Jacob's Room: "The person is evidently immensely complicated"

First Edition of Jacob's Room, with a cover by Woolf's  sister Vanessa Bell

Last week we discussed World War One and the untimely death of Thoby Stephen as two strong influences on Virginia Woolf's novel Jacob's Room. Woolf’s father Leslie Stephens and close friend Lytton Strachey were two major forces in her life, and both dedicated their careers to biography. Leslie Stephens edited 21 volumes of The Dictionary of National Biography, and Stratchey's book Eminent Victorians became famous for creating a style of "new biography" that incorporated psychological insight and an occasionally irreverent narrative to move beyond the typical idea of biographies that put their subject on an unrealistic and idealized pedestal.  

Many of Woolf’s essays articulate both an ongoing interest in (and curious ambivalence toward) biographical projects.   In "A Sketch of the Past" Woolf wrote, "It is so difficult to give any account of the person to whom things happen. The person is evidently immensely complicated…In spite of all this, people write what they call ‘lives’ of other people; that is, they collect a number of events, and leave the person to whom it happened unknown.” In our discussion last week a number of people expressed frustration at not being able to clearly "see" the plot and characters, particularly Jacob. What do you think the form of the novel has to do with challenging the idea of biography and the knowability of other people?  Use specific moments and textual evidence to back up your arguments.