What does the brain matter?

“‘What does the brain matter,’ said Lady Rosseter, getting up, ‘compared with the heart?’” (Woolf 296).

This simple quote, appearing on the last page of the novel, is very important and shows many different themes of the book.  This sentence is spoken by Sally Seton, who has married and taken on a different name (Rosseter).  Up until this point in the book, she was referred to as Sally, or Sally Seton, and shown as carefree, extravagant, and daring.  Here, however, at the end of the novel, Woolf calls her “Lady Rosseter,” which shows that she has grown up, grown old.  Another theme or contemplation posed throughout the novel is the question of whether love fades with age, whether one’s prime for love and relationships is in their youth.  Here, however, Lady Rosseter, who has grown up and out of girlhood, mentions how the heart is still more important than the brain.  This seems like a definitive answer, with it being at the end of the book and Sally being a character looked up to by almost everone throughout the book—she seems to say, here, with supreme knowledge, that yes, love is possible in old age.  Lastly, there has been a debate throughout the book of whether it is better to love the world simply because it is there, without any knowledge of its shortcomings, or to gain knowledge and thought, which might, in the end, make one less happy.  This quote says that matters of the heart and far more important than those of the brain and of logic—the heart is what you should listen to.