Contextual Background:
Virginia Woolf’s essay “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown” (1924) was written as a rebuttal to the Edwardian novelists—particularly Arnold Bennett, H.G. Wells, and John Galsworthy—whom she criticized for focusing too heavily on external realism (details of environment, setting, and outward behavior) at the expense of inner life and character consciousness.
Who is Mrs. Brown?
Mrs. Brown is a fictional persona Woolf creates based on an actual woman she imagines or observes in a railway carriage, and she uses this figure to illustrate the essence of character in fiction.
Woolf recounts a train journey in which she sees a middle-aged woman (Mrs. Brown) sitting opposite her. A clergyman enters and begins speaking to her. Through this interaction, Woolf senses that something deep and unspeakable is happening in Mrs. Brown’s inner world.
Woolf doesn't know Mrs. Brown personally, nor is she from Bennett’s stories. She becomes a symbol or metaphor for true character, someone who carries depth and psychological complexity—not reducible to class, surroundings, or job title, which Woolf argued the Edwardians like Bennett overly emphasized.
Woolf’s Argument:
Woolf believed that modern fiction must convey inner experiences, subjective realities, and the fluidity of consciousness, rather than merely listing observable facts about a character’s setting or circumstances (what she called "materialist" writing).
She claimed that Bennett could describe a house down to the last doorknob, but he could not create a living, breathing soul like Mrs. Brown.
Mrs. Brown symbolizes the complexity and depth of human character that Woolf feels are inadequately represented in the works of Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy, and H.G. Wells.
Why the Answer is 1:
Option 1 ("The name Woolf gives a woman whom she happens to meet in a train") is accurate because Mrs. Brown is not a real person, nor part of Bennett’s fiction. She is a hypothetical figure Woolf uses to exemplify her idea of a real character.
Options 2, 3, and 4 are incorrect because:
2 suggests a servant in Bennett’s house—no textual basis.
3 implies a character in Bennett’s fiction—again false.
4 invents a narrative (neighbor-writer) that is not mentioned.
Year-wise PYQs
