Tense Shift in Virginia Woolf’s Novel “Mrs Dalloway”

Abstract EN

Tense is a linguistic feature which is used to denote time in a language.

Generally, it is has three divisions compared with its counterparts in real life, Namely : past, present, and future.

Generally, writers maintain one tense for the main discourse and indicate changes in time frame by changing tense relative to that primary tense, which is usually either simple past or simple present.

Changes in verb tense help readers understand the temporal relationships among various narrated events.

But sudden or inconsistent tense shifts can cause confusion unless they are for stylistic purposes. The present study tries to prove that in “ Mrs.

Dalloway ” Virginia Woolf uses tense shifts, sometimes inconsistently but not to cause confusion or unclearity.

She has used them as a stylistic device in order to create certain stylistic effects in the novel.