Woolfian Boundaries - Clemson University

Borderline Personalities: Woolf Reviews Kapp
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which at this time had about one portrait of a woman for every nine of men (Holmes).
“Th erefore we turn eagerly,” she writes, “though we have paused too long about it, to see
what faces Mr Kapp provides for the twenty-three gentlemen and the one old lady whom he
calls Personalities” (164). “Th ere is very little,” she continues, “of the anonymous about any
of the twenty-four. Th ere is scarcely a personality, from Mr Bernard Shaw to Mrs Grundy,
whom we have not seen in the fl esh” (164-65). Th is “scarcely” is an important qualifi cation.
Whereas Woolf knew from personal experience what George Bernard Shaw looked like, she
certainly could not have laid eyes upon Mrs. Grundy, the book’s “one old lady,” at least, not
in any simple way. Mrs. Grundy was not the stuff of fl esh and bone, but a fi gure of speech,
or a type, and she is certainly the most anonymous of the twenty-four (see Figure 6). She is
an embodiment of conventional propriety and prudery and, as such, is twice mentioned by
John Stuart Mill in Th e Subjection of Women. Mrs. Grundy’s insubstantiality was established
from the moment of her inception. In Th omas Morton’s 1798 play Speed the Plough she is invoked
as a fi gure of neighborly opinion, without ever actually appearing on stage. Rather, her
opinions are mouthed by others. “What,” they fret, “would Mrs Grundy say?” 8
Figure 6