Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Introduction

-Students are introduced to one of the pioneering scholars of women writing and literature: Virginia Woolf. Being a novelist, an essayist, and women rights’ activist, Woolf’s life ended with committing suicide but left a rich amount of literature that instructed the upcoming feminists in their journey and quest for equality and authorship independence. In her One’s Own Room, Woolf set a principle that if a woman wants to free herself from patriarchal constraints; she has to detach from the angelic stereotyping image society has attached to her and which culture documented it even further.

- Students interact with each other sharing information they collected about Woolf’s life and career. They can find further data in https://www.biography.com/writer/virginia-woolf. The biography of the writer is an eminent reference to understand her writing.

Questions for discussion: -Why does Clarissa reject Peter’s love? - In what ways are Clarissa and Septimus alike? -  What is the purpose behind the use of stream of consciousness in the novel?

- They also summarise Mrs Dalloway’s story in few sentences bringing major events and themes.

 

 

 

 

Mrs Dalloway Analysis

a. Genre: Mrs Dalloway belongs to prose literature, specifically the novel genre. Actually the novel poses problems of classification if one wants further implications. This is due to the complexity of style and techniques used. From one hand, the traumatic experiences the characters witness makes the reader decide that Mrs Dalloway belongs to trauma novel. The stream of consciousness technique, still new at the time, leads the reader to misrepresentation of the novel as romance, novel of manners, or other types. Mrs Dalloway, however, is recognised by modern critics as a psychological novel since it deals with the psychological world of its characters.

b. The Plot Complexity: The novel tells the story of Mrs Dalloway, a female protagonist who lives in post WWI England. The events of the novel actually have no story to tell since all we learn is that she is an upper class woman who plans to have a party for parliament members and upper class people who meet each other for no purpose but to respond to Mrs Dalloway’s invitation. We learn at the end that her party in interrupted by the news of Septimus’ suicide. Septimus is no one to the protagonist; still his suicide leaves her both disturbed and satisfied at the same time. This psychological struggle summarises how the subjective human mind works in a complex way. Woolf’s plot is charged with no events; instead, it is Mrs Dalloway’s thoughts, feelings, impressions, and remembrances which construct the story. More importantly, it discusses social classes, women status, and patriarchal domination over both.

B. Modernist Features in the Novel: as a modernist novel, Mrs Dalloway comprises different features including but not limited to:

a. Anti-traditional Narrative: The story happens in one day in the life of Mrs Dalloway. There is no cause-effect action. It follows no linear narration. It consists of a plot and sub-plots. The characters’ feelings make up the storyline. The narrative jumps from a story to another. No chapter division is provided; only line demarcation or Big Ben chiming signalling the introduction of new event/character.

b. Focus of Characterisation: Characters in Mrs Dalloway are more important than the plot itself. The protagonist’s feeling about her past, Septimus’ psychological crisis is more important than the war.

c. Psychological Stories: Characters are the product of their own experiences. Clarissa’s rejection of Peter’s proposal in the past is to influence all his future decisions. Septimus’ war experience influences his future to his end.

d. Autobiography: The novel expresses Woolf’s life in many ways. The experience of war and the death of her relatives, her mental illness, and feminist interests in practical life and writing are all exposed in the novel.

e. Symbolism: Big Ben striking hours- Aeroplane writing in the sky (each understands it according to his/her perception)- Prime Minister (social criticism).

f. Stream of Consciousness: the technique records the characters’ flow of thoughts as they occur in the mind (Clarissa for example buying the flowers, thinking of the past and the shift to her party all in a stream of thought). This technique permits the reader to move from one character’s mind to another. It also connects them. It suggests that since life itself lacks order; it is us who introduce logic to this process.

g. Subjective Realism: Instead of picturing life in its objective realistic view; modernists focus on the subjective self. Since there is no absolute truth, each character sees him/herself and the others differently.  Even the same scenes are perceived differently. No single view or style is adequate to represent the diversity of modern experience.

h. Poetic Style: although the novel is a prose; it lacks the fiction canonisation. For example, there is no respect for punctuation while there exists the overuse of repetition (it mirrors alienation of the modern world and disconnection).

i. Open-ended Plot: the novel ends with Peter thinking of where Clarissa is, did she commit suicide? The end gives no satisfactory explanation, neither for the purpose of the story or its end.

j. Feminism and Gender Issues: As one of feminism pioneers, Woolf created a female protagonist who challenges patriarchal domination despite her psychological concerns. At first, Peter and Clarissa are represented as regular characters who submit to cultural and social gender roles. She is the perfect hostess; he is a man always on the move. Qualities like reason and daring are associated to him (for example his love affair with a married woman, him carrying a pocket knife); while qualities like sensitivity and insecurity are associated with Clarissa’s feminine identity (needle and scissors). These binary oppositions have been documented and perpetuated in Western civilisation to an extent they became the norms of society; if challenged, the individual is seen as exotic and rebellious. Woolf, however, believes not in alienating females from males as radical feminists claim. She believes in the change on the process with keeping human relationships not erasing them. For her, since gender identity is socially constructed; gender roles have to be challenged. Although Clarissa is dependent on others for self-definition and denies self-recognition; she represents feminism’s quest for resistance. Clarissa’s rejection of Peter’s love is a powerful step towards freedom. She chooses Richard as husband because Peter’s love suffocates her; limits her, and makes her lose her own self. She chooses marriage over love because Richard provides social security through marriage as sacred relation. Woolf deconstructs both the binary oppositions and the angel of the house stereotyping image.

Conclusion

The quest for freedom feminists' opted for could not have better voice than modernism as it is the movement that questions truth itself. By challenging the already constructed gender roles and oppositions, feminists found in modernism the techniques needed to strengthen their liberating ideas and practices. 

Cited Works and Further Readings

DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. "Feminist Narrative in Virginia Woolf." Novel: A Forum on Fiction. Vol. 21. No. 2/3. Duke University Press, 1988, pp. 323-330.

Eagleton, Mary, ed. Feminist literary Criticism. Routledge, 2014.

Felski, Rita. Literature after Feminism. University of Chicago Press, 2020.

Offen, Karen. "Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical Approach." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society14.1, 1988: pp.119-157.