Chloe
A woman in Mary Carmichael’s invented novel who likes Olivia and works with her in a laboratory.
The book
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeChloe appears in Life's Adventure, the fictional novel discussed in Chapter Five of A Room of One's Own. Virginia Woolf gives only glimpses of that book. Chloe’s interest in Olivia allows the narrator to ask how women’s relationships can be written beyond their ties to men.
How the book draws them
- Part of an ensembleThe narrator first mentions Chloe among several people whom Mary Carmichael brings together in a canoe. Chloe belongs to a social group rather than appearing only in a romance.
- An interest in OliviaThe statement that Chloe likes Olivia makes the narrator pause. Woolf leaves that liking open enough to invite questions about friendship and attraction.
- Work shared with another womanChloe and Olivia work in a laboratory preparing liver for research connected with pernicious anemia. Their shared task provides an interest beyond their personal relationship.
- Attention to Olivia’s movementsChloe watches Olivia place a jar on a shelf and announce that she must go home to her children. The narrator treats this ordinary observation as a subject for fiction.
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