Virginia Woolf's last piece of handwriting

1/6/2014
By Scheherazade Q.

January 2014 marks 132 years of the birth of author Virginia Woolf. Woolf has been immortalized not only in the pages of the works she wrote, but in film and in the work of other authors. Her last piece of writing was this note, known today as her suicide note. Graphology Consulting Group's CEO, Sheila Kurtz, analyzes it for us below.

Virginia Woolf
By: Sheila Kurtz
Master Graphologist and CEO of Graphology Consulting Group 

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 'til 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. V. [Virginia Woolf's suicide note to her husband, Leonard. March, 1941]

Not long after penning this letter to her husband Leonard, the writer, Virginia Woolf, 59, put on a large overcoat, filled all the pockets with heavy stones, and walked into River Ouse, in Sussex, England, where she drowned herself in the waters of March 28, 1941.

A graphologist sees right away because of the many Greek "e" formations (like a backward 3), and figure-8 shaped "g" formations that the writer is a literary creature to the core. There is also a delta "d" (see last "d" in second line for an example) that  reinforces the literary bent.

The breakaway upstrokes (such as in the "y" in “every”) indicate an aggressive behavior, and the high points on the "p" forms signal a person who sees facts of a matter clearly and loves to argue about them. In addition, a distinct stubbornness is also apparent (a tent-like formation in the "t" and "d" forms).

There are no approach strokes in the letter, an indication of a straight-forward, no frills approach to almost everything.  A big capital "K" in mid-sentence (such as in “Know”) indicates a strong sense of defiance.

Slashes of impatience are found throughout the letter and there a several “temper tics” (a small, straight stroke at the beginning of some letters). Muddied-up "e" formations indicate a closed-mindedness to almost any but her own preconceptions.

Could a graphologist who saw this letter on March 28 have been able to foresee her suicide?  I would not have been looking for it and without more evidence, I would not have predicted it had not the letter almost explicitly warned of it.

Sheila Kurtz, Master Graphologist.

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