Mrs. Dalloway is a novel written by Virginia Woolf and published in 1925. The novel follows Mrs. Dalloway, a middle-aged woman, as she goes about her day in London. Mrs. Dalloway is a complex character, and the novel explores her inner thoughts and feelings as she interacts with the people around her.
The novel has been praised for its innovative use of stream of consciousness, which allows readers to experience Mrs. Dalloway’s thoughts and feelings as if they were their own. Mrs. Dalloway is considered one of Woolf’s most successful novels, and it remains popular with readers today.
A day-in-the-life narrative like Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” folds back and forth in time, looking at one woman’s life choices and one man’s postwar nightmare. Clarissa Dalloway, a “perfect hostess” in her early fifties, examines her past decisions of 30 years ago. Septimus Warren Smith, intended to be Clarissa’s “duplicate,” is the shell-shocked war veteran who suffers delayed flashbacks over the death of a buddy during the war. The book follows two parallel stories: that of Clarissa and her unknown “double,” whom she has never met.
Mrs. Dalloway is a portrait of a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class Londoner, from morning to night on Wednesday, June 14, 1923. Mrs. Dalloway is also the story of Septimus Warren Smith, a war veteran who is slowly going mad. The novel Mrs. Dalloway is set in London after World War I. Mrs. Dalloway begins with Clarissa’s preparations for a party she will give that evening. She reflects on her past and on the choices she has made in her life.
Meanwhile, Septimus Warren Smith, a war veteran suffering from shell shock, is being treated by Dr. Bradshaw. Septimus hears voices and believes that he is being followed. He is also troubled by the death of his friend Evans in the war. Later, Clarissa goes to Bond Street to buy flowers for her party. She meets Peter Walsh, an old flame who has come back to London from India. They talk about their lives and the choices they have made.
Clarissa returns home and continues to prepare for her party. Septimus’s wife, Rezia, takes him for a walk in the park in an attempt to lift his spirits. However, Septimus becomes increasingly agitated and believes that he sees Evans’s ghost. He runs away from Rezia and commits suicide by jumping out of a window. Mrs. Dalloway ends with Clarissa at her party, where she is surrounded by her friends and feels happy and content.
Septimus and Clarissa’s lives are linked by events in time and space, such as Clarissa’s party at night, a motor vehicle passing both, and an airplane overhead. The two are further connected via the writer’s use of various poetic techniques such as imagery and “literary echoes,” which connect them. Septimus and Clarissa also parallel each other and contrast in many areas of character portrayal, including their emotional issues, their marriage, their pasts, suicidal impulses, and homosexual relationships.
Mrs. Dalloway is a novel of Clarissa’s journey to self-awareness and Septimus’ journey to insanity and death. Mrs. Dalloway is also a study of the effects of time, both past and present, on the human condition.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf uses a number of literary devices to create connections between the characters and events in the novel. One such device is the use of imagery. Woolf uses images of nature to contrast the internal states of her characters. For example, when Septimus first sees Rezia, he is struck by her beauty and compares her to a woodland creature: “She was like a deer running with the hounds” (Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway 12).
The image of the deer contrasts with Septimus’ own internal state of being hunted by his memories of the war. Rezia, on the other hand, is described as being “like a bird building its nest” (Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway 12). The image of the bird building its nest contrasts with Septimus’ view of Clarissa as a cold, unyielding woman.
Woolf also uses literary echoes to connect the characters and events in Mrs. Dalloway. A literary echo is a repetition of a certain phrase or idea in different contexts. For example, the novel opens with Clarissa hearing the bells of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which “tinkled like a silver bell” (Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway 3).
This image is echoed later in the novel when Septimus hears the same bells and has a vision of Clarissa: “And then he saw Mrs. Dalloway herself coming out of a shop with a parcel done up in tissue paper” (Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway 145). The image of the tinkling bells connects Clarissa and Septimus, two characters who are otherwise quite different.
Clarissa, on the other hand, will diverge from Septimus in that she fulfills her societal duty whereas he refuses to do so and kills himself the night of Clarissa’s party. Virginia Woolf is able to link the seemingly disparate travels of Clarissa and Septimus by utilizing time and space.
Their stories occur on a single June day in 1923 in London, when 16-year-old Clarissa walks out with her friend Elizabeth onto what is known as Birdcage Walk (today Embankment). The event concludes with a nighttime gathering. The occasion isn’t just looked forward to by Clarissa and her guests; it’s also anticipated as a great social affair.
It is also a symbol of Mrs. Dalloway’s success in life, as someone who has managed to move up in the social ranks and be accepted by high society. The party is also significant because it allows Virginia Woolf to bring together all of the characters who have been previously introduced, including those who are only fleetingly mentioned.
While “Mrs. Dalloway” may appear to be a simple story about a day in the life of its titular character, it is actually a complex study of human psychology and relationships. Virginia Woolf uses Clarissa as a vehicle to explore the lives of people around her and to examine the role that memory plays in our lives. Mrs. Dalloway is not simply a novel about one woman’s life; it is a novel about the lives of all people, and how our past experiences shape who we are.
