Importance+of+Chapter+9

Chapter Nine proved to be vital to the story line in more ways than one. On page 108 (sorry, I have a different edition so the pages are off from everyone else's), Woolf writes that "mind continues alone, onwards, into the darkness," indicating his isolation from the world around him is peaceful. On the following page, Woolf writes that "Every time the door opened and fresh people came in, those already in the room shifted slightly; those who were standing looked over their shoulders; those who were sitting stopped in the middle of sentences." This foreshadows that another door is about to open in the novel. This reference to doors proves important in describing Jacob later in the chapter: "how it pleased him to let himself in with his latch-key at his own door; how he seemed to bring back to him into the empty room..." (111).

Thus, chapter nine accentuates the main purposes/themes of the book through foreshadowing the simple but suiting ending of the novel (Jacob's death). The door is a fitting image. **AWr** (DON'T FORGET YR TILDES ... user:brtom)