Night and Day

Night and Day, Woolf’s second novel, was published in 1919 and for the most part is conventional, dealing with current issues including women’s suffrage, marriage and not-marriage through the lives of a few principal characters. Katherine Hilbery represents the autobiographical element, the grand-daughter of a famous poet and with a mother who, combined with the past, exercises a significant impression on her life. Another of the principal characters, Mary Datchett, chooses to work even though, with a private income, she had no need to. In Mary, there are elements of the emancipated female found in A Room of One’s Own, a woman, with a secure financial footing, stepping out with her own agenda. Yet Mary also shows sign of that ‘Angel in the Room’, mode in that she serves as a sounding board for troubles hoisted upon her by the other characters. Though she loves Ralph Denham, the third of the main characters, she rejects him finally because she sees through his insincerity.