The Lady in the Looking Glass

by

Virginia Woolf

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Letters Symbol Icon

Isabella’s letters represent the futility of truly trying to know another person. Although both observation and imagination might be able to provide some clues into another person’s life, these tools cannot ultimately provide access into anyone’s innermost ideas or thoughts. The letters are delivered partway through the story by the postman, and initially the narrator cannot tell what they are just by looking at them. In the looking-glass, they appear to be more like “marble tablets” than letters. The narrator struggles to relate them to “any human purpose,” confusion that casts further doubt on the looking-glass’s ability to accurately reflect reality, showing how observation does not necessarily lead to truth. Upon finally realizing the object in the reflection is a stack of letters, the narrator decides that if one could only read these letters’ contents, everything about Isabella (and even life itself) would be revealed. But instead of opening the letters, the narrator simply imagines Isabella reading, picturing her taking the letters “one by one” and sighing as she pores over them “carefully word by word.” Yet—showing how imagination, like observation, is a flawed tool—this imagined scene could not ultimately be further from reality: when Isabella does come inside, she does not even open the letters at all. When Isabella does not open the letters immediately, the narrator decides that this correspondence is not letters as all, but rather bills. However, there’s not enough evidence for this claim to have credibility—there are many reasons that Isabella might not open an envelope, so the narrator’s inference that the letters are bills is tenuous. Given the narrator’s wildly different interpretations of what is inside the letters’ enclosed envelopes at different points in the story, the letters represent Isabella’s ultimate mysteriousness and the fact that she is unknowable, as much as the narrator tries to both observe Isabella and imagine deeper truths about her. Just as the truth about the letters’ contents cannot be known, the truth about Isabella cannot be known, either. And the fact that the letters are never opened adds to this sense of mystery, supporting the idea that neither observation nor imagination can ultimately tell readers anything about who Isabella truly is.

Letters Quotes in The Lady in the Looking Glass

The The Lady in the Looking Glass quotes below all refer to the symbol of Letters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Perception vs. Reality Theme Icon
).
The Lady in the Looking Glass Quotes

And, whether it was fancy or not, they seemed to have become not merely a handful of casual letters but to be tablets graven with eternal truth—if one could read them, one would know everything there was to be known about Isabella, yes, and about life, too.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Isabella Tyson, The Narrator
Related Symbols: Letters
Page Number: 106-107
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Lady in the Looking Glass PDF

Letters Symbol Timeline in The Lady in the Looking Glass

The timeline below shows where the symbol Letters appears in The Lady in the Looking Glass. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Lady in the Looking Glass
Appearances and Materialism Theme Icon
Imagination vs. Realism Theme Icon
...in her life. The cabinets in her house have small drawers that “almost certainly” hold letters from her “many friends.” If one opened them, the narrator imagines, one would find records... (full context)
Perception vs. Reality Theme Icon
Imagination vs. Realism Theme Icon
...“unrecognisable and irrational,” but then the narrator realizes that the tablets are a stack of letters brought by the postman. (full context)
Perception vs. Reality Theme Icon
Imagination vs. Realism Theme Icon
The letters appear still and immortal in the looking-glass, and the narrator imagines that if one could... (full context)
Perception vs. Reality Theme Icon
Appearances and Materialism Theme Icon
...light” of the looking-glass, there is “nothing”: Isabella has no thoughts and no friends. The letters from friends are actually bills, and she doesn’t bother to open them as she stands... (full context)