本文旨在参照伍尔夫的“重要瞬间”概念，对其小说《远航》中的自我追寻进行研究。通过文本细读，本文重点探讨了两个问题：“重要瞬间”如何引发自我追寻及雷切尔如何进行自我追寻。本文分为三章，分析了自我追寻的过程：唤醒自我、探索自我和放弃自我追寻。首先，基于研究伍尔夫对“重要瞬间”的解读，本文试图揭示雷切尔受“重要瞬间”激发形成的矛盾的自我反思：疏离与参与。然后分析雷切尔在相同活动中产生的矛盾自我后，发现第一阶段产生的自我反思将雷切尔导向两条不同的通道——内部世界和外部世界，并形成了“私人自我”和“公共自我”。摇摆于两种自我之间，雷切尔在第二阶段发展出了一种新的自我——“双重自我”。通过解读雷切尔自我冲突和自我失落，本研究揭示出瑞秋最终放弃了自我追求。分析自然意象对瑞秋自我追寻的影响可以证明雷切尔从外部世界和内心世界同时解脱，因此她的死亡是不可避免的。但是飞蛾在暴风雨中幸存的象征意味着自我的重生和未来的希望。本研究认为，伍尔夫让雷切尔身心都回归自然，为重生做准备。由这些“重要瞬间”引发的自我追寻将过去与现在联系起来，然后指向一个未知但充满希望的未来。同时，本文最后将伍尔夫在写作生涯之初的艺术创作经历与这种自我追寻相联系，发现伍尔夫利用这种自我追寻呈现出一个通向未来成功的无休止的循环，旨在预示伍尔夫艺术自我在未来写作生涯中的重生。伍尔夫后来在现代主义写作创新取得的巨大成功便印证了该预示。

The present thesis is an attempt to study the self-quest in Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out in reference to Woolf’s concept of “moments of being”. By means of close reading, the thesis discusses how the “moments of being” trigger off Rachel’s self-quest, and how Rachel proceeds to the self-quest. The thesis falls into three chapters which discuss the process of self-quest: awakening self, forming contradictory self and abandoning self-quest. Based on the research on Woolf’s interpretation of “moments of being”, the thesis first reveals Rachel’s conflicting self-reflection triggered by the “moments of being”—alienation and involvement. Then, the analysis on Rachel’s contradictory self in the same activities proves that the self-reflection leads Rachel towards two diverging channels— the internal world and the external world—where she forms the private self and the public self. Oscillating between the internal world and the external world, Rachel develops the dual self during the second stage. Through the interpretation of Rachel’s self-conflict and self-loss, the research reveals that Rachel abandons the self-quest in the end. The analysis on the impact of natural images on Rachel’s self-quest proves that she disentangles herself from the external world and the internal at once. So Rachel’s death is unavoidable. But the symbol of a moth that survives a storm implies a rebirth of self, a future hope. This research concludes that Woolf makes Rachel retreat to nature physically and spiritually to prepare for a rebirth. And the self-quest triggered by the moments can connect the past with the present and then lead towards an unknown but hopeful future. The thesis finally studies the relation between Woolf's artistic creation at the beginning of her writing career and the self-quest. Woolf aims to use this self-quest to imply an interminable cycle leading to future success. This foreshadows a rebirth of Woolf’s artistic self in the future writing career. Woolf's later great success in experimenting with modernist writing bears out this foreshadowing in The Voyage Out.