Mrs. Dalloway: A Portrait of the Human Experience
Mrs. Dalloway: A Portrait of the Human Experience
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf may seem on the surface to be a jumble of
people’s experiences in a day that are rather unrelated to one another. Full of
contradictions and complicated subplots, it can be easy to view the novel this
way. However, I’d like to argue that Woolf uses this novel to paint a portrait
of Clarissa’s and human experiences in general. The book is not merely a story
to read for pleasure, but an artistic representation of what it means to be
human: to have regrets, jealousy, surface level, and deep relationships. Woolf
uses different characters in the novel to represent the different aspects of a
life.
Nostalgia and regret are commonly
repeating threads throughout Mrs.
Dalloway. The two characters that Woolf uses to represent this feeling are
Peter Walsh and Sally Seton. We are introduced to this past-reflection in
Clarissa early on when she thinks to herself “oh if she could have lived her
life over again… [it] could have looked differently,” (Woolf 10). This
initially appears to be a regretful statement as Clarissa seems to be stuck in
the past, constantly thinking of Peter. However, as the novel progresses, we
see Clarissa’s attitude change. In the beginning, it seemed that Clarissa and
Peter were similar in the way that they still thought of each other often and
felt dissatisfied, but in the end, at the party, we see Clarissa proud of her
work as “the perfect hostess,” rather than ashamed of it. Meanwhile, Peter
Walsh persists in his judgment of her. There is also Sally Seton, who, after
many years has changed but Clarissa is still happy to see. Because there is no
melancholy tone in their interactions, just excitement to see each other once
again, I believe that throughout the course of the novel, Clarissa comes to the
realization that she does not wish to be stuck in the past or change it. Thus,
at the end, she is able to appreciate this interaction with Sally fully and
without regret.
Judgment and jealousy is another
thread that keeps coming back throughout the course of the book. Specifically,
Lady Bruton and Peter Walsh both stir up Clarissa’s fear of judgment. When
Clarissa isn’t invited to lunch with Lady Bruton and Richard she worries that
people think she isn’t important enough to be invited to this event. The spiral
this sends her into, thinking about “her body and brain which now failed, since
Lady Bruton… had not asked her,” shows her intense fear of not being seen as
important enough. Peter Walsh is a representation of a different fear: not
being genuine enough. Throughout the book, the “perfect hostess” line
resurfaces. She feels that Peter judges her for picking the safer, more
conventional path of marrying Richard. She thinks about the person she was when
she was eighteen and worries that she has lost her creativity and excitement in
her life over the years. The way that Peter and Lady Bruton both represent
judgment, but in such different ways shows how big of an issue it is in
Clarissa’s life, coming from all directions.
Jealousy and reflection are two of
the most prominent ways Woolf uses the wide variety of characters in Mrs. Dalloway to represent different
aspects of the human experience. There are many more examples of this, but
these two stick out prominently. Mrs.
Dalloway is far from the simple description of one specific day in London.
Its representation of Clarissa’s emotions through other characters is unique
and reflects Virginia Woolf’s ideology that fiction should show complexities of
human feelings and connection using character. Her portrait of Clarissa’s life
provokes thought in the reader about how their thoughts, actions, and
relationships can make up who they are as a person.
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on a tie between specific characters and emotion throughout the novel. I hadn't previously considered the evocative subthreads through individual characters in Mrs. Dalloway but now must give Woolf great credit for this. I find Richard to provide great ambivalence to his character without much support except for that's how Woolf made me feel. Great blog topic!
ReplyDeleteIn essence, Mrs. Dalloway may appear as a mere narrative about a single day, but is rather an exploration of the human experience and the great subjectivity behind each life. Lady Bruton and Peter represent Clarissa's insecurities about her public role and her private self. Clarissa's reflection on missed childhood opportunities to embracing her identity as the "perfect hostess" symbolizes the acceptance of her life's choices, whereas Peter remains constantly judgemental and dissatisfied, showing how different characters embody various perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you pointed out that the book wasn't really something to read for pleasure as I had a similar experience (And so did my mom after borrowing my book). I tended to have a less than enjoyable experience doing the readings for class, but I felt the opposite when in discussion. Woolf's writing is so dense with detail, and it's so fun to unpack the complicated character dynamics and events that happen in one day of Mrs. Dalloway's world. I think Virginia Woolf might've been aware of this while writing, seeing as the way she flips between characters feels more like a way to really dive into their personalities and thoughts rather than a fun gimmick for the reader.
ReplyDeleteI think this is such a great analysis of Mrs. Dalloway, and I like how you describe it as a provocative work of art more than a novel to be read for fun and entertainment, because I totally think that this is what Woolf was going for when writing it. In her essays, she describes how character has been lost in fiction, and how novels should be more like character studies than anything else, and I think these ideas are definitely present in Mrs. Dalloway. You did such a great job of explaining this idea, and I think you're completely right about your analysis!
ReplyDeleteThis entire commentary could be viewed as an explication of what we mean by "intersubjectivity" in Woolf's narrative style: characters are defined largely by their views of themselves in relation to others (jealousy and resentment being two of the most prominently negative ways we tend to view ourselves in relation to others) and to the past (nostalgia and regret). I always like to point out how, within this method of characterization, nothing is ever simple, or no person is ever "one thing." This novel trains us to *always* presume there is a LOT more going on with other people than we may realize in a given moment, and that NONE of us have anything like the full picture when it comes to others. The "thinking about the past" trope is a great example: at a glance, it can seem sad or pathetic for these middle-aged people to always be thinking about when they were eighteen. But Woolf depicts this as a largely involuntary process, part of what you describe as the larger portrait of human life--or what it means to be *in the midst of a life that is unfolding*. Doesn't it make sense that we see ourselves as part of a large cluster of stories unfolding, and that we are always thinking of where we are in relation to those plots and characters? Maybe the emotional content of these memories leads to something like "regret" or "nostalgia" (or maybe also "appreciation for what we have" and a sense of contentment with how things have worked out--we see this too from Clarissa), but we can't just condemn characters for "living in the past." Woolf suggests that we all do this in various ways every day--the present makes no sense apart from the past that has shaped it. There IS regret, and there IS nostalgia, but neither is absolute. There is no single way in which to view the past, or the present.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea that, similar to The Mezzanine, the novel focuses on the representation of being human. Clarissa's experience through of a day contains hundreds of thoughts, often circling around events of the past, illustrating a story in a time frame that many would consider too short. Clarissa's life takes up the most time in the book, while other characters like Septimus seem to experience a more eventful day. I agree that Virginia Woolf portrays a human day, but I wonder how Septimus's assumed insanity adds to it. Are the characters in the book different facets of Clarissa's own personality, or is the narrative just going through the perspectives of all people who influence Clarissa? Does Septimus's experience influence Clarissa more drastically after the book comes to an end as a reason to include it into her human experience? Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteI really like that you acknowledge that this is not at all an entertaining book, but rather an exercise in human life and emotion. Woolf has always had a bone to pick with those writers who place so much unnecessary attention on the plot and neglect character development. So I think it's very important to address the fact that this is a main intention of Woolf in this novel. The plot is nothing to be heralded, as it is simply the passage of a day with a party at the end, but the very human thoughts, especially Clarissa's are certainly substance themselves. Great blog post!
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