Psychological Analysis – Peter Walsh p. 154-158
Right before the beginning of this passage in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs.Dalloway on pages 154-158 we experience Peter returning home to his hotel room while day dreaming about his recent run in with Clarissa and about their long rocky past together. While on his walk to the hotel, he was a witness to the aftermath of Septimus’s suicide and as the sound of the ambulance sirens ring through his head (Woolf, 151). Peter does not know who is riding in the ambulance, nor does he know what state they are in, whether dead or alive. He is just one of the many people that happened to be out on the street at the time of the suicide, and even this does not seem to be able to clear his mind of Clarissa.
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The external Peter is in a state of repression. He has so much pent up love, or at least infatuation or obsession, with Clarissa, causing him to be in a constant reel of memories and fantasies. In the passage after returning to his hotel room and finding that he has received a letter from Clarissa, and he instantly dives into this inner mania thinking of all the reasons why she wrote him and what she was thinking as she wrote him. Within a couple moments he is back reliving memories of “something he had once said-how they would change the world if she married him…”(Woolf, 155). And even later on in the passage, we find him also thinking about the great life he could have with Daisy, wondering “Suppose they did marry? For him it would be all very well, but what about her?” (157). But even as his mind swirls with all these fantasies and scenarios, externally he shows nothing. He was a smooth gentleman, attractive to women, who was always reading a book and even had a suave way of knocking ashes out of his pipe (156). He repressed all his desires for Internally, however, Peter was in a state of isolation. Both of these women are married to different men, and Peter has not had any successful long term monogamous relationship with either of them, yet somehow that does not faze him. Instead of being upset that Daisy is in a relationship and has two children with her husband, he continues to think about the times
Through the course of the novel, Daisy handles her husband?s affair very calmly. Even when Tom?s mistress telephones during dinner Daisy exclaims, ?it couldn?t be helped,? (20). Although she must obviously be hurting deeply on the inside, Daisy displays no physical signs of distress over her husband?s affair. This makes her appear stronger than she really is.
Daisy, on the other hand, seems at first as though she truly does love and care for her husband. While Tom keeps himself at a distance in both relationships, Daisy seems to possess an outright need for his company. This is supported by Jordan’s recollection of Daisy’s behavior towards Tom after marrying him: “If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say: ‘Where’s Tome gone?’ and wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door. She used to sit on the sand with his head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight” (Fitzgerald, 76-77). That being said, there are in fact several signs that point toward Daisy not loving her husband at all. Perhaps the most notable is her behavior just before her and Tom’s wedding ceremony, when she is found “lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress – and as drunk as a monkey. She had a bottle of Sauterne in one hand and [Gatsby’s] letter in the other” (76). Daisy goes so far as to even momentarily call off the marriage altogether, ordering the bridesmaids to “tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’” (76). Why, then, does she marry Tom after all and seem so in love with him afterwards? People usually seek out partners who will make them happy, protect them from that which they fear, etc. What does Daisy fear? She
The intensity in our story develops when our narrator discovers she really doesn’t love Peter. It’s when he asks her if she fancy’s the waiter (151), when she understands, at that moment she does not love him. Here is when she falls out of love in Sarajevo. It is because our narrator has a certain abusive struggle from Peter, that she seems to change her mind about him in such an instance. But through out the story she doesn’t seem to mind the way he mentally abuses her, how he’s always putting her down, and she doesn’t seem to understand that he still thinks of his wife but is practically with her for the fact she’s a good “LAY”. Her constant thought of Mrs. Piper, Peter’s wife, although she never physically appears in the story, she seems to always be present in her and his mind, making it hard for her to be fully with her lover (Peter) and in this way further extend her fantasious love relationship. She seems to be in denial about what truly is going on, and how she wants to make this work, when in deed she’s only in it for the grade, but she doesn’t want to
Peter’s history of intimate relationships with Lisa and Mary differs from that of his siblings because both Lisa and Peter have come from parents that have divorced, thus having a background of understanding what a good marriage looks like. Mary cohabitated and had parents who also cohabitated where marriage was not a true definition in their background. Since the background of both Mary and Lisa do not define marriage or had a troubled married life from their parents, it is evident that Peter’s relationships were weak and did not lead to a marriage. His siblings on the other hand would have found partners that came from parents that shared a great and supportive married lifestyle, thus pursuing them to follow their path.
Peter is quiet and a shy boy. He has many duties chopping wood, fetching vegetables and potatoes from downstairs, and looking out for his cat. Anne thought he was boring and awkward. She later thought different and in up falling in love with him after she found him as a decent boy.
Towards the beginning of the play, Peter and Anne have a teasing and kind of playful relationship. They don’t totally like each other, but they’re also very different. Anne is closer to her father than anyone else, but she doesn’t really enjoy her mother. Anne and Margot are fairly close, but Anne seems pretty jealous of Margot and her looks. Mrs. and Mr. Van Daan seem kind of rude to her.
Another way is the superficial relationship that Tom and Daisy have. They are hardly Communicable towards each other and the way this is described is obvious."Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her hand and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in awhile she looked up at him and nodded in agreement. They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or ale-and yet they weren't unhappy either" (152). Daisy and Tom have been married for five years and this happiness and unhappiness they do and don't feel deals primarily with the fact that their relationship is not based on love. They don't look as if they share a deep connection-a connection such as Daisy and Gatsby's.
Tom’s infidelity in his marriage clearly expresses his views about his wife, Daisy. In seeking an affair, he conveys that Daisy is deficient and not worthy of devotion. Daisy knows of his affairs, but because of the time period and their social class, she is helpless to do anything. As a woman in the 20th century, it would destroy Daisy to divorce Tom, even though the entirety of New York knows about Tom’s affair.
love with Anne; "Peter loves me not as a lover but as a friend and
Peter was depressed about his situation and was very shy. That was until Anne brought some joy in his life. She talked to him constantly and enjoyed his company, as he enjoyed hers. The first connection between Peter and Anne is when they first moved in. Peter got a pocket knife and cut out the yellow Star of David and threw it in a fire. Anne cut hers out too but couldn't throw it in. She still held onto it even though the Nazi's forced them to wear it. This shows that she still cares about her religion, even though it was used against her. She said, "It's funny, I can't throw mine away. I don't know why." Peter was confused at first but just went along with it. Eventually, their hatred turned into passion and that turned into love. Sadly they'd die before they would get
His actions show that he is not loyal nor respectful towards Daisy, instead displaying apathy and disinterest. In addition to acting uncompassionate towards Daisy, he is also not taking into consideration Myrtle’s feelings. In fact, he lies to her in order to stop himself from being forced into a committed relationship. This lie that Tom tells Myrtle is not only extremely false, but also shows he is simply using her. “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce” (Fitzgerald 33). Tom lying to Myrtle shows he has no intention of marrying her, instead he only wants to take advantage of her vulnerable state. Myrtle is unhappy and desperate to fulfill her dream of moving up social classes. Instead of acting sympathetically towards her situation, he exploits her weakness. Likewise, Daisy and Gatsby’s affair shows similar exploitation for one’s own personal needs over the emotions of their counterpart. Without Tom’s knowledge, Daisy has an affair with her long lost love, Gatsby. Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour… (Fitzgerald 105). During this affair Daisy shows no acknowledgement of Tom’s feelings, the man she married and pledged to be loyal to. At the same time, she is also exploiting Gatsby. Authors say, “...his desire to marry Daisy as an attempt to enter/create
The focus of this paper is the person-centered approach, which is the understanding of personality and human relationships in psychotherapy and counseling in the areas of client-centered therapy, education of student-centered learning, organizations, and other group settings. Even though psychoanalysis and behaviorism have made major contributions to psychology, it has influenced the understanding and practices of the humanistic movement, specifically with the therapies for the different mental disorders. Psychoanalysis understands the unconscious behavior, behaviorism focuses on the conditioning process that produces behavior. Humanistic psychology focuses on the person's potential to act as a whole person in a nurturing environment by
Daisy illustrates the typical women of high social standing; her life is moulded by society’s expectations. She is dependent and subservient to her husband. She is powerless in her marriage.
“He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly
Tom takes advantage of this situation and manipulates Daisy to completely depend on him. Daisy has spent her whole life being used to someone telling her what to do, and her relationship with Tom is no different. Even right after they got married, “If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say: ‘‘Where’s Tom gone?’ and wear the most abstract expression until she saw him coming in the door” (77). Daisy relies solely on Tom and is “uneasy” without him around. Her dependence on Tom reflects not only his hyper masculinity, but how little he cares about Daisy. Despite this, he knows Daisy will never leave him, and pushes their marriage to the brink by having multiple affairs.