are so slight yet so definite, which may wound or pass unnoticed but generally inflict a good deal of discomfort, Jinny and Cruttendon drew together; Jacob stood apart" (101). Why be so awkward? Is it in our nature to take everything so personally, to analyze others' movements and be hurt so easily?

" . . . since his wife, for whose sake he did it, eloped with a novelist; but no, Cruttendon still paint orchards, savagely, in solitude" (90). Here, once again, we have an example of disloyalty in a marriage relationship--yet Cruttendon moves on. What exactly does Woolf mean by "savagely." Is there some psychological hurt, blame, or anguish present that makes Cruttendon act or feel the way he does? and if so, what is the reason for this? Perhaps Woolf is saying that an inevitable semi-vicious cycle is present in which relationships with others rise and fall, begin and diminish.

& another e.j. ~ the fact and reason why Jacob hides his life from his mother in letters. What is the reason for this? Jacob says there is nothing really to hide and that he cannot quite understand everything himself -- but then he cuts off his thought. I wonder if something happened that we as readers do not know of the full story. (I mean, the book does jump from childhood to adulthood and is somewhat sporadic.) I am quite curious of the reasons for all this, hence the accumulation of questions. Does anyone else have more examples or explanations? 1201145801