ENL 159: "Jacob Flanders as a Self-Appointed Public Character"

Jacob Flanders is a self-appointed public character in this novel because so much of the novel is centered on his actions. The fact that Jacob has no voice of his own--he is represented through the eyes, perspectives, voices of other people--attests to this observation. Jacob himself, however, has certain qualities that make him a public figure in the society of the novel, and in the metaphors used to paint his character.

J. Jacobs defines a "public character" as one "who is in frequent contact with a wide circle of people and who is sufficiently interested to make himself a public character...[they] need not have any special talents or wisdom to fulfill his function...he just needs to be present...His main qualification is that he is public, that he talks to lots of different people" (Jacobs 68). Jacob, by this definition is a public character. He manages to interact with people in ways which affect them deeply, like his mother who cannot understand her son's penchant for trouble; the sea captain who chooses Jacob over his older brother for a higher education; and even the woman in the carriage, Mrs. Norman, becomes lost in a reverie about him: "Nobody sees any one as he is, let alone an elderly lady sitting opposite a strange young man in a railway carriage. They see a whole--they see all sorts of things--they see themselves..." (Woolf 31).

More important than these interactions with people are Jacobs interests, as he finds himself attracted to butterflies and other insects which, one might argue, could represent his fascination with people who, like insects, pervade his life. Even the way in which the book is written gives emphasis to his character as the characters around him are inclined to watch him, speak with him, speak for him; Jacob's character is so public he never has to explain himself to the reader.