Through the Glass: Selfhood, Perception, and the Urban Gaze in Woolf’s Works

Since its emergence as an industrial material in the late nineteenth century, glass has transformed cityscapes, perceptions of space, and interactions with the material world. Beyond its technological role, glass acts as a metaphor for the complexities of modern urban life, serving simultaneously as both a medium and a barrier. It reflects contradictions and paradoxes, exploring the relationships between the material and immaterial, the visible and invisible, and subjects and objects. Glass functions as a frame or screen through which we perceive, understand, and develop taste. One of
the defining features of urban modernity, glass also intrigued Virginia Woolf, who frequently used it in her works to explore identity, self-representation, and desire. Mirrors and windows, recurring symbols in her writing, often convey anxiety and self-doubt, particularly for female characters. Glass serves as both a medium of connection and an obstacle to understanding, representing transparency, reflectiveness, and the complexity of perception. In Night and Day (1919), Woolf compares window displays to women walking in the streets, examining the commodified gaze and how it shapes self-image and societal views. This essay explores how Woolf’s writing reflects the metaphors of glass and how it informs her self-concept as a writer in the publishing world.