All events happened after the World WarⅠ, the war trauma still influenced the whole society. Excessive pursuit of materialism deforms previously loft value system, the feeling of alienation, strangeness, loneliness pervading the individualisms. The whole story began with the preparation for the evening party, Clarissa buying flowers, and ended with the party. Although the time span just is in a day, we are able to familiar with the protagonists’ personalities through the technique of stream of consciousness, narrations by different narrators and multi perspectives. It seems that there is no relevance between Clarissa and Septimus Warren Smith, but in fact, their destinies are bound together.
Ⅰ. The Consciousness of Life and Death Interweaving
…show more content…
Her Choice for Life
Clarissa is a brilliant woman, who is tremendously clear what she wants. She did not choose Peter Walsh, who is her past lover, a pure and wonderful love, because Peter cannot satisfy her desires. While Richard Dalloway is Clarissa’s practical, simple husband, who works in government, representing the life of class, which is the fame Clarissa wants and is mature to care for Clarissa, when Clarissa encounters the trouble, not knowing how to do, but Richard can deal with it well. She loves the social relationships, holding a party which makes her feel that she achieves her value.
B. Clarissa’s Fear for
…show more content…
They both like the works of Shakespeare. Septimus is volunteered to be a soldier, for his lover and his country. He is so enthusiasm to throw him into the war. However, after the war, he reminds his behavior when he was at war. When he saw his friend died in battle, he was indifferent and he was proud for his reason. He feels lucky enough that he was not hit by the bomb. However, when the peace arrives, he finds that he has lost the capacity of feeling, so he engages with Lucrecia. But the nightmare of war devours him, he is full of guilty. In the end, he jumped to his death from the floor. When Clarissa heard that the death of Septimus, she knows what is life, and she would be more positive to face her
At the beginning of the short drama, “Trifles,” Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, is painted as timid and submissive wife. She willingly submits herself to the responsibilities she has as a wife. As the play unfolds, Mrs. Peter’s submissiveness begins to diminish. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale work together to uncover the murder of Minnie Wright’s husband. When the women find the evidence, they refuse to share it with the men. Mrs. Peter’s character transforms into a more confident individual over the course of the play.
Another small but important window scene takes place after Clarissa returns home to discover that her husband has been invited to Millicent Bruton’s lunch party but she has not. After reading the message about the party on a notepad, she begins to retreat upstairs to her private room, “a single figure against the appalling night.” As she lingers before the “open staircase window,” she feels her own aging, “suddenly shriveled, aged, breastless… out of doors, out of the window, out of her body and brain which now failed…” Again, there is a hint of danger as death is portrayed as a somewhat alluring transcendental experience,
On the other hand, it could be articulated that the female characters in both the novels have proved their mental instabilities, individualisms and rebelliousness have disturbed the lives of others. Moreover, it could be analyzed in the novels that both the author in their social context has explained the dark secrets of the life of individuals.
Laura Brown is also a married woman, like both Woolf and Dalloway, but rather than having affairs with women, she, like Clarissa Dalloway, feels bound by her role in society and is greatly unhappy with her situation. For a brief moment, she breaks away from her heteronormative life and seems to truly desire to break free from the gender roles forced upon her while sharing a kiss with her neighbor’s wife, Kitty.
The Film follows the character of Joanna, who was a very successful woman, a TV producer, but unfortunately lost her Job. After loosing her job, her husband decides to get out of the city, and moves their family to a town called Stepford. When they get to Stepford, Joanna and Walter get the tour of the perfect suburb by Claire. The houses are all beautiful, the yards are perfect, ect. They are shown the men’s association, and the Stepford day spa. This is where we find out how perfect all the wives are. Joanna and Walter go to a picnic where one of the wives starts to spark, and Joanna tries to call a hospital, but no one will let her. This is also when Joanna meets Roger, and Bobbie, who are not perfect like the other wives. Joanna, Roger, and Bobbie decide to investigate a little. They go
Finally, in a heated, tearful, and heart-warming debate, Mr. Emerson (George’s father) gives Lucy the last ounce of strength that she needs to complete her transformation from a petty young woman to a subtle heroine. Mr. Emerson sees right through her false excuses for breaking off with Cecil and forces her to realize her genuine feelings of love for George. Lucy succumbs to her passion and overcomes the confining condition of her social class. She tells her family and friends of her love for George Emerson, refusing to hold on to her “distinguished and proper'; behavior, giving into her true desire, and transforming from a petty young woman to a subtle heroine.
taxi cabs, of being out, out, far to sea and alone; she always had the
She feels she has done an inadequate job as a wife and as an author: she wishes fruitlessly that she might live up to society's expectations of being a mother who is not afflicted with illness and a much-celebrated novelist. However, in the day of her life that Cunningham recounts over the course of the novel, she does not fully accept death as the way to end her suffering, because she still bears a sense of optimism about her own capabilities. Initially, she convinces herself that the ordinary housewife, Clarissa, in her novel Mrs. Dalloway will commit suicide to flee her sorrows over being unable to accomplish some extraordinary or applauded feat. Yet, a glimpse at death in nature acts to change her view: ". . . the bird is laid on the grass compactly, its wings folded up against its body. She knows it has died already, in Quentin's palms. It seems to have wanted to make the smallest possibly package of itself" (120). In death, the bird bears less significance, and life perdures all around it in the form of Vanessa's children. Virginia relates herself to the bird, and realizes that she is not yet ready to be so insignificant. She has great hope in the potential for her novel, eagerly anticipating that in its writing, she can integrate herself to a degree back into the life of the thriving society of London. Thus, she chooses to use Clarissa Dalloway to represent the life she aspires to have, and chooses that
Throughout her life, novelist Virginia Woolf suffered with mental illness, and she ultimately ended her life at age 59. As art often imitates life, it is not surprising that characters in Woolf’s works also struggle with mental illness. One of her novels, Mrs. Dalloway, recounts a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a high society woman living in London, and those who run in her circle. As the novel progresses the reader sees one of the characters, Septimus, struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by serving in war. At the end of the story, he commits suicide. While there is no explicit articulation of any other character suffering from mental illness in the novel, Septimus is not alone. Through her thoughts and actions, we can deduce that Clarissa also endures mental and emotional suffering. Though Clarissa does not actually attempt to end her life in the novel, her mental and emotional suffering lead her to exhibit suicidal tendencies. To prove this, I will examine Clarissa’s thoughts and actions from a psychological perspective.
However, enforced cultural notions of gender differences prohibit Clarissa from blossoming a lesbian attraction towards Sally Seton. Progressing through the novel, Clarissa asks “had not that, after all, been love?” in regards to her relationship with Sally. She makes it obvious she was stifled in her homosexual love, due to her conservative attitude and society’s standards. Many critics believe that Sally Seton represents Virginia Woolf’s love for Violet Dickinson. To further elaborate, Clarissa feels that a sexual dimension in her life is now irrevocably lost, due to her understanding of her own capacities for bisexuality. Similar to Virginia and Leonard’s relationship, Clarissa and Richard are no longer sharing a bedroom, as sexual relations
From the very beginning of the novel, the reader is confronted with thoughts of death from the main character, Clarissa Dalloway. When running her errand, she plummets into deep thought about her death and what would follow it,
During the time of a young modern society, there were ideals and social standards that led people to feel isolated from their own expressions and thoughts. In Mrs. Dalloway, identity is a significant theme depicted in the novel and is prevalent between the characters portrayed throughout. One character in particular that represents the image and reflection of identity in the British society during the first world war is Clarissa Dalloway. All the attributes such as her love for flowers, her lavish entertaining parties, and the bonds she has between her friends and lovers reveal something about her identity that she discovers about herself at the end of the book. Clarissa’s personality is complex and moving as her emotions and life events are unraveled in the moment as things happen.
In the novel Mrs Dalloway, Woolf conveys her perspective, as she finely examines and critiques the traditional gender roles of women in a changing post-war society. Woolf characterisation of Clarissa Dalloway in a non linear structure, presents a critical portrayal of the existing class structure through modernist’s eyes. Titling her novel as Mrs Dalloway presents Clarissa’s marriage as a central focus of her life, drawing attention to how a women’s identity is defined by marriage. Despite the changing role of women throughout the 1920s, for married women life was the same post war. Clarissa experiences ‘the oddest sense of being herself invisible…that is being Mrs Dalloway…this being Richard Dalloway,”
‘Mrs. Dalloway’, by Virginia Woolf is a derivative text of ‘The Hours’, written by Michael Cunningham. The novels both share an important theme of mental health. The circumstances of mental health are commonly sympathetic, and empathetic. The characters Septimus and Clarissa in ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ and Richard, Laura Brown, and Virginia Woolf in ‘The Hours’ show the strongest symbols for this theme. Most of the problems and treatments these characters face are in direct result of the age they live in. Both novels express a relationship between era, illnesses and treatments.
From the beginning of Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf establishes that Clarissa’s bright and hopeful spirit has become dulled and burdened when subjected to the oppressive nature of marriage. During a glimpse into her younger years, the reader is able to see Clarissa. With each flashback into Clarissa’s youth, the reader is provided another image of Clarissa before marriage, one that highlights her passion and curiosity for life. While Clarissa felt a passion and connection with Peter, she could not bear to live in a marriage where her freedom was something she had to sacrifice. The decision she makes is logical in some ways, but her choice also brings into question the fault of her marriage in the first place. In Clarissa’s world, the option for passion and the security of her freedom was not available nor would it ever be; therefore, she was forced to choose between the two. Men, however, were not forced to make such decisions and were given the liberty to wait well into their later years to find a spouse suitable to their liking. By choosing to marry Richard over Peter, Clarissa forsook the option of passion in