In her essay, ‘Reading Simone de Beauvoir with Martin Heidegger’, Eva Gothlin states that

Arguably, this study of the relationship between Woolf's writings and Heidegger's philosophy in Being and Time leads to a similar outcome, insofar as Woolf's textual representations of the connections between self, world and the Other are afforded a perspective that has been largely unexamined in previous Woolfian studies. Nevertheless, just as Gothlin advises that her reading of Beauvoir from a Heideggerian perspective does not in itself provide definitive conclusions, no claim is made to any absolute or final reading of Woolf's work in this book; to do so would contradict Woolf's own intention throughout her writings to disrupt Western metaphysical dualisms and the concomitant desire for a grounding of fixed meanings and truth. In a similar vein, attempts to apply a univocal meaning to Heidegger's text runs counter to its author's intention, as reflected in the density and opacity of the form and style of Being and Time. Just as truth is a process rather than an endpoint of meaning for both Woolf and Heidegger, so too might this book be understood as one among a number of ways of approaching Woolf's writings.

In the Introduction it was proposed that, despite significant differences in their approaches, the respective writings of Woolf and Heidegger reflect a shared fundamental concern with, and sense of, the relationship between self and world. The individual's connection to the world is defined by an involvement and engagement that is always already situated within a particular social and cultural context; one that is defined by its customs, norms, expectations and prescriptions. In terms of Woolf and Heidegger's textual representations of Beingin- the-world, the central concern for both is the question of how each of us responds, both consciously and unconsciously, to what Woolf describes in ‘A Sketch of the Past’ as the ‘stream’ (‘Sketch’: 92); that is, those influences and forces that direct members of a society to order their lives in a particular manner.