Between the Acts (1941) is Virginia Woolf’s final novel. It was published posthumously, four months after the writer’s death. It is a modernist novel that takes place on one June day in 1939, on the eve of World War II. Set in the English countryside, the novel focuses on the residents of a village who are preparing for their annual pageant at a time of looming international tension and domestic unease. Since much of the action in the novel takes place in the form of the play within it, it is classified as “theater fiction.” Virginia Woolf died before she could revise or edit the novel’s manuscript, leading some critics to consider this an unfinished work.

This study guide uses the 2014 HarperCollins The Virginia Woolf Library e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text depicts characters with colonial, racist, patriarchal, and anti-gay attitudes, and it also contains references to rape and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

The novel begins one evening in June 1939. Bartholomew “Bart” Oliver, a retired member of the Indian Civil Service, is at his estate named Pointz Hall, which is located in a small English village. He is talking to Mrs. Haines, a gentleman farmer’s wife, about introducing indoor plumbing to the village. His daughter-in-law Isa enters the room and reflects on her attraction to Mrs. Haines’s husband, Rupert Haines, lamenting that her marriage to Giles Oliver prevents her from being with Rupert.

The next morning, Mrs. Swithin, Bart’s religious, widowed sister, reminds Bart that the village pageant will take place that day. The villagers, servants, and the pageant’s director, Miss La Trobe, prepare for the pageant. In the afternoon, the Olivers have two unexpected guests—Mrs. Manresa, a wealthy, flirtatious woman, and her companion, William Dodge—who happened across Pointz Hall while looking for a picnic spot. The Olivers invite them to stay for lunch and for the pageant. Then, Giles arrives from his job as a stockbroker in London, sullen about having to sit passively and watch the pageant and wanting to take more action about the war coming to England.

The pageant begins with a little girl personifying the newly formed island of England, followed by a depiction of England as a young woman with flowers in her hair, representing the Chaucer era. The pageant then goes to the Elizabethan period, which features the local tobacco seller Eliza Clark humorously playing Queen Elizabeth I. This is followed by a Shakespearean-style play. An interval follows, during which audience members get food and tea. Giles spots a snake trying to swallow a toad and, disturbed by the sight, he stomps them to death, getting blood on his shoes. Mrs. Manresa admires his aggressiveness, while Isa thinks he is pitiful and foolish. Isa enjoys talking with William Dodge; she suspects he is gay, but she has no problem with his sexuality. Giles, on the other hand, feels angry about it and dislikes William.

After the interval, the pageant explores the Restoration period with a woman dressed as Queen Anne and a Restoration-style comedy about a lascivious, scheming woman who tries to trick her niece out of her inheritance. There is a second interval during which Isa and William continue to chat even as Isa looks for Rupert. Meanwhile, inspired by the sexual themes in the Restoration-style comedy, Giles invites Mrs. Manresa to the greenhouse for a sexual tryst, and she accepts. Isa spots them together.

The third part of the pageant focuses on the Victorian period, depicting a picnic and a dance and featuring characters who speak about the merits of converting nonbelievers to Christianity. During the next interval, Bart and Giles express impatience with the length of the pageant. Isa tells Bart that the proceeds of the pageant will go toward putting electrical lights in the village church. Then, the pageant’s final scene begins, set in the present day. The actors appear onstage holding mirrors and other reflective objects, telling the audience to reflect on themselves. Most of the audience members are offended by this and look away in discomfort.

Then, the village reverend, Mr. Streatfield, happily announces that the pageant has successfully raised money for the church’s electrical lights. Just then, 12 loud airplanes fly over the village, symbolizing the approaching war and making the villagers uneasy. Soon after, the audience disperses, still discussing the pageant.

Miss La Trobe concludes that the audience did not understand the pageant and seeks solace by drinking at an inn, where she finds inspiration for future work. At Pointz Hall, the Olivers and Mrs. Swithin discuss the pageant before retiring. Isa resolves to talk to Giles about their strained marriage.