"The Legacy" by Virginia Woolf

    In “The Legacy” Woolf writes about a man figuring out his wife after she has passed away. Gilbert Clandon begins the story by giving away his wife, Angela’s, tokens that she left for her friends and acquaintances. It is apparent that Angela’s death may have been suicide. Gilbert mentions that Angela left all the tokens in a particular order like it was “as if she had foreseen her death”(132). The way her death is described is also very interesting. The text never said her actions were intentional. She steps off the kerb and gets hit by a car. It also states that ever since they got married she wrote in a diary. By the end of her life she had fifteen of them filled and she was very secretive about what was written in them. Woolf writes, “When he came in and found her writing, she always shut it or put her hand over it. ‘No, no, no,’ he could hear her say, ‘After I’m dead-perhaps’”. The first page of the story already says so much about their relationship. Their marriage was great, despite the diaries she kept from him. It could be argued that he was being a supportive husband and abiding by his wife’s wishes and keeping something she valued private, after all, “It was the only thing had not shared when she was alive”. It could also be argued that it was suspicious that he could brush it off so easily and he never was aggravated or curious enough to investigate or question her about it. Gilbert sees Angela’s secretary, Sissy Miller, come by the house and he gives her a pearl brooch that used to belong to his wife with the message, “For Sissy Miller, with my love.” Ms. Miller is clearly mourning still and is even on tears upon seeing Gilbert. He remembers that Sissy has also lost her brother recently, two weeks before Angela’s death. Before she leaves, Sissy Miller tells Gilbert that if he needed anything, he could come get her. Her exact words were, “‘If at any time, there’s anything I can do to help you, remember, I shall feel it, for you, for your wife’s sake, a pleasure…” (134).  There is a sexual undertone that makes one wonder what exactly she means by her statement. After she leaves Gilbert begins to read Angela’s diaries because he has decided that reading them must be his legacy. In the beginning he reads about days they spent together-all the trips he took her own and the things he would buy her and how she was so happy to be with him. He enjoys reading how fond she was of him and it is interesting that all he is reading in her diaries is about him, as if she spent every waking moment with him. Something else that is interesting is that she writes, “But it seemed selfish to bother him with my own affairs, when he has so much to think about. And we so seldom have an evening alone”. She continues writing about other people she meets, especially one character whom she refers to only as B.M. As soon as she starts writing about other people and not Gilbert, he begins to read less and less details. As B.M. appears more and more, he starts to become intrigued again. He eventually finds out that they were having a secret affair while he was working and wanted Angela to run away with him. She could not make up her mind, which infuriated Gilbert. The last sentences in her diary that she ever wrote were, “‘He has done what he threatened’ ‘Have I the courage to do it too?’” (137). He had to know why she stepped off the kerb and he had to know who B.M. was. He called Sissy Miller who told him that B.M. was her brother. That was when Gilbert realized his legacy. She did not step off the kerb to die, not really, she stepped off to escape. I mentioned in my last blog post, about “Solid Objects”, that the similarities between the male protagonists being in parliament and how that affects their lives. I also noticed the parallels in relationships, obsessions, and the ability to escape from the world around them. Both John in “Solid Objects” and Angela were infatuated with this escape from reality as well as how John and Gilbert were both ruined by their jobs in parliament, or in a high class respected profession that ultimately did not bring them happiness. “The Legacy” really does make one think about what people leave behind and why they leave in the first place.