"...the unmistakable tokens of death showed themselves. The body relaxed, and instantly grew stiff. The struggle was over. The insignificant little creature now knew death. As I looked at the dead moth, this minute wayside triumph of so great a force over so mean an antagonist filled me with wonder. Just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now as strange. The moth having righted himself now lay most decently and uncomplainingly composed. O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am."
from "Death of a Moth" by Virginia Woolf
Study Questions
1. Threats of disorder and death recur throughout the novel, culminating in Septimus's suicide and repeating later in Sir William Bradshaw's report of that suicide at Clarissa's party. When do thoughts or images of disorder and death appear in the novel, and in connection with which characters? What are those characters' attitudes concerning death?
2. Why does Woolf end the novel with Clarissa as seen through Peter's eyes? Why does he experience feelings of "terror," "ecstasy," and "extraordinary excitement" in her presence? What is the significance of those feelings, and do we as readers share them?
3. Clarissa reads lines from Shakespeare's Cymbeline (IV, ii) from an open book in a shop window: "Fear no more the heat o' the sun / Nor the furious winter's rages. / Thou thy worldly task hast done, / Home art gone and ta'en thy wages: / Golden lads and girls all must, / As chimney-sweepers, come to dust." These lines are alluded to many times. What importance do they have for Clarissa, Septimus, and the novel's principal themes? What fears do Clarissa and other characters experience?
4. Now that we have completed our first reading of the novel, what connections are seeing between The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway? How do big themes from the present shine through? How does the analysis of Virginia Woolf bring out ideas from her novel?
from "Death of a Moth" by Annie Dillard"
The strongest connection that I can make between the two novels is that theme of perception. Perception of how we see one another and the perception of how others see us, as well as the perception that we have on ourselves. This is not to mean that we ourselves look and care too much about what people think of us, but together the novels highlight the insecurity that is shared with all humans, no matter who you are and what time period you live. The self consciousness that is felt whenever we start comparing ourselves to others. Then our minds begin on the treacherous mindset of , “ Should I look like that?” “Do I need to get that?” and “ I wish I had their life!”. We become stuck in this rut of being unhappy with our own lives, constantly trying to improve and fulfill the whole of satisfaction. Sadly this hole never is filled as expectations morphe and change as life goes on, and we live on in this toxic environment, filled with desperation. Between both books there is a major emphasis on this ideal perfect live that seems so attainable to others but not to the characters, the perception of happiness is strongly challenged with both storylines.
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing Mrs. Dalloway and taking some moments to reflect upon the messages that flowed throughout the book, I can come to appreciate the mirror Virginia Woolf hopes to reflect upon the individuals who read her novel.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, she describes the thoughts of different individuals about life and about each other. What may seem at first to be random, somewhat connected streams of consciousness connect in a brilliant manner in the end to show the self-centeredness of all people. People aren’t necessarily labeled as self-centered, but within all minds do we find a thinking process centered around the effects of the world on said individual on a day-to-day basis.
We see people such as Richard praise his own fortune as he pities a homeless girl in passing who preaches about her own freedom. We see Peter praise the perfection of systems in England while they fail to keep Septimus alive. We see Septimus scorn almost everything and everyone he encounters, including his wife earlier in the novel, even as she tries her best to restore his health and make him happy once more. At the beginning of Clarissa’s party, she feels hatred towards Septimus for killing himself before his party and dampening the spirit of it, completely oblivious to the tragedy of the event. Even Rezia thinks selfishly, often wanting to leave her husband and simply unable to for lack of money. All of the characters which we are able to peer into the minds of show their self-centered thoughts in some way or another. Perhaps the only time you can truly find someone who is able to see beyond their selfishness is Clarissa within the last few pages when she blames herself for Septimus’s death for not paying attention more, though even that can arguably be considered selfish for thinking of her role within his death.
The ending ends with Peter realizing he was still in love with Clarissa. Despite being rejected many years earlier when he proposed to her at a fountain the ending reveals the Clarissa was still his love. Earlier we see him questioning his engagement to Daisy, a married woman he met in India. Even though the very reason he came to England was to sort papers for her divorce, he isn’t marrying Daisy for love but “to prevent her from marrying anybody else.”
ReplyDeleteHowever the feelings of terror and ecstasy that he feels when he sees Clarissa indicates he still has feelings for her. The idea that this novel takes place in one day leaves us to question how much can change. For example, Septimus’ suicide is a major plot point which drastically affects many of the characters in the novel. But we also see how much potential there is given the feelings Peter has for Clarissa. The open ended ending could result in Peter chasing after Clarissa one more time or both simply going back to their lives.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have finished both the novel, Mrs. Dalloway and the movie, the Hours, I have been able to see similar and different themes and patterns throughout both. The novel was definitely more detailed because it focused on Mrs. Dalloway’s world, and not the three lives of Mrs. Dalloway, Mrs. Brown, and Virginia Woolf. It shed light on Mrs. Dalloway’s true character and what she goes through, physically, emotionally, and mentally. In fact, one big theme present throughout the entire novel is death. Mental illness, mostly in Septimus and Clarissa, is shown as well leading to this concept of death. From the beginning to the end, death is a large idea and is actually captured by Septimus who kills himself towards the middle/end of the novel which was definitely a climax in the novel. Septimus was not in The Hours, however other characters such as Richard also continue the theme of death because in the movie, Richard commits suicide. The analysis of Virginia Woolf brings out so many ideas because this novel had a different way of writing than anything I had ever read, I found it actually pretty difficult. However, in a way I really enjoyed it because it showed the private thoughts of every character which shed light on themselves and how they thought of others - which brought more to the storyline and the plot. For example, Clarissa and Peter have a relatively complicated relationship. We know that Peter is in love with Clarissa, as seen in the end and is fighting it throughout the entire novel despite the fact that he is with Daisy and she is with Richard, even though she still believes she has feelings for women - reflecting back on her relationship with Sally. The reader would never be able to interpret this on their own throughout The Hours, which shows again that the novel definitely elaborates these events better through the thought processes of the characters. The ending of the novel affected me because there was no specific ending, but Peter had expressed his feelings and the last the reader saw was the aftermath of the party. I wish I could read about more days in Clarissa’s life, but I really enjoyed the characters as well as how the reader was shown each one in depth with Woolf’s writing style.
Even though there were tragic endings for both “The Hours” and “Mrs Dalloway” I loved them both very much. After finishing the book and the movie I was able to connect some things together and see a lot of similarities they both share. You can easily see a connection from the start when the two Clarrisa’s, one from “The Hours” and one from “Mrs Dalloway” go buy flowers for their party to brighten it up. A bigger connection between the two characters is the regret they have over choices they made in their lifetimes. In “Mrs Dalloway” Clarissa is always wondering what her life would be if she were with Sally rather than Richard, but in “The Hours” Clarrisa IS with Sally and yet she still thinks about what she could have done differently in her life. “Mrs Dalloway” and “The Hours” both also depict the passage of time using different narrative techniques. In the novel time is depicted through the stream of consciousness method, meanwhile in the movie it is broken up into three different stories showing the lives of three different characters. These techniques allow me to experience the character’s thoughts and their perception of time, especially when their thoughts travel from the present to the past and to the future. Overall, I enjoyed reading the first novel and hope to read more of Virginia Woolf’s literary pieces.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed reading both the hours and mrs. Dalloway and I also enjoyed finding similarities in them. The main thing that stands out to me is the similarities in both Clarissa's. Dalloway wonders if she would be happier with Sally, but when Vaughan is actually with sally, she too is left to wonder if she has made the right choice. Both of them are left wondering of the unknown and if they would be happier if they had made different choices. Also, the similarities of Richard in the hours and Septimus are strong too. They both feel that they have no control anymore due to their illnesses. They spiral out of reality and they think that the only way to regain that control and to get rid of their sickness is to take their own lives. And of course this also relates to the scene of Virginia walking into the river because she cannot cope with her mental illness, and to Laura, who is not fit for the domestic life she is living. I see similarities in Mrs. Dalloway and in Laura Brown. Even though Laura is struggling to find who she is, she knows what she wants and how she wants it, even if she can't have it. She plans on committing suicide, but not before she makes her husband the perfect birthday cake and making sure that her son is taken care of, much like how Clarissa is always set on doing the smart thing, not the fastest. In the end, she doesn't commit suicide, but it is almost like she died because now she is still living a life where she is struggling to find meaning in.
ReplyDeleteThough we have only just finished the end of the novel, the connections between the movie and the novel were so frequent that I had to continuously remind myself that the two did not tell the same story and therefore would not have the same ending. By the end of the two, I have been able to really reflect on the connections and connect them to other things in the larger world. If I am being honest, I struggled to keep up with Virginia Woolf’s style of writing in Mrs. Dalloway and therefore dreaded the readings. But now I can see the larger benefits that this style of writing provided that the movie could not. The reader has a clear view inside Mrs. Dalloway’s mind including her decision making and the inner mechanisms of everyday thinking. The movie attempts to keep up with this by showing scenes that one may think are small parts of the day such as the flower shop scene but really gives the reader a better glimpse into Mrs. Dalloway’s character. A major theme in both the movie and book is death, specifically sucuide. The beginning scenes of the movie showing Virginia Woolf stepping into the stream as the beginning of her suicide attempt are still very vivid in my mind. Throughout the film we see her struggle with mental health which was an extremely stigmatized topic then and still is today. In the book we see Septimus’s struggle with mental health, specifically PTSD and his later suicide. Richard’s suicide in the movie also remains very vivid in my mind. Like Septimus and Virginia, Richard feels he has nothing left to live for as his sickness worsens and he feels he no longer has control over his life. Laura Brown in the movie also connects to this feeling of no control which leads her to contemplate suicide but never follow through with it. Instead, she leaves her family which she sees as the only way to save her life. I found this especially striking after finishing the movie and seeing all the death that happened. Why did the author choose to save Laura? Like Woolf said in the film “someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.” Is this the explanation to Laura’s choice to live when later the rest of her family would die? These are concepts that will continue to haunt me from both reading the book and watching the movie. Though it may have been confusing at times to do both at the same time, I am really thankful that we did because I think it allows for a deeper understanding of both and the ability to see how and why they intersect.
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing this book, there are two key ideas that stuck with me throughout. The first being Clarissa’s spirit. She is cheerful, kind spirited, and appreciative of the beauty around her. Yet she is also pensive, contemplative, and witty. Throughout the book she knows Peter believes her to be shallow and petty, and she herself grapples with these seemingly conflicting identities. I have never experienced a character like her: one so nuanced and complex and honest. In some ways, she validated some parts of my identity. At first, I was not in love with the last few sentences of the book. All this and we get a declaration of love from Peter to Clarissa? Yes, I believe they belong together, but is that really all this boils down to when the book goes so far beyond that? Then, I read it again and gained a better understanding. Peter asks “What is this terror? What is this ecstasy?” He is doing more than admitting his affection for Clarissa, he is pondering life. He is asking what are all these feelings that life is made of, at awe with the wonder of it. He answers that question with Clarissa, but I believe that to be one of many things. We all have our Clarissas and each person has multiple Clarissas: those things in life that make you sit back and say wow.
ReplyDeleteThe second big takeaway was the level of depth and detail in which Woolf portrays both human emotions and human interactions. It is the literary equivalent of a very intricate persian rug. It is so packed with description that if I were to read it again I could have a totally new perspective based on what details I cling on to. Every paragraph could be analyzed by pages and pages.
Clarissa says of Sedimus’s suicide “He made her feel beatuy. He made her feel the sun” This reminded me of The Hours when Woolf explains that someone must die in order for the rest to appreciate life.
I think it was interesting how the story was ended by showing Clarissa through Peter’s eyes, especially since we started the story looking at London through Clarissa’s eyes. I think that in doing this, Woolf was able to show how Peter really felt about Clarissa. Peter and Clarissa had a tumultuous relationship when they were young, and neither of them were ever able to fully move on from it. Despite not seeing each other for years, they were still able to upset each other and fight like when they were young. I think that Peter felt feelings of terror and excitement around Clarissa at the end of the story because he reminded her of when he was young. Seeing her made him remember his youth, and the way he felt with Clarissa. So much had changed since he was young. They had both moved on and fallen in love with others. Clarissa had become a wife who threw lavish parties, which Peter never understood. I think that Peter felt so excited around Clarissa because he was reminded of who they used to be and how they felt around each other. It was probably also very upsetting, since he knew that they could never be like that again. Clarissa and Peter’s relationship was one of the most interesting of the story, and I wonder what would have happened if they had ended up together.
ReplyDeleteClarissa frequently has thoughts on disorder and death. She begins the book debating with herself on the nature of death, and whether the world will continue on once she’s gone, and how. These thoughts make her uneasy, and she cannot come to a satisfactory conclusion. She also wishes to throw a party, and it must be a perfect party. Thus, the idea of it being disorderly dismays her, and she spends much of the day leading up to the party fretting about small details like the flowers, and her dress. When Peter comes into her life, he brings an unexpected blast from the past, reminding her of her younger and carefree days. The same happens again when Sally Seton shows up during her party. All of a sudden, the wild days from her youth have reappeared - but they are not the same. She must face the fact that things have changed, a prospect she does not enjoy. Before this can happen however, the Bradshaws show up at her party, with news of Septimus’s death. This throws off Clarissa, for it brings uncertainty into her party, tainting it. She takes a break from everyone, choosing to be alone while she thinks. It is during this time that she comes to see death anew. She sees Septimus’s death as a form of communication, of freedom. She says, speaking of Septimus, “This he had preserved. Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate; people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which, mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded, one was alone. There was an embrace in death”. He has preserved the nature of himself through his suicide - he did not allow the doctors to take his soul and twist him into “proportion”. Clarissa is glad of his suicide - it makes their party, and their lives all the brighter. It is as Virginia said in The Hours, “Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It's contrast”. This is what she does in Mrs. Dalloway. Septimus also spends time ruminating on the nature of death. He realizes he does not want to die, he loves life. And yet, he still jumps. As he jumps, he shouts “I’ll give it to you”, speaking of his soul. Instead, he chooses to give it freely to the world, unchanged, and in this act he saves himself. Death is his release, and his attempt to communicate finally, as Clarissa sees. And through his death, Clarissa herself also finds peace.
ReplyDeleteVirginia Woolf ends the novel with Clarissa as seen through Peter’s eyes. By doing so, Peter's true feelings are shown, he does love Clarissa. In Clarissa’s presence, he experiences feelings of "terror," "ecstasy," and "extraordinary excitement." These emotions come from the fact that Peter loves Clarissa, despite his negative feelings towards her. Peter spent most of the novel fixated on Clarissa’s faults. In this moment, he realizes that Clarissa makes him feel complete. As readers, we understand that Peter loves Clarissa through his feelings and thoughts. Throughout the novel, Peter struggles with his feelings for Clarissa, living in denial. He won’t admit how he feels and tries to mask his feelings, by pointing out all of Clarissa’s flaws. At the end of the book, Peter has this realization that he does love Clarissa. While reading the book, we begin to understand the relationship between Peter and Clarissa through their thoughts and memories. Both of them recollect on their past together to try to define their futures. Peter finally comes to terms with what the audience knew all along.
ReplyDeleteThe theme of death seem to tie the entire novel together, which when seen through the critical eye of the reader is a clear allusion to Virginia Woolf’s suicidal thoughts. Her incessant mention of death itself influences the characters in the books and shapes their beliefs and actions. But not only death of the physical body, but the losing of self. Septimus believes he would lose his soul, and opted to leave his body than live a lifeless life, an action crucified by many, but closely observed by Clarissa, who could closely correlate is experience to her own. Clarissa, like Septimus, feels overwhelmed by the world around her, and like Septimus, ponders upon the possibility of death, and the release it would offer from this ‘soulless life’.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the novel comes from the point of view of Clarissa, the very end portrays it from Peter’s perspective. I comes to show just how overpowering perception is in Woolf’s view. While Clarissa seems to see herself under the critical eye of Peter, his perspective of her is that of a magnificent woman and a force to be reckoned with. Although earlier his is not able to express his feelings towards her, because he is confused about them himself, Peter seems to recognize the power Clarissa yields, and the excitement he feels towards her presence conveys the things he can not figure out himself.
Both Septimus and Clarissa seem to believe they have lost the lust for life in the persue for meaning. While both live in considerably comfortable positions physically, the characters struggle with their human relations and lives. “Thou thy worldly task hast done” read Clarissa in the bookshop window, perhaps she felt the message to be more personal than it has meant to be. Although Clarissa is a high member in society, she does not feel to be held to those standards, and constantly ponders upon her own death, and even feels responsible for not aiding a friend in need. Septimus no longer fears death, for he believes his task is on Earth to be completed. He would prefer to end his life than to live in his miserable gauntness. He no longer fears death, but sees the deeper meaning within its occurrence. he is capable of understanding his life to be complete, and thus takes his own life.
While reading the novel I found the connection between Mrs. Dalloway and its modern counterpart to be mere comparisons, not closely related plots. While some names overlap, the majority of novel follows its own path into the life of Clarissa, and the other characters. However, I found both to do a great job with the perceptions of time, while The Hours went back and forth on the timeline, both adequately manipulated the readers to feel like the day, which both run the course of, was longer than it actually was.
There are numerous connections between The hours and Mrs. Dalloway for obvious reasons regarding plot but there are huge themes that are present in both literary pieces. What really shines now that i've read The Hours and seen the movie the character that had been built in my head of Virgina Woolf became really define and had so much depth. The reason for this greater depth is due to how when reading Mrs. Dalloway its almost weird how I picture Virgina writing in sitting it in her chair while smoking and acting in her particular way. The themes from the present shine through such as death and life. This theme of death and life in relation to Virginia Woolf and Clarissa become especially evident. Virginia struggles with her battle to go back to London and disobeying her medical orders which are put in place to “ensure her safety” and she states how her confinement is worse than even death. Similar Clarissa tackles a lot of feelings regarding what she wants to do contradicted by the people - especially the men around her. She sees the world with a lot of emotions and takes the time to admire a flower or the way kids play on a swing while Peter or Septimus analyze everything critically. To Clarissa the way she looks at life is what she lives by and to not do that is similar to how virginia woolf refuses to be confined somewhere that's not london.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, something that has really interested me is the relationship between Clarissa and Peter. At the end of the story, particularly during the party, we can see Peter’s true feelings come out. Even though he continuously denies it, we know that Peter is still in love with Clarissa by the way he acts. And similarly, Clarissa still has feelings for Peter because she is constantly worried about what he thinks of her. She worries that he is judging her at the party because he always acted like her way of life was beneath him. When they were young, Peter and Clarissa had a passionate relationship. But they had both grown up and moved on, and fallen in love with other people. And so now, seeing each other brings up feelings of both excitement and fear. This is displayed when he questions his recent engagement to Daisy and claims that he doesn’t actually love her, he just doesn’t want anyone else to marry her. Peter fills with “terror” and “ecstasy” as he realizes that he is actually in love with Clarrissa. I really like the way Woolf ended the book because it is successful in leaving the reader wanting to read more. We finally get the answer to our questions and learn the true feelings of Peter and get to see Clarissa through his eyes. But I am curious as to what will happen next, if this whole novel took place in one day, what could happen in another day, a week, or a month. There are so many possibilities and the novel helps readers gain a perspective on how quickly and suddenly a change can take place.
ReplyDelete“He opened the big blade of his pocket knife.”
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Peter is tortured by his inability to accept that Clarissa does not love him. At this moment, we can see that he begins to turn to the most radical ailment for his lifelong struggle: killing himself, or maybe somebody else (Clarissa most likely). Similar to the way Septimus felt before he jumped out the window, Peter embarked on Shakespeare's Cymbeline. No longer fearing the heat of the sun or the furious winter’s rages resembles the tendency to give up what we have because of the pain that we face from it. The burden of loving without receiving any in return would be lifted from Peter, and the result would be to never love again, either by killing himself or killing the person he loves. But, Peter does not kill himself in the end. It helps that he is not sick and incapable of emotions like Septimus, but in the very last lines of the novel, it is revealed that Peter’s stream of consciousness finally lets loose with his feelings. The “terror,” “ecstasy” and “extraordinary excitement” resemble all of his feelings toward Clarissa that he, up until now, did not understand how to enjoy. He no longer desires to kill himself because he realizes that he can still love whether or not he is loved back.
Similar to Peter, Clarissa struggles with the desire to please all that cross her path. She claims that she throws the party out of her sheer enjoyment of doing so, but it can be inferred through her inner thoughts that she wants to satisfy all the people she believes she has impacted strongly. Through her stream of consciousness, she learns to let go of the feelings of everybody around her and focus on her own. The differences in the way these two characters came to an understanding of their own feelings, along with other characters in the book, give multiple perspectives on (to be blunt) the meaning of life that Virginia Woolf wants to portray.
The relationship between Clarissa and Peter was very intriguing to me. The two had had a relationship while they were younger, yet could never entirely get past it, as the story ends with Peter realizing his love for her. This was a very mature thing for him to do, as he struggled to see how much he desired having her in his life. While they fondly look back at their prior relationship, it seems to be that it was one similar to many others at a young age. Many young relationships involve frequent arguments as they have not yet figured out how to peacefully disagree or compromise on something. I find it interesting that Peter has come to his realization despite their fights still being common. Both of them had very cealy gone their separate ways, even getting married to different people, yet somehow still had room for each other. This, in contrast to the death, brings the idea of rebirth, and that perhaps starting something over could be a good thing. Septimus may be on a path to being reborn, given another chance at life to do things differently, while he also may simply be gone. I would love to see what happens between Clarissa and Peter after the ending of the novel, to see if they do end up together after all. They may, however, never have been meant to be together, and remain better apart.
ReplyDeleteFor my blog, I decided to focus on the fourth question. The one main difference I felt between The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway was the emotions that the characters, especially Clarissa, felt. Throughout reading Mrs. Dalloway, there was one thing that was true no matter what part of the book I was at. I was always able to comprehend the mood of Clarissa. For example, when she refers to the death of Septimus at her party and says, “what business had the Bradshaws to talk of death at her party? A young man had killed himself. And they talked of it at her party – the Bradshaws, talked of death,” I knew right away that Clarissa was upset at the Bradshaws. Though this is not a tough case of interpreting emotion, I felt that at times during The Hours, due to the constant changing of perspective, I had a much harder time understanding what each character was thinking.
ReplyDeleteDue to the fact that I was able to understand the emotions of Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway, it made getting through the book much easier. The “English” used in the book was something I was unfamiliar to me, but being able to understand the emotions of the main characters allowed to to have a better sense of what was going on during each part of the book.
There are so many different things throughout Mrs. Dalloway that fascinate me and leave me thinking. These are the thoughts that are always bouncing around my head, but the book slows everything down somehow. It's hard to explain, but even though this book is upsetting at times, it just makes sense - all of my big questions are soft of simplified. The main thing I keep going back to is how Clarissa lives her life. Her morning walks, smelling the flowers, just being there with all of the people is so impressive to me. This state of presence is something I am envious of. I feel like I, and so many others, beat down the question of what making the most of life really means to the point where the source is gone. We want to live a life of fulfillment but we spend so much time trying to figure out the meaning, we end up wasting precious time. When I wake up and find myself falling back into the same old routine, the days I try to mirror Clarissas actions are the ones that turn out the best.
ReplyDeleteI also think the theme of mental illness in the novel is profound. Septimus’s suicide has so many layers. He didn’t really want to die, but he couldn’t go on living either. He just didn’t feel like he belonged with the rest of the world and that is sad, but it doesn’t have to be a completely terrible thing. I think Clarissa reaction “during my party” shows her feelings on a deeper level. At first, it might sound like she is being selfish, which maybe she is a little bit. But I think the root of it is that she feels pain so immensely, that this news makes everything else stop. Suicide is not a selfish thing, it is merely just the final side affect of untreated mental illness. Maybe if there were less stigma and misunderstanding around mental illness, people would be more open to help and acceptance
Firstly, I would like to apologize for turning this in so late.
ReplyDeleteUpon finishing this novel, I am left with the same sense of wonder at Woolf’s writing as I experienced when I began reading it. While it may take some time to adjust to reading, I have such an appreciation for the way she can truly understand her characters and write from their respective views while keeping the actual narrator and the events unbiased. Through these thoughts, we can see how each character corresponds to a character from The Hours. Specifically, I found it interesting how elements of Clarissa from Mrs. Dalloway correspond to Virginia Woolf from The Hours. Clarissa has such an appreciation for the craze of London life in much the same way as Virginia, even thinking “It was a pity that they lived in London- Richard and Clarissa. If only for Clarissa’s health it would have been better to live in the country. But Clarissa had always been fond of society” (179). In The Hours, we can see that this statement has been acted upon, and Virginia lives in the country against her will. Another commonality between the two novels is the overall theme/view of death. Richard and Septimus both jump out a window, not because they wish no longer to live, but because they cannot continue on in a society like the one they see around them. As a take away, both Clarissas realize that life is precious, and “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun.” However, in order for them to reach such a conclusion, they need to first witness another death, in much the same way that we do not appreciate the sunny days until it rains. Both Clarissa (from Mrs. Dalloway) and Dr. Holmes react to the news of suicide in a seemingly inappropriate way, although upon further inspection it is revealed that only Dr. Holmes was out of line. With regard to Septimus’s suicide, it is said “And why the devil he did it, Dr. Holmes could not concieve” (150), while Clarissa simply thinks “in the middle of my party, here’s death” (183). Dr. Holmes was attempting to treat Septimus for what he believed to be a nonexistent condition, but what most anyone reading in 2019 could easily identify as depression. Living through a war leaves the brain with much trauma to process, which Dr. Holmes did not understand, and is a major societal flaw Woolf was attempting to demonstrate. However, Clarissa reacts by thinking that her party has been ruined by the talk of death, which may seem self centered, but really is only because she feels his death so strongly, perhaps because she has considered doing the same thing herself. In some ways it was a good thing that Septimus died because it allowed Clarissa to understand that she did not wish that for herself, no matter how trivial her life may seem.
From what I know about Virginia Woolf, she has the ability to show the reality from different characters perspectives successfully in a number of her works. This is especially obvious in Mrs.Dalloway because of how we specifically can read almost all of the characters thoughts. Because of this, the theme of death in the book affects all of the characters and we can see how and why. Septimus’s story has the most obvious themes of death. He has suffered through the death that was the war and found himself wishing for death at times. Septimus, Clarissa, Peter, and many other characters have an absence of satisfaction in their lives. They all feel something missing, something undiscovered, something unreachable that they desire. This itself is a nod to death; the death of an enjoyable life. This is why Septimus kills himself, not because he doesn’t want to live, but he doesn’t want to be bothered. And it bothers Clarissa that he has intruded in her party with his death, she finds it an inconvenience to the life she is desperately attempting to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteWhich is another interesting connection I noted; all of the characters actions either annoy or make each other’s lives more difficult without being aware of it. Clarissa thinks Peter is always criticizting her and makes her feel self conscious at her party. Peter feels abandoned and almost let down by Clarissa. Yet, he feels compelled to come to her party. Septimus even interrupts Clarissa’s party with his death. We see that, through the discomfort and uncertainty in each of their lives, random characters have more of an impact in people’s minds and lives than we usually see.
I enjoyed this book and the stream of conscious way it was written. There are so many things to digest in it though, many hidden things in each scene that you might have to read two or three times to pick up on.
Why does the book end with Peter's perspective? Why not end with our protagonist, Clarissa? Because Peter sees Clarissa. Even when he is rude and misguided about her, he truly adores her still after 30 years. Woolf wanted to end the book not with Clarissa's perspective because her last POV was satisfactory. She ends on her realizing with she appreciates life after hearing of Septimus's death. Clarissa doesn't have any more regrets or anything like that. She's settled once more. But Peter? He's filled with all these regrets and notions still that he has been avoiding for 30 years. He can pretend and fake it out for as long as possible but he's only deluding himself from the truth that after all this time he still loves Clarissa just the same. So Woolf ends the story with Peter finally realizing this, through these intense emotions of "terror," "ecstasy," and "extraordinary excitement." She ends with the image of Clarissa, for "there she is" is the strongest the book could end. The impact of that sentence alone overpowers any last note Clarissa could've made because she already made that sentiment. Peter could only end with that impact because of how much he adores Clarissa.
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