Lappin and Lapinova – Virginia Woolf

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Notas de aula

The story at a glance

  • "Lappin and Lapinova" by Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), first drafted around 1919 and published in 1939; later collected in×A Haunted House and Other Short Stories×(1944).
  • Told by a third-person narrator, it follows the first years of the marriage of Rosalind and Ernest Thorburn.
  • Rosalind invents a private fantasy: Ernest is King Lappin, a rabbit (×lapin×is French for rabbit), and she is Queen Lapinova, a hare. The game keeps their marriage alive.
  • When Ernest stops playing, Lapinova "dies" — and "So that was the end of that marriage."
  • Key ideas: imagination and escape, marriage and identity, class and family, male indifference, the fragility of love.

Beginning the game

  • Newly married, Rosalind still cannot get used to being Mrs Ernest Thorburn — "Ernest" is a difficult name for her — a hint of unease.
  • One morning she notices his nose twitches like a rabbit's: he looks less like "Ernest" than like a rabbit.
  • She names him King Lappin; he joins in, calling her Lapinova, a hare — wild, small and elusive.
  • They build a whole private world of imaginary woods and creatures, which only they share.
  • Through the first months the fantasy gives them intimacy and gives Rosalind a sense of self.

The golden wedding

  • Rosalind, an only child and an orphan, dreads the fiftieth wedding anniversary (the golden wedding) of Ernest's parents; Ernest comes from a large, wealthy family.
  • The Thorburns fill a grand drawing-room of satin wallpaper and gleaming family portraits; the gifts are solid gold, hall-marked — Rosalind's modest present seems out of place.
  • The living Thorburns look like their portraits and trade cruel schoolroom jokes (pulling away the governess's chair).
  • At dinner a guest remarks of rabbits, "They breed so", and a cousin shouts that they should be shot and jumped on "with big boots" — the family's view of wild creatures.
  • Rosalind catches Ernest's eye; his nose twitches — Lappin is there — and she escapes into fantasy, seeing the Thorburns as creatures (Celia, the unmarried sister, as a white ferret; old Mr Thorburn as a poacher).

The end of the game

  • Over time Ernest grows impatient with the game; the fantasy fades.
  • One night Rosalind wakes in panic: "I thought my rabbit was dead!" Ernest: "Don't talk such rubbish, Rosalind… Lie down and go to sleep." He is soon snoring.
  • The next day she is restless, as if she has lost something.
  • When Ernest comes home she tells him Lapinova is gone. He straightens his tie at the looking-glass: "Yes… Poor Lapinova…", "Caught in a trap… killed" — and sits down to read the newspaper.
  • Final line: "So that was the end of that marriage."

Methods

  • Fairy-tale / fable elements: a king and queen, animals, an enchanted kingdom — set against the dull realities of a gentry family.
  • Symbolism: the rabbit (Ernest, domesticated, breeding, hunted), the hare (Rosalind, wild, solitary, vulnerable), the trap (marriage and convention), gold (the family's wealth and solidity).
  • Free indirect style: we slip into Rosalind's thoughts and fantasies.
  • Contrast: the vivid private world vs the stiff, loud Thorburn world.
  • Abrupt ending: one flat sentence ends the marriage — shocking and ambiguous.
  • Section B pairings: "A Story of a Wedding Tour" (a woman trapped in marriage), "The Nightingale and the Rose" (fantasy vs indifference), "Indian Summer of an Uncle" (marriage and class).

Themes and interpretations

  • Imagination as survival: the fantasy gives Rosalind an identity against Ernest's powerful family.
  • Marriage and identity: she struggles to become "Mrs Ernest Thorburn"; losing Lapinova is losing herself.
  • Male indifference and control: Ernest's practical, impatient masculinity finally "kills" the game.
  • Class: the solid-gold, hunting Thorburns vs the orphaned, dreamy outsider.
  • Readers debate: is the fantasy what held the marriage together, or what hid its emptiness? Is Rosalind escaping, or trapped?

Slides

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Questões de prática

Prévia grátis — 8 de 38 perguntas. Cadastre-se para ver todas.

  1. 1.Who wrote 'Lappin and Lapinova'?

    Easy
    • AVirginia Woolf
    • BKatherine Mansfield
    • CMargaret Oliphant
    • DJane Austen

  2. 2.Who are the married couple in the story?

    Easy
    • AJaney and Mr Rosendale
    • BKatie and Geoffrey
    • CRegina and Horace
    • DRosalind and Ernest Thorburn

  3. 3.What animal does Rosalind think Ernest resembles?

    Easy
    • AA hare
    • BA ferret
    • CA rabbit
    • DA fox

  4. 4.What does 'lapin' mean in French?

    Easy
    • ALove
    • BRabbit
    • CKing
    • DHare

  5. 5.What animal is Lapinova?

    Medium
    • AA hare
    • BA rabbit
    • CA ferret
    • DA bird

  6. 6.What does the fantasy give the couple?

    Medium
    • AMoney
    • BFame
    • CA new house
    • DA private world of intimacy that only they share

  7. 7.What occasion does Rosalind dread?

    Medium
    • AA funeral
    • BChristmas
    • CThe golden wedding of Ernest's parents
    • DHer own wedding

  8. 8.How are the Thorburns' anniversary gifts described?

    Medium
    • AFlowers
    • BSolid gold, hall-marked
    • CHomemade
    • DBooks

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