“Signs, Symbols and Signifiers: Style as Cultural Reflection in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Virginia Woolf s To the Lighthouse

Authors

Kathryn Fox, Roger Williams University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Bachelor of Arts in English

Advisor

Deborah A. Robinson,Ph. D.

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the ways in which signs, symbols and signifiers reflect a culture’s values, ethos, theories and cosmology. Through the historical context of eighteenth-century London, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders reveals literal signs and signifiers which reflect his society’s ideology of economic individualism. Contrastingly, in twentieth- century London Virginia Woolf s novel To the Lighthouse embodiesa multitude of abstract symbols which are a product of her society’s modernization.

Recommended Citation

Fox, Kathryn, "“Signs, Symbols and Signifiers: Style as Cultural Reflection in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Virginia Woolf s To the Lighthouse" (2014). English Theses. 95.
https://docs.rwu.edu/english_theses/95