The Voyage Out

Rachel Willoughby is the central protagonist of the novel. Her character undergoes the most significant character development throughout the novel. Her bildungsroman is at the heart of Woolf’s messages about love, adventure, self-discovery, and happiness. At the beginning of the novel, Rachel is a sheltered young woman whose musical whims have been nurtured at the expense of a more practical education about the world around her. Her mother died when she was a baby, and she was mostly raised by her older aunts as her father traveled for business. Rachel’s financial privilege kept her in a naïve state of mind for years, so at the age of 24, she is as immature as a child. She knows nothing about human connection, friendship, love, sexuality, or the larger world around her. A major moment of character development occurs when Richard Dalloway, an older married man, kisses her. Rachel is titillated by the kiss even though she knows it was wrong. Rachel doesn’t know how to contextualize the kiss because she knows nothing about sexuality or why the kiss is so pleasurable to her. Helen takes Rachel under her wing, which is one of the best things anyone could have done for Rachel because it means that Helen sees Rachel’s potential to be a mature young woman of the world.