Mrs. Dalloway: Novel
There’s something important to note from the beginning of this novel and it is the title. By naming the title “Mrs. Dalloway” you wonder the question of who Mr. Dalloway is. Well, he’s a politician in Britain and because of who he is, it determines a lot about who she is. Mrs. Dalloway’s narration is third-person omniscient. The beginning and ending focus on Clarissa and a specific day in her life. She wants to throw a party, but certain things seem to be dampening her mood and potentially the party too.
The first form of symbolism is when she says “For it was the middle of June. The war was over, except for some one like Mrs. Foxcroft at the Embassy last night eating her heart out because that nice boy was killed.” It explains that this all was happening in a time period shortly after the war. Things were somewhat getting better, but the war had left a lot of scars for people like Mrs. Foxcroft who lost a loved one. The loss of life during the war was massive and everyone at least knew someone who had experienced loss. Mrs. Dalloway was doing her best to make it seem like life was going okay, but you could tell there were signs of depression in her life by some of the struggles she faced in her mind.
Notice by page 18 when the plane is flying through the sky and Septimus looks up to see it. The plane was advertising a brand of Toffee. Septimus seemed to be amazed by it, but he also seemed to show some trouble in his mind. It turned out that Septimus had a form of PTSD though it wasn’t officially called that. He served in the war and I imagine those planes flying over were beautiful, but also somewhat traumatic. Knowing the history of the first World War, planes were introduced during that time. For the first time ever, planes were flying over cities and bombing them. So many left the war with those kinds of mental issues. Rezia seemed to have a hard time dealing with Septimus as it says in the text “for she could stand it no longer. Dr. Holmes might say there was nothing the matter. Far rather would she that he were dead”. Clearly, it was difficult to be around Septimus at times. But for someone with PTSD, the sounds of airplanes and even the cars backfiring that sounded like a pistol, it would send anyone struggling with those issues into a frenzy. Looking at the history of Woolf’s novels, there’s a pattern of mentioning mental illness. I’d imagine this was something very important to Woolf. So her way of bringing awareness to this illness was by including it in her novels. Virginia Woolfe seemed to want to portray how people were coping in a post-war society.
During this novel, you jump in and out of the minds of all the main characters such as Clarissa, Lucrezia, Peter, Septimus, and so on. You don’t have one narrator telling the whole story. Instead, you get to hear many different perspectives. With the whole novel taking place in the time span of one day and by telling the thoughts of so many on that day, it allows you to get a full picture of all that was happening during the day leading up to the end. The transitions from one character to another can be kind of tricky to notice at first. You have to pay attention while reading. You’ll notice there’s a lot of people watching in this novel. Take Mrs. Dempster for example. On page 21 the text says “That girl, thought Mrs. Dempster, don’t know a thing yet: and it seemed to her better to be a little stout, a little slack, a little moderate in one’s expectation.” With all the people watching, it seems to set the tone for the day. There seems to be an uneasy feeling as you imagine them just sitting on a bench, enjoying the weather while making comments about others passing by.
The imagery that is used in this novel grabs your attention if you can keep up with what’s going on. This one line on page 130 saying “his wintry charm without cordiality: his innocence blent with snobbery” gives you a glimpse of how Woolfe liked to use imagery. It allowed for you to envision who this person was and what they were like. This novel does also bring light to depression issues as you can tell when Clarissa finds out that Septimus had passed. Maybe Clarissa was relieved that Septimus had escaped such a harsh reality. But it is never a good thing when someone sees death as the way to escape the realities of this life. Septimus seemed to be the one who dealt with all that was wrong in society. He seemed to be drug down in it and didn’t try to hide it. Clarissa on the other hand tried to hide all the pain she was feeling by living up to superficial expectations and making things seem like they were perfect when they weren’t. The best example of that is Clarissa throwing this huge party and not wanting Septimus’ death to put a damper on things. Clarissa wanted to live in another reality to escape what she was dealing with on the inside. I believe Woolfe wanted to bring awareness to depression with this novel as well. By showing two types of depression, you get a glimpse of how two lives that look different on the outside, don’t mean one is happier than the other. The issues people deal with on the inside are deep and can drag anyone down.
1. Why do you think Woolfe used different characters to narrate the novel
2. Was there any other imagery you found helpful to picture what was happening in the novel?
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