The Waves

Woolf splits the novel into nine sections. Before each section, Woolf includes a short descriptive passage of a scene by the sea. This scene goes from early morning in the first section until the end of the day in the final section. Within each section, we hear the character thoughts through a series of monologues. The Waves is an experimental novel and as such, Woolf plays with the structure and uses it to convey meaning as much as the language.

In particular, the structure conveys the group as one entity and the struggles of the individual when it moves away from the group. In the beginning, they are together playing and everyone has a monologue that is usually short and flows into the next one as if their thoughts are linked. When the boys and girls go to different schools, the monologues are split into two groups. As the story moves on the monologues get longer and become more independent from the each other. Woolf shows only Neville, Bernard and Rhoda's monologues when Percival dies. This is the first time we do not hear from all the characters, showing how the death of Percival has split the group. In the next section, Bernard is missing and the other characters appear very alone with their thoughts. When Bernard's monologue returns in the next section, the group again is complete and their thoughts reflect this. Woolf also repeats structure to convey similar moods. The obvious example of this is when the characters meet up in the restaurant and revert to the quick observational monologues that start the first section when they are children.