Virginia Woolf’s Heart-Wrenching Suicide Note to Her Husband

Virginia Woolf, an English writer of the twentieth century is best known for her non-fictions in “A Room of One’s Own” and “Three Guineas” where she illustrates the problems faced by female writers in a Patriarchal society.

“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”

A Room of One’s Own

As we all know great writers are always born through prolonged miseries and distress, so did Virginia Woolf. In her private life, she suffered from bipolar disorder (a mental condition marked by alternating periods of elation and depression). Young Virginia had her first depression after the death of her mother in 1895 followed by the death of her sister two years later.

After going through several bouts of mental distress, again in 1941, amidst World War 2, Virginia found herself in a similar situation.

On 28^th March 1941, she filled her overcoat pockets with stones and walked into the river Ouse leaving behind her memories and a heart-wrenching suicide note to her husband, Leonard Woolf.

The letter read:

Dearest,

I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.

I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.