Jawless+Sheep's+Skull

Does anyone get the significance of the jawless Sheep's Skull? Jacob finds it on the ground after he flees the two lovers. It is described as a bone that has been completely cleaned by the sea: "Clean, white, wind-swept, sand-rubbed, a more unpolluted piece of bone existed nowhere on the coast of Cornwall." The bone again comes up later in the chapter; however, the description seems to change. Rather than being described as a skull without a jaw bone, it is just a jaw bone. Both the sudden change of description and the importance of the sheep's skull has been lost to me: does anyone have any theories to the significance to the bone in general or the change in its description? 1199824937

I went searching on Wikipedia for an answer, because I didn't know if sheep skulls have significance outside the world of Jacob's Room that Woolf might have been playing off of, and [|this is what I found.] I'm not sure if this has any significance, or if it is just a coincidence. I suppose we could see if Jacob and the Jacob sheep have any similarities as we continue reading, because all we really know about Jacob now is that he's curious and young and that he has a room. I was just wondering if sheep usually hang out on beaches. It might be natural in the United Kingdom where that specific beach is, but it seemed rather unnatural to me that there be a sheep's skull there. It does say that a cleaner bone didn't exist on the coast, but it doesn't say that other bones weren't there. As far as the language change goes, I think that the skull was whole before Jacob took the jaw, if I read it correctly. It was an immaculate skeleton head, all clean and whole until Jacob took the jaw. Jacob also removes sea creatures from the ecosystem atop the rock, which is sad when we hear about the crab later trying to climb up his bucket fruitlessly in the storm. He doesn't mean to mess up the flow of nature, but he does. This could possibly lead us to further insight about Jacob, but again, I don't think we can be positive without knowing more. 1199830949

well, this is certainly an interesting topic. I'm going to go for the symbolic interpretation of this episode. Yes, KLe, you don't normally find intact sheep skulls on beaches (but I did once find a 20). Therefore, I do not think that it is coincidence that woolf had this skull on the beach. The skull, for countless ages, has represented death. And the mention of the jacob sheep got me thinking. So, a jacob sheep skull. I think that this is both symbolism and forshadowing. It symbolizes the imminent death of Jacob's old self, and we do not know at what time this will occur. But it will happen. And as for who/what Jacob's new self will be, well, only time can tell. We have the whole book to read.1199847144

Jhe, I agree with your interpretation of death, and I will proceed to elaborate on it. Not only does this bone represent the imminent death of Jacob's old self, but it also represents the metaphorical death of some characters in this story in the sense that they are not truly living. Mrs. Jarvis is one prime example that we talked about in class. In chapter 2, Woolf gives the following description of Mrs. Jarvis: " Mrs. Jarvis was just the sort of woman to lose her faith upon the moors—to confound her God with the universal that is— but she did not lose her faith, did not leave her husband, never read her poem through, and went on walking the moors, looking at the moon behind the elm trees, and feeling as she sat on the grass high above Scarborough... " Mrs. Jarvis has experienced death in that she is not truly living as who she is. Barfoot and Betty Flanders are also not truly living in that they are both still chained to their respective invalids. Though they have both established an enlivening relationship with each other, both characters cannot truly pour themselves out: Betty continues to hear the dead voice of Seabrook just as Barfoot must continue to stay with his apparently paralyzed wife. In addition to both being emotionally chained to their respective invalid spouses, Barfoot physically cannot see Betty as much as either would like as he lives all the way up in Scarborough. It is only on Wednesdays when both Barfoot and Betty can truly live by being with each other. Apart from this day, they must live like the bone, dead, that is metaphorically. Indeed this metaphorical death is particularly taxing on Betty as one can discern from the following quote in the beginning of chapter 1: Such were Betty Flanders's letters to Captain Barfoot—many-paged, tear- stained. Scarborough is seven hundred miles from Cornwall: Captain Barfoot is in Scarborough: Seabrook is dead."

1200011000

I am with KLe, and would just like to point out that I do not think that the actual description changed. From my understanding, Jacob found a whole skull on the beach, and Betty Flanders told him to leave it. He saw that the jaw was loose, so I think he just took the jaw with him so that Betty wouldn't realize he hadn't entirely listened to her... I agree with you, JHe, in saying that Woolf put the skull in the story for a reason, or else it would not have been mentioned more than once. But what do you mean by the imminent death of Jacob's old self? What part of him do you think is symbolized to die? 1200267071