SOCIETAL EXPECTATION AND SELF-IDENTITY IN VIRGINIA WOOLF'S 'THE NEW DRESS': AN ANALYSIS FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the crises between identity and expectation in The New Dress written by Virginia Woolf, using transitivity theory of language in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). In this mixed method study, the researcher takes the text of the short story and analyses transitivity processes in it.  The paper offers an insight into the practical application of transitivity theory and into the ways in which the author depicts the stream of consciousness and also shows the conflicts that she faces in her identity portrayal. The author has used many transitivity process among which the researcher has identified three of them. Mental processes are explicitly used in the short story and the main character faces many conflicts in her mind in order to make herself prominent but all she does is to fall in depression. Similarly, the relational and material processes are used where she interacts with other people in order to make herself independent of the thoughts she is facing but nothing changes. And she goes to the mirror again and again to see herself but every time she see herself, she feels ridicule. The study concludes that the author has used mental processes in majority, followed by relational, and material processes. The results show the way various transitivity processes are used by Virginia Woolf as techniques to structure language in the short story to elicit various functions in the text.