"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway

By Virginia Woolf

Chernovol Valeria

Introduction

• When Virginia Woolf published Mrs. Dalloway in 1925, literature was undergoing some radical changes. Along with James Joyce (whose Ulysses is, well, good luck with that one), Woolf revolutionized the novel form by writing a story which takes place all in one day. This brilliant woman was a vital part of the Modernist literature movement, and after her, books would never be the same.
• Virginia Woolf brought to light an ugly truth that people didn’t really talk about much at the time: the war really messed people up psychologically.

Summary

• Mrs. Dalloway is not your typical day-in-the-life story, but it is a day-in-the-life story – a revolutionary one at that. It covers one day for Clarissa Dalloway (with some other central characters, too) as she prepares for a big party that will take place that evening.

Society and Class

• Post-World War I British society was very conservative and hierarchical Throughout Mrs. Dalloway, we see how deeply aware characters are of their social standing. Those in the upper class cherish their family history and often come from royalty or aristocracy; for those in the lower class, it is very difficult to move up in the world. As Woolf clearly indicates, British people were meant to admire the upper class and be very aware of their place in the social ladder. Notice that most of Clarissa’s friends are of the same social status or higher –the prime minister even comes to her party! On the other hand, people like Ellie Henderson and Miss Kilman are loathsome to Clarissa in part because they’re beneath her socially. And it’s not just Clarissa: almost all of the characters are concerned with social status and class – either increasing it, holding onto it, or feeling inferior from it.

Time

• One of the amazing things about Mrs. Dalloway is the creative use of time. The novel starts in an early morning in June 1923 and ends the next day at 3am; that means fewer than twenty-four hours pass during the course of the story. This compact use of time means that you have to read closely because moment counts. Because of this, a lot happens in the course of just a few minutes (usually in thoughts more than in actions). For example, characters will flash back to the past at Bourton, and recall elaborate stories, while in present time only a few minutes have passed. We (and the characters) are constantly reminded of time by Big Ben, London’s giant clock tower, which is sounding off the hours through the entire novel. This is particularly poignant for Clarissa whose preoccupation with time relates to her fear of death. She’s deeply aware that as time passes, she gets closer to death, and she feels odd that life will go on just the same without her.

Memory and the Past

• Clarissa’s party stirs up memories for many of the characters, and memories are constantly woven into the present-day thoughts of the characters. The past affects each character differently in Mrs Dalloway. Certain memories are very keen (and much happier) for Clarissa, such as getting a kiss from Sally Seton. She cherishes these moments as the best of her life. For Peter, the past is mostly just painful: he still can’t get over his love for Clarissa and so he constantly returns to the summers at Bourton in order to make sense of what happened. For Septimus, memories are haunting and painful. He continues to hallucinate that he’s seeing Evans get killed, and memories of the war dominate his mind. Though he struggles to see beauty, the present is constantly interrupted by gruesome visions of the past.

Characters

• Mrs. Dalloway (Clarissa). It's no surprise that Clarissa Dalloway is our main protagonist – heck, the book is named.
• Septimus Warren Smith. Septimus is a shell-shocked World War I soldier. He’s a unique figure in literature because.
• Peter Walsh. Peter is Clarissa’s old suitor from the days of Bourton. He’s lives in India, but has.
• Sally Seton (Lady Rosseter). Sally is Clarissa’s friend from the days of Bourton. Theirs was a very deep friendship that.
• Sir William Bradshaw is the character who most embodies British upper-class patriarchal.
• Richard Dalloway. Mr Dalloway is around in part to give Mrs Dalloway an identity. After all, without him, she's.
• Miss Kilman. Miss Doris Kilman is in love with Elizabeth, an attraction that Clarissa finds repulsive.

• Lucrezia Smith (a.k.a. Rezia). Rezia is Septimus' wife, who he met at the end of the war when he was staying at her home.
• Elizabeth Dalloway. Often compared to a beautiful flower, Elizabeth is the beloved daughter of Clarissa and Richard.
• Lady Millicent Bruton. A woman with an impressive family tree and all the right social and political connections.
• Hugh Whitbread. Hugh is an old friend of Clarissa. He's in town taking his ailing wife to see doctors.
• Dr. Holmes is Septimus’ thoroughly unsympathetic general practitioner.
• Evans is Septimus' friend and an officer in the war, who died just before the war ended.
• Helena Perry (Aunt Helena). Now past age eighty, Clarissa’s Aunt Helena spent summers with the family at Bourton.
• Ellie Henderson . Ellie is Clarissa’s painfully geeky, dull (and poor) cousin.

Third Person Omniscient

• Strictly defined, the point of view in Mrs. Dalloway is third person omniscient; that means there’s an overarching narrator who knows everything and who has access to everyone’s thoughts.
• The point of view changes many times during the course of the novel, as we weave in and out of the minds of Clarissa, Septimus, Lucrezia, Peter, Richard, Elizabeth, and Miss Kilman. We have access to their thoughts and memories, which among the literary set is called "free indirect discourse." (See our section on "Writing Style" for a little more on this.)
• The omniscient narrator, on the other hand, remains anonymous – we’re not talking Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. At times the omniscient narrator can be quite prominent and critical – as in discussions of Sir William Bradshaw and even Miss Kilman – but other times will simply relate the thoughts of the characters themselves. Suffice it to say we have a lot of opinions coming our way in this story.

• This narrative technique is perfect for Mrs. Dalloway. It allows us to focus on the little things that people think about, things that might seem silly for a narrator to comment on (like the major people-watching that all the characters do). At the same time, it can get a little confusing. Sometimes the shift between characters – and between the present and the past – are so subtle that we don’t even notice. So be warned: read carefully!

Genre Modernism

• Mrs. Dalloway is the ultimate example of modern literature (meaning it is part of the genre of modernism). After World War I, people felt like their world was shattered, and art and culture went through dramatic change. Writers and artists of all kinds began to question the traditions of the nineteenth century. Thinkers embraced new ideas like cubism (think Picasso’s messed up faces) and surrealism (think of a melting watch). It was a very creative time, and an era in which new media such as photography and cinema arrived and changed the way people saw the world.

Setting

• London, June 1923.
• Setting is one of the most innovative aspects of Mrs. Dalloway. The events of the story take place on a Wednesday in June 1923 (most importantly, in post-World War I London), all in one day. This choice to talk about just one day is very modernist (check out our "In a Nutshell" for more on this) and very novel – pun intended. But because the characters are so haunted by the past, the reader is taken away from London several times, and travels back in time to Bourton, to the country home owned by Clarissa’s family.

Complex, Psychological

• In  Mrs. Dalloway , style works closely with both tone and genre. The style of  Mrs Dalloway  is complex, psychological, intricate, and dense. (Yeah, you should be sitting down for this.) Even in one sentence, we can encounter multiple ideas and multiple tones: this is all thanks to the style. And of course, the style changes throughout the story. First of all, we're in the minds of several different characters, so we hear various styles of speaking and thinking. Woolf was very concerned with subjective reality, that is, what reality looks like from any one person’s point of view; so what (and  how ) each character thinks is very different. And of course, we also have present-day observations and stream of consciousness mixed in with memories and visions. All of this makes for one big style mash-up.

Conflict

• Clarissa’s old suitor, Peter Walsh, drops in on Clarissa unannounced. They have a short visit in which it becomes clear that he’s nowhere near being over his love for her. After a humiliating sob fest (on Peter's part), Clarissa invites him to her party as he races out the door. Now that Peter's back, will Clarissa start to doubt her relationship with her husband? Will she pine for the past? All we know is that ex-boyfriends are never good news.

Complication

• We now meet Septimus, who’s waiting for an appointment with the eminent psychiatrist Sir William Bradshaw. Septimus' presence isn't a complication to the main conflict (yet): he doesn't really even cross paths with any of the other main characters. That said, his trauma-induced anxiety complicates the simple view that the English people want to have about the war. War is not all about heroism, and Septimus is a strong reminder of the scars that it has left on society. This isn't your regular plot-driving complication, but a deeper, more meaningful one.

Climax

• After a moment of joy with his wife, Lucrezia, Septimus decides that he won't go with the doctors to a mental institution. Instead, he throws himself out a window and is impaled on the railings below. The contrast between the joy of the couple's conversation and Septimus' suicide makes this scene even more climactic.

Denouement

• Dr. Bradshaw and his wife arrive late to the party and Lady Bradshaw excuses them by explaining that one of her husband's patients had committed suicide. Clarissa is outraged that anyone would mention death at her festive gathering, and she retreats to her bedroom to collect herself. (We're starting to see how it's all connected now.)

Conclusion

• After a few moments of reflection, Clarissa is no longer offended by Septimus' suicide, but rather identifies with it. She feels that he’s made a beautiful and sublime sacrifice that allows her to see life with fresh eyes. She returns to the party a somewhat different person, and her joy spreads immediately to Peter Walsh.